Alice Rose Polanco sat quietly with her hands folded and her back straight. She inhaled and exhaled slowly as her eyes scanned the door in front of her, reading the words "Artistic Director, Gotham City Ballet, David Kent". Her pale hands were clammy and sweat gathered at her coppery brown hairline, she could already feel a headache coming on from the tightness of her slicked back hair. She reached a hand up and dug her fingers into the back of her neck, massaging hard and closing her eyes.
She was nervous and didn't understand why. She had a God given talent for the art of ballet. She was passionate. Ballet had consumed her life for that past couple of years, but for some reason auditioning for Gotham City Ballet made her anxious. Something about being in the familiar city in general made Alice anxious. She shook off her nerves and clenched her jaw as she inwardly scolded herself for being nervous about something so small.
After all she knew that had nothing to worry about; she knew that she would be accepted into Gotham City Ballet purely because her name ended in Polanco. Everywhere she went she was reminded of her family's awful legacy and faced the unfair bias that people often placed on her. They would constantly stay away from her in hopes to avoid her assumed violent temper, or go out of their way to please her, thinking they could win her favor. She often questioned why people did such things and what they were so afraid. Even though the Polanco's once ran Gotham's most dangerous mob, she was the only surviving member of her family, at least what she counted as family, not including her uncle who was locked up in Arkham for reasons she did not care enough about to know. But Alice was just a girl whose profession and values were the polar opposite of a mob bosses. She certainly had no plans on carrying on her father's legacy in running the mob, so she was clueless as to why people saw her as such a threat.
It might have been the rumors that surfaced over the years, rumors that when Alice left Gotham at 17 she single handedly destroyed the mob from out of the country. Or maybe it was the rumor where she had joined the Russian army and used the Russian Ballet as a cover up in a grand scheme to commit treason. But despite the many outrageous claims that were thought of Alice, there was one that was completely true. The one where she watched her parents die before her eyes, at the hands of her only brother, Peter.
Her eyes shot open when she heard the door knob turn and she stood up instinctively. A young blond woman walked out the door gripping a paper to her chest grinning ear to ear. Alice knew this look all too well, that blond girl just had her dreams come true, she was now a dancer at Gotham City Ballet. Alice eyed her as she left the waiting room squealing annoyingly.
"Alice Rose Polanco?" A man's voice called out from the office in front of her.
Alice walked forward and stepped into the office timidly, noticing that the source of the voice was a rather handsome man who sat behind his cluttered desk shuffling papers rapidly.
"Please take a seat Miss Polanco"
Alice's stare broke as she sat down in front of the mahogany desk. He didn't look up as Alice seated herself, slightly shifting with annoyance. He was still focused on shuffling though the papers all over his desk. This bothered Alice; usually it was common professional practice to look at someone when they entered a room, especially her, whose presence nearly demanded attention. She shifted again uncomfortably. Despite her nervousness she still wanted the man to acknowledge her.
With an irritated look on her face she cleared her throat causing the man look up at her. His cool grey eyes locked with her soft honey brown ones as he opened his mouth, realizing who she was. He recognized her distinct facial features and the small beauty mark that rested above her lip. Alice's face and name has been plastered all over the news ever since her return to Gotham.
David wanted to face palm as he realized his stupidity. How could he have not recognized that name?
"I'm so sorry Miss Polanco, please forgive me and my messy office." He stuttered, motioning to the clutter of boxes and papers everywhere.
"Oh please don't apologize Mr. Kent" she replied softly. "Shall we get started now?" Alice added as she crossed her lanky legs getting more comfortable.
The man in front of her nodded and placed his hands on top of the desk and tapped the surface nervously. Alice smiled inwardly as she realized the affect she had on him, just like the affect she had on everyone.
"What a pleasure to see you return to Gotham Miss Polanco, it's been some time since you were last here if I'm correct?" Alice nodded in response to his question. She noticed her nerves were at ease now.
"I'm so sorry for your loss by the way" he blurted. "Losing your whole family at once must have been so hard for a young woman like yourself." David instantly regretted saying this.
Alice gritted her teeth with anger. She looked down silently trying not to let the awful memories from that night flood her head. But it was too late, flashes of the pain played through her mind like an old movie.
"Alice I had to do it. I couldn't live with myself if I let you die." Peter shouted with tears streaming down his face. Alice rocked back and forth in a ball on the floor sobbing uncontrollably while she smelt the pool of crimson around her. Her mother and father lay dead next to her. Bullet holes covered their bodies. She looked up at her brothers hands that held the familiar silver revolve, spattered like a work of art with the blood of her parents. With pure rage and sorrow in her eyes, she clutched her head hard, digging her nails into her scalp, and unleashed a scream that rang constantly in her memory.
She shook the dreadful flash from her head and tried to remain as composed as possible.
"Indeed it was really hard." She responded coldly. "But I threw my emotions into my art and it has shaped me into the dancer I am today." Alice continued trying to get back on the subject at hand, "that's just part of why I think I would be a great addition to Gotham City Ballet."
David Kent cleared his throat and sat up a bit taller before responding. "Yes, indeed you would Miss Polanco, that's why I'm offering you a three year contract with us here at GCB as our leading principal dancer." Alice smiled as soon as the words met her ears. Kent continued to speak, "your record is very impressive. I see here you toured Europe with the Russian ballet for 4 years and I also see that you spent a year with the Italian Ballet."
Alice nodded and spoke with a cool tone and a smile on her face "Yes. When I left Gotham I went with the Russian ballet. After touring with them in Europe I met the love of my life, William Knox. We decided to stay in Italy for a year before he convinced me to move back to Gotham with him."
But her smile dropped suddenly when she realized why he made such a generous offer.
"Mr. Kent I do hope your offer has nothing to with pity or my status here in Gotham, because I would have to decline if s-" Alice was cut off before she could finish her thought.
"Oh please Miss Polanco, although your status in Gotham is very useful to us here, rest assured that my decision was based purely on what you danced on stage an hour ago."
She shifted in her seat and was taken aback by Kent's honesty. She believed that he wanted her based on talent but Alice knew that part of the decision was made in fear of her family's reputation. She sighed and silently cursed herself for being a part of one of the biggest mob families in Gotham. She had hoped that when she returned to the city no one would remember her legacy but clearly she was wrong. Her past always seemed to catch up with her.
"Now Miss Polanco," David continued, "you preformed the Black Swan variation from Swan Lake, that's a very hard dance, not many people would try to attempt such a work. You put in a great amount of effort"
"Yes I did." She replied in a matter of fact tone. David glanced up at the girl in front of him and warmly smiled at her.
"Listen, I have seen you dance before Alice and you truly have a gift. I would be honored if you were to join Gotham City Ballet."
Alice smiled in response and started to talk with intention to end the meeting, she noticed it was getting late.
"Well thank so much for your time Mr. Kent, but I have leave now." Glancing toward the clock and standing up she continued,
"I will need to review the contract before I sign anything." Kent followed her actions and stood up handing her the contract. He was slightly confused about the sudden rush. He disregarded it and shoved his hands inside his pockets before noticing she had extended her hand. He quickly removed his hands and reached up to meet hers.
"Thank you for your time Miss Polanco." They shook hands and Alice headed for the door.
"Ah, Miss Polanco, one last question." Alice stopped in her tracks and rolled her eyes before turning around, she was going to be late.
"Why the Black Swan?" he asked with real interest. Alice immediately let a sly grin slide on her face.
"Well Mr. Kent, the Black Swan stops at nothing to get her way, including killing the naïve White Swan." She paused to shift the bags on her shoulder.
"You see, the Black Swan has a passion that the White Swan can't compete with. The White Swan is weak and innocent." she shifted her bags once more.
"And in the world we live in today, there's no room for innocence anymore." With that she turned and walked out the door, completely ignoring the confused look that Kent had plastered on his face.
Alice was greeted by the fresh autumn air as she stepped outside of the theater building, leaves danced around her feet, and the moon was bright in the sky. It was only 6:30pm but darkness had already covered the city. She inhaled deeply; she missed the smell of Gotham in autumn. She started to walk down the streets making her way to the heart of the city where she and William lived.
But as she neared an ally something struck her as odd, there was a white van blocking the sidewalk, leaving her with two options, walk in the busy street to go around it or in the dark ally. She chose the latter figuring that is was probably nothing and didn't feel like getting hit by a car.
She reassured herself as she neared the van that criminals didn't come out to play until at least past eight. This eased her mind. But when she got close enough to smell the exhaust of the van she found herself gripping the pepper spray tightly in her coat pocket.
Alice held her head high and started to enter the ally way to go around the van, keeping her thoughts calm, forcing herself not to think about the plethora of clichés of girls getting attacked in alley ways. But when she was halfway around the vehicle someone grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her further into the alley, bringing her feared cliché to life.
As she felt the hand of her attacker grasp onto her arm, an involuntary gasp escaped her mouth, finding it impossible to scream. She instinctively yanked her arm away and kicked into the dark. To her luck she hit the assailant causing him to fall back on the ground. Before she could even turn to run away two guys grabbed her by each arm, lifting her off the ground.
They slammed her into a wall, one of them covered her mouth just as Alice finally started to scream.
"Shut up girl!" the man hissed intensifying his grip on her mouth. Alice, by this time, had registered something odd about the first man she came in contact with, when she kicked him to the ground he seemed to be trying to stifle a laugh, and clearly failed at it
This alarmed her into a better sense of observation and her blood ran cold upon realizing that something was strange about the men holding her too. They were wearing masks, clown masks.
Alice had seen her fair share of attacks and unfortunately involuntary witnessed a couple of gang rapes, but none of that scared her. This however, these men in clown masks, made her paralyzed with fear.
She started to whip her body all around, attempting to loosen the grip the men had on her, she whimpered in pain as their grip tightened. Flinching from pain, she looked over to the man she had kicked to the ground, and watched through watery eyes as he slowly stood up
She shut her eyes and flailed violently in another grand attempt to break free but nothing was working, and she found herself yet again unable to move due to the fear that was coursing through her body. The figure walked toward Alice and she opened her eyes as the sound of his footsteps got louder. The dim street light revealed that he was wearing a purple suit covered in what seemed to be dried blood stains and dirt, but as the figure stepped fully into the light Alice's eyes widened in pure terror.
The light shined on his snarly yellowed green curls that appeared to be saturated with grease or sweat, and she noticed that his face was painted sloppily like a clown's, with dark black smudges around his eyes, blending into the white that covered his face completely except his mouth, which was covered in a deep red. He was grinning wide, baring decaying teeth, and stretching his smile ear to ear. Alice then noticed something about the clown's crimson Cheshire grin; it was permanent. A mangled scar ran up the sides of his cheek to the corners of his mouth, where his tongue would sickeningly slither out every couple of seconds.
Her attention was averted from his scars when she heard the distinctive click of a switchblade. She immediately flinched as she felt the cold metal press against her cheek so fluently. The clown before her then looked at the men holding her in place, and with a nod of his head the two men let go.
For a brief second Alice felt the two men release her, she closed her eyes thanking God, but before she could reopen them she was slammed back into the wall by the makeup covered clown. He held her back with more force alone then the other two guys combined. He pushed hard on her shoulders crushing her into the wall painfully.
"Well eh hello there pretty lady" the clown hissed through his smile. Alice felt a shiver run through her, he laughed loudly as he noticed her reaction to his simple greeting.
Alice knew that she might not get out of this alive, but she took her chances and opened her mouth to speak,
"What do you want?" Alice hissed back, abruptly spitting in his face. From her past experiences spitting in people's faces had always made them back away in disgust, but the clown smiled sadistically and licked the spit off of his lips. This made Alice almost pass out, but she knew she had to hang on. She was not going to allow herself to be killed by some decked out punk her first week back in Gotham.
"Ah ta ta ta. No need to get feisty doll, all I want is your name." the way he spoke made Alice's head spin, he sounded so nasally and he drew out every word. Out of pure panic and fear Alice reluctantly shouted her name in the clowns face,
"Alice Rose Polanco!" Her eyes shut tightly as he suddenly removed his grip from her shoulders and replaced it with his forearm pressing up against her neck making it nearly impossible for Alice to breathe.
"See? That wasn't so bad was it?" he snarled at her. The Cheshire clown was now inches away from Alice's face and started to lean in closer. Her nostrils filled with the scent of acidic decay as he flashed his teeth once more. Before she could protest, the clown leaned forward and touched his cheek to hers, whispering with a venomous hiss in her ear,
"I'll see you at the tea party, Alice"
She instinctively snapped her eyes shut at the sound of her name coming from the clown's mouth. But he had released her and was getting into the van before she could grab her throat and gasp for air. She heard the tires skid away and she sank down on the ground still leaning on the wall. She started to sob and hugged her knees tightly.
In between her sobs she concluded that Gotham had changed since she left, and so did she.
