Chapter 2:

The short pain in her bandaged wrist evaporated as fast as it had come and her muscles relaxed. Anna sighed and sank against the cold wall and then she wrapped herself with her healthy arm and wiped the remaining tears from her face.
She closed her eyes and abandoned herself to the reassuring effect of the Ketamine-mixture that pumped through her veins.

Her headache passed and her strained senses switched off; slowly the drug suppressed the painful memories of the past night.

Richard didn't get it.

After she had escaped from the cave of the stranger, she went back to search for her brother. Like her, he had fallen into the hands of Falcone's thugs, but no one had come to assist him. She had found him at the exact spot, where they had left him. The blood pooled where he had collapsed—dead.
For what seemed like an eternity, she sat by his side and called his name, shook and begged him to wake up. But no dying words escaped his lips—no reaction to her pleading. Finally she had broken down exhausted beside the dead frame of her brother and had fallen asleep.

Policemen had woken her and scared her away, she barely managed to escape with Richard's jacket and his dose, then she came upon the place she called her home. The gravel covered spot under the large bridge was a popular place for homeless people and junkies like herself. Only few were here so early in the morning, but Anna was not interested in seeing anyone.
Nothing else mattered to her but to escape the stinging pain in her heart.

If the masked one would not have emerged, she probably would have died at the side of her brother. She was still conflicted about whether she should be grateful that he had saved and sustained her, or whether it would not have been better, if he had just left her behind.

After she came around, the memory of the masked shape had only been a blur and she had feared that she had been kidnapped and taken to one of Falcone's hiding places. Only after she had found a way out of the cave, her memory had returned slowly.

At the moment she felt better, her thoughts didn't weigh so heavily on her soul and the stitched wound on her head was nothing more than a weak throbbing. She pulled her brother's jacket tighter around her thin body and let her weak head sink down onto her chest.

No more pain, no more fear. Silence. Peace. Sleep.


As Anna opened her eyes the sunset dazzled her. Her head hammered once more and as she rose from her uncomfortable position on the cold ground, pain shot through her bones. She blinked and her environment was clear and distinct again.

Anna sighed and wanted to get up on her feet, when she noticed a man was her side, huddled at her legs. She looked at him with indifference and pulled her legs out from underneath him and rose. She yanked the hood over her head and made her way toward the city.

She needed money, she thought as she walked.

The days flew past. Anna made her way through the city and begged or tried otherwise to get money or even just something to eat. The only thing that distinguished these days from each other was the isolation. The deep emptiness inside her, that made her do things,she had never done before.

Anna needed the drugs to numb the pain of Richard's death; they replaced the missing meals and torturous feelings of hunger, thirst, and loss.

She had even considered the idea of using her body to get the drugs she needed so badly. Some men had told her, she would be worth a decent amount of money. She also knew she could even persuade a Dealer to take her body as payment and in addition there was always the possibility of getting a hot shower.

One month had passed since Richard's death and Anna's encounter with the now notorious bat, soon after her encounter with the vigilante she had learned his identity—the Batman.


The winter approached and snow started to fall softly on the ground. Anna had procured some blankets and crouched in the area under the bridge. A tramp, who had taken seat beside her, lightly touched her on the shoulder.

Anna turned to him trembling like a leaf, even the drugs could not shut out the freezing cold.

"What?" She asked her teeth chattering.

The old man pulled out a cup and tilted it toward Anna, she took in the contents of the cup and observed a steaming liquid in it. Gratefully she took it and gulped down the hot beverage. She had burned her tongue, but the drugs suppressed the stinging ache a bit. She returned the cup to the man and gave him a small smile and he just nodded and poured out some more of the liquid from a battered can.

Anna could not say what she had drunken, though it left a bitter taste on her tongue and warmed her stomach immediately. She let her head fall back to the wall and closed her eyes.

Not much later a strange feeling woke her from a shallow sleep, and Anna opened her eyes but closed them instantly. Her whole world turned around her, her stomach revolted and Anna rose swaying. Perhaps this was a reaction to her haggard body or an accidental overdose she thought, as she supported herself against the wall and stumbled out from under the bridge. Anna lifted her head up in the freezing air and tried to breathe deeply.

The feeling of dizziness did not leave and slowly nausea ascended. Anna leaned over the shrubs at the river bank and choked, but her stomach was empty. She just spit out a little liquid. Suddenly the beverage, the old man had given her, came to her mind.

She then became suspicious that there was alcohol in whatever she had ingested and it seemed she unknowingly mixed the drugs with alcohol. A deadly mixture if too much of either is taken. Tears of fear and pain came to her eyes and exhausted, Anna fell to her knees.

A thick blanket of snow had begun cover the ground, but she did not notice the cold and snow slowly soaking through her clothes. Everything blurred before her eyes and she tried to pull herself up, but there was nothing she could hold on to.

Half unconsciousness and trembling she fell into the snow. Her senses fade and the last thing that went through her mind was Richard's smiling face and his hand stretched out through the darkness.


Bruce turned up the collar of his jacket and tucked his head trying to block out as much of the cold as possible. Within hours and incessant snow began to fall coating the city in white,but even so, Bruce had to get out of the house. As was with the rest of the city, he had finally taken a few days of vacation and the criminals seemed to be deterred due to the weather.

Bruce became bored alone at home though, with only Alfred as companion. There was no denying that Alfred was great company, but the Englishman was more like a caring father to him, a friend, but not one he would want to have a drink with. Also his usual female companions had not been satisfying him at the moment.

Bruce had thought about the girl that he had saved weeks ago. He had been concerned about her sudden disappearance at first, but since he hadn't seen her afterwards, the concern had been gradually dispersed by other things that had demanded his attention. The young woman had intrigued him a strange way, she had been very pretty despite her neglected exterior. If she did in fact live on the streets, she had not been doing so for very long by the looks of it. If she was still on the streets, he hoped that she had found a hideout in this weather.

He buried his hands deeper into the pockets of his coat, and made his way across the large bridge on the outer edge of the city and looked around and admired the white landscape. Out here there were very few people, and when he did see anyone, they didn't think he was Bruce Wayne. It was rare that the city made such a clean and peaceful impression, no matter which persona he was in.

Below him just out from under the embankment Bruce noticed a strange dark spot in the snow. From a distance it looked like an animal, lying there in the snow. When he bent over the railing to get a closer look, he recognized that it was in fact person, who lay motionless on the ground. His instinct urged him, to check and see if everything was alright and if the person was even still alive. It wasn't uncommon for the homeless to drift off in the snow and never awaken.

He arrived at the end of the bridge, then descended the lateral steps and approached the shape quickly but carefully. A bad feeling rose within him, when he recognized the long dark hair, which was fanned over the lifeless body. Bruce knelt down on his knees and grabbed the familiar form by the shoulder and briefly he held his breath as he saw his suspicions confirmed. In front of him in the snow was the young woman, still breathing, but very pale with blue hued lips.

Bruce didn't hesitate and lifted the girl into his arms. She was lighter than he remembered, Bruce thought as he hurried in the direction of his car, hoping that there was something that could be done to help the mysterious, broken woman and thankful for the fact that the streets were vacant.


When Anna awoke several hours later she felt so weak that she could hardly open her heavy eyelids. It took all of her strength to take in her surroundings as she was lying in a darkened room, being swallowed up by heavy blankets and an enormous bed. Her whole body felt hot and she felt terrible.

Anna groaned as a sudden bright light dazed her and she draped an arm over her eyes. She heard steps as they approached and inch by inch slid her arm off of her face. What she saw was a man in a trim black shirt looking down at her and for a short moment his warm brown eyes seemed familiar to Anna. He smiled at her softly and his broad shoulders occupied her whole sight. She watched his slender face with his dark hair combed off of his high forehead and decided that he was not familiar to her.

He reached out his hand and placed it gently on her forehead.

"Your fever has gone down. How do you feel?" He asked.

Anna squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate on his deep, agreeable voice, her head was in a fog and she began to whisper to herself incoherently.

Finally, she said something intelligible but very simple, "Crappy."

The man's smile became broader, "It'll be ok, but I think you should rest a few days. That means to stay in bed and get something to eat. You look terrible."

His voice became faint and Anna could hardly understand what he was saying. She had felt him completely remove the arm from her face and the room darkened again, as she drifted into a deep and healing sleep.


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