Chapter Twenty-One

"Drowning deep in my sea of loathing,
Broken, your servant I kneel.
(Will you give it to me)
It seems what's left of my human side
Is slowly changing in me
(Will you give it to me?)" -Down With the Sickness, Disturbed

He held out a gloved hand to me. I reached and paused half way. I looked back at Wayne Enterprises. He'd told me not to leave. I could still go back, and he'd never know. i could run inside right now and figure out one thousand and one ways to apologize. And then it'd be fine. I had actually lowered my hand an inch, when he spoke. "Go on, if you want. I'm not going to try and stop you anymore. Just remember, he'll never entirely forgive you. And you'll never entirely forgive him. He didn't believe you, but before that, you betrayed him. You'll never truly forgive each other. Ever. You've changed things. Just like the Batman himself. Except, I think he's changed things for the better." He laughed at me. "You certainly haven't."

I didn't want to believe him, but I knew he was right. I'd burned that bridge down down with Bruce and Batman, not that it made a difference if it was just one or the other, and I had definitely not made spectacular choices ever since that meeting on that long ago day. To be completely honest, a bull frog could've done a better job. A retarded bull frog who got crappy grades in Bull Frog School. I was the worst decision maker since the person who decided to name a planet Uranus.

But, as long as I was making bad decisions, one more couldn't hurt. With one last look at the building, I took his hand.

He grinned. "I'm so excited! I'm going to show you the delights of killing. You'll be a natural, I'm sure. All those lies you've been saying and all those bad deeds you've been doing lately will come in handy. You may go against the laws of 'civilized' humans faster than I originally expected."

My eyes widened. I wasn't a killer! NO WAY! And what did he mean by what he had "originally expected"?! Had he known I would come to him? Had he known he wouldn't kill me after all? I didn't understand how he knew so much, but I stopped thinking about it quite so much as he started dragging me by my hand into the shadows.

"We're going to rob a bank, an easy first assignment, not a mob bank, just your average, everyday bank. Shouldn't be too hard for you, as you used to virtually live at one." That was an exaggeration. But whatever.

"Ummm..Joker..dude? I'm not going to rob a bank." It sounded so lame when I said it out loud.

He looked at me for a whole minute before letting loose a laugh, hysterical, insane. "You are."

"No way!"

"It's a favor for me."

I paused. If no one was killed...it was just money, wasn't it? I could live without it, so why couldn't they? And besides, the banks owed me. They needed to learn there lesson from when they had allowed someone to steal from me. Who better to help me take my revenge than the very freak who had stolen my money?! And besides, I didn't know how safe I actually was with him, so I decided to keep on his good side. Not that he had one. But then, he didn't really have a bad side either... I sighed. "Fine. But just don't kill anyone?" I'd meant it to be a statement, a command, but it had come out a question, a plea.

He grinned. "We'll see. I'll make a killer of you yet."

I shuddered and he kept smiling at me. How could I love this freak?! He was stealing money from innocent people, and probably killing some in the process. But these were vague thoughts. I was amazed by how little I cared. Instead I was focusing on his assisstance of teaching me his ways, of his determination to turn me into his accomplice. I didn't understand it, why he was suddenly so keen on keeping me alive, but changing me. And I couldn't help but wonder... Was this his form of affection?! Some twisted, slightly creepy and disturbed way of saying he cared about you? By simply keeping you near him, and alive? Or was he just doing this for the sole purpose of having fun? Was this some strange form of a family outing, going to rob a bank? I was so confused.

He explained what he was going to do, and that I could just watch, if I truly wanted, but that I would learn eventually that the only way to live in this world was with no rules at all. I was starting to agree with that, privately, but didn't dare say it out loud. He gave me an ugly mask and told me that it was the official uniform. I told him there was no way in hell that I would wear it, and he just laughed and said in an annoyingly sing-songy voice that i would be sorry. Right. Whatever.

Then he took my hand and once again dragged me towards the bank. My heart did little fluttery things as his strong hand held mine, and I almost floated. Holding tighter to his hand than was usually necessary, we walked threw the big front doors.

And there started my life of crime.

A/N: Haha, not over yet! Geez, I keep changing how many chapters are left. Six or less for sure! (probably) So yeah, I've had my school schedule change like sixty three billion times since yesterday, and now I'm in an art class with about ten problem boys and three other girls. And I had a flippin cow. XD and i was in class with three of my good friends, but now I'm in class with my exboyfriend and his friends. But the schedule is probably changing again tomorrow. Oh, we had to write about ourselves in Spanish, and I told about my story because it, along with my lovely reviewers, are one of the most important things in my life right now, and then my teacher told us we had to trade papers and that the person who got our paper had to read some of it. I nearly died. WHO DOES THAT, I ASK YOU?! I wish she'd at least told us other PEOPLE would read it before I wrote a flippin autobiography. but anyways. ONE HUNDRED PLUS REVIEWS! i woke up this morning at 5:30 and I had 100 and I was flipping dancing. lol. I almost missed my bus because of you guys. :D Anyways, this chapter was mostly just a bridge chapter thing, you know, one that sort of connects things?? yeah, one of those. So yeah. Sorry if it wasn't very action packed, or interesting, or anything. OHHH, i wanna tell you guys this random thing;; my friend wrote a paper in her reading class about herself and her best friends and she called me a 'Scene Barbie' and she said all these super nice things about me! And she said that I was an awesome writer! XD I LOVE YOU SARA!! (she reads this story everyday, my only friend who does) Christ, this is an effing long ramble, sorry bout that! One last thing;; LET'S SHOOT FOR ONE HUNDRED FIFTY REVIEWS!! lol, jkjk, sort of... i don't think there are enough chapters left to do that...not that I've written them yet. XD so anyways, i love you guys! i would've never gotten this far without you!!

Love with all my heart, Charlotte aka WhySoFreakingSerious