Chapter 6 - Scared to Say You Love Me?

The sight was pitch black and the sound was non-existent. In a slow haze, visions of life came back in a mirage-like state while what little was heard came out somewhat distorted. When Batman finally woke up, he was staring at a grey ceiling with orange shading indicating a morning sky. He groaned as the effects from the chemical were starting to wear off.

"Wha… Where am I?" he asked.

"My place."

The voice came from Catwoman, who was coming towards him. He was resting upon her couch with bandages around the areas covering his injuries.

"Catwoman?" he tried to get up.

"Shhhhh, lay back down, big boy," she slowly pushed him back down on the couch. "You ok? Can you remember anything?"

"All I remember was trying to fight Strange. Yet he managed to be one step above me. Then you came in and… saved me," He turned his head towards her. "Thank you."

She smiled and put a hand on his cheek, petting his face.

"But I thought I was too much of a goody two shoes for you."

Catwoman giggled, "And this is why I stick with the wisecracks. I said I didn't do cops, not boogeymen, silly. Besides, Hugo Strange is a little too much for a guy like you to handle."

"I guess you're right," his voice started to sadden. "I feel like a fool by letting him beat me. How could I be such an idiot?! I'm supposed to be more advanced than these thugs and I got my ass handed to me by one of them!"

"Stop it!" She grabbed his hands to relax him. "Enough beating yourself! You're not perfect, alright? There's nothing wrong with falling every once in a while. You still have the chance to get up and apprehend him, Bruce!"

She covered her mouth as even Selina couldn't believe that she blurted out his real name. Bruce began trembling with anxiety in his hands and feet as he turned around to her. He then had his hands towards his mask.

"I didn't take it off," she said.

"Then how did you…"

"I used my head to put the puzzle together," she pointed him to a collection of papers and pictures of him. There were marker drawings shaping Batman's head to Bruce's, notes on similar voices, and even a vintage news article on the night his parents were killed.

"The pain… Losing my Mom and Dad… to a petty little thief like that coward," he stopped as a tear ran down his face.

Selina unmasked herself and walked up to him, "You're not the only one who lost their parents."

Bruce after unmasking himself stood there and watched as Selina began told of her origins to him. It seemed like a similar hurting had been all coming back to her.

"I'd been very young and lived under a broken household..."

An assortment of repressed memories came flooding back to her. Selina Kyle had been living a nightmare under her abusive father, Brian that would always physically and verbally assault her mother, Maria. The first flashback was when she hid underneath the couch with her "Cat in the Hat" book. Brian came home drunk and violently screaming at Maria for dinner.

"You want a steak, huh? How about getting off your disgusting bottom and actually getting a job, jackass!" Maria tried to stand up for herself.

Brian smacked her in the face, "Never raise your voice at your lord and master, bitch!"

He began stomping towards her daughter. The alcoholic looked at her with a terrifying grin, "You didn't see a goddamned thing, you little brat! There's a tombstone waiting for you if you spill the beans. Understand?!"

"How could a father say that to me, his own daughter? Especially… when he drove my mother…" Selina had trouble trying to keep herself together when she brought up the next vignette.

On a June night, Selina came home from school later than usual. She'd been trying to find Maria and saw the door slightly open to the bathroom. What she saw traumatized her at the scene as her mother laid dead in a tub of blood from slashing her wrists.

"Mommy? Mommy!" she cried, holding her hand.

She'd cover her face with her hands, trying to hold back the tears. Bruce held her in his arms as he too began imagining his mom getting shot. Selina looked up at him as she continued.

"Anything I can do?" Bruce asked.

"Maybe keep listening?" Selina requested.

He nodded and put her on his lap to pet her head. Selina felt a little relief knowing that he'd be the shoulder she can finally cry on. This seemed to be a lot considering she tried to make herself seem powerful and independent. Though it seems she was a victim of her own fallacy as even she needed to break down a bit.

A memory played of her as a child doing aerobics in the family room and playing with her cat.

"Daddy, why doesn't Annie like me?" Little Selina asked about her siamese cat.

"She's aloof, Selina… Like your Mama. She never let you near and if you cornered her, you'd get scratched. She just didn't need me or… anything," Brian tried to talk as he was drinking his heart out.

As for school, to say it was cold and unforgiving would only be putting mildly. With the exception of physical education, it seemed that there was no place for her there. The kids all found her to be strange with the teachers just throwing her under the bus because of that.

"Your daughter only seems interested in getting her way and not talking to others," The Guidance Counselor Wes said. "Keep in mind that she isn't slow. She fluctuates on scores between exams strangely enough. Though I still suspect a learning disability, since she only seems to come out on top in gymnastics."

Brian met with him in the office, "Her Momma before she passed away encouraged her to exercise regularly. Something about the body being a gatekeeper for the soul or some such spiritual nonsense. Our home life hasn't been up to par as work seems to be a curse on us to stay alive."

She watched them talked before looking down upon her cat scratched arms. She hated herself believing that she'd been nothing but a failure to everyone she met. Then the big test of her will to be strong came to her the night her father drank himself to death.

"9-1-1, my name is Selina Kyle and my father killed himself. He's just sitting there, unconscious," she panted trying to comprehend the situation.

Bruce was cuddling her as she spilled her heart and life out to him. The more she exposed herself, the less brooding her became. It seemed as though he began to get a clear understanding of the so called "criminals" he sworn to fight off.

"I'd been forced to the streets to survive. Then one day I'd been caught stealing food and was sent off to Seagate," she said.

She'd been taken to Seagate, a fascist-like institution built for runaways and juvenile delinquents. As soon as Selina saw the three wardens, she knew the black cauldron she'd fallen into.

"Your age is no excuse for your guilty ways! In here, I am the law here and you are all mine! You exist under my terms and any opposition will be dealt with severe punishment!" the Head Warden said.

"They liked to beat me physically, verbally and emotionally. They never got to know me and yet they already hated me," she said.

The image in her head was that of the wardens trying to whip her with a belt and her escaping from the dangers ahead. Soon the next scene was that of spying on documents hidden from the children.

"Then I found that these moralists had skeletons in their closet courtesy of stolen money from the orphanage. Oh how I abhorred them and wanted to break them when it hurt the most," anger arose in her voice.

Then the young Selina crashed through the window and perched onto the Warden's desk, tying her up to the chair and accessing her files on the computer.

"You little brat!" she screamed.

"Just you wait, Warden…"

With that, she erased her documents on file, making her technically invisible from police archives. Then she freed the orphans before finally running into the night. It was at this point that at the age of eighteen, she'd become the Catwoman and stolen from various jewel shops and anybody she can find.

During her time as a thief, she read about the Batman. One night after she robbed a mansion, Catwoman and another friend at the time read a campfire tale about the Dark Knight. They said that he was a bat humanoid born to a witch and a warlock. Rumors said that his parents were killed by the devil himself posing as a priest, setting their house on fire. It was there that the Batman spawned into a supernatural entity torturing criminals by either scaring them, eating them or subjecting to his devices like whips, razor sharp pendulums or boiling to death. The thought of being chased by a demon at that seemed pleasing to her, but only temporary.

"I heard about you in the shadows. Your name being whispered to kids by parents to keep them in line. Everytime a colony of bats flew around the city, you'd managed haunt the cops like a ghost."

"So you decided to take my mantle for an adrenaline rush?" Bruce asked.

"It felt like I was finally alive for the first time. But yet too easy to continue…" she starting tearing up as sadness and anger were clashing within her brain. "I'd convince myself that I was entitled to whatever I want. Because of the pain I was given and that I'd needed to be a loner to be happy…"

She looked in the mirror and suddenly the image distorted to an ugly looking version of herself. She had all the jewels she wanted, but her face had a decayed zombie look. Selina then started sobbing and crying into Bruce's arms as he cradled her. He then rubbed her head as she soon looked back at him.

"Am I wrong for being such as mess? Am I a monster simply because I just want to figure out who I am?"

Bruce shed a small tear, "No… In fact, I'm wrong. Selina…"

She tilted her head wondering what he meant. Though Selina allowed him to explain.

"I'm sorry about my lack of trust towards you. I should've believed you as you've put your life on the line for me a lot. But I was so scared of repeating the same old routine I've suffered where people abused my feelings for their selfish goals. Plus I was afraid that I'd be taking away your freedom. I also wanted you to be happy."

"I've been living my previous life as a stubborn wildcat that got me nowhere."

"Much like how my endeavors as the boogeyman only gave me pain and heartache, ironic since I've been trying to avoid those."

They then looked each other in the eyes before Bruce wiped away the tears in Selina's eyes. He then put her hands on her face as she held his neck.

"I can't hold it back… I love you!" his eyes widened at what he just blurted out.

"Kiss me, you fool," she commanded.

With no further words, they then proceeded to kiss. Then they stimulated each other even more as their tongues broke the barriers of their lips and into their mouths. Leather on leather smooth feelings arose from the way they caressed each others top areas. It was to the bridge from second to third base as down she was on top of him touching the muscular abs. The pain of these two that spilled their hearts towards each other was now wiped away clean, similar to how Selina wiped her file clean back at the orphanage.

"I love you, Selina," he whispered in her ear.

"I love you too, Bruce," she whispered back.

She licked his face like ice cream and enjoyed her precious man meat. As the princess digged into her tall steed, Isis also joined in on licking Bruce's face. Selina giggled as the rest of the other cats jumped on him.

"Awwww they like you."

Bruce smiled as he began playing with her cats and petting Isis. He then started laughing as one of the felines began tickling him with her tail. This sight was very unusual for Selina to see. She finally got to see Bruce all bubbly and full of life. A key was found that broke down the brooding, angst-ridden wall he lived behind. No longer was he the Batman that children warned of and criminals had nightmares about. Now he was smiling, playing with furry cats, and doing the impossible. Finally falling in love with his match.

"Looks we're both crazy cat people after all," she joked.

"What can I say? They're so cute," he said.

Isis immediately killed all that noise by stepping on the remote control, turning on the evening news. Summer Gleason had been reporting from a biker bar called "The Skeleton's Closet" in what appeared to be a massacre of many people being killed.

"This is one of three separate areas where last night the rampage of the Monster Men struck again. A group of unknown assailants, rumored to be copycats of the Batman and Catwoman, virtually caused heavy amounts of property damage and a body count of six bikers here at the Skeleton's Closet. Police Commissioner Peter Grogan and consultant Dr. Hugo Strange said to GCN this morning that they will continue to crackdown the strictness of their task force and will search high and low for the two vigilantes-"

Bruce changed the channel, not wanting to be reminded of the failure of last night. Selina looked at him with concern.

"Bruce? Everything ok?" she asked.

The T.V. stopped to a channel showing "The Phantom of the Opera" at the scene where Erik is unmasked and Christine is frightened. This movie was a particular favorite of Bruce and watched it the night he constructed his Bat-costume. Suddenly he hallucinated as Erik jumped out of the TV and flew around Selina's roof like a Bat.

"Feast your eyes, Bruce - look as your accursed ugliness lives and breathes!" the hallucination spoke.

The psychedelic manifestation morphed into Hugo Strange dressed as Batman. Bruce's mouth dropped as the vision hunched on a gargoyle pointing his finger at him.

"Don't defame your kind by lusting after your enemy!"

It began cackling maniacally as it soon disappeared. Bruce then looked back at Selina who was worried as all hell.

"I… I… I gotta go. I have to gather up some stuff for a plan, if you get me."

"I understand - but please, Bruce. Stay safe and don't lose track of me," she put his hand on her cheek.

He kissed her, "I won't."

From there, Bruce ran to the back of the building where she lived and hid in the shadows as to not be detected. There he jumped into his Batmobile and took a series of alternate routes back home to not warrant any cops on his tail. Within the distance at Strange's penthouse, the demented doctor looked upon the body of another dead cop as he was transforming him into a monster man.

"First to fry Catwoman like the fish she eats. Then I'll eliminate the Batman before turning him into my own slave," he chuckled menacingly.

He then turned his head towards Peter who had been strapped to one of his slabs. Strange now had him at the mercy of being his guinea pig.

"You're not gonna get away with this! I will stop you, you sick freak!" Grogan exclaimed.

Hugo just simply petted him on the head like a dog, "They all say that. And as their last words."

Grogan looked around and the collection of bodies around his place was that of horrors come to life. Practically everybody in Grogan's life that had fought against him were down staring back at him in the face. Like ghosts haunting him for all the sins he committed against him. Now it seemed he would be cursed to be part of the same afterlife that his victims would suffer. The Commissioner then looked at Hugo would then had a glass of vodka in his hand.

"Don't you cry because it's over. Be happy that you were such a good boy," Hugo toasted him.

Back at Wayne Manor was where the moment of truth began taking shape. Inside the Batcave, Bruce had been sitting at the Bat-Computer staring at the picture of his parents. Alfred came by with a plate of grilled cheese and ginger ale.

"A little supplements to keep you well-nourished, Sir," he said.

"I'm not hungry," Bruce uttered.

He stared down at the mask with the black eye sockets staring back at him. The sight haunts him down to the bone, making him question his own sanity.

"Alfred? Am I good enough for anyone?" he turned towards him.

The butler put his hand on his master's shoulder, "Master Bruce, you are a kind and strong man. Though I'd be lying if I told you weren't a tortured soul."

Bruce looked away from him, "All this going on. Hugo Strange and me trusting Catwoman. Am I a bad guy? Is he right?"

"Master, you shouldn't take the word of a man who dares to play god with the police. Furthermore, your distress over Catwoman is the result of your fear of emotional warfare."

"I want to love her, but I'm afraid of destroying myself in the process."

Alfred walked over to the passage to the spot where Bruce fell when he was eight. Bruce widened his eyes a bit, but calmed down to when he could turn his head back to Alfred.

"All of your confusion, paranoia, and fear began in here. Until you conquer it, then you'd be spending your life trying to find something that isn't there."

Bruce looked at the dark abyss into the passage to take it all in. Then he stepped inside to see if he can finally face what has been eating at him all these years. As deep into the darkness he walked, the walls around him undulated, as if covered in water. Though it was really the restless shrugging of thousands of bats. The sweat was bending on his face when he sat a spot lit by the sun with bats all around it.

"It's where it all started" he said to himself.

But within the barriers ahead, a dark shape moved and two blood red eyes shined in the cave. A giant monarch bat spread its wings, huge, as it rose, suddenly airborne, rushing toward him. With each wing flap was a clapping sound of thundering roars from the bat. Bruce kneeled on the ground as the creature landed before him. He looked into the dark eyes gazing onto him.

"I know why you're here," the bat talked. "You want to be human for once. Yet you understand that you can't have it both ways, don't you?"

"But it doesn't mean I don't care. I still want to do good, yet it doesn't have to hurt. Plus she can help me see things that I can't," Bruce pleaded.

"It's only for a short time before she throws you to the rocks for a new myth to keep her scared."

Bruce now was tearing up, "Please. I want it to be different. No more senseless fighting without a warm heart to melt the cold away."

He broke down and hid his face from the demon, "I didn't see this coming. I just wanted to be happy. Maybe I can work it out in my life."

He looked up to see that the bat didn't say anything. Suddenly its face began to crack with fracture lines radiating across it. Flames spewed from its mouth with the bat screaming in agony before its whole body was on fire. Bruce widened his eyes in fear at the horrific sight before him. More terrifying was when the head came off and cracked open revealing the head of Joe Chill, the man who killed his the Waynes, then the head exploded. The flames went out as the apparitions of his parents now appeared.

"Bruce, you've made us proud," Thomas said. "You've stood up to your fears and opened your soul."

"We've always wanted you to be happy," Martha explained. "You were always on our minds and we've had your hopes and dreams at stake."

Thomas then approached him, "We appreciate you fighting for us, but don't spend your life living in darkness. We've raised you to lookout for others along with yourself."

Martha put a hand on her son's cheek, "Don't always being a detective all the time. We are who we are. That's why you should give Selina Kyle a chance."

"We want you to trust that. Until then…" the apparitions started walking back.

"Open your heart, Bruce…" the spirits disappeared into the darkness.

Later, Bruce walked out of the passage and back to Alfred. The butler was grateful that his master was all fine in one piece. He then stepped up to give Alfred a hug.

"Thank you, Alfred. For all the help you encouraged," he said.

"Anything for you," he patted him on the back.

Afterwards, he walked to make a phone call, "Selina, it's Bruce. I have an idea on how we'll defeat Hugo Strange…"

TO BE CONTINUED