Introduction

Her eyes jolted open as she was shaken her from her nightmares; the piercing screams of her sister still fresh in her ears.

"Breathe, Alice. It was just some turbulence."

Alice hadn't noticed that her breathing was erratic as she turned to look at her friend, Evelynn, whose face was full of concern. Gradually, she took control and breathed in and out as if she were a pregnant woman in labour. She nodded at Evelynn and mouthed a 'thanks' as she rested her head back on the window.

She looked into the sky, squinting through the fat raindrops, but there wasn't much to see apart from the big, grey clouds that occupied her vision. She sighed and closed her eyes, trying not to fall back into her disturbed sleep. She hadn't had one good night's sleep ever since Emily died.

Alice's heart ached as the memories flooded her mind, the very thought of her name still only managing to evoke pain and grief in the very fibres of her being.

Someone once said, "Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there."

But what happens when, one day, one of them is just...gone? What happens to the remaining sister when that one isn't there anymore? What happens when that sister isn't there to talk with, to laugh with, to cry with, to share secrets with, to scream with, to bitch with, to yell with, to fight with, to comfort with, to smile with?

When Emily died, a large part of Alice died with her. She'd tried to come to terms with it. She'd read articles and stories about dealing with losing a loved one. She understood them; she desperately wanted to feel the same way, but she didn't. She knew she wouldn't be the same ever again. She didn't want to be if Emily wasn't here.

A few tears had escaped Alice's eyes and had begun gradually rolling down her cheek. She wasn't one for crying in public so quickly wiped them away with the sleeve of her top and proceeded to cover her face with her hand. Perhaps sleep was the best idea. Con: it would send her back to her nightmares where she'd face her sister screaming for help. Pro: she wouldn't be conscious and feeling the grief of losing someone so dear to her.

Alice wiped another escapee, salty droplet from the corner of her eye and began giving into slumber, her body constantly emotionally drained and drowsy.

Soon they'd be in Gotham City airport.

Chapter One

A new start had been in order for Alice for over three months, and today was the day it began. She needed to get far away from everything she knew if she was to have any chance of seeing things in "a new light" or whatever crap people said.

She had chosen America as her new starting point and her best friend Evelynn had chosen to accompany her. She had said she was tagging along because she had always wanted to visit America, but Alice knew it was because nobody thought she should be alone in a big, new country after what had happened. They were probably right.

With not a lot of money to her name, Alice had searched the web for the cheapest states, cities and neighbourhoods in the big U.S., and had stumbled upon somewhere in the state of New Jersey. It had low, affordable rent on not-bad-looking apartments, but she'd quickly understood when she had discovered the high crime rate. Something about it, though, had caught her eye, as she had recalled seeing it on the news as being the home of this "superhero", Batman, and all the fuss last year with that crazy guy she couldn't remember. And to be honest, she didn't really care. It was highly unlikely she'd see any of that sort of action in a big city.

So, without a whole lot of thought about the consequences of living in such a dangerous, crime-filled city, Alice had packed up her things, said goodbye to her family and hopped on a plane with her bestie, headed for Gotham City.

Evelynn paid the cab driver as Alice stared up at the apartment building that she was going to call home. She sighed, her wrists beginning to ache with the weight of her luggage which held the weight of her burdens; the memories she had brought with her from England; from home. Photos that got dripped on every time she looked at them, because nearly all of them held a memory that reminded her of-

You've got to stop this, Alice. Breathe.

"You ready to find our new place, roomie?" Evelynn said as she nudged Alice lightly, causing her to nudge her back with a smile.

"I guess so."

Her friend winked and began heading up the flights of stairs to their right, Alice following close behind.

A couple of hours later, Alice found herself in her new room in her new flat with her new life ahead of her. She had stopped unpacking a while ago when it all became a bit too much. She was already starting to feel homesick, but she'd predicted she'd feel that way. As a child, she hadn't been away from home a lot. She'd love to go sleep over at her friends' houses, but whenever she had, she'd cried and called her mum to come and take her home. She never liked being away from her family and she wasn't quite sure why. Perhaps her brain enjoyed over-thinking too much and would manifest these irrational 'what if' situations like 'What if my mum has a heart attack and I don't get to say goodbye?' or 'What if my sister falls down the stairs and she has to be taken to the hospital and I'm not there?' or even 'What if a murderer comes into the house and chops up my family into little pieces?' Yes. It was safe to say that Alice would render herself insane if she kept thinking like this, but she had no idea how to stop.

A small knock on the door made Alice blink and shake her head out of her day-dreams.

"Come in," she said as the door handle pulled down and Evelynn poked her head around the door.

"You okay there, buddy?" She asked, doing well to not look concerned or worried as Alice sat on the windowsill clutching her knees which were pulled up to her chest.

"Yeah. Just taking a break." Alice forced a smile and turned her head back to look out of the window, the rain just starting to trickle from the blackened sky.

Evelynn glanced at one of the boxes on the floor and immediately saw a photo album laying on the surface, opened to pictures consisting of her friend and her dead sister. She gave an inaudible sigh of sadness and looked back to Alice.

"Hey, you wanna get takeout?"

Alice thought about it for a second, figuring out if she had an appetite. But she didn't.

"No thanks. Actually, I think I'm gonna take a walk." She hopped off the windowsill and grabbed her jacket that was draped over a chair in the corner of the room.

"A walk? It's, like, eleven at night."

"I know. I won't be long."

Evelynn frowned slightly but nodded with a smile and left the room.

"Well I'm gonna order a pizza and watch Netflix!" She called from the other room, making Alice genuinely giggle as she walked through the living room and out of their new front door.

The rain really started to pick up after ten minutes of walking. So much so that Alice felt the need to find shelter and wait 'til it had died down. She hoped she'd know the way back. But she was always good at remembering things like that. She spotted a bar as she turned a corner, the lights inside indicating that it was still open as she made a beeline for it.

Opening the door, she heard the sound of a cue hitting a snooker ball and quiet country music playing throughout the place as she removed the hood from her head. She was completely soaked as a puddle began to form beneath her, rain dripping from her hair. She wrung her jacket sleeves over the doormat, wiped her All Star trainers and looked up to find that everyone in the bar had their eyes on her. She suddenly felt very self-conscious as she looked back at the cliché-looking customers, one man even sporting an eye patch with a leather waistcoat and tattoos covering his arms. Alice cleared her throat and approached the bar, taking a seat on a grubby stool as the bartender stood before her.

"What'll be?" He asked with a gravelly voice and Alice found herself taken aback by his accent. She forced herself not to smile even though she was amused at how strange he sounded compared to the usual English accent she'd hear on a daily basis. This was going to take some getting used to.

"Just an orange juice, please." God, she sounded posh.

The bartender cracked an amused smile and looked at his other customers with bewilderment, all of whom looked back with a smirk.

"An orange juice?" He asked like he didn't even know what it was. Confused Alice looked around at everyone with a beer in their hands and then back to the man.

"Uh..yes. Please." She always had to be polite. It never hurt to be polite.

The bartender belly-laughed deeply as a few others snickered under their breaths.

"Well, missy, we don't sell orange juice." He finally admitted after a good minute of laughter.

"I thought everywhere had to sell an alternative to alcohol?"

"Well we did sell alternatives," he paused to look around once again, "but people never bought alternatives. So we stopped."

"Oh." Alice said and wiped some hair away from her face.

"I can get ya some water!" He laughed again as Alice rolled her eyes. Her first impressions of her new neighbours weren't exactly great.

"No, that's okay, thanks." She sighed as he walked off to serve someone else. The rain was still chucking it down outside.

Alice moved from the stool to an empty booth by the window and continued to stare out of it for a while. Every website she'd checked on the internet had said that Gotham City was full of crime that never seemed to cease wherever you went, but she hadn't seen anything yet. A part of her was kind of looking forward to some excitement. She'd felt numb for way too long and she figured some adrenaline would do her good. But she wasn't going to be stupid and let anything bad happen to her. She didn't want to die. But she was bored, and she wanted to fix that. What could she do though? Take up a hobby? Start going to yoga classes? The thought of it made her want to start learning how to make a noose. What could a 20-year-old do in Gotham City?

"You look bored out of your mind."

The sudden voice startled her and she whipped her head around to see who it belonged to. A tall, thin man stood at the end of the booth's table with short, dark hair that spiked up. He looked a bit older than her, but it can't have been by much as he hardly had any wrinkles. He was smiling pleasantly and she couldn't help noticing that he was actually rather handsome in his leather jacket and black skinny jeans.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"No, it's fine." She smiled back.

"May I sit here?"

Alice was a little confused as to why he wanted to but she had no reason to say no.

"Of course." She gestured to the empty seat which he sat in, placing a pair of black gloves onto the table. The smile never left his lips.

"Thanks. Interesting accent by the way. Very British."

"Well, that is where I hail from."

"So, you on vacation?" He queried. Alice was still a little confused as to why he had randomly began talking to her, but she figured it was just the American way. They were more sociable than Brits were and it was pretty cool and weird to experience it first hand.

"Actually, I just moved here. Today, in fact."

"Wow. You live close?"

"Just a few minutes down the road."

"How you liking it so far?"

"It's rainy. But I'm used to that. Besides, I like the rain." She smiled again as the two glanced out of the window at the fast-falling water.

"What's your name?" She looked back to him and found he had his eyes back on her. She squinted her eyes suspiciously at him.

"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

He shrugged. "I find you rather intriguing."

"Well, I apologize, but there's nothing intriguing about me."

"Now, that's gotta be a lie."

There was something...off about this man. Alice couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it just seemed like there was more to him - like he wasn't completely innocent - though she didn't know why she'd think of him like that in the first place. Perhaps because she tried to see the best in people, even when nothing good was there.

"Why don't you tell me your name first?" Alice proposed and the guy smiled wider.

"I'm Peter," He said, "your turn."

"Alice." She held out her hand in greeting which Peter took lightly. They shook.

"So, Alice," Peter began, retrieving his hand, "why the move?"

Alice went stiff at the question, her brain automatically thinking of the reason which she hadn't thought about in a good twenty minutes. She felt ashamed that Emily hadn't crossed her mind for such a long time. Was she already beginning to forget? So soon?

"Are you okay?"

She made eye contact with Peter and found that familiar look of worry displayed on his face. That was definitely one of the reasons she'd moved. She'd needed to get away from that look.

"It's just a touchy subject," she forced a reassuring smile, "Can we talk about you?"

Peter nodded, "Sure. What do you wanna know?"

Composing herself, Alice thought for a moment.

"Where are you from?" She asked, wiping some more damp hair from her face.

He glanced out of the window, waving his hand at the scenery, "Born and raised here in Gotham."

"Really?"

"Mhmm."

"You never felt like leaving?"

A hint of disappointment washed across his face, like a dream that was never lived.

"Never had the money. I wasn't exactly born into a wealthy family." He said as he looked over to the bartender, nodding to indicate he wanted a drink. The bartender somehow knew what he wanted.

"Don't you have a job?" Alice wasn't sure whether she should be pushing the questions, but she really didn't want to talk about herself. Repressing was for the best, right?

The bartender came over with a glass of whiskey and set it down in front of Peter. Peter wrapped a hand around it and answered, "Of sorts." He took a sip.

He obviously didn't want to get into detail, but that just made Alice more curious. She gave him an odd look, that he took notice of, and he smiled. He looked both ways before he leaned in a little closer. He motioned for Alice to meet him halfway, which she did with interest.

"I'm guessing you don't have a job yet." It was more of a statement than a question, but Alice shook her head in response anyway.

"Well, the guy I work for, he's kinda lookin' for more..." He took another sip of his drink before he continued, "...employees, should we say."

Alice didn't like the way he spoke about his "job". It was very vague and dodgy, and if she knew anything at all, it sounded almost criminal. And then it clicked. Her eyes widened with shock and horror.

"I'm not desperate enough to be," she whispered the next part to avoid strange looks, "going into prostitution."

Peter was taken aback but laughed it off.

"What? No. Nothing like that."

Alice sighed with relief as Peter returned to his previous position.

"Well, I can't tell you the specifics of the job. But if you're interested, I can take you to the place and you can see for yourself." He said this as more of a question rather than a statement, and Alice was still unsure about the whole thing. Like she'd told herself before, she wasn't going to go getting herself into trouble. But, to be honest with herself, she was extremely intrigued. It held a certain mystery and, with her bored self, she was seriously considering it. But the responsible side of her spoke up. It was probably for the best.

"You know," she began with a kind smile, "I think I'm okay for now. I mean, I've only just moved in and there are a lot of things I need to figure out before I think about getting a job and it's all very confusing, moving to a new country and all, and I-"

"It's okay, Alice." Peter interrupted, but it wasn't out of rudeness. Alice had begun to blab so she gave him an apologetic look.

Peter then reached into the inside of his jacket and pulled out a small piece of white card. He laid it face down on the table.

"If you ever change your mind," he slid the slid the card across the table until it lay in front of her, "give me a call."

Alice picked up the card and flipped it over in her fingers to reveal, in black ball point pen, his name, Peter Roth, and his number.

Peter wrapped his fingers around his glass and downed the rest of the whiskey in one, standing up when he had finished. He donned his black gloves and headed to the door before turning to address her once more.

"I look forward to hearing from you, Alice." And with that, he flashed that smile of his with a nod and walked out of the door, not glancing her way when he passed the window that she watched after him out of.

Alice was left confused by the whole conversation. She had always been a curious person, even from a young age, always wanting to know what was going on, especially if it concerned her. So when this random stranger, who called himself Peter, offered her an unknown job that sounded like the dodgiest thing she'd ever heard, she was very disappointed to turn it down. But, again, it was for the best, and she would be forever wondering what he did for a living.

Soon after Peter had left, Alice decided it was time she went home too. She stood up slowly, pocketing Peter's information and glancing over at the bartender who wasn't paying any attention to her whatsoever. Then she walked out of the door, the rain having stopped completely.

A/N: So, here it is, the first chapter. Thank you to the two reviewers who said you were interested - it was really awesome that you wanted to see more :) Constructive criticism is always welcome and thanks for reading!