The Promise of Bat

You may not be familiar with my story. It is not one you tell to your children at bedtime. It is a story pieced together by headlines: Wayne Family Mugged. Thomas and Martha Wayne Buried. 9 Year Old Bruce Wayne Inherits Empire. The police report a similar story: Family of 3 mugged. Parents shot by suspect. 9 year old witness. Suspect still at large.

Suspect still at large.

That is the story. That is the story that has bore this story, my story.

I have struggle these past 14 years to reconcile their deaths. I have not been able too. That night still haunts me. It awakens me in the dark of night. Sweating, I fear the criminal who took my life is taking the lives of others. In the dead of night I made a promise. I swore on the spirits of my parents that I would avenge their deaths.

This is not about my vengeance. No. This is vengeance for the voiceless; those whose lives have been destroyed by senseless violence. Tonight I began my own war on crime. Tonight I learned a hard truth. Bruce Wayne cannot avenge their deaths.

Bruce Wayne is a man. . Man is corruptible and unfrightening. Man can be defeated. Man can be hurt. Man can die. I know this now. I sit here bloodied. I sit here defeated. I was unprepared tonight. I thought I was ready. I thought my skills would save me. I thought they were all I needed. But I need something more.

I must become something more than a man. I must become greater than a man. I must...

As if on cue I look up to see a bat clinging to the wall. It must have come through the chimney in the study. Or was it sent. Was it sent here to show me what I am to become?

Bats frighten me. When I was a boy, I fell into an old well. As I laid there holding my broken arm, I heard a noise and felt fear for the first time. Suddenly they were on me. The bats hovering over my face, not attacking but letting me know they were there. The intense fear I felt would be a fear that I would never overcome. The intense fear I fell...will become my enemies fear.

Yes. I see it now. I understand now. I understand what it is I must do. I understand who I must become. I understand now the sacrifice. I understand now the promise I made to you. Yes, father, I understand.

I will become vengeance. I will become the night. I will become a bat.