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I had heard rumors of Wayne Manor. One claimed that ghosts lived in it. I guess that could be true since the décor of the manor did scream 'haunted.' But, I felt like the manor wasn't haunted, but was just sad. It seemed to be stuck in perpetual morning. I bet happiness hadn't entered it since the time Mr. Wayne's parents were alive. Terry had told me what had happened to them. They were shot right in front of Mr. Wayne. Terry said he never really got over it.
I felt sorry for him. His parents wouldn't have wanted this for him. To mourn them every day for his whole life—no, that couldn't have been what they wanted. I certainly wouldn't want any kids of mine to do that.
Mr. Wayne headed towards a little library and motioned for me to sit at the dusty table beside him.
"What I'm about to tell you, Miss Tan, must stay between us." His grey eyes glared at me. "Is that understood?" I nodded, sheepishly. "Very well." He pulled on a grandfather clock to his right and to my surprise, it opened. I could faintly make out a staircase going into a dark abyss. "This way." I got up and followed him into what appeared to be a cave. As I got closer, I could make out what looked like a car—Batman's car! When I reached the bottom of the steps, I realized that I was in the Batcave.
This was freaky.
"What is all of this?" I asked. "Who . . . who are you exactly?" I surveyed the whole area. I saw costumes from the original Batman era, remnants of the Joker's toys, and a huge computer with the words 'Connection Terminated' on it. There was no denying it. This was definitely the Batcave.
"Miss Tan, perhaps you should sit down." I sat in the computer's chair. Mr. Wayne looked me over and sighed once more. He obviously didn't want to tell me what was going on.
"Mr. Wayne, please explain everything to me. Please!" I pleaded.
"Alright," Mr. Wayne pressed a couple of buttons on his keyboard and up came video footage of the old Batman in action. "What do you know about Batman?"
"Not enough, apparently." I muttered. He glared again. "As much as an ordinary citizen knows. He protected us from the bad people in Gotham."
"Miss Tan, this Batman is me." He waited for a shocked response, but got none.
"I kind of figured you were." I admitted. "I mean, who else would have all this old stuff?" Mr. Wayne nodded and pulled up video of the new Batman.
"And what do you know about this Batman?"
"He's my savior." I reflected to the time Batman had saved me from certain death from a boy who had tried to keep me locked in with his rats.
"He's also something else, Miss Tan." His grey eyes gave me a sad look. "Batman is Terry."
A few minutes went by.
"No." I said frankly. "There's no way."
"He is, Miss Tan."
"No!" I protested. "Terry can barely handle saving his social life let alone Gotham City, there is just no way! I mean he's too busy running errands for . . . you."
It suddenly clicked. Terry with mysterious injuries, always leaving to go run 'errands', and always being late for everything. It was because he was out protecting Gotham and saving lives.
"Terry is Batman, Miss Tan, and those 'errands' are me letting him know what scum he has to stop and where."
Guilt overwhelmed me. I had been so hard on Terry, incredibly hard. My ultimate flake was Gotham's ultimate savior. I couldn't believe it. My carefree Terry was really burdened with saving Gotham?
"Where is Terry?" I asked quietly. Mr. Wayne sighed and pulled up a new video file.
"This is the last contact I had with him." He played the video. Terry was fighting some routine Jokerz. Suddenly, a blinding white light engulfed the screen and I could hear Terry screaming in agony.
Then, nothing.
"Is he--?!"
"Alive?" Mr. Wayne asked; I nodded. "Yes. That I know for sure." He pressed a few keys and a news video pulled up.
"Yes, folks. The top headline tonight is Batman. He recently stole some valuable jewels from the Museum of Ancient Artifacts." The video showed Terry flying out the store with a bright green jewel, cops hot on his heels. "The question on everyone's mind is whether our savior is a friend or foe?"
"Turn it off," I said quietly. I couldn't see anymore. "That wasn't Terry."
"I know." Mr. Wayne agreed. "That wasn't the Terry we know, but it was Terry's body." I tucked my hair behind my ears, something I did when I was stressed.
"I don't understand." Mr. Wayne typed on the computer and pulled up what looked to be vital signs. I saw the name, Terry McGuiness, in the top left hand corner.
"Look here." He pointed to a huge line in the middle that was moving up and down, like the machines that monitored heart rates. "This is Terry's heart behaving normally."
"That's how you know that he's alive." I surmised.
"Yes." He nodded. He pointed to a slightly smaller line to the right. It wasn't moving. "Now, that is Terry's brainwave activity."
"So, he's brain dead?" That didn't make any sense. Terry was moving around normally. Weren't people that were brain dead unable to move at all and in a coma of some sorts?
"No." Mr. Wayne shook his head. "I believe that Terry's body has been hijacked by something that had shut his conciseness away. If I'm right, then our Terry is just in a sleeplike state."
"A sleeplike state?" I asked.
"Yes, and if that's the case, we can jolt him back into control of his body."
"Ok, you lost me." I looked up at the frail man. All his hopes seem to rest on me. Why was that? "What do you want me to do? And how do you even know that Terry can be brought back?"
"Do you remember those needles at Terry's house?" I nodded. "Terry was the one who used them."
"What?" I gasped. "Terry would never!"
"Yes, he would." Mr. Wayne disagreed. "He did it to protect his family from himself and from the worry that his unexplained disappearance would've caused."
"Then, if that's true, why didn't he come to you or me?"
"He left me alone because he knew that I would find some way out of this mess for him, because I was Batman and I'm strong." He looked away for a second. "You . . . I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean?" Terry's actions weren't making any sense to me. I touched the necklace he had given me. I had to keep it together—for him.
"Maybe Terry was on his way to you when he finally lost full control. Or maybe he just couldn't bring himself to do it; but, I believe he left you alone because he knew I couldn't do it alone."
"Do what alone?" I asked, hopelessly lost.
"Bring him back from wherever his consciousness is locked up."
"And you believe I can do that?" Even I wasn't sure if I could bring Terry back. He seemed so far away from me and I was worried that there wasn't any way to bring him back.
"Yes, I do, Miss Tan." He replied confidently. "Terry loves you and you love him right?" I nodded. Why else did I put up with all the lies and excuses? It was because I couldn't stand to be away from him for too long. Terry had my heart from the first day I had met him. We had been so different then. He had been the 'bad boy' and I was the 'golden girl'. Sure, we had changed over the past two years, but one thing had not.
Our love for each other.
Terry and I had stuck together through the rough times—when his dad died, when I was flunking every single class, even when I had been kidnapped by rat boy—he had always been there for me (most of the time) just like I was always there for him. We had tried to see other people once, but . . . it didn't work out. We were meant for each other.
"Of course I love Terry."
"Well, Terry hasn't responded to me. He may respond to you." I stood up.
"What do you want me to do?" Mr. Wayne looked at me admirably.
"Are you sure, Miss Tan? It could be risky?"
"It's Dana." I replied. "And yes, I'm sure."
"Very well, Dana. Let me find him for you." He typed on the computer and pulled up a map of Gotham City. Quickly, a red circle appeared on the map. "He's back at the museum. Can you get to him yourself?"
"Yes," I answered. "I'll bring him back." I started to walk away, but Mr. Wayne stopped me.
"Take this earpiece. I'll be able to help you get past the police."
"Thanks." I grabbed the earpiece and popped it in quickly. "Wish me luck." I smiled; he frowned.
"I don't believe in luck . . . but, be careful." He went back to the computer and I walked up the staircase and ran through the whole thing again.
My boyfriend, the ultimate flake, was actually Batman. His 'errands' were him doing jobs as Batman. Now, he was trapped inside his own body and I needed to jolt his conciseness so he could regain control of his body.
It was all in the work for Batman's girlfriend.
Right?
Author's Note: Well, what did you think? I hoped it answered a lot of your questions. Review please!
