Blind Photographs

“Photo, we’ll start teaching you how to fire blind tomorrow, alright?” Ghoul stated as he peered under the table.

“You got it.”

Grace was in there with them, I could already tell that they were her new family because I was never there. But she remembered me.
After everyone else was undoubtedly asleep, I crept out from under my table and headed into the back room. Hesitantly, I nudged her shoulder. She rolled over, so I tried again.

“Boom box?” I whispered.

“Photo?” She asked quietly, confused.

“No no no, Gracie. It’s me. It’s Faith, I’m here.” Her eyes lit up.

“They told me you were probably dead, but I didn’t believe them, I told them you were going to come back for me and we’re all going to be able to win this together!” She whispered excitedly.

“Gracie… I’m not a good person. I’ve done some bad things. Maybe you shouldn’t tell them yet. I don’t trust them. And if they find out everything about me, they’re not going to trust me either.”

“They took care of me while you were away, though. We can trust them, and whatever you did can’t be that bad and I’m sure they’ll love you more once they find out that you’re the person I’ve been waiting for.”

“Yeah, alright Grace. But let me tell them, alright? I’ll tell them when I’m ready. You need to keep quiet about it though, and go back to sleep.”

“Can’t you stay with me?”

I hesitated.

Radio was a risk. But this was my sister, who I hadn’t seen in maybe four years? It was a risk I was going to have to take. I pushed my cot up next to hers and ran back into the main room, bare feet padding lightly on the floor, to grab a few blankets. Then I sat on the bed, , testing its weight holding ability and laid myself down on it. It was an unpleasant sequence of dreams, ones that didn't make enough sense to really be good or bad.
I woke up and nearly panicked, before remembering where I was and what had happened. Something didn't add up, though. I woke up with a pile of old wanted posters under the pillow, and those definitely hadn't been there when I fell asleep.

Figured you should know who you're living with. Radio explained innocently. It never fit her, though. I picked up the first one, Party Poison's. Wanted for all the normal reasons, rebellion, escape, some theft, but the very end of the list was what freaked me out.

Manslaughter.

It was probably just draculoids, they didn't really count as people. It really upset me, though. This was what Grace was being exposed to. I wouldn't have done a much better job, admittedly, since I spent childhood brainwashed and everything since then in a sheltered environment. I pushed the thought out of my mind and put the papers back under the pillow. Maybe eventually I'd put them in my pack to use for notes.

Grace was still sleeping, and so were the men. I pulled the blankets up to her chin and turned out of the room. My pack, desolate as it was, did still contain some food. And not Power Pup, either. It was a perk to living with Gotham. Peaches, jerky, the occasional granola bar, but it wasn’t honest food. It was a feed from the city. I hadn’t realized at first, but they were already buddy-buddy with some of the Blind bats. Yet another reason I had to change my name. Harley thought she was being cute, calling us after some pre-fire comic book, but the Blind Bats and I didn’t really see eye-to-eye.

Punny. Radio commented. I ignored her and cracked the seal on a can of peaches, making a mental note to save half for Grace, who probably hadn’t had them in ages.

“Hey, Photo. Icy, you got peaches?!” Ghoul exclaimed, stumbling into the room.

“Yeah, picked them up before I left my old team. I’ve got some other stuff too. The peaches are for the kid, though. It’s probably been a while.”

“We do a decent job at getting variety, but it is mostly Power Pup. She’s had s’mores, though.”

“Lucky, it’s been jerky and granola for me for a long time.”

“Better than dog food, at least.”

“True enough.” He handed me a bandana.

It was dark and stained, maybe purple originally. It absolutely reeked of motor oil and something I couldn't place.

“Put that on and leave your glasses in here. You’re no use to us if you suddenly can’t see anything.”