Hey guys! So, I'm a first time writer and I decided to peruse a story line that I've been dreaming up for a while. I have to apologize because I feel that the beginning if the story is a little slow, but I promise you that i gets a lot better. I also have the next few chapters done, so if people are super excited to see what happens next, I'll post them today. Thanks, and happy reading!
June 13th, 2012
"Common, Danielle. It's not every day you get to move to a new city. Treat this as an opportunity to have a life changing adventure." Danielle's mom, Susan, said as she viewed her daughter in the rearview mirror. Slumped in the back seat of their small car sat 14-year-old Danielle Lott. Sighing, she sat up in her seat and gazed out the window at the passing buildings that towered high up into the shy.
Her dad glanced back at her and shook his head disapprovingly, "Danielle, stop pouting. Gotham will be a great place to live. You'll be able to make new friends, try new things…."
"Get shot." Danielle mumbled under her breath. She huffed out a large breath and blew her blonde hair out of her face. More and more she was dreading moving to the big city and abandoning her calm, country side lifestyle.
"That's enough!" Her Dad scolded, "You know that it wasn't our choice to have our lives uprooted and make a complete lifestyle change. Do you think your Mother and I wanted to move away? We have friends that we had to leave behind too." He sighed again, "Look, I know you miss your friends, and I know changing schools is hard, especially since it's your first year in High School, but you've got to understand, we're doing this for you…. I think we all just need a good night rest after this long drive." Her Dad said less harshly, his scowl softening.
Danielle just rolled her eyes and put her headphones in as she continued to stare out the window at the people and buildings passing by. In the background of her music, she could faintly hear her parents still arguing, but she just cranked up the volume on her music and ignored them. As far as she was concerned, she had sacrificed the most for her father's new job. She enjoyed the little things in life, like peace and quiet, and everyone always being kind and friendly. Now, she'd be lucky to get a moments rest with all the cars going by, and don't get her started on all the unfriendly people that were in Gotham. There was a slight upside though. Their new apartment complex was a short distance from downtown and had a beautiful view of the heart of Gotham and Wayne Tower. Among all the giant sky scrapers, Wayne Tower stood above them all shining like a beacon of light for all of Gotham to follow. It was truly a beautiful sight, and Danielle would have the perfect view of it all.
Their new place was on the 10th floor of some old building. "Essex Apartments: Luxury living at a reasonable cost". She scoffed, from what she read online, Essex Apartments was in the shifty part of town and has a three-star rating. With her luck, it'd be infested with cockroaches and bedbugs. She'd just have to make the best of it cause there there's no going back now.
"Well, we're here" Her Dad said as he pulled up to the complex and put the car in park.
"Tom, are you sure?" Her Mom enquired, "This certainly doesn't look as nice as it did in the pictures." She said skeptically. The old brick building looked beaten by weather and had graffiti on the sides of the stairs leading up to the doorway. Old newspapers and litter was strewn along the sidewalk and up against the building.
Danielle looked out the window at the front of the building and read the plaque above the double doors, "Essex Apartments," She read aloud, "this is the place. Plus, the movers are right there."
Her Dad sighed and looked over to his wife and then back at Danielle. After a few second pause, he turned off the engine and opens his door to get out of the car. Pursing her lips, Danielle's mom turned to her and offered an anxious smile. "Well," She sighed, "We might as well get out and help your father unpack… Common, let get started." Her mom said as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her car door, Danielle doing the same shortly after.
The first thing Danielle noticed after she opened her door was the smell. It was a combination of gasoline and the smell you get if you forget your clothes in the washer for a few days. In other words, not pleasant.
After getting past the "wonderful" smell of Gotham, Danielle decided to help her parents unload their things from the moving truck. Luckily for her, her parents decided to leave the heavy lifting to the movers and sent her up to their apartment to open it up.
Grabbing the keys from her Dad's hand, Danielle walked up the warn down front steps and inside the complex. Walking past the front desk that was currently vacant, she headed towards the elevator and pressed the button to call it down. After waiting patiently for what seemed like forever, the elevator arrived with a soft "ding" and she stepped inside, punching the "10" button. With a scraping sound, the doors closed tight and the old elevator took off with a rumble.
With the same metal on metal sound, the doors opened up on the 10th floor. Exiting the elevator with the same determination she had before, she walked down the hall to room 1026. With crossed fingers, she opened the door to their new home, praying that it wasn't already occupied by any creepy crawlies. Slowly, she put the key into the lock and gave it a turn. Hearing the sound of the tumblers falling into place, she sucked in a breath and turned the door handle.
A thankful sigh escaped her mouth when no foul insects could be found. What she did find however, was a brightly lit, large living room with three big windows in front of her, a kitchen to her left, and a hallway with three doors to her right. Surprisingly, the walls and floors were clean, and the carpet looked like after a little TLC, it's be as good as (slightly) new! She was so impressed that she didn't even notice the person coming up behind her.
"Oh wow!" Her Dad said cheerfully from behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder. She quickly tensed up and let out a scared squeak. "It doesn't look so bad after all!" Her Mom added in.
Her Dad chuckled and patted her patted her back. "Did I scare ya kid?" He asked happily.
"I'll admit that I was scared for a while. The outside looked far from what we were expecting, but the inside is just perfect!" Her Mother said happily.
Danielle offered a smile to her parents and decided that maybe this place wouldn't be so bad after all. She broke away from her parent's conversation to explore the two bedrooms. She decided to check out the room on the left side of the hall first, since it offered a better view of downtown than the other room did. Once she opened the door, she stopped dead in her tracks. The room was beautiful; hard wood floors and pure white walls with a small closet to the left of the door way. There were two windows, one on the North wall and one the East. Although the floor desperately need to be mopped and polished, the rest of the room was absolutely beautiful.
She rushed to the windows and was blown away by the view. There were defiantly some perks of being on the top floor. Danielle noted that the fire escape was right underneath the North window.
Stopping momentarily, she waited to see if her parents were still occupied and then quietly unlocked the North window. She grunted as she pulled up on the window. It must not have been opened in a long time because as she opened it, it made a loud squealing sound.
Danielle froze, cringing. She waited to see if her parents had caught on to what she was doing, but when they continued discussing their plans on where to put the sofa and the TV, she continued. Once she opened the window all the way, she stuck her head out and took a look around. Surprisingly, the fire escape had a ladder that lead to the roof. Her curiosity got the better of her as she slipped out of the window completely and on to the fire escape. The old iron structure creaked under her full weight, but stayed standing.
Danielle decided to look over the edge of the platform to the alley below. She gazed down at the dizzying drop below her.
Deciding she had enough of that, she turned her eyes to the rusty ladder in front of her. She paused momentarily to weigh the amount of trouble she could get into by climbing on to the roof of their new apartment complex. She was about to climb back inside when her Mother's words rang through her head. Her Mom was right, she needed to make an adventure out of this, and so with one last glance into her room from the fire escape, Danielle started up the ladder.
She was surprised to discover that the roof was actually a few feet below where the brick wall and ladder ended. Once she reached the top she dropped down on to the actual roof and landed in a crouch. Looking up from where she landed, she instantly noticed the boot prints that were absolutely everywhere.
For a long moment she was confused. 'Why are people running around up here. Maybe it's maintenance workers?' She quickly discarded that idea since there aren't any appliances on top of the roof. She contemplated the source of the footprints for a few more moments, because, quite frankly, who would find entertainment in running around on the roof of some old apartment complex?
Deciding that she should probably go back inside before her parents discover her absence, she walked back over to the ledge of the roof. Clambering back over the side of the building, she slid her foot around in search of the ladder. Once her foot was firmly planted, she started her decent back down.
Quietly, she slipped back into her room and slid the window shut and locked it. Last thing she wanted was some for freak to climb through her window at night while she was asleep. She silently walked back into the living room to find her parents right where she left them, decorating their new living room as the movers continued to shuffle boxes inside the door.
Danielle decided that she didn't need to be part of the decoration committee and started to unpack some of her things. Looking through the mountains of boxes, she found the box that contained her computer, internet router, and her charger, and set off towards her new room. Once she was completely inside, she closed the door behind her and went to work setting up her computer.
Tearing open the box, she set aside her laptop and charger and pulled out her wireless router and plugged it in. Once the router was plugged in, she started up her laptop and connected it to the Wi-Fi. About 20 seconds from when she turned her computer on, her notifications started going crazy. All her friends from back home wanted to know how she was, if she missed them yet, if she had seen the "legendary" Batman and Robin yet.
Once she read that last notification, she froze once more. She had totally forgotten about the famed Batman and Robin that protected Gotham City. Could those footprints on the roof have been from them? It was certainly a possibility. She decided to look deeper into these vigilantes that protected Gotham City.
Opening up her web browser, she typed in "GOTHAM CITY BATMAN" and pressed search. Instantly, thousands of results came up. Web pages ranging from "Batman sighted!" to "Batman, a complete myth!".
Deciding to save all the news articles for later, Danielle clicked images and was instantly blown away. There were barely any results at all! All the pictures were either a blurry, black mass that you can hardly distinguish, or someone in a costume that was obviously fake. But that lead Danielle to question, who are the mysterious people running around on top of her roof?