She was the light, pure innocence and beauty in a compact and lithe, tiny human form. She was the envy of the sun and the moon and the stars all at an instance. Skin of silk and of ivory. Hair of the radiant dawn and eyes of the summer rain. Purest in heart and soul and perfectly innocent. But in her innocence she could not feel the danger she was in; for in innocence lies the most deadliest of ailments; ignorance. Perhaps it could even be argued that she had not been meant for this world.
She had found her place at the swing set swinging as high as she could, her arms reaching out. Reaching out as if trying to but touch the face of the heavens so to become better acquainted with her God. Such a surreal scene as it must have seemed to all those who saw her for those few fleeting seconds. Seconds which seemed to blow away in the howling winds which seemed to be pushing the girl along. What was to occur next was so well and precisely timed that it would seem by most to have been calculated as if by will.
As she reached the lowly point in the motion of swinging where she was at her closest to the ground, a small group of people on bicycles passed her by. And as they passed the swing as it reeled back it could be seen that there was no longer any inhabitant to be found here. The girl was gone. Anyone who was there would always remember the terrible wailing of a panicked mother as she looked for that which was most precious to her. She approached the empty swing set, first only walking forward in confusion, gazing all around. Searching for any sign of where the girl may have run off to. But the closer she got, the quicker the realizations began to take hold of her mind. The police were called and the area searched again and again. But they already knew that they wouldn't find her as this had become so familiar to them. This had all happened before. They knew that they had two weeks to find her. They knew what would happen if the failed. The price of failure. Finally, on the sixteenth day, they found her in a secluded back alley.
The sight was horrific beyond what most of them were able to handle. Most of the officers on sight had become ill upon viewing the scene and had to maintain a fair distance from it as a result. Most stayed away and kept to the shadows where they could not see. They kept to that lowly place where the shadows took away their sight. Only a handful of the CSI team were left to survey the ghastly scene.
Finally, one single solemn and solitary figure came from the shadows which engulfed the whole world around the epicenter that the alley had become. He knew better than most what scene awaited for him, and he knew he had to face it. But that didn't mean he had to like it. There was no pleasure to be taken here. Gordon Felt sick. Not this again, he thought to himself almost aloud, words barely being bitten back from spilling from his mouth; not another one. Not another family to visit and consul. Not another press release stating that he had failed to save the day. To save another girl. Like a dog chasing a tail which always seemed just out of reach. Always close, but never near enough. The whole world had gone mad. Now even he was starting to denounce himself. He was starting to lose faith in the truths which kept him from insanity. But each day, he could feel himself bring pulled a little bit more into that darkness. To a place from which there could be no return. He could still remember all of their faces, faces of victims which would forever haunt him. Faces that had already and would continue to visit him and haunt him without end. And there he would be, helpless to save them, doomed to watch from an inescapable darkness forevermore.
He felt tired of all of this, tired of the world as the weight of it all had started to crush him. Exhausted with the reality of a mad world. He felt worn down more and more with each passing moment. It was almost beyond his understanding, and he would scarcely have believed it had he not had the unfortunate duty to bear witness to the horrific results of insanity. He needed absolution. He needed salvation. He needed to be saved from the hell of insanity's making. He needed to catch this guy.
When the first note had appeared at the unit, no one took it seriously; it seemed to them to be too surreal to be taken seriously. It was sick in that he had made clear his intention to find his beloved "Alice" even if he had to kill every young girl in the city to find her. And it had been signed: with love, "The Mad Hatter". Then over a month's time later, when the note had already been long forgotten, another one was sent to the unit. But this time, he had made it clear that he had already found his first "candidate" for the role of his beloved "Alice". And to legitimize his claim, the note came accompanied with a pair of bloodied underwear. Thirteen days later, they had found the first victim, covered in a white shroud; the words "She was not Alice; no, not Alice at all" written in blood all across it's clean, hallowed surface. Under it, they found the brutalized remains of an eleven year old girl, wrapped in a light blue dress and bound with a white apron. Memoires that would forever haunt him to the day he joined them in sweet salvation.
When the media came to be aware of what had happened, with the MCU (Major Crimes Unit) having been warned by the perpetrator himself long before he acted, as they ignored him as he mercilessly snatched then brutally murdered his first victim; they tore the unit apart. The public backlash was unprecedented. Even in a city full of hard-core psychotics running around, nothing like this had been seen before. The incident almost cost Gordon his post as Commissioner. To say nothing of what the media had to say when this "Mad Hatter" struck a second time, and then a third. But that was over a year ago; now the body count was up to thirteen.
"Victim's name was Melissa Parkinson, ten years old. Victim was fifty inches tall, sixty eight pounds. Hair was blonde and eyes were... blue. Time of death is estimated to be approximately twelve to fourteen hours ago, based on current degradation of core body temperature to... sixty eight degrees Fahrenheit, consistent with current room temperature. Rigor mortis seems to have taken full effect, also consistent with estimated time of death. For the record, please note that because of warmer seasonal weather, rigor mortis may have been accelerated. Victim's arms and legs, all limbs have been removed at the joints and drained of blood, also making the exact level of decomposition more difficult to properly ascertain. The victim's face and torso are covered in... fifty seven contusions and... forty five deep lacerations. The limbs are covered in... thirty eight contusions and, uh... twenty three deep lacerations. Most prominent are the contusions found around the victim's neck which take on the resemblance of human hands, indicating that the victim was strangled by hand multiple times, likely near to and stopping short of the point of death. Some of these showing signs of healing, some seemed to be fresh by estimated time of death. Both zygomatic bones, the cranium, and the maxilla are fractured at multiple points from repeated trauma. The mandible is also broken at multiple points and seems to have been dislocated. Mandible shows slight healing, which seems to indicate that the dislocation was committed early in captivity. Also, the nasal bones and the bridge of the nose seems to have been broken and also shows signs of healing, indicating that this trauma was also committed early in captivity. In contrast, all other fractures give no indications at healing but hardly seem fresh, which indicates that the trauma was started early on but likely repeated, giving them no time to start the healing process. The the ninth, tenth, and eleventh ribs on the left lateral and the eighth and ninth ribs on the right lateral of the ribcage have been broken from repeated trauma. The sternum... as well seems to have been fractured. Uh... sexual trauma is... clearly evident as well (sniff). The... uh, victim's hymen seems to have been ruptured early on and the, uh... labia majora is swollen from repeated physical abuse. Twelve of forty five deep cuts to the torso were located in this... uh, region as well. (Sigh) Genital mutilation; Jesus... shit. Ah, the uh(sniff)... uh labia minora is also swollen... and inflamed and shows sign of tearing, also from repeated abuse. Further examination into the urethral meatus revealed urethral prolapse. Anal and rectal scaring and tearing has... uh, also be discovered, as well as rectal prolapse. In addition to this, the, uh... victim's mouth and uh, th... uh (cough), throat seems to have been burned from prolonged exposure to chlorine, with trace amounts having been found in the specified areas. More than(sniff) likely used to uh, remove any trace evidence from the victim's mouth and throat... left over... from uh, oral sex. Jesus Christ, there's dried blood everywhere; sick mother fucker didn't even bother to clean her off. (Sigh) All limbs were present at the crime scene and have been recovered. All fingers and toes have (sniff)been fractured in a manner consistent with being smashed with a blunt object, possibly a hammer. The... finger and toe nails seemed to have been removed forcefully. All digits show signs of healing. This indicates that the victim was alive at the time of the aforementioned acts, for a period of... at least two to four, uh (sniff)... days prior to estimated... time of death. There is also tearing of the tissue around the glenohumeral joints of both arms, consistent with shoulder dislocation, possibly even shoulder separation. This also shows signs of healing, albeit incorrectly for a period of ... (sniff) four to six days prior to estimated time of... uh, death. The..uh, ulna in the left forearm seems to have been broken recently, with no indication as to healing just yet. The humerus in the left arm shows... multiple hairline fractures (sniff), also with no indication as to healing yet. Probably broken in a struggle (sniff). Examination to the legs finds the patella of both knees have... uh, been crushed, also most probably, with a hammer. Completely crushed, beyond repair. Despite this... some healing seems to have taken place, also incorrectly however. this would indicate that this was done within the first few days of captivity, possibly to keep the victim from... uh, running. All incisions at all points of amputation which run along the cutaneous and subcutaneous layers of the skin seem clean with a high level of precision. This indicates the use of a sharp, straight edged blade, possibly a uh, scalpel. In contrast, the incisions along the underlying muscle is uneven in a manner... (sniff) uh, consistent with a serrated blade; more than likely a, uh, hacksaw. All amputations seemed to have been... uh, done post mortem. As previously mentioned, all limbs been drained completely of blood. There... uh, there is also a deep incision which runs from just below the xiphoid process to just above the... uh, mons pubis. This incision seems to have been made for the explicit... purpose of... uh, disembowelment, and s... uh, seems to have been sowed shut post mortem. Upon opening the incision, it was discovered that... uh, the, uh... liver, spleen, both kidneys (sigh)... uh, gall bladder, stomach, large and small intestine, and uh, bladder have all been removed and have...(sigh) yet to uh, yet to be recovered. The incision and uh... more than likely some of the disembowelment seems to have been started pre mortem and is the uh (sniff) ah, the uh... cause of death. " The corner had finished her notes and turned off the recorder. She was starting to become emotionally compromised. Great waves of emotion had started to drown out her logic and she could feel it starting to take effect. She could feel herself lapsing into sorrow and pity. Even hatred was starting to surface. Not even hatred for the one who had done this so much as it was a hatred for the fact that they had yet to apprehend him. This was the world they lived in. Then she realized that because of her profanity laden slips, she would have to re-record her notes all over again. At the thought of having to repeat this portion of the examination, she let out a long and heavy sigh and rolled her eyes, as an angry grunt escaped from her subconscious mind. Thus, the price of her compromised logic. The horrors which seemed to rip apart every fiber of her logical state of mind.
"I know; it... it's uh, tough to comprehend, isn't it..." spoke a man in the shadows who stood at the doors to the examination room. The sudden realization of having been pulled back into the conscious world around her physical person made her jump in surprise.
"Damn it Jim you... you sacred me; fuck! I wasn't expecting you today. Did you want my report, because..."
"No, I heard everything. Just like the others. Pretty cut n dry." Gordon spoke in a flat tone, almost as if rehearsed. The evils that men do. Pretty cut and dry? Had Gordon seen such scenes of unspeakable cruelty and horror to have left his mind completely desensitized to the ghastly scenes?
How much was the job changing the man she had married? When they had first married, he was still a sergeant. He had been on the force for a while, but he hadn't seen anything like this yet. It was a happy time in their lives, the happiest time. This was an innocent time, before the darkness overcame Gotham.
But things began to change, right around the time Barbara was born. Things began to get worse, as the mobs became more organized, their tactics became far more brutal and far less discriminate. The number of innocent victims caught in the cross fire had started to rise considerably. All of this was bad enough, but of course not long after that, the first hard-core psychotics had started to hit the streets. So in response the city had set up the Major Crimes Unit to focus on this new class of criminal, and Jim voluntarily transferred to this new unit. And now here they were. Oh, God help him. God help all of them. She did not want to know what it would feel like to be desensitized to the horrors that he had seen. The horrors that she had only seen a small fraction of, and even that had proven enough to make her feel sick to her stomach. "Sarah?" the sound of her name brought her back to the examination room. Recently her mind seemed all too willing to wonder off to escape the horrors of the harsh reality.
"Look, can't you finish this later? You need a break. Need me to drive you home?"
"No, I'm alright, Jim. I... I have to finish this. You need to race home though, Babs'll be getting home from school, ya know." And at this he didn't even respond; he just smiled and left. By now he had come to realize the futility of drawing Sarah away from her work, especially on a major case like this. But before he went home for the day, he had one more stop to make.
It shown across the sky, emblazoned brightly upon the darkness of the night and of the clouds more a warning than a beacon. A warning to all of those who would do harm onto their fellow man. Know all of you that I am coming for you, it seemed to say. A Bat in the night sky. A symbol. A warning. And there, in the shadows of this great warning stood Gordon. Gordon hadn't been waiting long, less than five minutes, and he knew almost instinctively that he wouldn't be made to wait much longer. Though even in this late hour the city was alive, a harsh and howling wind carried away all the sound, the pulse of the city. Leaving him in the eerie silence in all which remained.
Then, from behind him, a hushed voice in the darkness.
"Commissioner...". And there, at the opposite edge of the roof, shrouded almost completely in the darkness that always seemed to surround him, crouched the Batman. Ears standing out most prominently from the top of his cowl like the horns of the devil himself, dark irises juxtaposed against the white of his eyes and a frown spread across what little was visible of his face. Somehow Gordon felt that Batman automatically attracted the darkness around him to his person and that it always hid him from plane sight, even in the broadest of daylight. More human than human, or so it would seem. More beast than man.
"How much do you know about the Hatter case?" Gordon asked him as he closed the distance between them.
"Enough" came the hushed response. Aside from his lips as he talked, Batman hadn't moved.
There he crouched, as still as a statue. When Gordon finally stood before him, Batman finally stood up. Out from behind the darkness of the black material of his cape came the black of gloved and gauntleted hands. He took the case file from Gordon, and he turned as he looked it over. Gordon adjusted the glasses upon his face as he talked, "All the information I have is in that file." And with a sigh, he looked up to the night sky, as the signal once more caught his attention. "I know that Joker and the Scarecrow are still at large, but you've forced them underground. They'll probably stay low for a while. This case should..." As his gaze dropped to once more land on Batman, Gordon found himself alone once more; Figures. Now with the Batman on the case as well, Gordon could finally rest easy, for tonight at least.
...To be continued...