CHAPTER 2

Maria walked into the bank, smiling at a man who held the door for her.
People always seem to be so nice when you have a baby in your arms.
She beamed at the warm body as she cradled him, walking up to a line, and waiting for a teller to call her to their window.
She was watching her grandson for Jade, barely a chore when all a person had to do was look into his bright green eyes and fall in love.
Despite his unfortunate origins, he was turning out to be a perfectly happy and healthy boy.
You see, Maria's daughter had been raped almost a year ago, and Jade decided that she couldn't kill such an innocent creature growing inside of her.
Even when he was born though, Jade had almost lost him. Complications in his heart and lungs had led doctors to perform an emergency operation that saved his life and left him with scars running along his chest and back.
Maria was all too happy to stand in as a caretaker, because Jade was just finishing up her last year in high school.
She frowned, thinking of the pain that Jade would have to go through in order to get through college. The separation of a mother from her baby could only hurt Jade, but without a proper education, how could Jade ever provide for the boy?
Anyways, Maria was perfectly capable of watching the boy while his mother was at school.
Maria rocked the infant in her arms, whispering his name as he slept, "Leo."
BOOM
The doors to the bank burst open as a thin man waltzed through them.
He was holding a gun.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen."
His voice was almost as frightening as the scars and clown make-up that covered his face.
Maria stood in front of him, shocked into silence as men in clown masks ran through the room.
She realized too late that everyone else in the bank had dropped to the floor, and she was the only one standing before the crazed man.
And then Leo started to cry.
"Awwwwwww. Look fellas! It's a little bouncing baby boy." He laughed to himself, striding toward Maria, holding out his arms.
"Come on lady! I wanna hold him!"
Maria clutched the infant to her chest, her eyes widening in fear.
"I promise I'm great with kids!" He wheezed with laughter.
Tears were running down Maria's face, as she shook her head and whispered "No" over and over again.
"Okay lady, I didn't want to have to do this..." He pulled a bundle of wires out of his jacket.
Wires attached to a timer.
"Give me the kid." There were gasps and screams as he waved the bomb in the air.
"Why?!?" Maria pleaded.
"Because I said so, but you said no!"
At that, he wrenched the boy from her arms and placed the bomb in her shaking hands.
"Now don't let go! Hehehehehe…"
He disappeared, and as Maria threw the bomb away from herself, it detonated, burning the skin on the front of her body to a crisp.Three weeks later, she was admitted to Arkham.
She would whisper and mutter about smiles on the wall, and seemed to regress into a childlike state.
Jade was left without a mother, and without her son.
The worst part was that Maria couldn't tell Jade that Leo was very much alive.
No matter how many times Jade would ask, Maria could not tell her whether or not her son was dead.
Jade would come weekly, trying to find a shred of sanity in her mother that would reveal the fate of her baby, but Maria was too far gone.Jade could only keep trying, as each week she lost a little hope.Would she ever find out what happened to her baby boy?