"I'm leaving. Do not fret if I don't return."
Jude nodded, barely paying attention as Jonathan shrugged on his thick woolen jacket and pushed in his chair. She kept her eyes glued to the next paragraph of the old magazine.
"I printed an article in there once. It was not my best work, but more inspired than the other trash I skimmed while reading." He said haughtily as he lingered in the doorway.
"Congrats," she sighed, not taking her eyes away from the article. It wasn't one that he wrote. That had been the only word she had spoken to him since a small thank you for the breakfast he had made.
He pursed his lips and turned on his heels. Once the clicking of his shoes had gone away she threw the boring magazine onto the table and cradled her head in her hands. It seemed as if an infinite amount of time had passed since Corvus had come out last. The only part of the absence that had frightened her was how lonely she felt. She had had plenty of company from Jonathan who had barely stepped from the workhouse in the last week or more. Every time she thought about leaving her will betrayed her.
The last hit man had given her actual information other than who they had been working for.
There was a group coming for her, and it wasn't the cops. The paper said that her threat was growing, but they still had bigger folks to chase after. At this point she didn't want the GCPD or Batman to think that she was a bigger threat than she was.
"It's not even my fault!" She cried as waves of anger sloshed through her.
Everything was boring without the nagging childish voice egging her on. Her existence was becoming more and more lonely with every waking minute and she began to slowly feel the same emptiness that had overcome her when she had first traveled to Gotham.
"You're being dramatic." Jude sighed.
Anyone could see that.
She almost jumped at the sound of the voice.
"You're back?"
Maybe it had just been a trick, she thought.
"I'm not a trick." The words cooed from Corvus this time. "Ya know, I was just a lil' disappointed after I didn't get to see Scarecrow," she giggled, "Didn't mean ta make ya worry like that."
"Why are talking like that?" Jude sniffed.
She could feel Corvus shrug, but there was no response. For a moment she was scared that it had retreated back away from her for another extended period.
"We should go out."
"Dunno, I hear there's a bounty out for us."
"We haven't left the house in a long time. I'm bored of this." Jude was concerned that she was sounding more and more like a child.
"You could have gone out without me, you know." It smirked, mocking her.
"I...I couldn't. Y-y-you can fight better than me, and there's a big group looking for you now." She cursed the stutter that escaped. With every second that ticked by she felt weaker and weaker.
"How sweet! I guess I'll help you out then. Let's go."
It felt as though she was being pulled from her chair by some outside force. She was pulled down the hall into her room. Her hands rooted through the dresser on their own accord pulling out a black cotton turtleneck leotard which she couldn't recall ever seeing before, sheer dark gray stockings, and dark pants to go over them. The battered tennis shoes she had worn every day since arriving were kicking off as the hands that seemed further and further out of her control picked out a sturdy looking dark brow boot.
Everything was rushed and fast forwarding like she was watching through the television screen once again. Corvus didn't say anything as she buzzed around the room, slipping on a coat and grabbing the gun from her purse. She tore through the desk, pulling out a small case of soft black charcoal hidden among the pens and papers that had been in the desk since before her. The black stained her hands as she crushed it into powder between her fingers.
Jude wanted to ask what she was doing, but couldn't bring herself to open her mouth the slightest bit.
She rubbed the powder into the crease of her eyes and under her cheekbones and upon her chapped lips. The rest was smeared over her hands, making them almost entirely black.
They marched down the hall to the door which was conveniently left unlocked.
"He did this on purpose." Jude almost stopped herself from opening it. She cursed as they stormed down the steps. "Jonathan probably set this entire situation up just to-"
"Oh, calm yourself. You know that he had other interests and business."
The second door leading to the alley beside the warehouse was open as well.
Words spilled out from Corvus quickly. "Do you wanna know why I came back?"
Jude remained wary, but nodded slightly. Cold wind that smelled of sewage and diesel hit her square in the face. The city was wretched and stale like the other part of her.
"I know that Scarecrow will have to see me after this is all through with. This is big, and he won't be able to contain himself." A screeching laugh tore through the abandoned street. "We'll finally be together."
"Until we go to jail." Jude scoffed.
Corvus continued freely, ignoring the comment. "I can just tell this is the last straw. Then that little girl will come out and fight us for real, and then he'll see. He'll force his way to the front, and Jonnie won't stop him. The four of us will be so in love, it'll be such a-"
"That's not love."
"What would you know?" She bit back.
Jude sighed and pulled the collar a little tighter around her neck. Her feet were taking her in a direction she had never walked before.
"Jonathan and I will never fall in love. Not just with each other, I don't believe either of us could fall in love with anyone. You and Scarecrow, now you two barely know anything about the real world so how could you? The both of you are just broken, overused pieces of armor that the two of us needed when we were younger. The only thing the two of you desire is to kill, protect and satiate whatever primal sexual needs I and Jonathan could care less about."
Corvus sighed dramatically and flung her arms out. "Don't be so huffy with me. I might just slip away again, and this time-"
"Wait! I'm s-s-sorry." Jude ran a hand down her face and through her choppy hair. "Let's just get this over with."
Jude ignored the wanted posters with the blurry profile of her face plastered in every other window or lamppost. The press had even come up wit a few names for her, although no one had recognized her. Every article laced with vague details of the gore and filled with the growing list of innocent victims.
What if some of those people are innocent? I barely remember even seeing most of their faces or hearing them...
Do you think that I would kill an innocent person?
She shrunk into herself upon hearing the clipped voice. It was a wonder the people passing by her on the street didn't notice as she shifted uncomfortably and moved her silent lips to say the words in her head.
Little by little the people began disappearing until she was left completely alone. Her feet ached from walking for hours and the acrid smell of sewage wafted up from the sidewalk. The abandoned buildings surrounding her on all sides seemed to close in as her breathing became shaky and uneven.
"Hey! You!"
Little black dots faded her vision as a man jogged out of an alley to steady her arms. Muscles tensing and awareness coming back rather suddenly she jerked away. It was obvious that the man was dressing in trash clothes on purpose. His face was well-groomed and his hair was cut by a profession. He had beautiful dark skin and gorgeous cheekbones.
"You alright? I just...I...actually I think you should come with me."
She nearly regretted what was to come next. His hand reached behind him to pull into his back pocket.
It's a gun. Shoot him.
So she did. One resonating boom in the empty street followed by the static of the radio that had fallen from his hand. It filled her head with a faint buzzing that echoed and bounced around until she was almost dizzy again. Her mouth gaped at the red splotches on her hands. The wet spray upon her face was already becoming sticky.
There were more shouting voices pouring from the alleys and streets. She couldn't control her hands as she pulled the trigger four more times. More splashes of liquid copper covered her flesh. Salty tears fell down from her eyes looking down at the three men and women at her feet. None of them had weapons. All of them had radios. While she heaved back a sob another strong voice boomed from behind her.
The look of terror on the man's face was burned into her murky black eyes as she reached forward and slashed through his throat. Hands sunk knuckle deep into the burning flesh an inhumane gurgle and scream tore out of his broken neck as she plunged her hand deeper still weeping. She pulled out her bright red hand and sniffed.
Everything began to blur again as sprays of red shot out from each and every person who approached her. Jude knew what they were, but she couldn't stop. It was too late. Corvus had a plan, and wasn't going to stop until every threat had been terminated.
As she pulled both arms out of a woman's stomach and pushed the corpse the the stained pavement she fell to her knees. The only thing she could smell was the blood staining her face and hands. She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, only to get more burgundy stains streaked upon her face.
"Let's rest for now." Corvus whispered. It sounded just as exhausted as she felt. "No one will even come by. This is all deserted. Just go to sleep. We'll be home when you wake up."
If home was a high security prison with soft walls then Jude was home when she woke. Her clothes had been changed and there were handcuffs on her cracking brown hands. The blood hadn't been washed from her yet. Though her mind felt groggy everything was eerily calm. Twitching cameras ghosted over her waking body as she struggled to stand upright in the cell.
Corvus was silent.
Her own thoughts were silent as well.
It was as if time itself had stopped just so she could suffer in this empty hell.
After hours or days or minutes the door to her hell was opened to slightly darker hell. Two men the size of mountains brooded into the room carrying larger cuffs for her arms and legs. Her tears had been exhausted and her limbs were still too heavy to move quickly enough to fight back. And Corvus. Corvus was still silent.
Her dry tongue couldn't move to ask them where she was or what was going on. She wasn't dull, it was obvious, but the question still loomed. Jude's feet scraped along the concrete floors as she was dragged out. The newly added shackles weighed down her aching arms and feet enormously. Clamps kept her fingers from even twitching.
She kept her eyes locked on the dark floor until they stopped walking.
Two murmuring voices were behind the stark white door before her. Sweat began to pool under her scraggly matted bangs as the voices silenced. The guard on her left, who smelled to much like antiseptic, knocked twice. A sharp click of heels echoed in the closed room for a moment before the door was swung open.
"Hi, I'm Doctor Joan Leland, we're going to be doing a little psych evaluation. It'll only take a few moments."
Jude nodded numbly as the guards released her into the room. A wrinkled old white man wearing a doctor's coat huffed and shuffled out of the room once Jude had made it only a step past the door way. The room was just as empty as the cell she had just been in. Metal walls and two cold metal chairs seated across from one another at the table sitting in the middle. A long shiny black wall across Jude's chair glowered down at her. She understood everything that was happening and everything that needed to happen. Even all the way out at Stryker's she heard stories about the prisons in Gotham. Everyone knew that if you wanted to be treated halfway humanely you needed to stay as far away from Blackgate as possible.
"Now," Joan's voice cut in through her thoughts, "I'm sure they haven't even told you why you're here, have they?"
Jude shook her head a little too fast and struggled to make a noise that vaguely sounded like no. She shifted her eyes away as Joan smiled politely and sat down in the seat facing away from the window.
"You're currently in the Blackgate Penitentiary. Do you know why you're here?" She sounded so confident and businesslike in everything she said. Jude knew how it was, but right now she couldn't act like she knew what was going on.
"Sorta'," she mumbled out.
"Tell you me why you think you're here today?"
Jude shifted under her strong, dark gaze. Her persona felt suddenly split again. She was the scared little girl before everything happened. Her mother wasn't dead yet, Jonathan wasn't hiding her up in a cabin, she wasn't in charge of one of those most important prison facilities on the west coast. Her heart quivered under her chest and her palms were sweaty.
"She told me to kill those people." Her voice was shaky and tight. "I just came here so that I could die, but she kept me alive and then whenever anyone would try to hurt me she would take over and protect me."
Dr. Leland nodded pensively and motioned for her to continue.
She sighed heavily, trying to keep herself from sobbing. Now she wasn't sure if this was an act or not. The truth had been there in her last sentence, though partial, and now it was all a matter of continuing it.
"Do you know how many people you have killed?"
Jude bit the inside of her cheek until she drew blood, then spoke up.
"No, I think I could estimate, but I don't really remember." Liar. "If I tried to count the times when she took over I might be able to."
"Do you experience any kind of blackout or memory loss while she is in control?"
"Mostly yes. I can still feel my body, but it's not really me. This voice just comes out and I can't control what I'm doing, however..." she cleared her throat to get rid of the clawing remarks Corvus was itching to blurt out, "I can still kinda see it."
"Tell me how you see it?"
"It's like a blurry movie. Or like a really far away drive-in theater."
The doctor nodded once again and paused her for a moment to pull out a tiny notebook.
"Are you currently on any medication?"
"No, I'm not."
"And your drug screen came up clean," she murmured to herself. "Do you have any friends or family here?" A tight smile crossed her face.
Jude grimaced and shook her head lightly.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm from Metropolis. The only friends I had were there."
"Why did you leave?"
"I...uh...I was fired and alone, and thought that maybe I could...I wanted to die."
Dr. Leland nodded almost sympathetically.
"Where do you live now?"
"Nowhere." She answered too quickly. "At first just in alleys and things like in the Narrows, but now I just stay in this old warehouse I found."
"Do you have any family at all who we would be able to contact?"
Jude shook her head again with a slight shrug.
"Not that I know of. My mother died when I was younger and my father left, but someone told me later that he was dead too a few years ago."
"What is your name?"
"Judith Van Ripper."
Lies...
She fought the urge to shush Corvus as the words slipped from her mouth.
"Should we contact anyone?"
"Please don't, unless you really need to. I don't want my friends to know that I've become some monster. They can't know."
Dr. Leland looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding her head. "I'll do everything I can." As she stood Jude went to reach out to her, only to be stopped by the heavy shackles.
"Please, wait! Can you tell me what's going to happen next?"
Dr. Leland took a deep breath and smiled ruefully. "I think that you'll be coming with me. I'm just going to leave for a little bit, and when I get back I can tell you for sure, alright?"
Jude hurriedly nodded. "Okay, thank you." She kept her eyes wide, scanning the room. Behind the shaded glass she could feel them all staring at her, but kept her eyes from gazing over it too long. They would take that the wrong way. She bit her lips over and over until they bled as she waited.
Jonathan is going to be upset.
But Scarecrow...
"Shut up." She whispered heatedly.
Ok, so that was a pretty lame ending to be honest.
Review Responses
-eveapplefield (I didn't want to accidentally send this to the wrong person, and you weren't logged in so I wasn't completely sure) on ch. 1,2: Honestly, reading over the first few chapters I totally agree with you. I wasn't being too technical or detail oriented when I wrote them, and someday I'd really like to rewrite those first few chapters especially. I really appreciate the review and criticism though just to let you know so thanks!
