Underneath

Trapped

The water flowed down fast and hot from the tap as it steamed up the bathroom. The woman stood up straight in front of the mirror with a towel around her body and her hair wrapped up in another, while she brushed her teeth. She wiped the fogged up mirror with her free hand and cocked her head to the side while she looked at herself.

After her bathroom duties were done she made her way out of her en-suite bathroom and into her mahogany bedroom. She dressed in her grey blazer with a casual turquoise dress underneath. As she walked to her bedroom mirror she started doing her brunette hair up into a long ponytail. She cocked her head to the side again and yanked her hair tie out and messed up her hair, and then she scoffed and put it back into the neat ponytail once more.

"Nice and tidy," She gracefully smiled to herself as she patted her outfit down. She grabbed her handbag and left her apartment to slumber in silence. As she made it outside, the sunlight hit her face and the warmth embraced her body. She closed her eyes and breathed in all the fresh air that Gotham City could possibly give.

"Hey there Lily! Beautiful morning isn't it?" called a neighbour walking passed her building.

"Oh yes George, it's a wonderful day," She politely smiled and watched him walk by. When he was out of direct eye contact her face dropped to a serious one and she walked down the small flight of stairs to the Gotham streets.

Her high heels clicked as she walked with the crowds of people heading to work and heading to school. As she walked, she looked up to the tall skyscrapers looming above her and then past them to the sky that only held a few clouds.

"A beautiful day in Gotham city," she whispered to herself. The city didn't usually get days like this; the pollution was usually too thick to see the sun. However the sun was shining particularly bright today and fought its way through as if the pollution had never been there.

After a ten minute walk, Lily finally reached her destination. The Gotham City Bank. She walked up the marble stairs as lady-like as she could in her high heels that gave her a slight pain in her heel. She walked in and went through the metal detectors. Going through them always tensed her up, she didn't know why, she had nothing that would set them off. The room Lily entered was big and mighty, the walls were white marble and the floor had old fashioned patterns carved into it. The ceiling sat high above the people's heads. There were many people walking around, some going into the back where staff go, some queuing up and some just walking in directions that were no business to Lily. She queued up in the line to see a banker and started rummaging through her bag.

"Where is it? I swear I put it in here," she grumbled to herself. "Ah ha! Got cha!" she smiled.

Suddenly a loud crash was heard across the room near the entrance, followed by gun fire. Lily gasped as she turned to see what was going on. A group of men in clown masks came marching into the large marble room with rifles and shotguns in their arms. Her eyes widened at the sight of them and she accidently dropped her bank card that she had been searching for. Her first thought was that it was too early for them to be doing this now. She looked around at everyone's reactions, they were all frozen too, with their eyes big and mouths slightly opened. As she slowly turned back to face the entrance, the one man that everyone was waiting for strode in. The man dressed in filthy purple and dirty green, the man in smeared war paint, the man with the gruesome Glasgow smile, the man himself… The Joker. Lily swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen," he called. His voice bounced off the walls and rang through everyone's ears, and fears. "We've come to do some.. uh shopping," he grinned as he looked around the room at everyone's terrified faces. He looked at Lily but she instantly looked away, as did others scattered around the room. "Now, before anyone decides to be a hero, or the Batman decides to uh… skip breakfast and come down here… Let's have some fun." He giggled as he lowered his head slightly to look even more evil, if that were possible. "You!" he pointed towards Lily, her breath was cut short as her lungs felt like they suddenly swelled up. She was about to point to herself, as if to question if it was her he was pointing at.

"M...m…me?" quivered a man behind her.

"Yeeees," the Joker cocked his head to the side. Lily let out a relieved sigh and breathed again.

"I want you to point to someone in this room," The Joker said as he gestured the entire room with his arms. The clown henchmen had made their way around the room, some had disappeared out the back where the staff were only allowed to go.

"Errr…" The guy said. It was obvious he was confused, everyone was. What was the Joker planning?

"Go on!" the Joker encouraged, "Point!" he smiled as if it was a good old game.

"T… t… to anyone?" asked the guy. The Joker rolled his eyes.

"You take too long," he whined as he whipped out his gun.

"NO! PLEASE!" the man pleaded. But it was too late, the Joker fired the gun. Lily felt the bullet quickly pass her and heard it penetrate the man. She twisted around to see the guy. He was on the floor, eyes open and had a fresh new hole right through his forehead. She scrunched her eyes together and turned back to look back at the Joker. She knew the man was dead, there was nothing she could've done, but sadness started to thrive inside her.

"You!" The Joker pointed to a man to the left of him. "Pick someone," he ordered. The man was shaking and sweating, he was confused and frightened, not a good mix. He frantically looked around the room at all the staring faces.

"Quickly, quickly!" the Joker pushed as he raised his gun. The man gasped and looked around one last time.

"Her!" He pointed toward Lily. She felt everything slow down, her heart was beating low and loud thumps that felt like they echoed throughout the room. Lily slowly turned her head to look at the Joker.

"See that wasn't hard now was it?" The Joker asked the man without even looking at him, he was staring at Lily with an evil looking smile. The man was panting.

"N…no, it wasn't," he smiled a relieved smile and sighed.

"Good," the Joker simply said. Without even looking, he raised his gun at the man again and shot him. Lily flinched back and stared at the second corpse on the floor. Right through the head. She started to breathe heavily as tears began to well up in her eyes. The Joker started walking toward her, but she kept on staring at the corpse.

"Now now, shush shush shush," The Joker mocked as he made his way to her. She looked to him and started shaking her head in denial. He looked her up and down and licked his lips. Lily saw his action and began to tremble. The Joker was now standing in front of her.

"Aren't you a pretty little thing?" he smirked as he looked into her eyes and gently stroke her cheek. She didn't answer, she couldn't answer, she was frozen stiff. The Joker leaned forwards. "Let's have some fun," he whispered. And with that he grabbed her by the ponytail and yanked her back to where he was originally standing. Lily let out a scream as she tried to pull herself away from him, but he was pulling her hair which did hurt. She tried to thrash about but that only caused her bag to fall off her arm and spill on the floor. He got back to where he was and wrapped his left arm around her neck and pointed his gun at her head.

"Now, that took a bit longer than I had… uh hoped. But now this makes sure that the police stay outside… and the Batman doesn't try anything." The Joker looked around the room without moving his head. "I'm standing in the middle of the room, nothing but space around me" he yelled louder so it echoed even more, "And my little hostage. Tell me Darling, what's your name?" He chuckled as he looked down on her. Lily ignored his question and tried to pull his arm off her neck.

"Get off of me!" she screamed, she was almost in tears as she saw all the faces just staring at her.

"Oh that's a funny name," The Joker responded, he suddenly burst out laughing, causing Lily to shriek then squirm more.

"Boss, boss!" called a voice from the Jokers watch on the arm that was restraining Lily. The Joker eventually stopped laughing.

"What?" he snapped back as he spoke into his watch.

"The bombs boss!" The voice crackled. People around the room looked at one another when they heard the word 'bombs'. They all wanted to run out of there, but they knew they couldn't move.

"What about the bombs?" the Joker snapped again.

"They're faulty! The timer isn't at the right time and we can't change it! You've got to get out of there!" The voice yelled.

"How much time is left?" The Joker asked with a laugh. There was an intense silence among everyone in the room, even Lily stopped struggling and stayed still, waiting for the person's answer.

"5 seconds," the voice laughed. The Joker's face dropped, everyone looked at each other and all thought the same thing. The room filled with screams and cries as they all sprinted for the doors. They ran past the Joker and Lily. Lily started pulling at the Joker's arm again.

"Hey! Don't leave me here! Don't leave me!" she screamed after them. The Joker wasn't moving, he still had his grip on her. She thrashed against him but he still wouldn't let go.

"Get off!" she screeched. People were still running around, pushing past people or running in the other direction, frantically trying to find a way out.

"3… 2… 1," The Joker smiled as he looked up towards the ceiling. Lily screamed one last shriek.

Immediately after there was a loud explosion in the back rooms, then another in another part of the building and then one went off on the roof above them. The Joker laughed hysterically as the ceiling started to cave in. Lily looked up too and screamed louder. The ceiling broke into pieces and fell fast to the floor, walls toppled over and the floor shook violently. The ceiling smashed into the floor, people fell over, some dived out the way but they all got bombarded from above. The mighty bank fell rapidly and lost its shape. Bystanders from the streets watched in horror.

The screams of the victims in the bank started to quieten down as the rubble started to balance itself into its new shape. Fire appeared here and there, walls were only half standing. A white van was seen to be leaving the site in a hurry, sirens from the police, the firemen and the ambulances started going off and getting louder and louder but there was nothing but silence in what remained.

Author's Note: Okay! So there's the first chapter! I hope you liked it! ^.^ Please review and tell me what you thought of it. If you didn't like it, why didn't you like it? I'd really like to know since it can help improve my skill for the future… Thank you for reading so far! ^.^v