Prequel - Young Justice

Chapter 33

"Find that building," I heard Batman growl out as my knees gave out. This wasn't real. "Someone find me that god damn building now!" the screen was static now, but that didn't change what I just watched. She was gone in that second. She was scared, I could tell it by just seeing her eyes. She died being terrified.

"I got it," I heard someone shout from the other side of Mount Justice where half the league and the whole team were. Everyone had been trying everything they could to find her but we were all too late.

I could hear Artemis behind me sobbing loudly, her earlier screams now quieted as Wally held her rocking her back and forth. Conner was in a similar situation with Miss M. I was so confused, this wasn't real. It was just some joke. The bruises that covered me from my beating that took place only hours before weren't real. This was fake.

"This isn't real," I whispered softly catching the attention of Batman who stood in front of me.

"Dick," he rasped out looking down at me. His cowl was off; I could see tears rolling down his face as he fell to his knees in front of me. Grasping my shoulders, I felt myself being pulled into his Kevlar covered chest.

"It's not real," I tried again but it came out broken. I was shaking like a leaf as I clutched to him like I had as a child. "Bruce please, this isn't real."

He looked like he was a dying man as he let out a soft sob. "I'm so sorry Dick,"

"No," I denied standing up roughly leaving him on the floor where he sat. "This isn't real!" I screamed catching everyone's attention. I could see so many crying faces, and looks of despair but they were all wrong. She was alive.

"She wouldn't leave me behind, she promised," I was shaking not able to catch my breath. "I can't..it's not real," the air wasn't reaching my lungs as I grabbed my throat.

"He's having a panic attack," I heard someone say but it was like I was suddenly underwater. The sounds distorted as I gasped for air. I sunk to the floor my arms wrapped around my middle to keep myself together. I felt a prick of a needle in my neck. Slowly I was fading, floating away in the air right into nothingness.

--

I wasn't here, this wasn't real. I would open my eyes and she would be standing in front of me, smiling that smile that she saved just for me. Her eyes shining a thousand blues as her gaze wondered with a childlike joy only she could have. But I was here. This was real.

Charlotte was dead.

I haven't been able to fully process what that even meant. It was a lie at first, a dirty lie that could never be true. Someone else's Charlotte was dead, but not mine. My girl was invincible, one of the untouchables.

So why was I standing in front of a closed coffin that had her name smacked on it like a shipping label.

I knew the stages of grieving; I've felt them when my parents died at the age of eight. But this, this was something indescribable. How do you even put into words the feeling of watching the love of your life die? How do you contemplate a future when half your soul has been ripped out without even so much as a warning?

I've cried, I've screamed. Begged, bartered, prayed to every god known to man to let her come back to me.

Nothing.

I felt useless, I was a failure. A disgrace no matter how many times everyone tried to tell me different. This was my fault. I'm the reason she's dead.

This isn't real.

If I keep telling myself that then maybe it will become the truth. Maybe going crazy wouldn't be so bad, they could pump me with whatever medical cocktail they wanted as long as it made me see her I would be content.

It didn't matter what I was told, it didn't matter that in this very moment I was watching her casket slowly lower into the ground. She wasn't dead. Not to me at least.

I felt Bruce put a hand on my shoulder, I didn't know if it was to support me or himself but I didn't shake it off for once.

"I know I'm supposed to be strong for you Dick, but I'm so sorry that I can't be," I turned to look at him, it was like a mirror. His eyes held every emotion I felt in that moment. I found myself with my head burrowed in his chest as he clutched to me like a lifeline.

We were all each other had left.

Soft sobs left him as he softly shook. I could hear my own come from my clenched mouth as I tried to contain them to no luck.

"Your all I have left Dick, I can't lose you too," his soft words made the torrent of sobs coming from me increase.

This was real.

Charlotte was dead.

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So that was sad.

I was tearing up while writing this chapter

What did you guys feel/think?

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