Title: Hide and Seek
Chapter Completed: June 22, 2004
The footsteps grew louder and faster, following her, stalking her like prey. The faster she ran the faster and harder the steps followed.
She was trapped – the alley twisted and turned like a maze, cornering her like a mouse for a wild predator.
He pounced – breaking from the shadows and engulfing her. He leaped at her, pining her screaming and squirming body to the cold, hard wall.
His hands clawed at her, groping at her clothes and body alike. Covering her as if he had every right to, touching every inch of her as if he owned her. After all, he was a man.
She struggled and cried out, but nobody came, no one would hear her. No one would ever help her.
The walls began moving, to cage her, to keep her. A brick cell rose high above her head, trapping her with the shadowed man. Her screams bounced around the brick surrounding her and her panic filled her. There was really no way out of this. There was no way for her to break free. She was trapped.
She closed her eyes tightly, pressing the lids down hard enough to see spots as she screamed, in a blood curdling tone, "STOP!"
And in another instant, as if the scream itself had forced the event, she was hanging from a rooftop. The shadowed man dangling her off the edge, as if he had pushed her off and put her in this peril, but tentatively held on to her by the wrist. The man held her life in his hands and threatened to let go at any moment.
Feeling weak and helpless under this male's power, she pleaded for her safety. Begging and pleading and crying.
The dark shadow shook his head, loosening the hold on one wrist. The action caused her to slip, the possibility of death becoming more certain.
"Please…PLEASE…" her voice pathetic and cracking.
The shadow just loosened his hold again, letting her wrists slip through his fingers. And a dark, deep laugh filled the air, attacking her
She felt yet another man do as he pleased with her, and she wasn't fighting back. She was just taking it, letting him use her.
"Never again," she bellowed, and again their positions changed with the will of her words. Now she was standing safely on the roof's top, watching the shadow dangle off the edge. She was now the one in power. She was the one in control. She had taken back the role and now she was the one who held life in her tentative grasp.
"How do you like being the weak one?" the question came, but all she could hear was her own desperate cries for help.
Star sat upright, her breathing heavy and skin slicked with sweat as if she had just lived the dream. She scanned the room for any familiar clue as to where she was, but there on the motel floor all she saw was the discarded robe by one of the beds. She pulled it tightly around herself, trying to trap security around her body, to protect herself.
She rose to her knees. From her new vantage point she saw the lanky clown form draped across one bed and the present flooded back into her mind with a tidal force.
She was now Star.
She freed the Joker from Arkham.
She spent a carnal night with the clown.
A familiar bile rose to her throat, the sickening fear of men. Had she really let another one touch her? Have her?
Sara was scared in the dark room, alone with the strange and violent man. And a sudden panic over took her.
Sara needed to reach out to someone, someone who understood her. And there was only one person that came to mind.
She reached for the phone atop the small side table and dialled the semi-familiar number, even if Star would view it as a whole other weakness.
"Hello?" a groggy voice answered from the other end of the telephone connection.
"Barbara?" Sara's voice was quiet and careful.
"Yes, who is thi—" Barbara was groggy on the other end of the phone, blindly reaching out to check the time when the recognition hit her, "Sara? Is that you?"
"Honoured you remembered me Babs," came a nervous laugh.
The other woman sat up quickly in bed, the surge of duty running through her veins, but a nagging need to be a friend blocked it. "Of course I remember you Sara," fighting to sound natural she continued, "Where are you?"
Another nervous laugh followed, "Can't exactly tell you that, it ruins the game," she waited a beat, "But I do want to talk."
"Talking is good," she replied, quickly getting out of bed to retrieve the equipment that she needed to trace the call. One way or another Sara was going to tell her where she was. Reaching for the laptop and typing through the codes known by heart, she continued with the conversation, "What did you want to talk about Sara?"
"Well, I'm not really interested in the weather," she gave a quick, curt reply and just as quickly changed gears, "I had a nightmare…"
The sad sound of her voice hit Barbara, "What kind of nightmare?"
"He stills has me…he can still hold me. He can still get me anytime he wants to…and I think he will," she choked back a lump that formed in her throat.
"Who? Who Sara?" a panic of emotion took over Barbara, forcing her to stop in her typing and give her full attention to the woman on the phone.
"You know who…all of them, any of them. Star killed two of them, and now…" her voice trailed off, the broken statements trailing off.
"Are you talking about Billy? Are you afraid of him…Sara he's not going to hurt you," she made an attempt at comfort. An attempt that she really didn't know how to fulfil.
"It's not just Billy!" She snapped, "It's all of them! And you know it! You know it Barbara! You know what the Batman does to you, how he uses you…how they all use you, us. They have to be stopped."
Barbara swallowed hard, clearing her head to start tracing again, "Wha…what happened tonight Sara? What happened to you?"
She replied with a soft snicker, "What happened to me? What happened to ME? They did! They happened, they touch and take and use…and I let them…You let them" Tears started to fall from her eyes, unnoticed. They were frustration, fear and anger rolling down her cheeks.
Barbara was silent. There wasn't anything she could say. They both sat there, the phones cradled between their matching shoulders and ears, mirroring each other with a city between them.
The computer binged, a number and trace came up on the screen. She knew where she was.
"Sara…Sara I can come and get you, help you," she offered softly.
"…You never helped before…" and with that Sara hung up the receiver. It was time for Star to take over again; Sara couldn't do it anymore right now. And with that Star sat staring off at nothing, taking the time to become calm and relaxed.
Careful not to waste too much time, Star rose from her spot on the floor and went over to the bed where the Joker lay, sprawled out.
Reaching out carefully, she shoved his shoulder, "Hey, Clown-man."
The pale man snorted and jumped at the sudden interruption to his sleep, "Huh...what…What the hell?" When he finally focused on what was going on, "What the hell do you want?" he snapped, trying to roll over and go back to sleep.
"We have to get out of here darlin'," her snide tone dripped off her words like honey as she ripped the sheet from his body, "Or we'll have bats in the belfry."
That got his attention, he sat upright instantly, "Bats," he growled at the words.
"Do you have anywhere else we can go?" she posed the question, throwing clothes in his general direction and gathering up her own in the process.
"Bats," he muttered again, a rage filling him as he puled on his clothes. In the same fluid motion checked on the availability of deadly cards and smilex daisies.
"No," she grabbed his arm, with a deadly serious stare in her eyes, "I have not put this much effort into this to have you go messing it up. The Bat will pay, just not jet."
The ruby lips danced with their twisted grin. The girl did have a sadistic edge that he found amusing, and for that reason – and the game itself, he agreed, replacing the cards in their hidden pocket.
"Good," she spoke with an urgency, "Get the car and get us to some place else." The statement came almost as an order.
"Got just the place girlie," The clown laughed, pulling the partner in crime out the door and into the cool dawn air.
