The Red Ghoul

ARC II: PART III

Ethereal Echoes of Bly Manor is based on the book The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I saw the loosely based miniseries directed by Mike Flanagan for Netflix and I knew I had to add it to my story. The Netflix adaptation is Haunting of Bly Manor. Watch it if you can! Hope you like it!

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"Well, that could have gone better," Dick sighed, as Jason snorted humorlessly. Dick turned to him with an admonishing glare. "You could have deescalated the situation!"

"What did I do now? I did not raise my voice or was nasty, you can't blame me for him acting so childishly," Jason turned to him affronted. "That is on him, not me. He needs to grow the fuck up. You know I was right with what I said!"

Dick groaned, hitting his head on the table before him. He rolled his head around, before lifting it up and smiling sadly at the scene before him. Cass and Damian had bonded over their love for art and their assassin upbringing, they were now waltzing around the backyard garden. Cass being the Prima Donna of the Gotham Ballet Company gave her quite an edge, but Damian was not giving up. Dick found his pout quite adorable, as the young boy frowned in concentration. On the other side of the garden, Steph and Billy were discussing how to infuse Billy's magic into Steph's glitter pranks to take her chaos to yet another level.

"I know," Dick sighed, this time softer. "Do you think if Bruce had chosen a healthy path of healing from his trauma, that we could have turned out like that. Mature and ready to take the world, yet still maintaining a childish innocence I had thought impossible since I saw my parents die." Dick's eyes lingered on Damian for a second longer. "He saw and was forced to do more horrible things than I have, yet he still has this love for life. I can see it in his sketches, how even the darkest corners of Gotham come alive on his pages and are filled with a beauty I had been unable to see until he made me see."

"Dami does have this gift of seeing potential and beauty where others see none," Jason smiled fondly. "As for Billy, he has this optimism that drives me crazy at times, but at the same time brightens up my darkest nights."

Dick turned to his little brother with a proud smile on his lips. "You've done a great job with them, Little Wing."

Jason beamed at the praise, always happy to hear about how good of a guardian he is. "Where is he now?"

"In San Francisco, with the Teen Titans," Dick sighed. He has been sighing a lot lately. "He seems to be there more than not since... since Bruce."

"He lost three parents in the period of a couple of years Dickie. Plus, years of neglect, that Tim is not willing to admit." Jason reminded him, making Dick frown sadly. "He is angry and wants to punish the world for its injustices. I'm pretty sure you can remember how that was. I sure do!"

"It is because I remember how I used to feel that I worry!" Dick snapped, that anger that was always there underneath his thin skin, reaching its boiling point. "I worry because I know how easy it is to allow yourself to be consumed by it. I worry because of how similar Tim and Bruce are! And I do not mean in a good way."

"In what way do you mean? I once thought the same, but I later heard from T's spies that the third Robin is the most pragmatic and the best detective yet. He even got The Riddle's respect after their first meeting, something that not even Bats achieved. He is also the first of us that is motivated by logic and not emotion. Do not get me started with Bruce, we both know that he is the kind of person to ask all the right questions and reach all the wrong answers because of how easily led by his emotions he is." Jason frowned thoughtfully. "So, can you explain to me in what way they are similar? Because I do not see it."