A little girl walking nest to her mother in the alleyways is strange, a little girl walking next to a woman she met three minutes ago is also strange, walking in Gotham at night is not a very common thing either, now when you put "little girl" "strange woman" "Gotham and "night" on the same sentence you´ve got the recipe for disaster, but in this case is a "special one" so to speak.
Let´s see what happened three minutes ago…
The little girl was sleeping soundly on her bed, comfy with those warm covers on, it was January, and in the city of Gotham it usually was snowy and cold, or so she thought that last night. Her mother alarmed woke her up "Lotus, sweetie, please wake up" "hmmm" stirred the little girl on her sleep "Lotus please! Come on I'll help you" said her mother alarmed. She carried her all the way out to the balcony, they where on the first floor, not very far from the ground.
Lotus finally woke up completely and smelled the smoke from the fire, she felt the heat even outside, and it was overwhelming, her face felt really hot. Her mom went back inside to get the important things they needed to save.
"Mom! mommy!" Lotus was only hanging to the rail of the balcony which where this silver cold tubes, and she was holding on for dear life. Her mom wasn't coming back, but she was too scared to go in and look for her, at the same moment she heard some wood fall and a loud grunt.
Lotus guided only by instinct rushed inside to find her mom lying on the floor with wood crushing her body "mom" Lotus whispered. She tried to take the wood off from her but it was too heavy for a three year old, "S-stop, you´ll hurt yourself" said her mom weakly, tears started forming in Lotus eyes, "but…" "No buts, ok? Just, you have to go now!" said her mom holding her hands, soft smile on her face which only made Lotus´s heart clench in pain "ok" she said weakly. "Promise me one thing" said her mom "you are Lotus White and let no one tell you other wise, you hear?" said her mom on the verge of a break down "ok…" said Lotus now crying "now go!" commanded her mom in a stern tone. It scared Lotus a bit, but she obliged and left the balcony.
The fire was reaching out to her and she didn't know what to do, when she heard someone stepping on the snow below her, "help! Please!" she said in her hard pitched voice, the strange figure stopped abruptly "please" begged little Lotus clenching her hands around the tubes.
Back to present time…
The rest of her is blurry due to the amount of anxiety and adrenaline she felt, she had been so scared, and everything just kind of happened, next thing she knew she was walking alongside this red headed woman with a black spandex and some kind of vine wrapped in half of her body, she was caring a bag with unknown contents to Lotus.
Lotus forgot she only had her pajamas, she didn´t even have socks for god´s sake! And she was walking on the snow barefooted! When Lotus noticed she started shivering violently, and then felt the pain on her feet.
"hey, here" said the strange woman offering a blanket, Lotus accepted without even caring where she took it from, she just wrapped it around her, some heat was coming back but her feet where now numb, "ouch…" she said quietly "what´s wrong?" "m-my feet hurt" said Lotus in a voice so quiet the woman could barely hear her.
Lotus did not expect this from a stranger, but what happened next made her feel relieved. The woman kneeled in front of her, her back facing Lotus, "come on kid, I don't have all night" she said a bit annoyed. Lotus went ahead and jumped on her back, she was giving her a piggy back ride. Lotus felt comfortable in her back and eventually fell asleep.
When she woke up she was lying on a couch that was very dusty and broken, but none the less it was comfortable. She coughed a little bit, assuming it was for walking in the snow barefooted. She stood up examining the place, it was a small living room that connected to the kitchen where her "savior" was, she walked on ahead, paused, sneezed and continued.
When she managed to reach the kitchen between sneezes and coughs the woman turned around and saw her "uh, hi" said the woman, "hi" said Lotus in response, "how´re you feeling?" asked the woman softly, "sick" said Lotus monotonously.
That caught the woman´s full attention, she walked on ahead and asked "what´s your name?" "Lotus W-white" she said quietly, remembering her mom, "that's a beautiful name" she said using a hand to touch her forehead "what´s yours?" asked Lotus with half lidded eyes, "I-I, um, Pamela Isley" she said stumbling to get the words out, "Pamela…" echoed the girl, "c´mon, you should rest some more" said Pamela guiding her to a room. There was a bed, and the room wasn´t something you could call "fancy" or anything, but it had a bed and a nightstand with a lamp, that was good enough. Lotus was falling delirious now thanks to the fever, and she asked Pamela one last question before she felt asleep "what… are you a… afraid off?" this took Pamela by surprise "I… I am afraid of someone" "who?" said Lotus barely above a whisper, "Batman" "Batman…" said Lotus drifting off to dreamland.