Gotham city had a high crime rate, and to balance it out, plenty of detectives. My father was one of them. We'd moved her about a year ago when my dad decided it would help his career. His pay was a bit lower, but since he was payed more when he was on a case, we got more income overall.
"Jamie Ashworth!"
"Huh? Sorry dad, I was thinking about something."
"You need to stop losing yourself like that. It's no wonder your grades are so low." He complained.
"My grades are not low! Just because they're not straight A's-!"
He sighed in frustration. "We'll talk about this later. It's dinner time."
We ate in silence. "Can I please be excused?" I asked. He nodded. I threw away my paper plate and escaped back to my room. I turned on my MP3 player, got out my computer and drowned out the world. I finished some HTML coding I'd been working on and got up to go and grab some chips to snack on. I froze in fear.
A man was in my open window. He had halloween looking makeup on, loads of black around his eyes, red around his mouth and white everywhere else. He frowned thoughtfully. "Wrong room." He said.
"Who the hell are you?!" I asked.
He looked over at me as though he hadn't noticed me. "Aren't you that detective's daughter?"
"Wh-what?"
"Jamie right?"
"How do you-?"
There was a knock on my door. "Jamie. I need to talk to you about your grades." It was my dad. I frowned. The man laughed at me. My dad came in regardless of my lack of consent. He took one look at the man and whipped out a gun. I was confused, since when did my father carry weapons? The man frowned again.
"Drop the case." He told my father.
"Why should I listen to you? I'm the one with the gun." He told him.
The man raised an eyebrow. "If you value little Jamie's life you will." I gaped at him. Why was I suddenly involved in this?
"Get out of my house." My father replied.
"This isn't the end." He said showing a cynical grin before letting go of the window and allowing himself to fall to the ground.
My dad turned his attention to me. "Jamie! What the hell did I tell you about closing your windows at night?!"
"I did close it!" I protested. "I must have forgotten to lock it..." I realized.
"Well your little accident almost cost you your life!" He snapped. He stomped over to the window and slammed it closed.
I waited in silence then asked, "Who was that guy...?"
"That man was The Joker." I gave him a confused look but didn't ask any further questions.
I waited a moment then asked, "What are we going to do?"
"You are going to lock your windows and I am going to do my job." I nodded. This didn't seem like enough to me, but I guessed that since he worked with these people, he'd know best.
I went to get those chips and finished the coding I'd been working on before. I saved my work and went to sleep with an undying sense of dread. Somehow, I knew something was coming, and whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant.
--
"Jamie! Wake up!" I groaned and turned over.
"What dad?" I asked grogily.
"You need to get up and go to school."
"I don't want to." I replied.
"You have to." He said with a frustrated sigh.
"What if that Joker guy tries to kill me?"
"You'll be fine. I've done what I need to. Now it's your turn." I had no clue what he was talking about, but I knew there was no getting out of school today. I threw back the covers and sat up. I stared at my dad until he left then got dressed. I wore the typical school uniform; an unflattering skirt and button up, collared shirt. I put on some light makeup but didn't bother to brush my hair. I went out of my room, grabbed a breakfast bar, packed my bag and left. My dad called a goodbye after me. I waved behind me without a glance.
"What the hell did my dad do?" I asked myself. I figured that there was nothing I could do except walk to school.
Then it happened. "What the hell are you wearing?" I heard a laugh. I flipped around. It was the same man from yesterday. I scowled. This was happening far too fast.
"It's uniform, okay?" I snapped. The Joker look behind me. I turned around to look myself. There was a man with a gun behind me. Was this what my dad had meant?
The Joker pulled out a large gun and pointed it at me. "Drop the gun." the man said.
The Joker laughed manically. "I was about to ask you to do the same thing. Drop the damn gun or she's dead." The man held his ground.
"Drop it!" I said frantically. I did not want to get killed. The man laid the gun on the ground and kicked it to the side.
"Thanks Jamie." The Joker said. I looked at him and realized my mistake. Wasn't he going to kill me anyways? "Now come over here." I winced and shook my head. He frowned and walked over to me instead. He grabbed my arm with a gloved hand and led me into an alley. There was a car sitting there. He pushed me into the back and hit me in the head. Everything went black.
--
I groaned "Where am I?" I asked to no one in particular. I looked around and realized that I was on a bed in some room. It was well furnished, but I still felt uncomfortable here. I got up and opened the door. I found myself face to chest with the joker. I fell backwards as I recalled what happened. I looked up at my kidnapper and scrambled to pick myself off of the floor.
He laughed. "So you're awake." I stayed silent, not knowing what to say or do.
"Am I going to . . . die?" He laughed again.
"Of course not. Not yet that is. If I killed you now, where would that get me?" He asked as though this whole thing was a joke.
"Why didn't you just take my dad!?" I asked angrily. I was sick of this guy.
"Because I didn't just take you here for that." I looked at him confused. "I need to find out who the Batman is."
"What?" I was completely lost.
"His true identity and his hideout."
"What does this have to do with me?"
"Jamie, you are going to figure it out. You will be put into eminent danger and when he grabs you to help you, you put this on him. You see?" He pulled a pale strip out of his pocket.
"A tracker?"
"Exactly. You're catching on." He said with another laugh.
"Wh-what if batman doesn't come?!" I asked, obviously frightened. I was going to be the bait. I didn't want that.
"He will. He always does." He said.
--
I found myself in an office building. The Joker'd told me where to go so that I'd be stuck in a burning building waiting for help. I followed the instructions, and ended up in the south-west corridor.
"Where are you going, kid?" I heard behind me. I took a deep breath and turned around.
"I'm here to see my dad." I said with a smile.
"What's his name?" The man asked.
I scrambled to find a name but came up with nothing. I looked down and ran. I ran to the farthest corner and hid there. Then the explosion happened. I screamed. It was loud and extremely frightening. I felt a wave of heat come over me. That was when I asked myself if I'd made a mistake.
"What the hell-?!" It was the man who had caught me before. I snuck a peek over to where I'd heard the cry. I'd wished that I hadn't looked, when I saw that the guy was dead. I was crying now. I didn't want to cry, but I couldn't help it. I nearly went into hysterics when the glass on the other side of the room exploded. I stopped crying for a second and my eyes widened.
Batman.