AU where Bruce dies with the Waynes, and a ghost comes knocking on the door to the Manor the day after the funeral.
There are rumors about why the Butler has never left the Manor, even decades after the family he served has died. It was all left to him after all, another thing to drive the rumors.
There is a boy with his fathers pale blue eyes and his mothers nose. A boy Alfred could never leave, even when he knows he has already been buried. Even when he knows that he is long dead.
And there is a shadow that stalks Gotham, rumors of a child that stands in the dark and watches, watches, watches. Over time, the boy does more than watch.
He brings Alfred gifts, things taken. Often, small things. Shiny things. Pretty things. The things a boy his age might think curious. One day he brings a gun. A revolver.
He never speaks, but then he doesn't need to. There is blood on the handle. And he knows the make of the weapon that killed them. Alfred knows the gun his boy has brought him.
There are no heroes in Gotham, there have never been heroes in Gotham.