MidReal Story
City of Shadows
Scenario: Dick Grayson, a 23 year old young man who lives his life as best as he can. As Dick Grayson, he's just your average 23 year old with a minium wage job at a hardware trying to manage his day to day. However during nights, he's a hero, a vigilante of the night known as, Nightwing, protector of Richmond City in the state of Virginia. He is a long way from is birth of Gotham City and away from his mentor's shadow. Even though he leads a double life, he tends of balance well, even if it can cost him at times. One day at work, he meets the new associate, a 25 year old named Kayla. They instantly become friends and Dick learns more and more about her. From her 4 children, to her harsh past. They quickly become close and develop a bond so strong, they slowly become something more. Dick Grayson has now been giving a tough choice, a battle he is not ready for. Will he choose to leave the legacy of Nightwing for a new life with Kayla? Or will he sacrifice his happiness with her to protect the city he has sworn to watch over?
Create my version of this story
I was 23 years old when I met the love of my life.
I was also 23 years old when I had to make the hardest decision of my life.
I was 23 years old when I had to choose between love and duty.
I was 23 years old when I had to decide if I wanted to be with her or be a hero.
I was 23 years old when I had to decide if I wanted to be with her or save my city.
I was 23 years old when I had to decide if I wanted to be with her or save myself.
And I was 23 years old when I realized that sometimes, you can’t have it all.
Sometimes, you have to choose.
Sometimes, you have to let go of the one thing you want most in the world in order to do what’s right.
Sometimes, you have to sacrifice your own happiness for the greater good.
Sometimes, you have to walk away from love in order to save it.
Sometimes, you have to grow up.
I’m going to be 24 in two weeks.
And I still don’t know if I’m ready for that.
I remember when I was 18 and I thought I knew everything.
I thought I had the world at my fingertips.
I thought I could be anything I wanted to be.
I thought I could do anything I wanted to do.
I thought I could be a superhero and have a normal life, too.
I was young and naive.
I was idealistic and foolish.
And I didn’t have a clue.
But I was also determined and dedicated.
I was brave and unbreakable.
And I believed in myself.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
Sometimes, that’s enough.
Sometimes, that’s not nearly enough.
It was four years ago when I took on the mantle of Nightwing and became the protector of Richmond City.
It was four years ago when I had to learn who I really was – not just as Dick Grayson, but as Nightwing, too.
Since then, a lot of things have changed.
But some things are still the same.
I’m still here fighting for my city.
And I always will be.
But sometimes, I can’t help but wonder – at what cost?
When do I stop being a hero and start being a man?
When do I start living my own life and stop living for everyone else?
When did I give up on myself in order to save everyone else?
And when do I get to go back?
I stood behind the counter with my arms folded across my chest as I watched the new girl fumble with stock duty tags on her first day at work.
She was barely five feet tall with straight red hair that looked like it had been freshly dyed, but already showed signs of turning pink around her hairline and behind her ears.
I wasn’t looking for trouble or trying to steal another man’s girl.
I wasn’t even looking for the future mother of my children.
I just had a feeling about this new associate at Mr.Harrison’s hardware store.
A feeling that she was going to give me trouble – whether she meant to or not.
Her name was Kayla and she was twenty-five years old with a two-year-old daughter and triplets who were just over one year old and still slept in cribs.
She had a rough past, but she was a good mom.
And she was doing the best she could to make a life for them.
She was also pretty hot.
But that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that she also liked to talk.
A lot.
And she liked to talk to me, in particular.
“Do you think Mr.Harrison is going to ask me out sometime?”
I raised an eyebrow at her and tried not to smile.
She looked at me expectantly, as if she were waiting for an answer.
I shrugged my shoulders and continued to watch her.
“You’re no help,” she grumbled as she started to put the new merchandise on the shelf.
I chuckled under my breath and shook my head.
I liked that about her – her sass and her spunk.
Something tells me she wasn’t going to let me get away with much.
“You don’t need my help,” I said, trying to be encouraging.
“You can take care of yourself.”
“I know,” she said definitively.
“But it wouldn’t be so bad if I had some help, you know?”
She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and smiled, but it was a weak smile, as if something was holding her back.
Or someone was holding her back.
I didn’t ask what she meant by that because we had only just met and I didn’t want to scare her away by asking too many questions.
I wanted to get to know her on my own terms, not because I was trying to pump her for information or anything like that.
But I couldn’t help but wonder what she was looking for and who she was looking for and why she thought I was the one who could give it to her.
I shook my head as I watched her across the store from me, telling myself that this was not what I needed right now – more distractions.
I should have walked away from this while I still had the chance because now that she was here, I felt like I would never be able to really walk away from her.
She was like a drug – a drug that I had been trying so hard to stay away from – and I was just not strong enough to resist her pull.
We had only known each other for a few days but I was inexplicably drawn to her.
I wanted to know more about her, more about what made her tick and more about what made her laugh like that.
It was something that I had not heard in a long time – laughter that real and that contagious.
And I knew that I wanted more of it in my life, even if it meant that I was putting myself at risk by getting closer to her than I should be getting closer to anyone right now.
Kayla had become my addiction, and I knew that I would do anything to keep that addiction alive – to keep her in my life and to keep that laughter in my ears and that smile on my lips.
She made me feel like a new man – or rather, an old man who was just starting to come back to life after being dead for so long – and I didn’t know how to handle all of these new feelings that were swirling around inside of me right now.
I wanted to be with her all of the time and I wanted to know everything about her, but I also knew that it wouldn’t be safe for me or for her if she knew too much about me and my other life as Nightwing – as one of the city’s protectors.
If she found out about who I really was, she would probably run in fear – or call the police on me or Mr.
Harrison for knowing who we were and not telling anyone.
I didn’t want to take that chance and I didn’t want to scare her away either, but I also knew that it wouldn’t be fair to let this go on any longer than it already had because I didn’t want to get too close to someone only to have to walk away from them when things got too serious or too dangerous between us.
We had been chatting for the last four hours and I was surprised that time had passed by so quickly while we were getting to know each other better, but I was even more surprised that I was not bored with sitting here talking to Kayla about everything and nothing at all – something that I had a habit of doing with my old friends all of the time before everything changed between us and with us.
I was not normally one for small talk but there was just something about Kayla that made me want to know more about her and what made her tick – more about what made her laugh and what made those beautiful blue eyes of hers light up when they were looking at me like they were right now.
It was rare for anyone to be looking at me like that – with so much affection and so much love in their eyes, but I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself in thinking that that was what Kayla was feeling towards me right now.
I wanted it to be true but I also knew that there were a lot of things that could go wrong between now and then, and that all of my dreams could come crashing down around my ears because of my own stupid mistakes or because something had happened that was beyond my control that I had not been able to plan for in advance.
That was why I tried not to let myself get attached to anyone or anything ever since I left Gotham City behind for good – because that was what Bruce had always told us.
Don’t let yourself get attached to anything that you can’t afford to lose.
And I had already lost enough in my life as it was – losing my parents when I was still a young child, losing my brothers when Mr.
Harrison closed down the store at nightfall and losing Bruce after he took everything away from me in his misguided attempts to protect me from the bad things in the world by keeping me prisoner inside Wayne Manor for years on end while he went out on his own crusade against crime and corruption in Gotham City.
He had managed to drive us apart by doing all of those things and more and he had managed to lose the trust and respect of all three of his sons by doing all of those things and more, but he could also hold his head up high knowing that he had managed to keep us alive while we were under his roof.
But it wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that he had managed to destroy our relationship with him in the process of keeping his sons alive, either.
Bruce Wayne was a fucking asshole, but I wasn’t ready to share all of those details with Kayla just yet.
We’d only known each other for a week and I didn’t want to scare her off by letting her know the whole truth about who I really was, so I just smiled at the single mother of four who was sitting across from me in this little café in downtown Richmond City, the smell of freshly brewed coffee lingering in the air as she moved to take a sip from her cup, leaving behind a smudge of lipstick on the rim that just made her even more appealing in my eyes.
“You know,” I said, trying to lighten the mood once more as I looked into those deep blue eyes on hers, “I’m not really much of a morning person, even though I have to wake up at five every morning if I want to be able to make it to work on time.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” she said with another laugh, “but you do what you have to do, right?”
“Exactly,” I said with a nod.
“Especially when you have four kids to feed and clothe every day.”
“Yeah, that too,” she said with another laugh.
I wasn’t sure how she managed to stay so positive after everything that life had thrown at her but I did know that I wanted to be just like her when I grew up – to be able to take everything that life was going to throw at me in stride just like she was doing right now.
But I also knew that I was still so far from being anything like her that it wasn’t even funny, even though we both knew what it was like to go through everything that life had thrown at us growing up.
“So,” I said after a brief pause, “what are you looking for in a relationship?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug, “but I do think that it would be nice to be able to find someone who cares about me as much as I care about them, you know?
And who doesn’t just care about me because of the way that I look.
And who doesn’t just care about me because of what they can get out of me.”
“Oh, I know what you mean,” I said with a nod.
“And what are you looking for in a relationship?”
“Honestly?”
I asked as I reached out to take hold of one of her hands in mine once more, holding it tight in between my own.
“Honestly, what I’m looking for is someone who is going to be able to keep up with me when I’m on the job out there on the streets fighting crime as Nightwing.”
“And what makes you think that someone like you would ever be interested in someone like me?”
she asked before letting out a little sigh as she pulled her hand back out of mine, causing me to blush as I realized how forward I had been in admitting that to someone who I barely knew.
“I mean, you’re this tall, dark and handsome stranger who came into my life out of nowhere and who has been so nice to me ever since we met but also so secretive at the same time and also so strong and brave and handsome too.
With another blush, I took a deep breath, wondering just what I was getting myself into as I tried to figure out just how to answer her question – or even if I wanted to.
As I thought it over, I couldn’t help but notice how her children were all looking at me with wide eyes as they sat there in the cart or as they sat there in their seats on the other side of the table.
But even though they were watching me with those wide eyes, they didn’t seem to be scared of me anymore, which was something that brought a smile to my face as I thought about just how much I loved kids and how much I always wanted to have kids of my own someday despite the fact that I knew that I never would.
“You know, you’re not as bad as they say you are,” a little voice said from out of nowhere as I saw that the child in the cart was finally starting to sit up and take notice of me after all.
“Who are you?”
she asked as she looked down at her shoes before looking back up at me once more.
“My name is Dick,” I said with a smile before extending one of my hands towards her.
“And you are?”
The child didn’t say anything as she looked down at her shoes once more but before I knew it, she was taking hold of my hand with one of her own, causing me to smile brightly as I took hold of her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze just before she let go and settled back down into the cart once more, causing me to let out a little laugh as I did the same thing myself and reached over to take hold of Kayla’s hand with one of my hands once more.
“I was adopted too,” I said with a shrug as we talked about our pasts once more, sitting there in the break room as if we didn’t have anything else to do – which in all honesty we really didn’t.
“But I was adopted when I was only nine years old – after my parents were both killed right in front of my eyes, that is.
But even though I was already so much older than your youngest child when I was adopted, I still remember it like it was yesterday and I still remember just how scared I was – yet also just how happy I was to be getting away from the people who had been hurting me for so long.
“But at the same time, I was also scared that my new family would end up being just like them and that they would end up hurting me too.
But then I met my new dad, Bruce, and my new brother, Tim, and my new sister, Cassandra, and I realized that they were nothing like the people who had been hurting me back then.
And that they were always going to be there for me no matter what happened and no matter what I did.”
“But even though two of your children were really young when you adopted them, it sounds as if you’ve already made up your mind that you’re going to be a great mom to them no matter what happens.”
“I don’t really know about that,” Kayla said as she shook her head and looked away for a moment or two before looking back at me once more and giving me a little smile as she did so.
“But even though they’re still really young, they’ve already been through so much and they’ve already seen so much too – even though they probably don’t even realize it just yet.
But no matter what happens and no matter what they end up doing, I’m going to be there for them every single step of the way – and they’re always going to know that they can come to me with anything and everything that’s bothering them too.”“And that’s all that really matters,” I said, reaching out and taking hold of her hand with one of my own once more as we continued talking about our pasts and about our presents as well, sitting there in the break room as if we didn’t have anything else to do – which in all honesty we really didn’t, just as long as all of the customers were being taken care of too.
And before we knew it, the sun was going down and it was time for us to go home – and for Kayla’s children to go home with her as well.
Yet somehow or another, I found myself heading back up to the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises later on that night and meeting up with Kayla once more, my heart feeling lighter than it had in a long time after all of the things that we had talked about earlier on that day.
And of course, after we had shared so much already, it didn’t take long for us to continue sharing more and more about ourselves with every single second that passed by.
And the more time we spent together and the more things that we shared with one another, the more I found myself falling for her even harder than I had been already.
After all, I had always been kind of a sucker for people who were strong and could stand up for themselves.
But now that I was older, it was as if the tables had been turned on me, as if the two of us had switched places somehow.
And now, it was as if Kayla was the one who was strong while I was the one who was weak, as if she was the one who was leading the way while I was the one who was just following along behind her.
But no matter what happened, I knew that she would be there to help pick me up whenever I fell, just as I would be there to help pick her up too.
Yet there was also something inside of me that was saying that this wasn’t going to last very much longer, that this wasn’t going to be able to go on for much longer either.
And it wasn’t like this was the first time that I had ever found myself in this kind of position either, where I didn’t know which way to turn or what exactly it was that I should be doing.
But no matter what happened, it seemed like I could never really find an end to it all either, as if I would always be stuck in this kind of limbo no matter what happened.
After all, it wasn’t like I wanted to leave Kayla behind, but it also wasn’t like I could keep doing this either.
It wasn’t like I could keep living this kind of double life either, like I could keep being Dick Grayson and Nightwing both at the same time.
There were some people who thought that it might have been possible, but those people didn’t know what it was like to actually live this kind of life.
They didn’t know what it was like to feel like you were being torn apart inside, like you were being pulled in two different directions by forces that you couldn’t control no matter what you tried to do about it.
And they didn’t know what it was like to be so in love with someone like Kayla while at the same time being so afraid of losing them either.
Because deep down, I knew that eventually she was going to have to choose between me and her children, and I knew that I was never going to be able to be the one to ask her to make that choice.
So what else was I supposed to do?
I found myself asking that question again and again as I looked out over the city and watched as it went dark all around me.
I asked myself what else I was supposed to do, and then I asked myself what else I was supposed to say – and then I realized that I didn’t really have any answers to either of those questions.
Instead, I found myself standing there and just staring out over nothing in particular, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next.
And then, before I knew it, I was out on the streets again and fighting crime like always.
But after everything that had happened earlier on that day, I found myself feeling like my whole body was made out of lead somehow as I struggled to keep moving forward.
I was so tired that I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to go on any longer – and then I realized that maybe I didn’t really want to go on anymore either.
Because no matter what happened, I didn’t think that I really deserved to be happy – not when everything else was falling apart around me like this.
But despite all of that, Kayla didn’t give up on me either.
Instead, she just kept right on being there for me, even when she had absolutely no reason to be at all.
She just kept coming back and helping me get back up onto my feet whenever I fell down, no matter how many times that might have been.
And even when I did my best to push her away, she still refused to give up on me either, no matter how hard I might have tried.
Instead, she just kept coming right back every single time as if nothing had ever happened at all, and she kept doing whatever she could to help me too.
She kept helping me in any way that she could, even when I did my best to stop her from doing any of that too.
After all, if there was one thing that she had learned how to do already, it was how to stand up for herself and not take any crap from anyone along the way either.
And in a way, that was something that she and I had in common too.
After every single thing that had happened earlier on that day with Kayla and her kids, the last thing that I expected was for her to show up on my doorstep later on that night as well.
So when I opened the door and saw her standing there with a big smile on her face and a big piece of cardboard in her hands, I was caught completely by surprise.
But then she showed me exactly what it was that she had brought along with her, and I felt like my whole world was turning upside down all over again.
Because right there in front of me was a giant circus poster featuring me as a young boy – or more accurately, as “The Flying Grayson” – right there in all of its glory.
“Circus Boy,” she said as she waggled a finger at me playfully.
“I should have known.”
“Hey!”
I said as I tried not to laugh.
“I’ll have you know that being a circus boy is a very serious business.”
“Is that so?”
“maybe you’d better show me how serious you are too.”
“Hey!”
I said with a grin.
“That’s not fair.”
“No,” she said with a laugh.
“But I never claimed that I was going to be fair either.”
We both laughed together after that – and then we went on inside.
We had a good time together after that too.
In fact, we had a great time together that night.
We went out for dinner at this little hole-in-the-wall place I knew about down the street from my house.
It wasn’t much of anything at all – just a simple little place with some cheap tables inside of it – but the food there was fantastic.
And the service was always great too.
After that, we went out for a walk in the park together.
The sun had gone down by the time that we finished eating dinner, but there were still plenty of people out walking their dogs and going on runs all over the place too.
It felt nice too.
It felt nice being able to go out like that without having to worry about anything at all.
It felt nice not having any responsibilities for once too.
But then my heightened instincts kicked in too.
And all of a sudden I knew that we weren’t alone anymore either.
I don’t know how I knew that.
It wasn’t like anything in particular had happened to trigger my awareness and make me realize that we were in danger.
But still, I knew that we were in danger all the same.
And I knew that we had to get out of there right away too.
I knew that we had to leave right away before it was too late and we were both caught in the crossfire somehow.
I didn’t want to go.
I wanted to stay and keep on having fun with Kayla instead.
But I knew that I couldn’t do that either.
So I said that I didn’t feel very well and that I needed to take her home right away – and then I did exactly that.
And much to my surprise, she didn’t give me any arguments about it at all.
She didn’t even get mad either.
Instead, she just went along with it and let me take her home right away without any complaints at all.
“Is everything okay?”
she asked as I pulled up to her house and helped her out of the car.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod as I tried not to sound too worried despite the fact that we were both standing there in the dark together.
“Yeah,” she said after that with a small nod of her own.
“I’ll be fine.”
She reached out for my hand after that too – and then she smiled at me again and kissed me one more time before she went inside the house by herself.
She smiled at me and waved one more time before she closed the door behind her.
And then she was gone.
I stood there for a long time and watched the lights come on inside of Kayla’s house while I tried to decide what to do next.
I didn’t want to leave her like this.
I didn’t want to leave her like this at all.
In fact, I wanted to stay with her more than anything else in the world right now, even though I knew that wasn’t going to be possible either.
But then I let out a sigh and shook my head.
I couldn’t stay with Kayla tonight.
I couldn’t stay with Kayla tonight or any night.
And the sooner that she realized that the better off we would both be too.
I turned around and walked back to my car with my head hung low while I thought about what to say to her when we met up again.
I started thinking about some of the stuff that she had said to me earlier as well.
She had said that she liked me and that she wanted to go out with me because she liked me.
But she hadn’t said that she loved me.
And now that I thought about it that way, maybe it was for the best that she hadn’t said that she loved me either.
Maybe it would be best for both of us if we didn’t take things any further than this at all.
I got into my car after that and started it up right away.
And then I drove off into the night like I always did too.
But then I let out a sigh and shook my head.
No amount of rationalizing was going to make this any easier for me at all.
And then he leaned down and kissed Kayla on top of the head as well.
“Have fun you two,” he said after that while he gave me another look of his own.
“Just not too much fun.”
“I’ll remember that,” I said with an eye roll while Kayla shook her head at him as well.
“Now get out of here already.”
He looked at us for another moment or two while he tried to decide what to say next.
But then he eventually turned around and walked away while he left us alone together after all.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
Kayla asked me after that while she turned around and looked up at me.
“I know you don’t want to leave,” she said after that while she reached out for my hand again as well.
“But you have to go,” she added while she gave my hand another squeeze.
“You have to go right now before it’s too late.”
“I know,” I said with a small nod while I tried not to dwell on that thought very much either.
“I know that I have to go.”
I reached out and cupped Kayla’s face in my hand for a moment or two.
And then I leaned down and kissed her one more time before I left for real this time.
“Be safe out there,” she said after that while she looked up at me again.
“Come back to me in one piece, okay?”
“I’ll always come back to you,” I said after that.
“Because you’re my girl.”
She looked up at me for a long moment too.
And then she let out a sigh before she looked down at the ground while she thought about what to say next.
“You know that I worry about you when you’re out there on the streets like this, don’t you?”
she asked me in a quiet voice after that.
“I know that you can take care of yourself and that you’re not afraid of anything bad happening to you,” she said after that.
“But that doesn’t mean that I still don’t worry about you all the same,” she added.
She looked up at me and frowned for a long moment too.
“I worry that something bad is going to happen to you every time that you go out there,” she said then.
She reached out and took my hands in hers for another long moment as well.
“I can’t help it, okay?”
she said then while she looked up at me again.
She paused for another moment or two as she thought of what to say next.
“I love you so much, Dick,” she said then while she reached out and took my hands in hers as well.
“I always have and I always will,” she added.
“And even though I know that there’s nothing that I can do to keep you from going out there and doing what you have to do, I still can’t help but worry about you all the same,” she said after that.
“You know that, right?”
I looked at Kayla for a long moment while I thought of what to say next myself.
And then I quickly realized that there was only one thing that I could say.
“Of course, I know that,” I said after that while I leaned down and gave Kayla another kiss on top of the head too.
“How could I not?”
“You’re my girl,” I said then.
“And I love you so much too.”
Kayla looked up at me for another long moment.
And then she let out a sigh and smiled again.
“I love you too, Dick,” she said after that while she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the lips this time.
“And I’ll never stop loving you either, no matter what happens next.”
“I know you won’t,” I said with a smile as well.
“Because you’re my girl,” I added.
“We’ve been through so much together, haven’t we, Dick?”
Kayla asked me then in a quiet voice that was filled with wonder.
“We sure have,” I said after that while I smiled at her again as well.
“And we’re going to go through even more together as well.”
“Are you sure about that?”
she asked me then while she reached out and took my hands in hers again.
“Because I’m not so sure that I am myself.”
“What are you talking about?”
I asked her with a frown.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Kayla said while she shook her head at me.
“I just want to enjoy this moment with you right now instead.”
I knew that we couldn’t stay like that forever either.
But I also knew that Kayla was right about one thing even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself.
We had been through so much together already.
And there was no telling what was going to happen next either.
It was only a matter of time before one of our enemies showed up again after all.
And when they did, I knew that I was going to have to leave Kayla behind once again before I could deal with them myself too.
I didn’t want to do that either.
But I also didn’t really have any other choice either.
Which meant that I needed to tell Kayla what was going on right away before it was too late.
“Dick?”
I tried to think of a good way to tell Kayla about what was happening.
I couldn’t think of anything though.
So I just decided to tell her straight up instead.
“There’s a fire downtown right now and I need to go check it out,” I said at last.
“I’m sorry, but you know how it is.”
“Of course I know how it is,” Kayla said after that with a frown.
“Which means that I must be crazy for falling for a guy like you too.”
“Hey now, no one says you have to fall for a guy like me,” I said while I raised my hands in the air.
“You could always fall for a guy like Superman instead.”
“Superman’s gay, remember?”
Kayla asked me then.
“So I guess I’ll just have to settle for you instead.”
“What makes you think you have to settle for me anyway?”
I asked her with a smirk.
“Because you’re most definitely not the settling down type either.”
“Well, I was going to ask you if you wanted me to come back and get you later so we could spend some more time together tonight,” I said then.
“But I guess I can take that back now if you really want me to instead.”
“Don’t be silly,” Kayla said while she shook her head at me.
“But you should probably take this first though.”
She reached into her purse then and pulled out her pepper spray.
“It’s not like you’re going to be here to protect me from all of those bad guys after all,” Kayla added then.
“And I really don’t want anything bad happening to me anyway.”
I tried to smile and look amused by her little joke.
But it was hard to do when I knew that Kayla was serious about it too.
She had every right to be worried as well.
After all, we really had been through so much together already.
And there was no telling what was going to happen next either.
I wanted to tell her that I would never let anything happen to her no matter what happened next.
But I knew that I couldn’t make any promises like that either.
Especially when I didn’t know if they were true or not myself yet.
“Don’t you have anyone else that you can bring along with you either?”
Kayla asked me then as well.
I wanted to lie about that.
But I knew that I couldn’t either.
Because there was no knowing if I would be able to find someone in time or not.
It all depended on what was going on down there.
Which meant that I had no choice but to tell her the truth instead.
“No, I don’t,” I said at last.
“I’m sorry, but I really have to go now.”
“Fine,” Kayla said while she crossed her arms over her chest.
“But you’d better come back and get me later just like you promised me that you would.”
“I will,” I said with a nod.
“And I promise you that I’ll make it up to you after that too.”
“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep, Dick,” Kayla said while she shook her head at me again.
“I really need you to be there for me right now.”
“I’ll do my best,” I told her then while I reached out and took her hands in mine again as well.
“But I really need you to believe me right now as well.”
“I do believe you,” Kayla said then as well.
“But that doesn’t mean that I like it either.”
She paused for a moment then as if she didn’t know what else she should say then.
But as soon as she saw the look on my face she knew exactly what she should say then.
“You’d better be careful out there,” she added next.
“There are so many things that can happen when something like this happens after all.”
“I will be,” I promised her again.
“And you’d better not forget that I love you either.”
“I won’t,” Kayla told me then.
“But you’d better not forget it either then either.”
“I won’t either,” I promised her again as well.
Then just like that the line went dead as well.
I knew then that she was worried about what might happen next.
But I also knew that she could handle it as well.
Despite what happened when we first met, I knew that she wouldn’t hurt herself over this either.
But that was also why I knew that I had to go now too.
Because there was no telling how much time was left then either.
Then just like that the phone went dead and that was that.
Kayla had already hung up on me then too.
I wanted to call her back then as well, but it was already too late for that now anyway.
Because there was no going back after this then either.
I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter what happened then either.
But I knew that it did anyway.
Because if something happened then Kayla was going to blame herself for it after all.
And there was nothing that I could do about it then either.
It didn’t take me long then either before I found the warehouse that was on fire now.
The flames were already pouring out of the windows of the building then as well, which meant that it was already too late by then as well.
The firemen were already there when I got there as well, which meant that they were already doing all that they could do then too.
But it wasn’t enough then either.
There were so many people inside of the building that it was hard to say how many of them had made it out or not then too.
So, if it wasn’t too late by then, I knew that I had to go in and see what else I could do then instead.
I tried to tell myself that I didn’t have any other choice then either, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it anyway.
The fire had spread over half the building by then too, which meant that we didn’t have much time left then either.
The firemen were working hard then, but they didn’t have enough men or enough water then either.
The flames were threatening to spread over to the other buildings nearby too, which meant that we might not be able to save those buildings anyway.
And maybe even an arsonist too then instead, which is why my gut feeling then was that this must have been done on purpose instead of being some stupid accident instead later on though.
I had seen my fair share of fires then before, and it was clear then that this fire was much worse then than all of those other fires then instead.
The flames were burning so hot then that it was hard for me to even get close enough then without feeling the heat from them burning against my skin.
And with the wind as it was then too, I knew that the fire was going to spread faster than we could ever hope to stop it then as well.
I had no way of knowing then how long it would take for the firemen to get more help or more water then instead.
And I also had no way of knowing then if they would be able to put the fire out soon enough anyway.
So, I knew that I had no choice but to go in then instead, before it was too late.
I tried to tell myself that I was doing the right thing then anyway, but I wasn’t sure then that I believed that myself then either.
There was a police scanner inside of the warehouse then as well, which was why I knew then that everyone else had already been evacuated by then too.
Which meant that there was no one else left inside of the building but me anyway.
And since I was the only one who could still go inside of the building, I knew that there was nothing else stopping me from going inside except for my own fears and doubts instead now.
It would have been so much easier for me then if there had been someone else there who could have told me what it was that I should do next then instead.
But there wasn’t anyone else around then who could do that except for me now anyway.
So, I knew that I had no choice but to go in and try to figure things out myself now instead.
The fear was still there then as well, but my fear for Kayla was stronger than my fear for myself anyway.
Which is why I knew that I couldn’t leave without figuring out what it was that started this fire or who it was that started it either.
I knew that I shouldn’t have taken the time to look at my phone then when I did, but I did it anyway then instead.
It was a text message from Kayla that I saw then when I looked then as well, which meant that she must have sent it after I tried calling her then instead.
She wanted to know if everything was all right now and if we were going to make a promise then too now.
I tried not to let that bother me then as well, but the truth of the matter then was that it did bother me then a little bit then as well.
Because whether I wanted it that way or not, I knew then that Kayla and I were never going to be able to make that promise together now anyway.
Somehow, though, I still found myself texting her back then too, even though it wasn’t the right thing for me to do then at all either.
I told her that everything was okay now and that we didn’t have time for any promises now either.
Kayla may have needed someone who could have stopped himself from doing what I needed him not to do now then, but she didn’t need anyone who was anything like Nightwing at all.
I didn’t take the time then for me to see whether or not Kayla had responded back then at all before I put my phone away again either.
Because I knew that she hadn’t been the one who had sent me the message anyway, which meant that I probably wasn’t going to hear from her again then anyway either.
And I didn’t want anyone else around there with me then when I got her next message either, which was why I didn’t look at my phone again after that either.
Because I knew that I didn’t have time for that at all then either now anyway either.
So, I turned away from where I had been and started walking toward where the stairs were instead.
I may still have been scared of what could happen next now, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t determined enough not to try anyway now either.
Now was as good of time as any for me if ever there was one now either.
It only took a moment or two for Nightwing to make it over the edge of the building and down inside of the warehouse now as well, where the smoke and flames and heat were all even worse than they had been before now as well.
But that didn’t stop Nightwing now at all either.
Because he knew then that he couldn’t stop now, even if he wanted to now either, because he was the only one who could help now anyway now either now as well.
Which was why he didn’t stop to rest until Nightwing finally made it down all alone to the bottom now either now as well.
He didn’t stop to rest until Nightwing stopped to look around him now as well, and saw where he was now instead now as well.
And where he was was inside of a building, with nothing around him except for smoke and flames, and no way out except for the one way he had come in through either now as well.
Which meant that this wasn’t a normal fire at all, this was one which had been set on purpose, by someone who wanted to make sure this place burned down, without anyone left to tell what had happened either now as well.
Which was just what Nightwing had suspected already by this point anyway by now as well.
Which was why he didn’t wait any longer before he started to walk through the warehouse, trying to find out just what had happened here and why this had happened here now as well.
That was why he kept on walking until Nightwing finally saw someone else inside of the warehouse as well, and went over to find out just who this was anyway now as well.
Which was when he found out just who these people were anyway now as well, and just what these people were doing here anyway now as well.
And that was when he found out that these people were the ones who had set this fire in the first place, and set a whole bunch of others as well, because they wanted to make sure that they could sell this property off later on for a whole lot more money than they had paid for it in the first place anyway, even if some other people had to die along the way for them to get what they wanted.
But Nightwing wasn’t going to let them get away with it now either now as well.
That was why Nightwing went over in order to find those men now, all alone right now as well.
Which wasn’t all that hard, because they were the only other people who were inside this building now as well.
Because Nightwing had made sure already now as well, by checking all around him first before he had gone in order to find just who else was inside this building now as well.
They hadn’t been expecting him either, so they hadn’t been ready to fight against him when Nightwing finally did come upon them now either now as well.
Which meant that Nightwing didn’t have too much trouble with those men now as well.
Because Nightwing knew what he was doing, even if those men didn’t know what they were doing now.
Which meant that Nightwing didn’t have too much trouble with those men then, even if they did try their best anyway.
Which meant that Nightwing finally managed to get the best of those men now anyway now as well.
Even if it took him a little while in order to do it, and even if it did take a lot out of him in order to do it now as well.
But it didn’t matter now, because in the end, Nightwing knew that he would win anyway now as well.
And he did, which meant that he finally managed to take those men down, and finally managed to put some handcuffs on them then too now as well.
By then, the firefighters had finally managed to come inside the warehouse, and started putting the fire out for good now as well.
Which meant that Nightwing finally knew that there wasn’t anything else left for him here now either.
So Nightwing finally went back outside then too, and went back outside just in time in order to see Kayla standing there right there, along with Lieutenant Gannon as well.
They both looked so relieved to see him then, and so worried about him too.
