In the dark back alleys of Gotham at night, a little girl stares at the top of the tall building nearby, witnessing a fight.

 

The girl was about 10 years with brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. But she was wearing a very dirty dress and she was covered in dirt too. Also, she was alone in that alley filled with nothing but garbage.

 

As she watched the fight above her, her eyes lit up with excitement and hope. In the top of that building Batman was fighting with man-bat. The fight was intense as both sides traded blows. Ultimately it was Batman’s victory.

 

The girl’s eyes shone as she whispered softly, “Maybe one day Batman will save me too”. And with this faint hope of getting out of her miserable life the girl reminisced about her past.

 

Her name was Millie Brown. She lived in the suburbs of Gotham in a small apartment. They were poor but her parents loved her dearly and she lived a happy life, she attended a local school.

 

One day about 6 months ago after coming back home from school she found a lot of people crowding in front of her apartment. There were police too.

 

She hurried through them saying, “Please let me through, this is my home”. The police hearing that cleared the crowd letting her through.

 

Before she went in, a cop put his hand on her shoulder saying, “I am sorry”. Millie didn’t understand what he was saying.

 

But when she went in her whole world shattered. There in front of her lay both her parents stabbed and blood was all over the floor.

 

For a moment she was shocked, unable to say anything. She just approached her parents’ body slowly as if her body had a  will of it’s own. Her mind was blank.

 

As she came in front of their bodies, she dropped to the ground and started crying uncontrollably, “WAHHHH. NOOOOOOOOO. DADYYYY MOMMMMYYYYY..”.

 

After that what happened was like to trance to her. A bunch of people came and went. Then a small funeral of her parents was held, helped by the neighbors. She watched as her parents were buried in front of her, never to be seen again.

 

She had no one to share her feelings to, no one to console her. After that some people came from an orphanage under the “Martha Wayne Foundation”.

 

They told her, “It’s going to be ok, you will be with other children your age”. She didn’t know what to feel anymore and silently followed them.

 

However, the van stopped in a dark alley and she was told to get off. As she got down a group of suspicious looking men appeared from the shadows. One of them said, “Kekeke, you got the merchandise, good”.

 

Even though she wasn’t in the right mind she sensed something was wrong and while everyone was distracted, she made a run for it.

 

TAP! TAP! TAP!

 

Behind her people shouted, “CATCH HER!”. But she didn’t stop running. After running for some time, she realized that she had lost them. But she was lost herself.

 

Then it started raining and she took shelter behind a dustbin and the shade of a building in this very same alley.

 

Later after the rain stopped, she came out trying to find someone to help her. She saw a cop and she was happy but when she was about to run towards him, she saw one of the people she encountered before on the alley where she taken to by the van, chatting with the cop in a friendly way.

 

It was when she realized that she cannot trust anyone.

 

She mostly spent her time hidden in this alley and surviving on the leftovers. Her life was very hard. But she hoped that one day she will be saved buy one of those “Superheroes” she watched in TV and liked very much.

 

But no one came, even then she didn’t lose hope.

 

Back to the present. Suddenly Millie felt her consciousness fade and before she could understand what’s going on she slumped down and fell to the ground from hunger and exhaustion.

 

Her eyes were almost shut. After an unknown amount time, she felt a hand on her head and a hand checking her hand for pulse. With great difficulty she opened her eyes and was surprised to the see the figure in front of her.

 

She thought she was dreaming. Nevertheless she smiled and said with great difficulty, “B-Batman i-is that you?”.

 

Batman had a pained look on his face and he said, “Yes it’s me. Don’t worry everything is going to ok”.

 

Feeling reassured she smiled but soon lost consciousness.

 

Batman after checking, immediately lifted her and rushed back to his car. He immediately started the car’s engine and rushed off.

 

He looked at the girl and muttered, “Please…hold on”.

 

He arrived in front of a “Wayne Foundation” sponsored hospital. At first the staff were surprised and afraid but when they saw the girl he was carrying in his arms and when he shouted, “Call a doctor…NOW”. They immediately rushed to help.

 

Batman waited outside the hospital room. After sometime he was called in.

 

The doctor regretfully said, “I am sorry Batman. But due to malnutrition and being in a garbage dump, she has multiple organ failure and pneumonia. I can’t do anything. Her body is slowly deteriorating. She has about 2 hours left to live”.

 

Hearing this Batman looked at the girl and then hung his head, “I-If only I was faster. It’s my fault”. He punched the wall in frustration. The doctor couldn’t say anything and just touched Batman’s shoulder and left.

 

Batman slowly approached her and looked at her sleeping face. She looked to be in peace which haunted him even more.

 

‘I have to at least find out if she has any family’, thought Batman. So, he took out a device from his utility belt and scanned her face.

 

After scanning through the entirety of Gotham’s data from civil services to police records using the Bat-computer he saw her name “Millie Brown” listed in the list of orphans in one of the orphanages under the “Martha Wayne foundation”.

 

On her status it was listed as “missing on the day of admission” and yet suspiciously no police complaint was made. This made him very suspicious.

 

The current head of the orphanage was “Victor Scott” a 50 something old man. Batman decided to check his phone records. And in doing so he found that the guy was in contact with multiple suspicious individuals. What’s more shocking is that some of them were human traffickers.

 

He then checked the status of the other orphans in the orphanage and found that several were “missing” like Millie.

 

Swearing to get to the bottom of this Batman got out of the window and made his way to the orphanage through swinging across buildings using his grappling hook.

 

In the orphanage head’s office Victor was in a luxurious suit drinking coffee happily, when Batman came through the window. The office had luxury items which should have been beyond the paygrade of someone like him, further proving that he was doing illegal business.

 

“What? What? Batman, why?”, he said in panic. Batman just rushed in and punched him which made him unconscious. Batman then searched the files and found the required evidence in his drawer. He immediately called the police.

 

As the police were taking him they thanked Batman. Bruce Wayne was also informed. Batman left the scene after confirming the arrest.

 

Bruce Wayne then came and said to the people of the orphanage and the media gathered that, “I assure you that I will make sure the culprits are punished and such things don’t happen in the future”. After that he talked with Lucius Fox to make sure a proper investigation of the orphanage is done.

 

Then Batman caught and handed the human traffickers whose information he got from Victor.

 

He then made his way back to the hospital, just in time before Millie took her last breath. There was no one else on the room at the moment as the doctor just went out after the final checkup.

 

Seeing this Batman broke down. How many times has he tried to help the people in this city, both in and out of costume? But every time there is some scum who gets in his way.

 

This kid should have lived a decent life at the orphanage but due to greed of the orphanage’s head she was forced to live in the streets. Even though the people hired in Wayne foundation has their backgrounds checked, these kinds of things happen.

 

People change due to greed. And no matter how much he tries he cannot manage everything; he is just one man.

 

Despite knowing this, he blamed himself.

 

“If only I had been quicker. If only I had looked more closely in the orphanages’ administration. How many lives were ruined? It’s all my fault”.

 

He made a resolve to check all the “Wayne Foundation” sponsored orphanages, to at least try to prevent this again.

 

A few days later in a graveyard at one corner where there are three grave stones besides each other. They read “Calum brown”, “Jess Brown” and “Millie Brown” respectively.

 

A dark figure in a cape was seen approaching them in the dark of the night. Batman put flowers in front of all three graves. He had previously made sure that she gets buried beside her parents. He even caught the robbers who killed her parents.

 

But in spite of doing all that, he couldn’t save her life. All his efforts meant nothing; he was a failure.

 

He stood in front of the graves for some time. Then said, “I am sorry. I hope you forgive me” and turned to leave but before leaving looked back once more and then turned and left.