I Am The Night- Part Ten by: Enemyoffun Steven Brown has a rough time, wanting to be a girl and hiding it from his angry abusive father. But when Steven gets a chance to express his hidden side through a fantastic opportunity, things change, including himself.

-----

Author's Note: I'm sorry this is so late but I had hoped to have it finished and posted much earlier today but the weather was not on my side. I was almost finished with the chapter last night but my power went out this morning and was off for several hours today, finally coming back in the early evening hours. So here it is finally. I'd like to thank djkauf for the lightning fast editing and DC Comics for the characters.

-----

Chapter Nine:

Secret passageways behind walls were one thing; but secret staircases... that was something else entirely. Now I knew I was in a mansion. I took a deep breath and excitedly stepped over the threshold. The first thing I noticed was the dark---of course. The second thing I noticed was how cold it was. I actually shivered when I stepped on the first step. I thought about looking for some kind of light switch but I knew there wouldn’t be one. So I put my hand on the wall and slowly started down. The wall was made of stone---like the rest of the tower---and the stairs were kinda steep. As I walked down, I only counted about six until I reached the bottom.

In the dark, I couldn’t really see much. I stumbled about like an idiot, fumbling for something to grab a hold of. I finally found another wall and used that as a guide. I moved along it, hoping I might find something that could tell me where I was. As I walked, I was surprised that nothing was in my way. Usually places like this were filled with stuff. Not that I’d ever been in a place like this but in adventure novels and movies these places were prone to be used as storage. I just hoped that that wasn’t the case here. Not that I was expecting treasure or something but I was at least hoping for---well anything. Bruce had already proven to be mysterious and paranoid so what better place to hide your secrets. After all, if this place was what I thought it was, it was already forbidden.

Fumbling along the wall my hand finally brushed over something. It was small and sticking out. I realized it was a light switch. Ok not exactly secret passage décor but it was the twenty first century after all. I flipped the switch and the room suddenly exploded in light. I’d only been down here for a few minutes but it was blinding nevertheless. I snapped my eyes shut, wincing. Then I slowly opened them, shielding them with a hand until I got used to it. It only took about a minute and even though I was still blinking, I took stock of the room.

I frowned at what I saw. Any hope of finding something cool was dashed to pieces in an instant. My earlier assessment was right: there was nothing in here but junk. Ok, so junk was a harsh word but it was nothing of substance. There were a lot of boxes, some cardboard, most wooden. I stepped toward the nearest one and peered inside. This one was filled with old newspapers, some of which dated back over fifty years or more. I looked at some of the headlines but they didn’t really interest me. So I moved onto the next box, it was filled with clothes. I began moving around the room, opening boxes and taking a look. It was a lot of useless miscellaneous stuff. It didn’t take me long to work up that most of the boxes seemed to be filled with outdated things.

But boxes weren’t the only thing in here. After opening several of them I found myself staring at a dressmaker’s dummy. It looked kinda creepy. From there I found an old trunk, a bicycle with one wheel, lots of outdated sporting equipment and an old rocking horse. The rocking horse was kinda cool though. You didn’t see those anymore. It looked expensive too, not at all like the rest of the stuff around it. I approached slowly, running my fingers over its wooden snout. It was carved to look like a real horse and hand painted. I marveled at the craftsmanship of it. Then I noticed an inscription the right ear, barely readable: To Bruce, Our Darling Little Boy, With Love, Mother and Father. I smiled at that. It was hard to imagine that Bruce was a child but it made sense I suppose. Everyone was a child at one time but it was just hard to picture the man upstairs ever being involved with anything as silly as a rocking horse.

I laughed and moved on. There was another box nearby. When I opened the lid, the first thing I saw was a framed photograph. There were two people in it: a young black haired boy and an older girl, in her teens. The girl had her arms wrapped around the boy and they both looked so happy. I smiled at the image, recognizing the boy as a younger Bruce. The girl was familiar but I couldn’t place her. I picked up the picture and wiped the dust from the glass to get a better look. I squinted and saw the resemblance: it was my mother. I started to tear up. She was so young and so happy there, not like the hurried and rushed woman I knew her to be. I loved my mother with every fiber of my being but she worked more than I would have liked. I suppose I couldn’t blame her, she was a successful doctor after all. But this girl in the photo---the happy one---it made me sad to think that she didn’t have much time to be like that around me.

“Is everything to your liking, Miss Stephanie?”

I nearly dropped the picture in fright. I also nearly jumped high enough for my head to hit the ceiling. I snapped around, Alfred standing there. I hated it when people did that. My heart was hammering in my chest, my face flushed red in embarrassment. I was a bit scared too; after all, I probably shouldn’t have been in this place. But looking at Alfred, he didn’t seem to be angry, in fact he didn’t seem to be anything.

“You scared the heck out of me”

He nodded. “Occupational hazard.”

It took me a few seconds to recover then I held up the picture. “I thought my mother and Bruce were childhood friends?”

“That’s right.”

“She’s older than him.”

Alfred squinted at the photo. “Miss Crystal was Master Bruce’s babysitter. They were very close, like brother and sister.”

I smiled at the picture. “They look very happy.”

Alfred nodded. “She was the only who could make him smile like that.” Alfred reached for the picture and I handed it to him. He sighed. “This photo was taken about two months after the tragic death of Master Bruce’s parents. Dr. Thompson brought Miss Crystal to the house to tend to Bruce while I and the rest of the staff dealt with the household chores. The two of them did everything together after that. She stayed with us as a permanent fixture until she graduated from high school and went to college. When she left it nearly broke the young master’s heart.”

I smiled. It was nice but sad too. “Was he in love with her?”

Alfred frowned. “It’s not my place to speculate on those things.”

I forgot who I was talking to for a second. Alfred didn’t say anything else on the matter. Instead, he walked over and put the picture back into the box then looked around the room. He frowned at the other boxes. Even though I had closed them all after looking, it was clear that I’d been through them. When he looked at me, I couldn’t meet his gaze. He made a tut sound then placed a hand gently on my shoulder. In silence, he turned me and pointed me toward the stairs, actually walking behind me to make sure I went. I took one last glance at the room, disappointed. My gaze fell on the rocking horse. It was odd that everything else in the room looked so old except for that.

When I got upstairs, the boss’s voice came over the intercom, asking me to come to his room. I did so a bit reluctantly, dragging my feet. I wonder what meaningless task he was going to have me do now. When I got into the room Bruce smiled, which knowing him I’m not sure was a good or bad thing. When he spoke, I was surprised to say the least.

“Find anything interesting?”

I groaned. He’d been watching, of he’d been watching. I hadn’t seen the camera down there but I’m sure there was one. Now I felt like a real idiot.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, looking at the floor. “I didn’t mean to pry, I…the book…”

Bruce laughed. “No harm done.”

I smiled. “It was nice to see my mother looking so happy.”

The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Bruce didn’t say anything for about a minute or two. Then: “Was she unhappy with your father?”

I didn’t know how to respond. I just stood there, trying to come up with the right words. He seemed to read it in my face though and smiled. Then he changed the subject, telling me what else we needed to do today. We went right into business again, like we’d never had the previous conversation. Though I could tell he was thinking about it, he never once again mentioned it. Instead, he sent me to a nearby desk and I started helping him file papers. Most of it was work related but there were a few interesting things here and there. It’s hard not to look at papers when you’d been sorting them for a couple of hours. One document in particular was one of many phone records; Bruce having received a series of calls from some place in the city, the only listing was government. Below that were initials KF. There were a lot of those calls on the sheet.

Another document that seemed to interest me talked about a warehouse. It didn’t give specifics but the name Lex Luthor turned up. That was a name everyone knew. What surprised me was it showing up in Bruce’s documents. It was well known that Wayne Enterprises refused to do business with Lex. I suppose I couldn’t blame him, Luthor kinda creeped me out. So what was his name doing on a document? I scanned it, curiosity getting the better of me. There was mention of some pharmaceutical company too and some technical mumbo jumbo about a drug. That part went over my head a bit. But the name of the drug company sounded familiar; maybe I’d seen an ad for it or something. Was Bruce getting into business with Luthor and a drug company? I thought Wayne Medical Research was one of the leading pioneers in their field.

After another hour of filing papers. Bruce sighed heavily. “That’s it, no more damn paper cuts.”

I stopped what I was doing. “You want to quit?”

“I want to eat,” he said with a laugh.

I couldn’t argue with him there. So we quit for the day and I headed down to the dining room. When I walked through the door, Tim was already there. I frowned when I saw him. I’m not sure why but today I just wasn’t in the mood for him. When he saw me, his eyes widened a bit. It took me a moment to realize what he was staring at. It never occurred to me that I looked any different than before. Except before I was a boy dressed like a girl and now I was all girl. My biggest change had to be my curves, I had some now... whereas before there was nothing, well nothing real anyway. He stared at me the whole time as I walked across the room, taking my usual seat.

“You look different,” he said after a few moments of silence.

“It's called taking a shower, you should try it sometime.”

It was a little harsh but I wasn’t in the mood for his antics today. He glared at me after that which was good because his dumbfounded stare was starting to creep me out. Neither one of us said anything else and the meal passed quickly. After it was over with, it was time to leave. I made Alfred make a stop at the bus depot. He didn’t ask any questions. Yesterday I forgot to grab the laptop but I rectified that mistake rather quickly. He didn’t even raise an eyebrow when I came out of there with it tucked underneath my arm.
I got into the car and he drove me home.

__________________________________

The rest of the week went by rather slowly, then blended into the next. Soon it was almost the end of September. It didn’t take me all that long to adjust to my new life; in fact, I loved every minute of it. In school, it was like nothing changed though people did comment about how much more outgoing I was. Arnold still pretty much ignored me but he found himself some new friends. They weren’t like him in the least but he was happy with them. The bullying had stopped too, which made me think he’d been right all along. At the Clinic, Holly and I were becoming fast friends though she couldn’t stop talking about her cat. She was obsessed with her. Talking about obsessions, Tim had his Russian beauty over almost every single day. Whenever I was nearby, he tried to rub it in with outlandish displays of affection. He thought it would get under my skin, it didn’t. Now that I was fully fledged girl, Jen and I were closer than ever. She even spent the night over at my house, something that never would have happened if I were still living with Dad. And speaking of Dad, he was about to go on trial, apparently not only for my assault but for several other rather nasty things. The Chicago PD had been building a nice case up on Dad’s former employer---Roman Sioris---but even with Dad, they still didn’t have enough to convict.

I suppose the laptop would have helped. Unfortunately, they didn’t have it. Don’t ask me why I didn’t turn it into Uncle Jim like Barbara wanted me to. That night I got home from Bruce’s---the night I got it---I had every intention of doing so. But I left it sitting on my desk all night; I barely got any sleep thinking about it. When I woke up the next morning, I just knew I couldn’t hand it over, at least not yet. So then, I decided I was going to crack into it myself. Jen helped but after a whole two days of trying, we were unsuccessful. That’s when Jen said we should try Henry Russo, the head of the school’s computer club. When we brought it to him, we made up some story about it being on the fritz. Henry told us to leave it in a pile and he’d get back to us.

Now almost a week after dropping it off, Jen and I were ready to pick it up. Henry texted me this morning, telling me it was “urgent.”

When the two of us walked into the computer room, it wasn’t all that hard to find him. There were several rows of outdated computers but Henry wasn’t sitting at any of those. He was sitting in the far corner, two laptops opened in front of him. He was the only one in the room, which was going to make things much easier. Jen closed the door and then the two of us approached him. He was in the middle of a computer game, some fantasy MMORPG. He didn’t hear me when I snuck up on him, and nearly jumped when I put my hand on his shoulder. After working in the manor for so long, I was starting to pick up some of those patented sneak skills.

He snapped around, pulling off his bulky headphones. “You scared the hell out of me,” he said, running a hand through his close cropped blonde hair.

“Well if you weren’t off in La La Land you would have heard us coming,” said Jen with a snort, staring at the sexy female image on the screen that represented Henry’s avatar.

"It’s not La La it’s Azeroth”

Jen rolled her eyes. “Geek.”

“Freak.”

I groaned. “Focus people.” I snapped, crossing my arms in front of my chest. “Henry you said it was urgent.”

He smiled. “Oh yeah.”

He leaned down and pulled the laptop out of his backpack, placing it on the desk in front of him. He flipped it open and shook his head. “I don’t know who encrypted this thing but they’re better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

“So you couldn’t get in?”

He shook his head. Then he started to rattle off all this computer mumbo jumbo, most of it I couldn’t understand. He went on and on until Jen interrupted him by smacking him in the back of the head. He glared at her but at least it shut him up.

“There are other computer people around you might want to try” he said and spun in his chair, going to the second laptop. He started typing furiously.
“There’s some rumors going around the Internet about some people affiliated with some of the Meta's who are ace computer hackers. I think I know how to contact one of them if you’re interested, her name’s Lena.”

I groaned and shook my head.

“No more nerds please,” pleaded Jen, getting another look from Henry.

I took the laptop. I was about to tell him that I wanted to keep this with a small group of people but changed my mind. Maybe one of these other people might have a chance. I bit my lip. “How do you contact her?”

He smiled.”I don’t know the exact details but give me a few days and I’ll see what I can dig up.”

I nodded then Jen and I left.

“You’re not serious are you?”

I shrugged. “I want to know what’s in here.”

“You should have just given it to your uncle. He has people who could probably crack that thing in a heartbeat.”

Jen and I had had this discussion before. As I said, I’m not sure why I didn’t hand it over. I guess a small part of me still wanted to bust my father. I’m not sure why, he was already in jail after all. But there was something about this thing; something that I knew went beyond him.

“I can’t hand it over right now.”

Jen shook her head. “Well it makes me nervous, let’s at least lock up somewhere until we can figure out something to do with it.”

Jen went off to class. I took the laptop to my locker for the time being. I didn’t want to carry it around any longer than I had to. On my way to my next class, someone slammed into me when I was turning a corner. I was about to say excuse me when the person shoved me back. As soon as he did, I saw a familiar face: Arnold. But he didn’t look anything like the kid I knew. He looked like hell. His skin was all pale and he was sweating like crazy. He was clutching his stomach. When he saw me, he glared angrily at me, cursed and pushed me further out of the way. He stalked off down the hall, pushing others out of his way too. I gritted my teeth and followed him. There was something wrong. This was way beyond him being mad at me for protecting him.

I took off down the hall after him. He was moving a lot faster than he usual did, pushing people left and right. He went straight for the nearest bathroom. I picked up my pace, not bothering to pause at the Man on the door. When I pushed my way inside, Arnold was standing at the sink. He didn’t notice me at first. He was too preoccupied with himself, just staring at his reflection. I took a step into the room but he still didn’t notice me. He didn’t see me until I appeared behind him, reflecting in the mirror. When he focused on me, I saw the anger grow across his face.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped, venom in his voice.

I saw his eyes for the first time. They were bloodshot and bulging. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was up with him. I groaned.

“You took Thrill didn’t you?”

“What’s it to you?” he snapped then winced, grabbing his stomach.

“Arnold that stuff is dangerous, haven’t you been watching the news?”

Thrill was beyond dangerous. After the first initial few cases of OD’s, they were springing up all over the place. The police had officially declared war on the drug and its makers. They were cracking down on every Thrill Center they could find, anyone caught within a ten-foot radius of these places was being brought in. For the last two weeks, I’d seen how it’d been plaguing my uncle. He was coming home later and later each night, restless and agitated. The police were being stretched to their limit and that was only the half of it. When Thrill wasn’t putting kids in the hospital, it was making the rest into maniacs. There were more and more cases of Thrill Seekers going berserk. There was just a story in the news last night about a Seeker going ballistic in a McDonald's when the clerk told him he didn’t have the change. The guy smashed the register with his bare hands and put the clerk through a window.

Thrill was out of control. Not even the mysterious Roving Ravager seemed to be able to keep up with it.

“I can handle it,” he said, wincing again. He lurched forward, grabbing the end of the sink.

I reached forward and touched his shoulder. He reached quickly. He snapped around and swung a punch. I reacted on instinct, snatching his fist like it was nothing. I held onto his hand. He didn’t seem to notice as he threw another punch. I deflected it with my other arm but the blow left me throbbing. Arnold’s punches were like bricks. I’m not sure how much of the stuff he’d already taken but he was in some serious trouble. The news was saying that even a small amount of the stuff seemed to be affecting people, as if whoever was making it was purposefully driving users to the brink.

Arnold pulled his hand free from my grasp. “Why do you always have to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong?”

He swung at me again, I swiftly dodged it. I’m not sure how I was doing it but with each swing he took, I moved out of the way. It was like my body was super flexible, moving with each blow, dipping and weaving. He couldn’t land a punch on me, which was making him all the more furious. Finally, he just charged me, head down like a bull. When he got close to me, I put my hands on his shoulders and flipped over him. When I landed, I was amazed. He crashed into the stall behind me. I spun around quickly; Arnold was leaning over the toilet gasping. I thought he was catching his breath but there was something about those gasps that scared me. Playtime was over, he was in serious trouble.

I ran over and knelt on the ground with him. He rolled away from the toilet; his head fell into my lap. The look on his face said it all, there was something seriously wrong.

At that moment, someone decided to walk into the bathroom. He looked at me, confused. Then shook his head. “This is the boy’s bathroom” he said, annoyed.

I ignored him. “Call 911 right now.”

The guy quickly snapped to action.

_______________________________

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in a hospital waiting room. Ok, so that’s not technically true. The last time I was in one was the night Mom died. The doctor called Dad and asked him to bring me along; he knew it would be soon. I remember sitting in the waiting room, waiting for my turn to say good-bye. I was a total wreck, sobbing and burying my head in Barbara’s lap. When I saw my Dad walk out he just shook his head. I remember being so pissed off at him because he took so much time with her, too much. I think that was the beginning of our animosity, the bastard didn’t let me have a chance to say goodbye to her.

Sitting here now, I was a total wreck. But not more than Arnold’s parents. After the kid walked into the bathroom and called 911, Arnold had fallen unconscious in my arms. I’m not sure how long it took the paramedics to get there but by that time, he wasn’t breathing. The school nurse was able to keep him stable until they got there though. I rode with him in the ambulance, shouting to Jen in the crowd, telling her to call Leslie. That was about two hours ago. I’m not sure who called Arnold’s parents, probably the doctor. When they showed up they had a pretty good idea who I was. I don’t think I’ve ever been called an Angel before or been hugged so much. Now sitting here---looking at these two very distraught people---made me think about my own mother. It also made me think about the bastards who pumped Arnold full of those drugs. If I ever found out who they were, I was going to…well it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Steph” said a voice as someone gently touched my arm.

I looked up and saw Barbara. She arrived about twenty minutes ago. Apparently, Leslie couldn’t get away from the Clinic and Uncle Jim was busy. Barbara left class for me and rushed over. Now she was bringing me a cup of coffee. I gently took it from her and smiled.

“I’m glad you’re here, Babs,” I said as she gently squeezed my hand.

“Anything to help, Cuz”

We played the waiting game again. No one would tell any of us anything. Mrs. Wesker kept getting up every five minutes and going to the nurse’s station asking for updates. But she always came back to her chair disappointed. I ever tried once, hoping to use my Mom’s name as leverage---this was her hospital after all---but the nurse was too new to know her. So all we could do was wait and hope. The prognosis didn’t sound good when they brought him in. Even though the paramedics got him breathing, they couldn’t seem to bring him out of whatever it was. I tried not to think about how he acted in the bathroom but it was hard not to. He’d been all pure rage and anger, lashing out blindly. Not at all like the quiet, sweet kid, I knew.

Every time I closed my eyes, it pissed me off more and more. I could see his face. Then I saw the face of the Seekers from the park, the ones who tried to get him hooked on it before. I had to wonder if they were involved in this, too. There was still three of them left---the fourth was six feet under, now. I felt the rage and the hatred building just thinking about those scum and all the other scum like them. They were helping to spread this poison throughout the streets and innocents were getting hurt. Arnold was innocent and he didn’t deserve this.

Another twenty minutes passed before we finally got our answer. I saw the doctor before the others but I pointed him out to Mrs. Wesker. She was on her feet and to him before he got to me. I was about to do the same when I saw another person lingering. He was tall and handsome if you liked that rugged look. He was dressed in a leather jacket and jeans but I could tell by looking at him that he was law enforcement. When his eyes locked with mine, I think he knew I figured it out. I tried to make a beeline toward the Weskers but he intercepted me.

“Are you Stephanie Brown?” he asked, pulling a pad out of his pocket.

I groaned. “You do know who my uncle is don’t you, Officer?”

“It’s Detective actually,” he said, quickly showing me the badge that hung on a chain around his neck. “Detective Nick Gage.”

I nodded. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I asked one first.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes I’m Stephanie Brown and to answer my own question I don’t think my uncle---the police commissioner---would like me talking to you.”

I’m not sure if he knew that or not but it didn’t seem to faze him if he did. “I still need to get your statement, Miss Brown.”

I sighed. I looked over at the Weskers and saw Arnold’s mother put a hand on her chest and sigh. But she still didn’t look happy. I frowned at the Detective, angry that I was here and not over there. He looked over at them too and smiled.

So I quickly gave my statement, telling him everything that happened. I talked real fast and he wrote just as quickly. When I was done, he tried to keep me around but I was done talking. I looked around and saw Barbara, lingering in the background, looking awkward. I pointed her out to him and told him to get the Commissioner’s daughter’s statement too. He smiled and walked over. I watched the two of them for a second and then rushed over to the group. The doctor smiled at me and left.

When Mrs. Wesker turned to me, she looked a little better than before. “He’s going to be all right,” she said, I sighed.

“That’s good news” But she didn’t look so happy about it. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s in a coma,” her husband said. “According to his blood work, there was only a small portion of the drug in his system but due to his size it was enough to do some damage. They’re not sure when he’s going to wake up.”

That pissed me off. I could feel the anger swelling inside me, boiling over. At the last minute---right when I felt like I was going to erupt---I pushed it back down. It was still boiling there. I kept it in check, talking to the Weskers, reassuring them everything was going to be ok. Everything would be too,as soon as I made those who hurt Arnold pay for what they did. It just wasn’t Arnold either---there were reports of this kind of thing happening all over the city. Someone needed to stop them and if that someone had to be me, then so be it.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF