"Harvey?" She paced across the room. "What about Bruce? How long time have passed? I got to get out of here, now!"
The window.
Since the room had normal furniture, she easily found a substitute battering ram. She rammed a chair in the window. The glass remained intact, the chair broke. Rachel stared at the broken chair and listened after Terence. Nothing was heard. Her eyes found a heavy-looking vase.
Perfect.
The window remained without a scratch. The heavy vase broke into 1000 pieces.
"What kind of military window is that?"
:::
Terence repeated his actions. Day out and day in. He came to her in the mornings, giving her breakfast and talking with a sweet voice. Then he suddenly became mad at a small detail. He left and didn't return until hours later, apologizing. He tried to convince her that they shared a life together. Only to scream at her and crashing plates and glasses when she argued against him. Rachel suspected she was dealing with a person with some sort of multiple personality disorder combined with severe stalking tendencies. He knew everything about her, it seemed. She knew nothing of him.
Project 'breaking out through the window' had failed miserably. Rachel had hid the vase shards under the bed and the broken chair inside the bathroom. It was only a matter of time before Terence would find out.
She had to act, fast. Different escape plans ran through her mind. One of them was to simply knock him down, but it seemed a bit too unrealistic. He was nearly two meters tall, not exactly heavy built but clearly stronger than her. The fact that pain didn't seem to affect him made it even worse. One plan was to go along with his delusions, making him think she finally realized he was the man in her dreams, only to escape when he let his guard down. The problem was, how close or rather she would have to get to achieve that goal. The utter thought of that made her shiver.
Her first opening came one day, when Terence as usual brought her breakfast. He left the door open to the rest of the house. Rachel ate her breakfast slowly, bidding her time.
"Uhm, Terence... love." She tried. The sweet phrase felt wrong, like poison in her mouth.
Terence looked like he had won on the lottery. "Yes, Rachel." He said with a hopeful voice.
She wished she could tell him to take a proper bath and not wear the strange plastic clothes that made him sweat heavily. The disgusting odor made her want to vomit.
"It's just that... I happened to notice something earlier in the bathroom. But I don't want to bother you." She glanced at him under her eyelashes.
He quickly answered: "Tell me what's going on!"
"It's nothing special, just that the warm water doesn't work."
"Nothing special? Of course I'm going to fix that! I'm not going to let you freeze to death, Rachie."
She shuddered at his pet name for her.
He turned his back on her, in his eager to help her. In the bathroom, he quickly turned the tap to the warm side and let the water run freely.
Hot as ever.
With a glance over his shoulder at the empty room and a growl, he realized she had fooled him.
In the meantime had Rachel silently jumped off the bed, run down the stairs, through the yellow and cozy living room, to the hall. She would have made out through the door if it wasn't for the ridiculous amount of locks on the front door. She pulled the handle with all the force she could manage. All the locks required different keys. All were locked.
"No! No! No! Please no!" She whispered.
Terence came rushing down the stairs. Like an angry hippo covered in squeaky plastic, he stormed around the corner to find her in the hall.
"Let me out off here!" She howled at him.
The look he gave her was enough to make brave men scared.
"You don't understand!" He shouted back. Grabbed her and shook her like a rag doll. "The world outside is not for you! It's too dangerous out there! You belong here with me." He calmed down a bit and held her close.
"You're delusional!"
"I'm not doing this because I like it, I'm doing this because it's for your best." He responded, sounding like a parent pedagogically talking to his unruly child. He started to drag her up the stairs. The TV in the living room was on. 'Good morning Gotham' was on. Rachel recognized the news anchor talking casually with a journalist about this month's events.
"So Patric, this has been a turbulent month in Gotham's history."
"Yeah, indeed."
"What's the event that probably will go to the history as most spectacular?"
"I have to say the death of Harvey Dent is a strong competitor but the fact that Batman turned out to be a cold murderer is on everyone's lips."
"The loss of our ADA Rachel Dawes then?"
"Big loss, of course. But Batman news does always score higher..."
Terence threw her into the room, her prison, and locked.
The news she had recently learned were devastating. Her Harvey, was gone, dead and probably buried too.
"I've never got the chance to say goodbye to you, Harvey." She sobbed out loud. The man that had offered her a normal future, a happy future was gone. She had loved him, she really had, even though a dark shadow always was present. The dark shadow, Batman... Bruce. He had came for Harvey's rescue, but apparently failed. She couldn't blame him. The joker always had a trick hidden under his sleeve. He staged this. The joker was to blame. Still, she felt so much anger towards him.
"I hope you're having a good time, Bruce. I hope you're partying really much, buys all the hotels you can find and going on dates with airheaded models. I really hope you're enjoying yourself, while I'm here in my hellhole."
She had come to the realization that this might be the end. There might be no turning back from here. She was stuck here.