Chapter 144

I awake to find my hands and feet bound to a plastic chair. My neck and upper back have a craning pain as they've been lowered for so long. I'm still in Jessica's room, with Jessica at her desk. Seeing me awaken from the reflection on her monitor, she turns around in her swivel chair.

"Alright, we've passed the twelve hour mark. If you were under Kilgrave's control, it should have worn off by now," she grumbles, placing her feet on the nearby dresser.

"I'm telling you, I don't know who Kilgrave is," I plead, "if you'd only let me explain-"

"Then explain," Jessica insists, her voice throaty and grating.

I shake my head, "That was a mistake. You'd never believe me if I explained."

Jessica turns back to her desk, "As I suspected, you're not a cop. Your name and number don't exist in any police registry. But the trouble is...you don't exist at all. No birth records, phone numbers, linked address, no nothing."

"How...how do you know all this?" I ask in disbelief.

She turns around, revealing her computer screen, brighter and smaller than any computer screen I've ever seen before, propped up on nothing but its own keyboard, "Internet."

I scrunch my eyes, "What's...internet?"

Jessica's eyes widen, as she sees the legitimate confusion in my expression, "You're sure you've never met a man, tall, dark hair, likes to wear purple, British accent? Kilgrave?"

"No, I told you, I have not! Why do you keep going about this Kilgrave character?! Who is he?!" I shout in frustration.

She leans back in her chair, "Explain you situation. Maybe...maybe I'll be able to help."

Now she's offering her help? What is up with this woman?

"Like I said, you wouldn't believe me if I-"

"A couple of weeks ago, aliens attacked the city, I have super strength, and Kilgrave is a man with mind control. At this rate, I'm willing to believe anything," Jessica counters.

An alien attack? I guess that explains those torn up buildings, but this hardly seems like the place to be attacked by aliens, save the future technology.

I sigh, "I am not of your world. I'm from another dimension, where, a friend of mine had created a transdimensional portal. A man named Harrison Wells tried rerouting the portal so that he could return to...what I'm assuming is the future, based on where I landed. I stopped him, but got knocked in. And now, I'm here."

"So wait, are you from the past, or from an alternate universe?" Jessica asks.

I purse my lips, "Well, considering that you think Gotham doesn't exist, I'd guess alternate universe. By the way...if this place isn't Gotham City, then where am I?"

Jessica smirks, and reaches her arms out, "Welcome to New York City."

The door opens, as Trish walks in, "Oh, you're awake."

She crosses her arms as she stands next to Jessica, "So 'not a real officer', what do you have to say for yourself?"

"She says she's from an alternate universe," Jessica replies, her tone hiding whether she's being snarky or sincere.

Trish raises an eyebrow, and sighs, "Well, I called the police, the real police. They might be able to find someone to help you."

I lower my head, "I doubt they'll believe me either, but...thank you, regardless."

Jessica gets up out of her chair, "No, no, Trish, you called the police? You can't do that, no-"

"Yes, I can, and should. We have a person impersonating a police officer who believes she's from another universe! ...Jessica, I don't think she's mentally well."

"Well, neither am I, and I don't see you trying to arrest me!" Jessica counters.

Just then, the doorbell rings, and Trish starts walking toward the door when Jessica grabs her shoulder, "Don't. I'll handle this."

Pushing past her friend, Jessica heads for the door, and looking through the peephole, she gasps, "Oh my god."

"Better let us in, Jessica. Or my little friend here is gonna have to knock the door down," a male voice with a British accent commands.

"It's Kilgrave," she mutters, backing away from the door.

Jessica runs back down the hall, "Trish, run! He's got a cop!"

With her super strength, she rips off the duct tape binding my hands and feet to the chair, "C'mon, Officer Munchkin, you're coming too."

"Officer, break this door down!" Kilgrave barks.

Wood smashes to the ground as the armed officer kicks the door in, revealing an average officer with his handgun drawn, standing next to a man with dark brown hair and a purple suit.

Trish and I barge open the door to the next room, but not before we hear Kilgrave's voice.

"Everybody stand still," his tone is calm, but there's a familiar edge to it.

You must stand still, you have to stand still.

Trish, Jessica, and I come to a complete standstill, not feet away from each other. Glancing from side to side, Trish shares my pure look of terror. Jessica on the other hand, knows exactly what's going on, but nevertheless looks just as terrified.

It's not like I can't move my limbs, it's that I don't want to. It's not anything physical that's keeping me in place, but rather my own will, or rather, Kilgrave's.

Kilgrave waltzes over to the three of us, focusing on Jessica in particular, "Oh, Jessie, you didn't think I would find you? Especially not after you told me about Trish and how you were staying at her place."

"You forced me to tell you," Jessica counters.

He shakes his head, "Oh, I didn't make you do anything you didn't already want to do."

Kilgrave gestures to Trish, "So this is your adopted sister?"

Jessica and Trish are sisters? I never would have guessed, although the "adopted" half explains a lot of my queries.

"Oh, and you called the cops! How quaint!" Kilgrave comments, moving onto me, "Although...quite the short cop, in unusual dress."

While both Jessica and Trish are both already tall, I realize that Kilgrave stands about a foot above me, as he straightens his back and puffs out his chest.

"Alright, time to get rid of the spares. Trish, slam your head into the window until you're dead," he commands.

Without hesitation, Trish walks over to Jessica's bedroom window and starts to violently slam her head into the glass, the impact unfazing as she lifts her head back to repeatedly hit her head.

"Trish, don't! Stop!" Jessica cries, even as she's unable to move.

Kilgrave presses his hands on Jessica's shoulders, "It's going to take quite a while before Trish's lost enough blood to kill herself. I imagine it's going to be very painful."

He turns to me, "Little lady cop, stick your hand in the sink disposal."

I need to stick my hand down the sink disposal.

I walk down the hall to the kitchen, where my feet take me to the sink. I stick my hand down the drain, and my hand passes several small, but sharp blades. So this is the sink disposal. Okay, now that I've obeyed Kilgrave's commands, my will has returned to me.

"And turn it on!" Kilgrave barks, before pushing Jessica toward the door, "Come along Jessica, and you too beetle brain."

Jessica and the armed officer follow Kilgrave out of the apartment, and I'm stuck with the uncontrollable desire.

You have to turn it on. The sink disposal, you have to turn it on.

With my hand still in the drain, I glance up at the button labeled "sink disposal". No...no I can't-

You have to turn on the sink disposal. Turn it on.

Trish repeatedly banging her head into the window serves as the rhythm of my heart pounding in my chest. With my free hand, I reach for the button, as my other hand wiggles from inside the drain, already acquiring small cuts from the blades. I press the button for the sink disposal, and the blades coming wirring to life, just as I pull my hand out of the drain.

Relieved, I'm about to collapse to the floor when I remember Trish. I run to the bedroom, where, now with a splatter of blood on the glass, Trish has slowed down somewhat, although she continues throwing her head at the window with wild movement.

I grab Trish by both arms but she immediately tears me off, "No, I must-...keep...hitting my head on the window...until I die!"

She's in tears, repeating words that aren't her own. I put myself between her and the window, blocking her path, only to have her grab me, trying to pull me out of the way. I lock my legs down, as I hold my own against the much taller woman. There's no way I can convince her to stop, she's under Kilgrave's influence.

I sigh, and whip around her, wrapping my arm around her neck and using my weight to throw her to the ground. We fall together, hitting the carpet floor. I use my free arm to keep Trish's hands off of me as she struggles to break free. Using my arm to cut off her air, Trish slowly gives up struggling as she loses consciousness. I release her from my grip, and I lie down on the floor, exhausted. What have I gotten myself into? And what's worse, will I ever get home?