CHAPTER 2

-Fallen from Grace-

...

The rain was falling, just as it normally did in Gotham. Well to Risa it was always pouring or cloudy in this god forsaken place. She was leaning with her arms on the window sill, head tilted and it laying across her gloved hands. They were fingerless neon pink and black striped gloves, her favourite pair.

She was watching birds in the sky, soaring with freedom and grace. A tear trickled down her face. Earlier she was so happy after her emotional release that the revenge on the man gave her. but everything had changed for her, she couldn't go home and she realised it now. To her Risa was still in the house, in the fire and she wasn't here at all. In all logic that was stupid really, she found herself laughing slightly but without any joy.

She stood and walked across the wooden flooring with hardily any sound due to her white converse shoes. If it was waxed it would of made them squeak but they looked bare and untreated.

Risa had ridiculously decided in the night she would collect some more things from her house, the gloves being one and converses another. She grabbed some other things as well but at the moment they were in a dark purple duffle bag, sat in the corner untouched. She couldn't bare touching anything yet, it was bad enough breaking into the house itself. Yes her own house was boarded up, some windows had been wrecked by the looks of it and she wondered if muggers had tried to enter it.

Her zone, her place of refuge had been entered! For her it was time for a new home. She couldn't go back there not when it had been violated.

Risa looked to her duvet that was laid out in the another corner of the room, the duvet was what she had slept on in the early hours this morning. She admitted it wasn't very comfortable but it beat laying on the floor itself which was dusty and without a carpet.

Then she looked at the soft toy rabbit she had tucked under the blankets and finally smiled with emotion. The poor thing, it looked so dirty! The pale pink fur was still showing but boy was it grey in alot of places and she went over to pick it up.

There was then a loud bang, she jumped and automatically hugged the rabbit in her hands. Creeping to the main door, she put her ear against it and listened intently. All she heard was footsteps walking away down the corridor behind the door and someone talking. Either they were talking to themselves or on a phone she couldn't tell in all honesty. Until she heard the man speak properly at the end she couldn't make out what he said.

"I'll see you soon. Alright, OK. I love you. I NEED to go" He spoke it all in a huff and said the I love you very begrudgingly.

She then heard more footsteps fade away and the slam of another door.

Risa padded over to the duvet, she sat on it cross legged and clutched the rabbit still in her hands. She creased her eyes shut, holding back tears but failed. They came slowly as she lay down on the duvet in a fetal position. She sobbed into the purple cushion below her face to hide the sounds.

"Some people have no respect for love" She spoke out loud in between sobbing.

What she'd give to love again, to feel that embrace, to hear some words of real emotion over a phone call. To experience the smiles, the laughter and the tears. Some had it so lucky and it burned her. Yet she saw it every day couples that were arguing, people taking others for granted and here she was just wanting to have love itself again.

Risa crawled over to the duffle bag, trying not to sob and unzipped the main compartment. She started rifling through the bag, she threw a few pieces of clothing on the floor to move them out the way.

She found it. There he was and she stared at him. She picked up the photo in both her hands, stroking the glass and tears streamed down her face. Her eyes held so much pain as she looked at him and then she placed a kiss over his lips on the photo. But that just brought her to sobs that came on so strong that she couldn't fight them.

She heard his laughter, saw his smile as if it was yesterday and his voice echoed in her head. She wanted him back, she wanted those days were she'd sit with him and discuss absolute nonsense until the early hours. Where it was just them and the world melted away. They would stumble outside having no sleep, heading to the local shop to buy of all things: sweets. Just like children, it would always be a bag of pick and mix sweets. Every time he bought sherbet flying saucers just to see her face cringe as he ate them. Once he even sneaked one in a cupcake, that he said he accidentally broke. This wasn't an accident of course, he ripped a section out and stuck the sherbet flying saucer in it and sat watching her. He started moving off the brick wall next to her when she bit into it and giggled like a child when he saw that face of disgust on her. She remembered shouting his name, throwing the cake on the floor and tried not to laugh as she chased after him down the street. She'd always laugh, because that's the way he was. He was an idiot like that, anything for a laugh and to get a reaction from her. All out of innocence and she was easy to wind up anyway.

Risa actually found herself smiling as she remembered it, she could almost feel the taste of the sherbet mixed with chocolate cake in her mouth from that day. Placing the photo back in the bag and shoving the clothing in.

She looked around at her surroundings. It had all gone wrong for her since the day he was taken from her. That is when it all began really, she has fallen from grace since then. Things just seemed to get worse rather than better and here she was even more alone. Sat in an empty, unused apartment, that smelt of dust and cheap air freshener.

Risa knew she couldn't stay here for long, squatting here was just a situation she had wandered into really. She was scared and tired when she found this place. The only way she knew it was available was when she walked up the metal stair case outside a window. She saw it was boarded up and found a crack which she looked through. And finding nothing was in it, no furnishings and she decided it was perfect. She was going to sleep on the stair case away from the ground of the city or even try to sleep on the roof top.

Now however this didn't seem so perfect, she felt trapped now it was daylight because she couldn't leave in case she was seen leaving. If leaving was going to happen she'd have to take all her things with her. In daylight this wasn't a good plan.

Risa found herself slowly pacing the floor now, thinking at a very fast speed and words started shouting in her head amongst her thinking. Words in this order: Idiot, dimwit, freak, murderer. Kill. Kill yourself. Kill them all!

Soon she was sat by the toilet feeling very sick and holding her head in her hands. This wasn't a new experience she always had this every now and then. It'd happen out the blue but sometimes it was triggered by something. Figuring out what made this happen and what didn't wasn't exactly easy and even her shrink told her to keep a diary, that she never remembered to write in the first place.

Standing up as the nausea subsided and pacing the floor again this time without words being shouted from somewhere, she then decided what to do with herself. Risa walked over to her abandoned soft toy rabbit and smiled at it lovingly. She stroked it's fur on it's head like it was real and sighed.

"You need a bath badly Candyfluff" She spoke to it like a friend and skipped to the sink in the bathroom.

She stood wide eyed over the sink, realising what she had done and listened hard. Worrying someone may of heard the taps of her feet on the floorboards. Freezing in place for a few minutes, she found herself shrugging it off and slowly turning the tap.

"Please have water" She prayed looking up at the ceiling.

She spied some cowebs and heard the water running after the noise of the air pushing through was over.

"Success!" She punched the air and stared at the dried up piece of soap.

She gave a disgusted expression, trotted off to fetch some shower gel out her duffle, drenched the bunny under the tap and rubbed a very small amount of the gel all over the bunny. She was humming as she scrubbed it with her hands and was actually enjoying herself. Risa took in a breath of the pineapple smell from the shower gel as she was cleaning the rabbit and started singing a kids cartoon theme tune about a sponge living inside a pineapple under the sea. She cleaned off the first load of suds, repeated the gel and clean offs about three times and she decided that was enough. Candyfluff the rabbit looked finally more it's pale pink self and her hands were somewhat black so washed her own hands

She was giggling to herself when wringing the water out of the rabbit with her hands and then sat the rabbit in-between the taps.

"Gee don't you look damn sorry for yourself" She commented as Candyfluff, looked shrunken, limp and of course dripping wet.

She hummed under her breath when it occurred she could do with a wash herself but using the shower would be too noisy.

Then there was a huge bang, this time inside the apartment and she nearly jumped out her skin.

"Who is in here?" A man yelled with a gruff voice.

Risa cursed under her breath, she knelt down and put her hand in her sock. Pulling out a pen knife from the black and purple long stripey sock. She was quick enough to flick the blade out as the man entered and she stood stock still. She couldn't breathe for a moment, when she looked at the old man before her she thought of her grandad. He was holding a walking stick in his hand like a weapon and she smiled.

"Kid what are you doing with that knife?" He asked in shock. "It isn't for me is it?"

Risa tried to keep herself together, she thought the best course of action was to act victim and see how it went.

"I thought who ever it was would" She swallowed on purpose. "Hurt me"

The old man lowered the stick in his hand to the floor, he shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

"Why are you here? You do know this is illegal kid" He tried to sound angry but she could see the concern in his eyes.

Eyes always give people away unless someone was really good at pretending they were feeling something else. The fact he called her a kid was irritating her but played him into her hands. He saw her as more young and innocent than she was, so she can use this to her advantage easily.

"I know it's just my house the other day was on fire and I had no where to go" It's not as if she was lying really but she held back the fact she had disposed of someone last night and she just slept here due to ease.

She felt upset really, tears formed in her eyes. The man before her sighed, he cast his eyes to the wall and then shuffled onto his right leg which was his strongest she guessed.

Risa thought she'd push it that extra mile just in curiosity how he would respond.

"I don't even want to go back in all honesty, it's a difficult choice to make. Being in a house that was lit on fire by someone else and wondering if they would do it again" Risa spoke with a wobble to her voice. She was half and half with this feeling, wasn't sure if going back was best or staying else where from now on. Both of these ideas had pros and cons. Risa felt slightly uncomfortable because she was opening up to this complete stranger and she looked towards Candyfluff the toy rabbit with a look of apology and this made the old man raise an eyebrow to her.

To make the situation less awkward and her seem safer to him. Risa put his mind at rest with a simple sentence.

"It's an old toy of mine from when I was a kid, it's making me think of my times in the house"

This was of course a lie, after all Candyfluff was very new and not from her childhood. She also had no childhood memories in that house because she never grew up there and all she was doing was playing with his emotions. She preferred talking to Candyfluff because he wouldn't judge her and was a great listener. Unlike some humans and not forgetting animals could be better company.

She decided to go further with what she said.

"It's such a big house for one person as well" She was trying to come across lonely to him.

Was she lonely? Sometimes but sometimes not, it was as always complicated.

She knew where she wanted to lead him and did her best to put on a heart broken smile and make him pity her more. She was heartbroken of course as she lost her family but currently she was feeling really numb inside.

"Well if you feel that way you could use this place, it's open for renting. You already should know from it being empty" The man chuckled a little.

Yeah this is what she wanted, this response from him. She then had an option to stay in her own home, all paid for by herself and yet stay somewhere else. Also with the amount of money she had at the moment she could have both. She had gained inheritance money from her family that could keep her comfortable for months upon months. Risa started to feel sad and pushed her thoughts back to the man with her.

She focused on the fact she was intrigued and entertained by how she had manipulated him with such ease. Risa was finding it very amusing and smiled to herself with a small sly little grin. The elderly gentleman looked at her with a quizzed expression until she made her smile a more genuine one. She didn't want him to think of her as anything but innocent because it played him into her hands nicely this way.

"So if I wanted to move in..." Risa began and left the sentence open for him to add to it or answer.

"Yes, yes you could move in any day from now. But the day you move in you have to sign the tenancy" The man spoke with a warming smile but still kept authority in his voice.

"Thank you, that would be brilliant. I'll think it over for a few days sir" She replied.

She picked up Candyfluff, opened her bag in the living room and wrapped him in a towel. Placed the wrapped bunny in the bag, collected her other items left around the apartment and sighed when the black bin bag had a rip in it when she tried to place her duvet and blankets in.

"Come down stairs, I can get you another bag" The man offered kindly.

Risa nodded in response to this offer, slung her purple duffle round her and gathered up the duvet in her hands. The elderly man took the blankets under one arm to help her and they made there way down the stair case. Risa took the blankets in the end as he was struggling and him falling down the stairs to her would be a nightmare to deal with. When they reached the bottom floor, the man was out of breath but continued to the office and came back out with a bin liner. Risa took it with thanks and said her fair well to him.

All bundled up with her things she made the dreaded walk to her house. She didn't know if this would be a good idea or not but she had to see if home was best or beginning a new.