Child's game

Child's game

chapter one: into the dark alley

This just wasn't right, something was wrong

Or at least that was what Rebeca, a 9 year old girl, was thinking.

It was a rainy day in the streets of gotham city. That wasn't strange, it always rained in the tremendous metropolis, and Rebeca was used to that. For that reason she always carried an umbrella in her bag when goind to school, which was only a few blocks away from her house, so she walked instead of teking the bus or in a bicycle.

But the neighborhood wasn't the best one, on the contrary, it was very common to see robbers or thugs rambling the streets, but she knew which streets to avoid, so it was very uncommon for her to find trouble in her way home. Of course this at first caused a lot of strees in her mother, but after a while she decided that she could trust in the sense of security of her smart daughter.

Her father had died a month after she was born, so she didn't really cared about him. But it wasn't the case of her mother, who still, after 9 years, seemed to be mourning his dead.

But of course, none of this mattered to Rebeca during a Tuesday evening, on a rainy day, on her way home, coming from the recently finished scool time, and from saying goodbye to Miley, a girl from her class and her very best friend.

After leaving her school, she headed immediatly towards her house, taking the usual route, and puttng the umbrella over her head to avoid the very strong rain that was falling at the moment. But as she walked the long street that separated her from home, she realized that the street, usually full of people, even on rainy days, was completly empty, not even Harry, a hot-dog street seller and a friend oh her's, was there, and that was really weird.

It made her feel uncomfortable, she was used to the noise, to step into people while they hurriedly walked towards their own respective houses. But it wasn't happening today, today it was all silence, it was all strange.

Suddenly, as she passed in front of a dark alley, she heard something, it seemed like a very loud and humorless laugh. Curious, she stepped into the alley, trying to see were the strange laugh came from. As she stepped into the dark and narrow path, the more she felt uncomfortable, she looked up and stopped, there were people, all of them wattching towards the end of the alley from the windows of their houses. They were so focused on what they were seeing, that none of them noticed the little girl passing below them.

As she went ahead into the narrow, she noticed that straight ahead there seemed to be a group of people, with their backs towards her, and forming a circle around something. That was from where the strange laugh was coming from. Putting down the umbrella, she headed towards the circle.

They were like 40 people gathered there, all of them adults, looking strait towards the center of the circle, from were she now heard strange noises, like punches or squirms of pain. Knoew she was scared, but more curious than scared, so she kept walking, and she was now standing right outside the circle of men, behind a very tall man. She began to walk orund the people, but all she could see was that someone was at the midle, laughing like a maniac. She was only able to see his silouete, but she could tell he was a man by the spund of his voice, which had stopped laughing, and he was know talking, in a very weird way. The way that clowns spoked to tell jokes to children. She didn't like clowns, she found them scary.

"Well, well, well Harry" said the voice from inside the circle "what can i say to you? You failed me, and you know what happens to people that fail me" he laughed again, it made a chill run down through her spine. "but you know, you don't have to worry, because when the angels come to pick you up, or the little devils if you preffer, you'll be able to see your once beautiful daughter, and your never beautiful, but fat, wife" he said all of this in such careless way, that Rebeca saw the pocibility that the men reunited there could be atreet actors or something like that, but then she heard a very familiar voice.

"P..ple..p..please mister jocker, d..do..do... don't hurt me, i beg you" it was Harry, the hot-dog seller that she knew. She froze in her spot, what was going on? Were they hurting Harry?

"hmmmm" said out loud the clowny voice "let me think about it" she heard footsteps inside of the circle, "what do you think Mike?" he said suddenly, probably to one person she couldn't see "Should i hurt or not hurt little Harry here?" there was no answer, and she couldn't tell what they were doing inside of the group "and you Freddy? What do you think?" he asked to another person. This time there was an answer:

"I think you should let him go, you know?" said a man she couldn't see "Harry is a very nice fella, and knows when to keep his mouth shut"

"Hmmm, is that so?" it was the clown man now "hmmm, i still have my doubts about this subject, maybe we should take a more... exterior opinion about this matter. So guys please open up so we can pick our first participant" and with that, suddenly, right in front of Rebeca, the circle of men opened, reveling an horrible sight that made her frooze: there was Harry, drooped on the floor, blood running through his face and cloths. She noticed he was holding his right arm, but when she looked more carefully, she realized that there it was no arm, and it was a few meters away from were it was sopposed to be. Near him there were 2 women dropped on the floor, she recognized them immediatly, one was the 15 year old daughter of harry, she didn't moved, and when Rebeca saw more carefully her face, she realized that a scar was on it, as if it had been cutted with a butcher knife, but had been left at middle of the job. The other one was a fat woman, in her mid therties, she was Harry's wife, but she could only tell that because of the way the body was, because she could see that the woman had been decapitated. In the middle of all this, was a man.

This man was looking straight towards her, an smirk plastered on his face, which had been painted with white, and the eyes were surrounded by black makeup, which, beacause of the rain, had been moved, and now it was an strange mixture of black, white, and some red painting from the man's mouth. His hair was very long an messy, with a little bit of green on it, and because of the rain, it had taken a color of greenish brown. He was al dressed-up in purple and was holding a knife in one of his gloved hands.

She freezed in the spot, not knowing what to do, not thinking, and shaking in fear, looking at the dead bodies all wet and rotting, right in front of her, totally absort to anything that was happening around her. Not noticing thet the man in the middle of the circle was looking at her, smirking like a mad man.

"And what do we have here?" he said looking at the frightened girl, who didn't showed any sign of have listened to him. He began to walk towards her, laughing lowly "I believe you are not supoused to be here little lady" he kneeled in front oh her, but she didn't react, she was still in shock "hmm? What's the matter lady, why so serious?" he laughed again, enjoying enormously the frightened look on the girl's ayes, he then turned towards his men "gentlemen, i think we have our participant" grabbing the girl's hand, he dragged her towards the center of the circle, which closed after they entered it. She didn't react, she just let the man drag her around, shaking madly.

He located her right in front of Harry, who was surprised when he saw the little girl.

"Rebeca?" he said while fighting the horrible pai that the wound caused him "what are you doing here?" the man in purple noticed this.

"Oh!" he exclaimed smirking "so you know each other?" the situation was clearly very enjoyable to him "but the girl didn't showed any expression, this annoyed him. He waved his hand in front of Rebeca's face, but there was no change, he frowned "hmmm gues we'll have to take drastic action with this one" and once said that, he punched strongly on the face. She fell backwards, suddenly coming to her senses. Feeling the new pain on her check, and the hrrible situation she was in, she began to cry, she was scared, it was all like a very bad dream, almost like an illution, she just didn“t know what to do. She hugged her knees, preesing them against her chest, and hiding her face between them.

The man of the painted face, smirked at the sight of the terrified girl "aw come on! don't be scared little lady, we are just playing some games with our friend harry here, who seems to be your friend to, am i wrong?" but she just stayed the way she was, not moving, with her eyes closed desperately. The man sighed, clearly bored by the situation, he satnded up, thinking what to do, he looked at his men, asking them what to do, but they just shrugged, neither they knew what to do. Suddenly his face hilluminated, he kneeled beside her, and whispered to her ear"if you help us in this one, and play the way we want, you can just leave, and go back to your home" the little girl looked up, she was terified by the face of the man, but she had heared him.

"Y.. yo...y...you promise" she sai lowly, not daring to speak out loud. The man smirked madly, clearly complased by the answer of the little girl.

"Little lady" he said, standing up, and bowing in a very old fashion "i promise"

...

well that's the firs chapter, leave a review if you like,(idon't spect any), but at least read the story, because the first story is always very personal. Oh! and sorry by the bad way of writing, i'm a chilean you know, and it's very difficult for me to write in english. it's just that there aren't manystories of the dark knight in spanish, so i guess more people might read this story if y make it in english

if you have, (bow in an old fashion) thank you for reading.