Killer Queen

Part 1

The first time they met, he was quite surprised. Jason would be lying if he said he hadn't been at least a bit startled and caught off guard.

He'd been looking after his old neighborhood for a while already. A few weeks of just hanging around, keeping the scum in their place and away from kids. Nothing new. And he met her. The small curly haired blonde. She was about six years old. Little Debbie.

"I brought you some cookies, I thought you might be hungry," she told him one night.

Jason was on the rooftop of young Debbie's apartment building, he'd been simply hanging around. Her rooftop provided him with an excellent view of the playground just a few blocks away and let him look after the children who still played there after dark, those who's parents didn't have the time to take care of them.

"Oh, hey there," he'd replied. It was a bit of a surprise, Jason was wearing his helmet and this child wasn't the least bit scared of him, "Cookies? You brought me cookies?"

"Yeah, do you like cookies? I heard you ate the heads of your enemies and drank their blood. I wasn't able to get any of that so I brought you store bought cookies instead," the small blonde said as she neared closer.

She wore pink pajamas. A nightgown pajama actually with a teddy bear design right on the front. The tips of her toes visible from underneath the frilly soft edge of her pajama. Debbie held a small bag of cookies in her hands and reached out to give it to the older man.

"Who said I ate my enemies?" Jason asked with a light chuckle. He refused to remove his helmet, although he soon would have to if he wanted to eat the delicious treat the young girl had brought him.

"Tony from across the street. He said you're secretly a vampire who gets rid of bad guys," she answered easily before moving to stand behind Jason who sat on the edge of the building.

Jason then continued to slip off his helmet, he wore his domino mask underneath. His hair stuck up at awkward angles and a slight drip of sweat rolled down his damp forehead. It may have been nearing the end of summer but underneath his helmet Jason was begging for fresh air.

The young girl looked away yet peeked over slightly, wanting to see the older mans face as he set his helmet down beside him.

"You won't be able to see my face, kid," Jason grinned as he pointed to his domino mask, he knew she was eager to see who was underneath the red helmet.

The young man shared his bag of cookies with the blonde as she sat beside him, her feet not being long enough to reach over the ledge of the building. Jason would not have let her fallen either way.

"My name is Debbie. Debbie York," the girl smiled and stretched her hand out to Jason.

Jason swallowed the cookie he had been munching on and took her small hand in his, giving it a light shake, "Red Hood."

Debbie gave an exaggerated sigh, "Well I knew that already!"

And so their small "meetings" would continue. Every week, Jason would look forward to their time together. Tuesdays and Thursdays they would have their late night snack together. Those were the days her mother worked late into the night and Debbie was able to sneak out easily. There were some rare Friday nights that they would stay out until an hour or two before sunrise.

That was his weekly routine. Jason made it his job to take care of the kids around his old neighborhood. It wasn't much but Jason liked helping the kids. Even if the older ones were far more rude. The younger children always adored him for just being around.

Especially Debbie. God help him when it came to Debbie. The small girl would give him a heart attack. Truly she did occupy most of his time out on the streets. But she was a nice child, spoke to Jason as if she knew him all his life.