Hello there!

So this is my first attempt at any sort of fiction writing, so thank you for taking the time to read this. I apologize in advance if the chapter is no good, but welcome feedback (although I would appreciate constructive feedback over pure flames). This chapter is a little slow, trying to build my character and direction for the remaining story line. Anyway, I hope it's not too terrible and look forward to hearing what you think. Thanks!

Jack was dreaming when it happened. Her dream started as it always had, silent darkness punctuated only by the faint glow of moonlight. She was surrounded, always surrounded, by the impenetrable black-gold wheat that rested just below her chest. She was free to roam blindly, the ground below hidden through the denseness of the field and insufficient ambient light. When the dreams first started there were times, when in her haste to escape the darkness, she would stumble and fall into the surrounding darkness. Her fear would escalate into paralysis and she would reach out desperately to level herself, but no support ever materialized within her grasp. It was then she knew she was drowning, falling, and still all at once. Any comfort she had received from the moonlight was gone, and would only return once she had awoken, glistening in a cold sweat beneath her opened bedroom window.

Once the dreams began it had taken weeks before she could contain her fear and keep from running, and even longer before she was able to explore the endless field. For the past 5 months this was how she spent her nights, wading through the inky darkness searching for any sign of escape only to find none. It was during one such dream that it happened. Jack had been wandering through the dark field, enjoying the sensation of the passing wheat brushing against her, the feel and sound of the earth crunching beneath her feet, when she stumbled for the first time in months. She was quick to catch herself, her panic having long since vanished at the thought of falling, but before the disorientation had left her a tremble moved through the field shaking her in the process. For the first time since the dreams began Jack was blinded by a sudden flash of light, and again stunned into paralysis by the deafening roar that rolled over her only seconds later. There was no time to shield herself from this unwelcome intrusion to her senses before she's thrown into reality to find herself sitting upright in bed, slick with sweat and covered in glass from the now broken window above her bed.

Jack squinted to adjust to the light covering every inch of her room, she didn't remember leaving the light on. She looked down at herself, took the in the shards of glass that sparkled in the light over her blanket and exposed skin and quickly glanced to the window above. It was daylight coming through the window, and it was that same daylight that now filled the room adding to her confusion. She ripped the thin shit she used away from her, sprinkling glass against the wall that her bed ran against and quickly planted her feet on the floor. In her haste she had not considered there being more glass below her and a searing pain soon shot through her body, and she just as quickly fell back onto the bed. Sitting once more Jack was again subjected to the ground shaking tremble and deafening groan form her dream. Recovering quickly Jack shifted onto her knees on her bed and leaned forward to try and find the disturbance that felt like what she had only previously imagined an earthquake felt like. One glance was all it took. From the 6th floor of her apartment building, where her modest one bedroom flat was located, jack could see the courthouse and neighboring bridge. This isn't possible, this can't be real. The bridge crossing was gone, and beneath it the waters frothed and waved from the force of the impact. In either directly she look she could see dust clouds racing through buildings only to spread across the horizon where they dissipated and lingered creating a haze across the sky. She sat back down, her mind racing trying to decide what to do with this newfound information. She reached for her phone and unlocked the screen only to be met with a notice that the network connection could not be found. She threw the phone down and began to again step off the bed, but quickly stopped when the pain from her already bleeding feet forced its way through her conscientiousness.

The room was still trembling from the aftereffects of what Jack had concluded must have been bombings nearby. She went to work on ridding the soles of her feet from the glass lodged there and tore off strips of fabric from the sheet she used to sleep with to bandage her feet. Watching for glass Jack was able to fumble her way out of the bedroom into the living space and quickly turned on her TV and switched to the local news station. We're trapped, there's no way out. Her mind went blank and her focus left her as the newscaster continued to report the details of the terrorist attacks that were continuing to rock Gotham. Only one thing was able to break through Jack's panic before she slumped to the floor to be consumed once again by darkness. The name of the man – no, not a man a monster - that was bringing her and the city to their knees.

Bane.