Last one today. I swore to anything that might hear me that this was the last time I answered a knock at my door today. They could camp outside and ask tomorrow if they really needed to.
If it's not a time sensitive matter, chirped a dark little voice in the back of my head. Like last week. Like three days ago. Like this morning.
Like every other request. I didn't have enough time in a day to answer everyone and I was not going to. What did they expect of me? My knuckles turned white against the doorknob. What a joke. I knew. The pleading had sort of mixed all together. I could hazard a guess.
Cancer? Oh, definitely cancer. With a side of terminal. Fuck my life.
I opened the door, that train of thoughts crashed and burned. Well. Definitely no omniscience in the package then. I would have kept the door closed if I had known.
Looking up, I glared at the man in a fursuit hanging in my doorway.
"Miracle Man," he said in a low voice.
My eyebrows twitched. "Not my name."
"Indeed not."
The man made a sweeping motion, as if he were going to enter, but stumbled. He immediately straightened again, but the theatrics would not save his image. Nor would they prevent me from smirking. "You can't enter if I don't want you to, Bats."
A thoughtful silence fell between us.
"I see."
"I'm guessing this is why you bothered to knock. Couldn't find a way to sneak in, huh?"
"Your name is on no record. DNA testing reveal absolutely nothing about you. It seems you are not related to anyone on Earth. Not even the hidden extraterrestrials that have lived here. All we can tell is you are human."
Not gonna respond to my taunt at all? Fine. "Do you have a point?"
He stared. Or maybe he was eying the inside of my apartment like he could gleam some hints of my identity from the books I read or the half-eaten pizza on my table. Fat chances. I wouldn't have guessed my own origins in this universe. And I certainly wouldn't inform anyone else.
"Your gifts are… extraordinary," Batman conceded, like someone pulled his teeth. "Amongst the most powerful and unique of all the abilities I have heard of on Earth."
Fatigue started to seep into my limbs. Damn it. Yeah. Another one. Couldn't even be new. Suddenly, I really didn't want to deal with this. I dropped backward, and fell into a heavenly plush chair that hadn't existed a second ago.
Batman's lenses lingered on the piece of furniture. Definitely filing in that detail for later.
"What do you want from me? Should I bring your dog back from the dead?" I spat.
He shook his head, and the cape followed. Very theatrical. "No. I'm not here for a miracle."
I almost laughed. "Everyone's here for a miracle."
In my hands appeared the slice of pepperoni pizza I'd put on hold earlier today. The cheesy goodness on my tongue helped me relax, at least. Neither scalding nor cold. Perfect temperature.
Batman did nothing to interrupt my snack.
He just offered me a napkin. And huh, wow, for a second there, I really didn't know what to think. Mechanically, I took it and wiped my chin. Was it just me or was the dark knight being a bit… paternal? Maybe. If so, it was working. My face heated up with shame at my poor manners.
"Right." I cleared my throat. "What then?"
"There will be plenty of people trying to exploit you once they hear of your powers."
"Where have you been?!" I exploded, standing up, all traces of hesitation gone. "You-" The walls rattled, dust falling from the ceiling as Batman tensed. "You think I haven't- They're already exploiting me, you moron! From ten this morning to just about now, I've had people begging me for everything and anything they can think of!"
For a split second, I saw them all. The faces marred with tears and snot. The sorrow, the hatred, the desperation, the reek of it all ringing to my ears as the curses and the blessings become indistinct in my ears. For every hug, spit at my feet. For every thank you, a litany of swear words, a moment where there was nothing to be done except wish them away from my home.
But the requests remained clear as day.
"Money, health, power, happiness, unlimited rice pudding!" A giant blob of pudding crashed against my TV, smothering it all over. "Every fucking little thing you can think people would wish, I heard and that was only today."
His voice was a strange mixture of solemn and warning. "It will get worse."
With a raging cry, I span and threw my hand towards the wall. At the very tip of my fingers, light glowed, and span and turned into a bowling ball. It flew like a rocket, and embedded itself through the wall right above my bookshelves.
"Worse? Do you know how many people today have asked me to cure their dying relatives?! Their lovers? Their best friends? Their children?!" My eyes burned. "Do you know what I had to tell them? When they were clinging to me and begging and offering eternal servitude or their livelihood or fucking sex or even their own lives in exchange?! DO YOU?!"
The lines around his mouth tightened. "I can't."
I scoffed, sniffed. Twice more, willing my shoulders to stop shaking. " Bingo. The rumors says everything, except that little detail. Fifty meters, that's the range of my power. And I'm not going to start touring every hospital in the world tomorrow. 'It's just around the corner.' 'She's in the right upper wing in Gotham General.' 'I left him with my sister on the other side of the city'. I won't have the time or energy to do it. But it's not like I don't know people are dead 'cause I didn't get there in time, okay?!"
"People are unfair to you," he said softly.
"The world is unfair to them."
"I'm sorry…"
"You're not!" This time, my scream rippled in the air, and his armor vanished, leaving only the man. Stripped him of Kevlar first, then the clothe, the gadgets, the weapons. All of it, till he was Bruce Wayne, guarded and, perhaps, scared.
The insides of my apartment melted. Merged together, the colors fading into a mixture of grey and black and rot. Into brick walls and rusty fire exits, into an unlit alley. Bruce's face had gone from white to green, and his fists were shaking. He wanted to punch me. To calm me, mostly, but in a pinch, a punch would do.
And then, he looked down, and the life drained out of him.
The pearls were scattered about, one just nudging against his left shoe. Blood soaked the right.
"Every single person in the world has a tragedy they'd like to undo. And if they don't, they just haven't lived it yet! You're not sorry. You can't be sorry for the one who has all the power in the world! YOU CAN'T! You've been powerless and it broke you in half! You've been there, and you've stood there, and you wished!"
I couldn't breath. My head was spinning, and I could stop it, but I didn't want to. It felt as if I might collapse, and just shatter right there, in-between Papa and Mama Wayne. The sheer irony might give Bruce a heart attack.
"Do you want me to do it?" I whispered, and it was as much goading as it was begging. Poison, in the end, sweet and deadly. "I just have to will it. And bang" – a gunshot – Bruce flinching like he'd been hit – "they'll be alive and kicking. Probably confused by the decades gone, but you can help with that, right? Wish it then."
Bruce crossed the distance between us in two strides. His face seemed to vanish in the shadows, but his movements were full of purpose. Of anger. Brittle and sharp. He was looming over me, the tall fucker. Ready to break my teeth. Well, he was going to break his hand first, but… Out of reflexes alone, I winced and closed my eyes when he lifted his arm.
"Come on, make your wish already."
A warm hand settled over my shoulder, far too gentle.
"You're hurting. I can help."
Fuck you, Bruce! Fuck off, fuck you fuck fucking fuck off!
"LEAVE ME ALONE!"
The door slammed. Batman was gone. And not of his own will either.
I stared after it. Stared so hard it fused with the wall, leaving just a smooth surface. My breathing settled slowly, from gasps to quick inhales, to deep slow breaths. I'd, wow, I had actually thrown his parents' death in his face. And he hadn't…
It left me feeling like my chest had been carved hollow.
"You're hurting."
Damn it all.
Spoiler