A/N: Thanks for the reviews! NOTE (for All Nightmare Long)! Jack is 18, Bruce is 18, John is 17, Harley is in her late 20s, Pamela is in her late 20s, Rachel is 17, Harvey is 18. That's about it for ages!
That night I'd dreamed of them.
My parents, I mean.
There they'd been standing, in our living room still scattered with remnants of wrappers and other things no one bothered to pick up. All was dark outside, the window still shattered from where a baseball had collided with the glass. My baseball.
Mother had just arrived minutes prior to my entering the fateful living area from one of her dead-end jobs as a whore, and Father was walking in from the doorway from his most recent drinking binge.
I cringed, second-guessing myself as I wanted to turn my 12-year-old self away, and run back into the kitchen. But just as I was about to, a stern hand grabbed the back of my shirt, whipping me around and slapping me without a moment's hesitation. Mother's onyx eyes darted down my form, inspecting me, to make sure nothing other than the window was out of line. I felt that if I even blinked wrong, there'd be hell to pay.
But instead, being the way Mother was, she just turned to Father, pursing her lips and snapping a little "get over here, Tom."
The tall, dark figure that loomed over my helpless young form lumbered towards me, bending down to stare me in the face. At first he didn't say anything, but all of a sudden, out of the blue, he yelled "Jackson Victor Napier! What the hell you call that?!" he asked, although he damn well knew the answer, pointing a chubby finger towards the shattered window. A feeling of regret lingered in the pit of my stomach, and I wished to have never gotten the idea to play baseball that day.
Father only called me by my full name when he was really mad, and this was one of those times. Usually he and Mother just called me "Boy" or "You", or something rather derogative and shameful. My full name had only been used once since I could last remember, and that was the time I'd accidentally lit the curtains on fire when I'd been playing with Mother's cigarette matches.
"Answer your father," Mother demanded, eerily calm, yet extremely dark. I shook violently, my eyes looking from Mother, to the floor, and then to Father's grim, usually lifeless eyes that were now incinerating with rage.
"I... It's a...b-broken...window."
"Damn straight! And how did that window get broken, Boy?!" There goes my name. You'd think it'd be very angering to be called something like "Boy" or "You" or even "Thing", but it actually comforted me. Jackson Victor Napier, now that was a name. It made me feel like a person, a somebody. But really, it felt better to be no one, a faceless "Boy" or "Thing". I'd rather be no one than Jackson Victor Napier, if Jackson Victor Napier was the spawn of Lucille Ann and Thomas Napier.
After an explanation that was rather pointless because Father didn't even listen or even take the fact that it was an accident into judgment, I retired to my room, or rather the cot in the basement, after one of the worst beatings of my life, and drifted off into a well-needed sleep.
I woke up to see a darkening sky poking through the ratted-out curtains of the hotel room. Johnathan was nowhere in sight – he must have went home hours ago. After questioning about what exactly Pamela had poisoned me with, and receiving the antidote, I fell asleep almost immediately. I turned around. Harley was laying next to me, blonde hair strewn across her face and shoulders. I leaned over her to place a kiss upon her forehead, then made my way to get out of bed.
I headed to the window to peer out through the curtains. It was morning, but the skies were dark, the clouds heavy with rain. I sighed, opening the curtains all the way, but then turning to retreat to the bathroom.
I turned the sink on, staring at my ghastly white face in the mirror. My brown eyes looked me in the face darkly, contrasting greatly with my skin as well as my unruly green hair. I scooped water into my hands and splashed my face with it to wake me up a bit.
I'd barely gotten to ask John anything, especially things about Rachel that I'd been meaning to ask for quite some time. I wanted to know what exactly happened on their date, and what he'd done to her. I knew that was her in the asylum that I saw. Then it hit me – Harley killed everyone in the asylum!
"Harley!" I yelled, running back into the room and shaking her sleeping form furiously. She woke up in an instant, grabbing my hands with her own, blue eyes wide.
"What is it, Jack?!" she nearly yelled, voice hoarse. Jack. She hadn't called me that in a long time...
"In the...asylum! Ra... Rachel was in the asylum!" I yelled, jaw trembling. She stared at me confusedly for a long moment.
"What are you..." I couldn't help it. Rage had built up inside me so fast, I couldn't control myself. She was messing up my plan! If she killed Rachel... She... She was interfering! She had screwed up the balance!
My hands gripped her neck as they had before in her room months ago, only this time I didn't let go right away. She was looking at me, yet she still didn't fight back. Tears had welled up in her eyes and spilled out sideways almost immediately. Her lip trembled as she struggled to form words, but all that came out was gurgles. My hands shook. I didn't want to let her go – she deserved to die. But something made me do it, something made me let go of her and toss her to the ground.
She rolled once, coughing furiously once she got the chance to breathe. She dug her face into her arms, and I could hear her crying through her coughs. I stared at the bedsheets, my nails digging into them.
But something surprised me.
A hand. A hand was placed on my thigh.
Harley sniffed, tears plaguing her cheeks as she lay her head on my lap. Lips trembling, eyes closed, she nuzzled me, either that or dried her tears on my pants, and whispered, "I love you."
I felt water droplets on my own cheeks now as, reluctant to her apparent apology for my behavior, pushed her back on the ground. She sniffed once more, crawling back towards me.
"Don't do this to me," she whispered hoarsely. "I love you, please... Please don't." I pushed her back down with more force this time, causing her to make a little squeak. Yet, she crawled back towards me once again, and I could hear her crying this time.
"Please... Jack. Puddin'. T-tell me..."
"You killed Rachel Dawes..." I said lowly, staring her down in the face. She shook her head, lips still trembling.
"N-no, I--"
"You interfered! I told you not to interfere!" I said, standing up furiously. She got me so angry sometimes! I wanted to just... to just kill her!
"Rachel... she escaped!" she yelled hoarsely, her voice cracking at the end. I stared at her, eyes still wild, waiting for an explanation.
"She escaped," she said again. "With John. John came with me when... I went to.... rescue you. And..." She paused to cough roughly. "B-but he was gone before I got the chance to tell you h-he was there..."
I was outraged. And a little ashamed. No... I wasn't sorry. Just... bewildered. John was there?! And why did he take Rachel? This just posed more questions than before.
Instead of forgiving Harley, however, I blamed even more on her.
"You didn't tell me, Harley! Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"
"I-I didn't have time!" she yelled, voice cracking once again. "You left just as soon--"
"Stop making excuses, god damn it!" I yelled, grabbing her by the shirt and lifting her so that she was standing. "You could have told me, you just didn't want to! You brought this on yourself, you... you..." I stopped yelling for a moment, then looked at her darkly, lowering my voice so that I was a little more calm. "Get out."
"Wh-what?" she asked, tears beginning to flow once more. I glared at her, pointing towards the door of the hotel room.
"I said, get the hell out! Get out of my sight! I don't ever wanna see your face again!" I screamed at her, pointing multiple times towards the door as I spoke. She clutched the sides of her face with her hands, but soon nodded, shaking, then turned around and briskly walked out of there, turning around to see me and let out one more "Puddin'" before I slammed the door in her face.
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THATS IT FOR NOW, FOLKS! Sorry I only ended with one scene... But really, it was kind of long! Anyway, thanks for reading, and please review!