Veritas
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, though he's been my favourite superhero for a bloody long time. I do own Mara Russell, Christine, and Phil.
Oh. And I'm borrowing most of my chapter titles from a Batman joke that someone created (I don't know who), so I don't own some phrases that will be in the titles. So, yeah. Here we go.
This story starts about a month after the movie (Batman Begins).
Batman?
"So folks, if you're planning a night on the town for tonight, cancel it. Gotham City weather forecasters are putting out warnings of severe thundershowers for tonight, the likes of which we haven't seen in years. In further news, billionaire Bruce Wayne has been officially declared...alive! Talk about an attention seeker..."
A young woman with long, poker-straight black hair quickly changed lanes, speeding up to get past a slow car on the after-work commute. Her tires skidded on the quickly flooding pavement. The windshield wipers were going full-speed, though the torrential rain still managed to run down the windshield in small waterfalls, obscuring the girl's vision.
"Come on! Will you get moving! Some of us have lives to get to!" she yelled, knowing full-well that no one outside of herself would be able to hear her. She reached onto the passenger seat and grabbed her cell-phone. Quickly, she dialed her parents' apartment.
A couple rings sounded over the line, and then a woman's voice came across through the static. "He..lo?"
"Mom. Hey, it's me. The connection doesn't sound very good, so I hope you'll catch all this. I'm on my way over there to drop off a birthday gift for Dad."
"Mara? When wi...get here?" The static on the line was getting worse, though Mara could have sworn she heard the doorbell ring in the background.
"Traffic's horrible, but I'm hoping I can get there within ten minutes or so." Mara paused, curiosity getting the better of her. "Who's at the door?" she asked. She could hear what sounded like arguing over the line...no...yelling. "Mom! Mom, what's going on?"
There was a crashing noise on the other end of the line and then silence. Mara couldn't speak another word. She was listening...listening for some sign of what was going on...listening for her mom to come back on the line and tell her everything was okay.
Suddenly there were more scuffling noises on the other end of the line. "Mara?" her mother whispered. "Mara, call...police." The line went dead.
Mara was gasping for air, her breathing coming in sobs. She fumbled with her phone, trying to dial the three simple numbers to call for help. Glancing back up at the road Mara let out a short scream as she swerved to avoid rear-ending the car in front of her which had come to a sudden stop. She held her phone back up to her ear. "Thank you for calling 9-1-1. If this is an emergency, please press one." Mara quickly pressed the button. "Thank you. Please hold for the next available operator."
"What?" Mara yelled into the phone. She increased her pressure on the accelerator, rushing to get to her parents.
"9-1-1 Emergency, how can I help you?" a polite, if slightly bored, voice sounded over the line after a few minutes.
"I need your help," Mara gasped. "Something's happened at my parents' apartment. 425 Oaksby Street. Apartment 5G!"
"Can you elaborate, miss?" the bored voice responded.
"They need help!" she yelled. "I think someone broke in...or...or forced their way in. There was yelling and crashing and..." she took a breath, unable to remember any other details, "my mother said to call the police!"
"Alright, miss. We'll send someone over to check things out as soon as we can."
"As soon as you can? What does that mean? They need you now!" Mara screamed into the phone.
"With the storm, it is a very busy night, miss. We will get to this call as soon as we can. It may just turn out to be a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" But the line was dead once again. The operator had hung up. Moving on to more important phone calls.
Never mind, Mara thought. I don't need them. She had just arrived and pulled up the alley behind her parents' apartment building. She parked the car and quickly jumped out, running in the back alley door. Everything looked normal enough. Mrs. Grossman was yelling at her husband in 1E to "get up off his fat butt and take out the garbage;" little Johnny from 1B was throwing firecrackers in the hallway.
See, Mara told herself, everything's going to be just fine, just like the operator said. But she still quickened her pace and pushed through the door to the stairs – the elevator rarely worked. She ran up the four flights of stairs and burst out into the fifth floor hallway, gasping for air. She looked around as she made her way to her parents' apartment, 5G, dread slowing her steps. 5A looked fine, 5B, 5C, everything looked normal. 5D, 5E, 5F... she stopped dead. 5G. Mara grabbed for the doorknob to push into the apartment – to enter her parents' home and have them both rush to greet her, laughing off the misunderstanding. But as soon as Mara touched the doorknob she realized this was not to be. The doorknob was slick with blood. Mara's body became cold with fear. Fear for her parents. She no longer felt anything for herself.
Grasping the knob tightly, Mara pushed the door open. The lamp that used to sit on the coffee table in the entryway – Mom's favorite lamp, Mara thought – was smashed on the floor. Mara stepped through the mess and felt the glass crunch beneath her shoes. She realized she was holding her breath. She walked resolutely, as one who knows they are without hope, into the family room – the room that held so many happy memories of growing up for Mara: so many birthdays, so many hugs. In that room she finally let out her breath...and screamed.
A/N: This is my first fan-fiction and thus my first Batman fan-fiction as well. I've had the beginning of this story in my mind for a long time, so I hope y'all like it. Please review! I do a happy dance for each and every review I get. Honest to goodness.