A Night to Remember
A winter breeze made my whole body shiver, sending prickly goose bumps up and down my icy-cold arms. My clear blue eyes glanced skyward, a worried expression forming on my face as I noticed night was coming on fast. Mentally kicking myself for always forgetting night comes faster in winter, I reached into the pocket of my woolen turquoise coat, my frozen fingers wrapping themselves around the cell phone nestled in my pocket. I took a deep breath, knowing I didn't really want to know that I was as late as I was assuming already… it would definitely put me in a foul mood. Pulling the cherry-red phone out of my pocket I saw that it was 5:52. "Oh Crapola..." I grumbled knowing I had to be back to home by 6:00, a very big problem seeing as I was at least 30 minutes away from home. Just then my phone beeped, warning me of its impending death. "Double Crapola..." I said as I watched it's screen flash the verizon logo before shutting down. I sighed slipped the phone back into the pocket of my coat. "Mom is definably not going to be happy with me if I'm late and she can't get a hold of me… I just hope she doesn't get too worried." I said quietly.
Letting out a deep exhale, I pulled my purse over my shoulder and forced my legs to stand up from the bench I'd been sitting on outside of Starbucks. I shook my sleeping foot, and was rewarded with sharp pins and needles that made me grit my teeth slightly in annoyance.
Looks like my foot didn't like being woken up. Huh, lazy thing, no reason to take it out on me…
I rolled my eyes at the lame personification I'd given to a body part.
"What to do… what to do…" I began mumbling as I walked along the sidewalk of one of my favorite shopping districts in the city. I wasn't very big on shopping but I often went for people watching, and shopping districts were full of people. Except now it seemed almost deserted as the people were heading home for the end of the day.
"Hmm… I don't think I spent very much money…" I said under my breath. Pulling out the fifty dollars of babysitting money tucked away in my wallet I began to calculate how much it would cost to get a taxi. The sky was almost pitch black now… that wasn't good. My family had only moved to Gotham City three weeks ago during the middle of the year, but already we had learned that Gotham certainly wasn't one of the safest places on Earth. I knew that I'd be a dead girl if I even attempted to walk home when it was this dark, so getting a cab would be the only way. I walked to the edge of the side walk near a lamppost and watched the cars pass by, waiting for a taxi I could hail.
I shivered again noticing it was getting colder, and to make matters worse, the street seemed oddly deserted all of the sudden. I had been so preoccupied with looking out for a taxi I failed to notice the gradual decline of cars on the street. I was starting to get really frightened. I didn't know much self defense so I'd be a goner if anyone tried to mug me… or worse, kidnap me. I'm normally a very optimistic person, but it situations like these… well I turn into a huge worrywart. I gulped as my mind began reeling with thoughts of worse-case-scenario situations. What if… what if someone tried to rape me? And then… then they just leave me in a ditch somewhere and my family never knows what happened to me?
I groaned, all this worrying would do nothing but worsen the situation. How could I have been so careless? It was one of my personal rules when going out by myself to NEVER stay out past dark by myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Suddenly I heard a loud screeching of tires in the not-so-far-off distance. Looking up I saw a bright flash of yellow turning onto the street where I was waiting. I gasped. "Oh thank the Lord Baby Jesus, I'm saved!" [A.N. cookies for you if you know what I just referenced] I rapidly started waving my hand in the air to signal the incoming taxi, not even taking notice that it was going well over the speed limit. At first it appeared as if the taxi would not stop, but sure enough it came to a screeching halt beside the curb in front of me. I opened the back seat door for the cab and got in, practically beaming. I was so happy to be out of the cold and going home.
"Sooooo…. Where, uh, to Miss?" the driver had a nasally voice that shifted from high to low in the middle of his sentence.
"385 Holton drive, over in Bristol please." I said in a distracted yet friendly voice. I was too busy messing with my money and trying to get it ready for the end of the drive. What can I say? I like to be prepared.
"Weeeeelll-uh actually, we'll be taking a different route tonight." The man let out a shrill giggle that sent shivers up and down my spine. I stopped what I was doing and looked up confusedly at the driver.
"Could you just go the way I asked? I'm sorry sir, but I really need to be home as soon as possi…." My words trailed off as the driver turned around. His face was painted like some clown from a horror movie. His eyes were messily covered with dark circles, his face a ghostly chalk-white. But the most horrific of it all was his smile. It made my blood run cold. He grinned wickedly, and I noticed two smile-shaped scars on the sides of his mouth, both outlined in blood-red lipstick that made them all the more noticeable.
He turned back around in his seat and pummeled his foot into the gas pedal making us speed off into the night. "You might wanna, uh, put your seat belt on… its going to be a bumpy ride!" He chuckled. I frantically began reaching for the seat belt. It was not there. I looked to see the remains of what should have been a seat belt was nothing more than a stub of cloth frayed at the edges where someone had obviously cut it with a knife.
"What?" I screeched in shock looking over at the mad man in the front seat who was now laughing manically.
"Ohhh that's right! I forgot I, uh, have the seat belt right here!" He laughed even harder and dangled the severed seat belt for me to see.
My eyes widened with fear. My breathing hitched. My knuckles were turning white from me gripping the seat cushion so tightly. We were going faster than I'd ever gone in my life.
"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, gonna die, gonna, die, oh my God I'm going to die!" I started repeating over and over to myself. Which wasn't helping matters in the slightest.
But strangely, although I was terrified out of my mind, I couldn't suppress the overwhelming excitement that had formed within me. I've always been a goody-two shoes, and going this fast in a car with a madman was incredibly exhilarating. Kind of like being in a roller coaster, only more dangerous.
Wait a second. Did I just say that I enjoyed being in danger? I don't even like disobeying my parents! What in the world is wrong with me?
But no matter how hard I tried to shake the feeling, it was there and just wouldn't go away.
Okay, okay, even if I am enjoying this, there's no doubt I need to get out of this situation. I'm not crazy enough to seriously want to stick around for whatever this creep has in store for me.
"Think Erika, think!" I silently told myself.
Well, it's not like I can jump out of the car… We must be going at least 100 mph, if not more. If the fall from the car didn't kill me, which it would, then I'd surely be killed in oncoming traffic. No, I'll have to wait out the drive. And with someone like him, it's not like I can plan what to do once we stop. This guy seems really unpredictable, I'm not sure how I know, but it just feels like it. The best solution probably would be to think on my toes, wait for a good opportunity to escape. Yeah, that seems like a good idea. But what if I don't ever get an opportunity to escape? Would I be willing to ki-
I was jolted from my thoughts when there was a loud explosion from behind us. I looked up to the driver's seat and saw that the man was throwing grenades out the window. I watched in awe as he laughed in enjoyment after throwing each one. Was he throwing them for the fun of it? Or is he throwing them at something?
I perked up. What if he was throwing them at police? Perhaps they could save me! I strained my neck to see what was behind us out off the rear window. I was both disappointed and slightly surprised at what I saw. Barreling towards us was a large black tank-looking thing.
"What the heck is that that?" I said a little too loudly. Clown-man decided to reply.
"The town's local vermin! O'l Batsy I call em'!" he said in a voice that sounded like he was trying to imitate a southerner. He chuckled and then continued "That varmint has been afta me since the day I was born!"
I amazed at how well he multi-tasked. He had one hand on the steering wheel, the other hand was throwing grenades, and he was telling me about "Ol' Batsy" in a bad southern accent.
"Ol' Batsy?" I repeated, furrowing my brow. Batsy… Bat-sy… Bat… Batman! Now I remembered, there was a kid at my school who had told me about some guy dressed in a bat suit who fights crime in the city called the Batman. Of course I never actually took the kid seriously, until now that is. Had somebody warned me about Clown-man over there too? He obviously was well-know or at least a long time criminal by the way he talked, so why couldn't I recall anyone mentioning him? It was then that I realized that this Batman could be my only hope.
And Clown-man was throwing grenades at him.
Sadly, it took me a moment before I actually realized that the maniac in the front seat could kill Batman with those grenades. How could he be so careless?
Even more sad, it took me another moment before it hit me that Clown-man probably WAS trying to kill the Batman. Before I could stop myself I started frantically shaking the driver's chair. "Stop it! What the hell do you think you're doing? You're going to kill him!" I fell back in my seat and gripped the crappy leather cushion in attempts to calm myself. I couldn't believe I just did that! Acting crazy in front of a crazy Clown-man is NOT a good decision!
But to my surprise he stopped throwing them. I held my breath, not quite sure what to expect. Somehow I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about this. Within the next second my face became acquainted with the back of the front seat.
I felt as if someone had squished me with a giant spatula, inertia still carrying me forward against the leather seat which had stopped me. We skidded to a stop as he slammed on the breaks about as hard as he had slammed on the gas earlier. I moaned in discomfort as I peeled my body from the driver seat and plopped back into my own. It felt like the whole world was shaking beneath me. It took me a second to realize that the shaking was coming from that black tank-thing speeding past us.
Something fell into my lap. Looking down I was horrified to see it was a grenade.
And it was active.
"W-what?" I sputtered trying to make sense of it. I looked up to see Clown-man grinning menacingly at me.
"Alrighty then, I'll drive and YOU try and make the Bat go 'Boom'!" He rolled down window next to me, and once again slammed his foot into the gas. The car turned around and was now heading into oncoming traffic. I just sat there frozen, my mind not even registering the loud honks coming all around us, my golden blonde hair whipping against my face in the wind.
It was only mere seconds before Batman caught back up to us, and it had only been mere seconds since I had been given the grenade. These things kill people, this thing could kill me.
"I didn't know you had a death wish!" He laughed wildly "Ya might wanna throw that out the window if I were you, you haven't got much time left."
My eyes widened in horror. My lungs seemed to close up. Time seemed to stop. I threw it out the window.
I couldn't believe what I'd just done. What if it had killed an innocent bystander? Did that make me a murderer? I didn't have time to think as Clown-man tossed another one into my lap. I threw it out the window. Another and another, I tossed them over my shoulder and out of the window again.
My heart was beating so madly I thought it would burst from my chest. My head was spinning, I didn't even have time to think anymore, just do. I detached myself and just threw them.
It's a game! The faster you throw them, the better your chances at living!
Out goes the bomb and then comes the boom, out goes the bomb and then comes the boom!
That excited feeling was overtaking me again and I was powerless to stop it. With every new Boom the more fun it seemed, and the less I began to care that I was probably killing someone with each one I threw. I couldn't stop, I was no longer scared.
Then the grenades stopped landing in my lap. The excitement left. The fear came back. Clown-man wasn't steering anymore, but how could he? He was too busy activating every last grenade he had. Too busy to notice (or so I thought) that we were now barreling through a dockyard, and straight into the water.
It was too much. The water was freezing. My coat was caught on the window lock. Someone pulling me to the surface. Someone picking me up. A deafening explosion rang through the night. When had it started raining? That was all I could really remember as my mind began blacking out.
I faded in and out.
In and out.
In and out.
Faded in and out like a dying light bulb.
Was I dying? Was this the end?
No more light. Only blackness. Just Sleep.
"Wake up." Those were the first words I heard as I woke up. I inhaled deeply through my nose and shivered violently. Lifting my head up, eyes still shut, I moved my hands around trying to find those elusive covers… ugh… where… were they? A frustrated sigh left my lips as I let my head roll backwards succumbing to sleep once more... screw covers… sleep was warm. I liked sleep.
"WAKE UP!" A harsh voice filled the air around me jolting me out of the sleep that was taking me along with an unpleasant slap that met with my face. My teeth gritted in anger. Anyone who's tried to wake me up in the past knows if I am pissed when I wake up, they better run for the fucking hills. Of course they never did though; I'm too much of a pacifist to ever lash out at anybody.
Thoroughly angered and still half asleep, I lifted my hand to my face to touch the stinging patch of skin. I was surprised when I also felt wet hair sticking to my cheek, and my anger grew.
"What the he- First you throw water on me and then you slap me! What is your problem, Dad?"
Dad was the only one who ever threw water on me to wake me up, 'cause he knew the best way to get my lazy butt up and out of bed was to piss me off. Worked both ways for him because I would get up and he knew I don't ever stay angry long.
A sinister laugh pierced my ears, and my anger dissipated within seconds, being replaced with white-hot terror. It was then and only then my eyes finally opened. The sight I was greeted with froze my already shivering body.
"Rise and shine, Doll Face!" I shivered even more violently than before, this time out of fear. My eyes furiously scanned the face in front of me, it appeared to be the same man I remembered had kidnapped me, but now the makeup that he had been wearing was almost completely gone as if he had taken a shower and not thoroughly washed his face.
But why…? Oh yes, we had gone under water… that would explain why the hell I'm so damn cold.
I coughed violently through my shivers and desperately gripped for the warmth of my coat. My icy fingers shook themselves out of the (long) sleeve and made their way to the edge of the coat to pull it in tighter. I didn't care if it was soaked, just to have an extra layer on me made the freezing material seem so warm and-
Not mine, this is not mine, mine should be in the ocean right now…
I looked down at the oversized purple coat that was draped around me.
"I don't get a thank you?" said Clown Man through a pout. Oh crap! Don't want to forget my manners…
"Oh! I'm sorry, thank you…" I said quietly and smiled feebly trying to mask that I felt bad about the fact I hadn't said it earlier.
Thank you? THANK YOU? What is wrong with you Erika? You are THANKING the guy who kidnapped you? Seriously? Are you messed up in the head?
I frowned in remorse. Great, I really did just thank the man who kidnapped me. To make it worse he decided to laugh at me. Great, he knew how stupid I was too. I took a moment to take in my surroundings and noticed we were in an alley that didn't seem too far off from the docks. I must've not been out too long then, considering I'm still soaked to the bone and so is Clown Man...
"You got a name beautiful?" He smirked as I cringed at the name he'd used. Pet-names made me uncomfortable when they were used by complete strangers.
Guess there's no real point in keeping it a secret… after all, I already told him where I live back in the taxi cab. Still, I don't want to give into any twisted little mind game this guy as going on.
"My name is…" I tried to look anywhere but his eyes or his face. One of my worst qualities is my constant desire to analyze and study things that I see, people's faces for example. If I didn't do my best to look away, my eyes would be boring themselves into his trying to read his emotions, or worse, staring at those scars on his face. I didn't think he'd appreciate either one of those. "My name is…" I couldn't think straight. It was so hard to not focus on him, as he was practically on top of me. Not only that, but unlike me he seemed to feel no remorse in staring me down. "M-my, uh, name is…"
"Hey, look at me." I wouldn't. he tried again this time more forcefully. "LOOK AT ME!"
I turned my shaky gaze up towards him and let out a sob. I just couldn't handle this sort of stress.
He softened a bit. "Jeeze… you need to loosen up!" Clown man said. I let out a ragged breath I didn't know I'd been holding in. Before I knew what was happening he hoisted me up so that I was standing on both feet. He let go momentarily, much to my surprise, and my knees buckled beneath me. I thought I was going to fall but he caught me and held me until he was sure that could stand on my own. He smiled brightly at me before circling around me to stand behind my back. I gasped in surprise when he grabbed both of my arms.
"Now lets get you to loosen up!" Before I could protest he flung my right arm forward. "You put your right hand in!" He pulled my right arm back. "You put your right hand out! You put your right hand in and you shake it all about!" After flailing my right arm in the air he spun me around. "You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around!" Once I was facing forward again he clapped my hands together. "That's what it's all about!" What the hell? He was making me do the Hokey Pokey! He was about halfway through the motions with my left arm before I couldn't take it anymore.
"Stop it!" I yelled and jerked my arm away from him, which was much more difficult than it should have been because I was so on edge I could hardly move. I regretted it when he moved in closer than before, wrapping his arms around me and leaning his head on my shoulder. He whispered quietly into my ear.
"Aww, you don't trust me?" I could hear the pout in his voice, and strangely it calmed me a bit. As terrified as I was there was something charming about this man. Feeling a little less on edge than I was before, I smirked and decided to reply.
"I'm not so sure if I should trust you…" He chuckled and pulled me closer and diminished any sense of security I had felt.
"Yeah, you probably shouldn't." and with that he pulled out a switchblade and held it in front of my face. It was alright until he started waving it around and flicking the damn thing open and closed right next to my face. I tried hard to keep myself from hyperventilating. I never really knew why but I had a serious fear of knives. Well actually not so much knives, but people who play with them. People who were carless with knives really freaked me out, enough to send me into a panic attack. He seemed to take note of this and laughed manically. It was too much, I couldn't take this. I shut my eyes to try and block out the sight and subconsciously slipped my hands into the pockets of the coat. As they slipped further into the damp material, I stopped cold when my fingers brushed cool metal. Upon further inspection I realized it was a gun…. A real gun. It was something that would probably save my life.
"So beautiful… are you gonna tell me your name now?" The Clown Man said and I could hear him furiously licking his lips. I tried not to smile at my luck of finding the gun, and felt a little bit of confidence flowing through me.
"It's Erika." I said only slightly defeated. After all, I didn't want to give into a single of this mad man's games.
"See? Now that wasn't so hard was it?" The man said darkly.
It's now or never.
There was going back. I gripped the gun in the pocket of the oversized coat and reared my leg back and kicked him square in the balls.
I whipped out the gun and attempted to run as he fell to the ground, but he was too fast for me. He grabbed my ankle and I went face forward into the concrete ground. I tried to get up and regain my composure, but my head was throbbing too much and I couldn't think straight. I could feel hot liquid dripping down my forehead and I knew I was bleeding. Before I could attempt another escape he grabbed me by the hair and threw me against the alley wall. I grimaced in pain and held up the gun to save my life.
"Stop! Don't take another step towards me or I swear I'll blow your head off!" I said through my cracked voice. He laughed darkly and was on top of me so fast I didn't even have time to blink.
"Alright then, do it." His hand snaked around mine and pulled the gun against his temple. I gasped in fear.
"What's the matter? Didn't you just say you were going to blow my head off?" He smiled insanely and made my blood run cold.
"Oh that's going to scar… tsk tsk." He said regarding the bleeding wound on my forehead. "Speaking of which, you wanna know how I got these scars?" I did my best to refrain from saying yes. Damn my curiosity!
He flicked out his switchblade with his other hand and held it against the corner of my mouth.
"You see, I was just a young boy, about your age, and one day I decide to go for a little stroll around Gotham." I momentarily forgot I was holding him at gunpoint and listened to his story.
"So there I was just minding my business… when this man comes up to me, and he says, 'He boy, I'm having a real bad day, you think you could spare some cash?' Well unfortunately I didn't have any on me. So I say sorry and begin to walk away." He licked his lips in excitement. "Well he didn't like that too much and pulls a knife on my and drags me into this alley, you see… kinda like this one… and he says to me 'You rich kids are all the same! Always smiling with your big fat wallets, never caring about anyone else but yourselves!' and I try to tell him I don't have any money, but he won't listen. So he says to me 'Well I'll give you something to smile about!' and he sticks his blade in my mouth and does this to me!"
I gulped, I didn't like where this story was going. Before he could finish I interrupted him. "Stop it! Just stop it! I don't want to hear any more!" I said pressing the gun harder against his temple. He grinned wickedly and pressed his blade harder against the corner of my lips and I could taste the iron-tinge of my blood in my mouth.
"Well then do it! You know, if you can't kill me, then I'll certainly kill you." He said and began his maniacal laughter once more.
My hand shook and I tried to steady it against his head. The metal felt like it was burning itself into my skin. Violence just wasn't in my nature.
"You can do it… can you?" He said quietly, boring those dark brown eyes of his straight into mine.
He's right… I don't even know how to use a gun… I've never even been in a real fight before! What the hell was I thinking! No… you have to do this, Erika. Its self-defense, and you want to live… but can I do it?
"Go on, do it." I took a deep breath. I couldn't do it.
"Do it." I couldn't murder somebody.
"Do it!"
No, murder wasn't going to be an option!
"Kill me!"
I-I Can't I-I have to… I…
"KILL ME!"
I squeezed the trigger and shut my eyes.
Click.
What was going on? Where was the loud bang? I opened my eyes to look at the man who was now grinning madly with murderous intent.
"Congratulations. You just killed the Joker."
"The… the Joker?" Was that his name? "No… I, I didn't! You're still alive! I…"
"Well in an alternate reality, where that gun actually fired, little old you is sitting in a pool of my blood." He said and laughed. My eyes widened with fear. Not only was he still alive, but I had just made a conscious decision to kill someone. My hand, still holding the horrible object fell limply to my side.
"Sorry doll face, guess it's your turn to die."
I couldn't stop the sobs that wracked my body. This was it, it was the end. Just as he pulled the blade back to end my life, a figure in all black tackled him to the ground. I watched in terror as the two struggled and fought. Somewhere along the way my mind clocked out and I slid to ground, holding my knees close to my body. I just wanted it all to be over.
I didn't know how long it had been before a strong hand rested gently against my shoulder. I looked up and saw the black figure, my face stained with blood and tears. He was wearing a black armored suit and a helmet with two, horned-shaped things on both sides of his head. He looked like… he looked like a bat. This was him. This was the Batman.
"Are you alright?" He said in a gravelly voice that was both gentle and stern.
"I've been better." I said not even trying to hold back my smile. I looked around in concern suddenly. "W-where is…?"
He nodded to a wall on the other end of the alley, and there he was, handcuffed to a pipe and knocked out cold.
"Thank you." I said in a whisper, and I thought I almost saw him smile before returning to a stoic frown.
"The police should be here soon, there's no need to worry about anything. He'll be getting shipped off to Arkham first thing in the morning." I smiled again and watched as he ran off into the night.
After being briefly interrogated by the GPD, (They wanted to know just exactly why I had a gun and was wearing the Joker's trench coat). They discovered that I was the girl that had been called in missing several hours earlier. A nice man named Jim Gordon took me home that night, and back to my very distressed parents.
I'd gone to bed that night thankful to not only Batman, but the Joker as well. I'd narrowly escaped death and the whole night had been more exciting that pretty much my entire life. I'd been scared out of my mind and I had a newfound appreciation for life too. I knew I should have hated him for kidnapping me like he did, but I just couldn't get over the fact that it was the most memorable moments of my life. Moving is never an easy thing, but for once, I was really looking forward to living in Gotham City.
End
[So how was it? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Reviews seriously make my day.]