Two

When my brother was thirteen and decidedly "hardcore", he carved the word "anarchy" into his door with a kitchen knife. It didn't take long for my mom to find out and she was pissed as hell. I still remember her wailing on him for it. It was sort of funny, but only because it wasn't me she was mad at.

"Do you think we own this house? No, Mr. Rodriguez is kind enough to let us rent, even after… Well, this isn't our property to do this to and you know that, Mike!" she would remind him over and over again in varying volumes. My brother swallowed it like a bitter pill, but I didn't.

If murder charges hadn't kicked us out of the house, then a little "vandalism" sure as hell wouldn't. Plus, we had done stupider things to the place. And Rodriguez had the hots for my mom, he'd be more lenient on us.

One night I confronted her about it and she confessed. "I don't like the idea of your brother carving something like that into the wall," she admitted.

"Something like what?" I had asked.

"Anarchy," she told me. "You might have been too young to remember what it was like before… well, when the mobs ruled. Before the Dent Act. I know you've heard about the fear toxin released on the Narrows, and what the Joker did, but do you remember?"

I had to confess that I didn't. Everything before my father's arrest was like a blur to me.

"That was anarchy," she said. She sighed heavy and bit her thumb. "And it was awful."

I didn't really know what she was talking about back then, but when Bane let loose and Gotham turned in upon itself, I sure as hell learned fast.

I had heard that Bane said that he was giving Gotham back to its people, but in reality he took Gotham away from its people. The streets weren't safe anymore. Not at night and barely during the day. Sometimes the electricity didn't run. People were stocking up on food. Sometimes we froze at night.

Shit was fucking ballistic, I swear.

My mom didn't let us out of the house. She took our gun with her – it was something like a rifle, I don't really know. We got it after the family of the people my dad killed sent us death threats. My mom wanted to be prepared. It had been mostly useless. But now it served a purpose, even if it was kind of a shitty one. Anyway, she took it with her when she had to scrounge for food. She didn't come home with a lot. She would talk about how she hoped the government would get their asses to Gotham and either take down the son-of-a-bitch Bane or give us some goddamn disaster relief food.

We were all hungry as hell and loud about it, so one morning she took the gun and went out looking. I had control of my brother and that was a task because he was getting harder and harder to control. He would text with his friends and they'd tell him about wild-ass parties that were going down and how all of this cool shit was happening. He was pissed as shit about the fact that he wasn't out there screwing hot babes and fucking the currently-trapped-underneath-Gotham police.

But Mike was asleep when she left and I was trying to draw my "emotions" when I heard a knock at the door. I know it's kind of stupid, but this really fresh jolt of fear sort of zapped into my heart. There was another knock and my muscles were getting ready to grab a kitchen knife and try to defend myself when they inevitably broke through the door to rape and pillage.

"Missus Hale, it is just me!" I heard someone yell. I was able to relax. It was Mr. Rodriguez, the landlord. I smoothed my hair to try and make it presentable.

I opened the door as far as the chain lock would allow me to. Mr. Rodriguez stood in what appeared to be a jogging suit with his arms crossed over his chest. "Hey," I greeted him. I had the dull realization that he was the first person outside of my immediate family I had seen since Bane took over.

"Miss Hale, my apologies. Is your mother home?" He seemed darty and nervous. I didn't undo the chain lock.

"No, sorry," was all that I said. He looked down and bit his lip. "My brother was in Blackgate. He knew your father."

I didn't really know where exactly he was headin' with this, but he caught my attention. "So?"

He rubbed his hands together. "He just told me this. In person. He's out." And then he told me something that would change my fucking life. "And so is your father."

yay crane next chapter!

thank you so much for the reviews, you have no idea how much it means to me!
an anonymous reviewer, Zeny, mentioned that the grammar is actually pretty good and I'm going to reply to that here.
thank you! that's what i'm aiming for. (: this story is also un-beta'd, so many errors come from that.
it might also be a little weird because of her narrating. (: