Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Damien had enough.
He has been tip-toeing around everyone these past few months.
One threat taken too seriously, leads to being benched.
It's been 4 years since he's been placed with his father, and he has changed from who he was when he was 10.
Yes, he understands that it wasn't okay to attempt to harm his now brother, but forgive the fact that he was ten, and all he knew was to fight for the top of the food chain.

He needed a break, to disappear for a while.
Summer was coming up, and he wasn't gonna tell anyone.
He'd leave a note of course. Lest his family assume he's gone 'rogue' or 'kidnapped'. (Mostly for Pennyworth)

He had thought of where he wanted to go. If he was gonna go to multiple locations or stay in one place.
A place where no one would expect Damien would go.
Someplace in the middle of Illinois, titled the most 'haunted place in the world'.
He'd almost laughed at how ridiculous it was,
But while researching the place, he found it hard to actually find information about it. Like news were filtered out, and it seemed that the place had little crime rates, yet had unexplainable amounts of damage to private, and government owned property.
He supposed this was something to occupy his time while staying In Amity City..

Chapter Text

Damian packed a bag of the bare essentials he'd need for a two month get away. - Cash, clothes, shoes, a good coat, lastly a new sketchbook for the trip. He'd need to get a phone on the road to his destination.

He left his note of his plans, making it clear, he didn't want to be found till he came back on his own.(hinting that this little excursion was gonna be longer then usual.)
Damian has done this before, leave for a couple days or weeks. It wasn't new to his family for him to even go and dissappear without a note.

Dosen't mean they liked his little habit of his, getting reprimanded and told to atleast tell someone.

He 'told' someone this time, still counts if it was written on a paper. Taking a
Step towards his window, cracking it open to fit outside while still holding on the outside sill. The sun was rising, light barely seen through the smog of Gotham.
The roaming vigilantes all gone except for Duke who decided to start his patrole in the morning.

Damian jumped after tossing his bag on the ground, tucking in on himself and rolled to soften the impact. Not wasting time, he got up, dusted any stray grass on him and took his bag to leave.

With how much soliciters freely came on their property, cameras were at every angle. No doubt alerting the batcave of a sudden motion in the private side of the estate.
Damian wore a thick but not expensive looking coat, it would take a total of 20 hours to get to where he needed to go, normally atleast.

He estimated atleast 36 hours with the the amount of times he'll need to switch his mode of transportation, leave no traces to where he is going, and place false traces away from where he's heading.

First was a bus to the next couple cities over.
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Damian was 8 hours into his trip. He would call this a success considering he was ahead schedule. He wasn't a born and raised assassin for nothing. He was quick with his planning, silent when walking by, and avoided most high quality cameras that could get a peak of his face.

That being said, this trip was for him to relax, to take a moment for himself. (He was told from Richard that it would be acceptable to take a 'vacation' during summer to not miss school.) So he supposed its richards fault for the idea of his solo vacation plans.

Currently, he was sitting on a train. In the back corner, right next to an emergency exit. (Could never be too prepared.)

He had his new sketch book on his lap, pencil in hand he roughly sketched the scenery as the train went by. Only drawing the ones that catch his eye.

/ a puffed yellow bird chirping to its mate./
/a couple stray dogs playing in high grass./
/ a hawk diving towards a rodent, and misses./

The last scenery he saw was two trees not growing straight up like the rest of the trees. Growing at a obtuse angle, and as bizzare as is, it pared well with the sherbert colored sunset. Jotting down the colors of the sky for later adding with water color. His stop for amity city was a few hours after this train.

He couldn't enter with a vehicle and for a place that was secluded, it was heavily monitored by government deeming who could enter. But it seemed more heavy on who could Leave...
He'd check that out once he got inside.
He planned to take a ride an hour from the city, and make the rest on foot, sneaking in on a more apartment and building dense side of the city.

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It was close to midnight when Damian was a mile from the city.
He had his bag on his back and dark clothes to conceal himself in the dark terrain.
He'd sneak in through an alleyway and go from there. The geographical maps were far too outdated to really plan where he wanted to stay the night. (That itself made him paranoid..)

Damian walked low to the ground, and out of camera view. Police guards although present, seemed to not even be doing there job. Just standing there and conversing- clearly these guards weren't properly trained to not be distracted while doing a job. It was a breeze just walking in, being mindful to stay out of sight.

Damian walked into an alleyway, he'd stay in an unoccupied building till morning, then he'll rent a room for his 2 month stay. He'd need to buy a prepaid phone aswell, and maybe a laptop... (he had the money, but the quality always dropped when it wasn't Wayne Tech...)
That's a later problem, right now, he just needs to find a place for the night.

This will do, an old one story building that creaked at random when you stepped on the peeling wooden floor.
There was an old coffee table, and a singular one person couch.
The place smelt stale, and thick layers of dust covered the surfaces

That was a good sign, an unused and clearly unvisited place.
That didn't mean he was going to sleep the rest of the night away, he had to check the area out, and find any possible cameras, or signs of use from homeless people in the place.

Setting his bad down, he scooped out the place before unpacking.
Setting his bag near the one person couch he checked if this place still had power, (it did, it just flickered and was dim.)
That's good, out of five outlits in the house, only one outlit actually worked. (Bad, but he'll make due.)

After checking the place, and cataloging possible entry and exit points, and scanning for any obvious camera spots, he deemed this place suitable till the sun rises.

Unpacking his bag, he set his sketchbook down on the coffee table, coughing as the dust on it rises to meet his nose.

He'd need to fix that if he's gonna stay here for the night...
Damian went towards where the kitchen was, the wall separating the kitchen and living room partially broken. The water ran, but he wouldn't chance it being drinkable, and the stove sadly didn't turn on. The fridge was gone and cabinet doors were partially off or rusted over.

Finding nothing helpful, Damian went back to the living room. Windows weren't boarded, but with the only window in the house being so covered in mold and debri, he doubted it would even be needed to be covered.

Damian looked outside through the back door to see where the moon was, he estimated around 4 to 5 am, the sun would rise at about 7. (Going off where I'm from-)
That's when he'd leave, grab a phone, look up online booking for a room and set up there.
.. He'd Seen on a pamplet he passed by on the ground, there was a newly opened natural park near by, wild animals abundent. Co-Funded by a man named 'Masters'.