The sirens were deafening. They had been going on and off for days since several dangerous patients from Arkham Asylum has escaped. The streets of Gotham had been lined with police and detectives from all districts in the attempt they may find who they were looking for.
Sharlena walked down the cobbled street, her long blonde hair swaying behind her. She was a student at Gotham University and was already late for one of her lectures on anatomy and pharmacology. She was in her first year of nursing and though only halfway through her first year, she was having doubts that she could qualify. She had barely scraped through her last assignment and her lecturers had already noticed her increasing lateness at each of her current lectures.
She didn't believe she could take the full blame for this. She lived in the Narrows which was the opposite side of Gotham and with the increased police presence recently and her increasingly stressful home life, they couldn't really blame her for being a few minutes late each morning, right?
She wasn't far away now; she entered a side alley which cut across two streets and knew that once she came out at the other end it was only a five-minute walk to the university entrance. She took this route every day, there were several homeless people living in the alley, but they never bothered her if she brought them breakfast now and again, usually on days where she had given herself enough time to get to her classes on time.
Today was different though. The usual dark alley was bustling with people towards the exit, anxiety was increasing in her chest but the sound of manic laughing in front of her eased her somewhat. As she came closer to them, she noticed the manic laughter came from one of the homeless men she would usually greet, his face pulled into an unnatural grin as he looked up towards the group of people in front of him. She was so distracted by his appearance that it was only when she got closer that she could see what the group were wearing.
Black and white striped clothes, the uniform for Arkham Asylum. She stopped dead in her tracks as the group noticed her arrival.
"'Well, hello gorgeous.' A tall man with red hair, around the same age as herself had stepped forward. She recognised him from the television. Jerome Valeska.