The Blüdhaven Police has found a body. Someone called in and told them about someone laying in one of the moody alleys in poorer part of the city. Although it was cleaner now, there're some dirty cops and they didn't hurry. When officers Bowen and Allecy arrived, a rat had been sitting on the corpse, slowly eating through gray, open cotton blouse.

"Ugh..." Bowen covered his mouth "why did it have to be US who have to do this?"

"I'm not touching that with a ten foot stick."

However, the body somehow traveled to the BPD's coroner lab. Nightwing got there through the window. He came closer to the examination table and uncovered the cadaver. He shook his head at the sight. It was a young, maybe seventeen year old, boy. Dirty, thin brown-ish hair. His skin was very pale, slightly blue. His veins. Full of unused anymore blood. They looked weird. They were very blue and dark. Dick gently raised boy's eyelids showing unimaginably blue eyes. Not natural, for sure. Extended pupils. Then he started looking for something else... there! On boy's left wrist. Marks after needle. He injected himself. Suddenly Nightwing looked at the tablet laying next to him on the table. They've identified the boy already. Magnus Pres. One of the siblings of one of richer families. But... He was left handed. 'So why would he inject himself using his right one?' Unless he wasn't the one who did it. Maybe he just happened to be in the wrong place in wrong time. Something flashed under his blouse. Hero took it and examined in his palm. It was a silver, brown-ish pendant. It had a shape of a lying feather and underneath it was a writing in Latin: 'LUX ET TENEBRAE'. 'The Light and the Darkness'. 'A cult, maybe? But why would they kill him? Insubordination? Punishment on someone else?' He thought as he looked at Magnus' chest.

Skin was collapsed showing ribs and sternum nearly sticking out of the pale skin. He looked so young... He was so young. Just a little older than Tim. A shiver ran through his back. 'Don't think like that.' His own unimaginably blue eyes looked at the motionless form laying still on the cold metal.

Suddenly Dick felt like someone or something was breathing down on his neck. He turned around, but there was no one there. The obnoxious feeling stayed as he climbed up the window, heading to the crime scene. Well, supposed crime. Maybe this kid really overdosed... 'Highly doubtful.'

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When Nightwing arrived in the alley, it looked... clean. Like someone just came here and tidied.

He spotted something laying on the ground, silver and red. He crouched and picked it up, surveying closely. It was a needle, with a drop of blood on the tip. But there was something wrong. Actually, there wasn't anything else in the alleyway. Completely anything. And that didn't fit into the picture. The needle was in the plain sight, a child could see it. Well, maybe a batchild. But the point stands.

Dick walked closer to the back wall. He moved his fingers along the bricks, looking for anything that could be helpful. The only thing he found was dust. Then he saw it. One redder and even dirtier brick. Nothing unusual? In this case he wasn't going to take any chances if it could help. He examined it closely, pushed it, touched its every side.

There!

It was small, almost impossible to see, but it was there. Little, the size of a fly button. He pushed it lightly, adrenaline rushing through his veins. He heard something click inside the wall. Part of the bricks was turning horizontally while he watched warily. To him it looked kind of like in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when Hagrid opened the entrance to the Diagon Alley. He let himself get distracted for just a moment and suddenly the secret room was fully visible?! If Damian got to know this he would never let it pass. Yes, Dick would be mocked to death.
Looking inside the room, if calling a three feet deep recess a room is correct, he saw a painting, it was as wide as the 'room' and almost as high. Almost, because there was something on a narrow shelf hanging a little above the ground. On a closer inspection, it was a key. It looked old and one could have seen it was also rusty. However, the silver underneath was still well visible. His sight returned to the the painting. It was a portrait, to be exact. From the cloth a young man was looking, Dick could almost feel his eyes on himself. He had blonde, sleek hair and piercing gray eyes. His skin was unhealthy white so his freckles were very sticking out. He was smiling gently although it didn't reach his eyes. He was sitting, that much was clear, before something that looked like... A castle? A castle tower, at least. There was a big clock on the higher part of it, too.

The background looked to Dick kind of familiar, albeit he didn't know why and where could he had possibly seen it before. Shaking the slightly unnerving feeling off, he turned on the camera in his eye lenses and took some photos and recorded all of the crime scene. Well, supposed crime scene. There was actually no evidence. The Blüdhaven Batman picked up the key, still laying on the recess, and put it in his pocket, beforehand putting it in a plastic bag, of course. He took one last glimpse at the portrait and touched the button that opened the 'room' in the first place. The same thing that happened earlier happened again, but this time in reverse. Bricks returned to their previous place and there was completely no evidence that anywhere near could be a secret chamber. He thought of the boy, laying still on the corner's table in the BPD headquarters. Checking if the needle was still in one of the pockets of his belt, sadness washed over him Dick didn't think that it was an overdose. Nightwing's gut was crying out to him, yelling 'murder!'.

Suddenly Nightwing felt this weird, seemingly coming out of nowhere breath. It wasn't warm, as it should be, nor was it cold. No, it... just was. He quickly turned around, but again, there was no one there. Shrugging off some dust that somehow got onto him, he took off on his grappling hook, lost in his thoughts.

Little did he know that a tall, claded in gray fabric slithouette was watching him silently from above. Standing on the roof, they stayed for a few more minutes before departing back into the darkness.

...

And no one had seen them smile.

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Aaand that's it! The first book in the series is finished! Let me know how you liked it. But for now,

G'night
×xXxNightsilverxXx