The floor was so damn cold, Jason felt like his chest was heavy and achey, and his back was sore from being laid out on his stomach for who knew how long. He couldn't believe he'd let this happen. He was normally so careful. All this time with Dick, off the job and almost feeling human again, had made him soft and unprepared. He craned his neck up, teal eyes glaring and watery. The petite woman who'd been serving them drinks, for a couple weeks now, sauntered into the room entirely casually, flicking on the light so that Jason could see Dick chained upright against the wall across from him. They were wearing the same clothes they'd worn to the club, perhaps more wrinkled, but otherwise they both seemed intact and unmolested. That was something, at least.
The bartender, Jason struggled through the haze in his mind to remember her name… Annie? She barely spared him a glance, her eyes zeroed in and incredibly focused on Dick. She was small, pale and fidgety, her fingers shifting at her sides like she was perpetually typing at a keyboard. There were small, square glasses perched on her nose and her mouse brown hair was tied back in a messy bun. She looked utterly unremarkable, pasty from lack of sun and otherwise plain. She was carrying a duffle bag over her shoulder, which she carefully placed in a corner well away from both Jason and Dick.
"I am just so excited you're here!" she said, voice light and chipper, looking at Dick like he hung the moon and sun. Which was… confusing. The stalker, the threats, the video, the pictures, all pointed to someone sadistic, someone who hated Dick and wanted him to hurt. Not this… fangirlish glee that this woman was displaying, hopping up on her toes and clasping her hands together in front of Dick like he was on an altar.
Jason didn't like that train of thought, especially considering the crucifix-esque pose Dick's body was forced into by those chains… He shook his head, still feeling the effects of whatever they'd been dosed with. They must've been given enough to tranq a horse for him to be having this much trouble shaking it off. Dick looked pretty glazed and not all there as well. Jay looked over his face carefully. The older man was gazing at the woman in front of him with deep confusion etched in his knitted brow. He was slumped in his chains, shoulders straining with the stretch and weight of his body.
"Who-…?" was Dick's weak question, looking at the woman in front of him with glazed eyes starting to focus and sharpen.
"Ah, I'm all nervous." She said, smiling brightly. "I mean, I've been planning this for years and suddenly it's happening! So nerve wracking!" she said, giggling a bit.
Jason hated the way she was looking at Dick. They were blank eyes, reptilian, and hungry. Like Dick was a slab of meat she was ready to butcher.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Jason demanded, teeth gritted in agitation. Her smiling expression immediately dropped at his words, her body turning to face Jason with a cold expression, soulless and scornful.
She sneered. "You." She muttered, taking a couple steps and kicking Jason hard, forcing a grunted yell from his lips as the impact cracked a rib. She kicked harder than he would expect from such a little thing. It was made worse by the fact that he was held down in a star fish like position, with very little give to the chains, he was forced to just take it. "Shut up. You almost ruined everything! The least you can do is be quiet and not ruin the mood." She said, scowling petulantly. She didn't yell, but there was a shrillness to her tone that said she wanted to. Could she not? Jason glanced around, wheezing a breath as he pondered the potential consequences of yelling. Would someone hear? When she turned back to Dick it was with a sunny smile. She walked back over, eyes on Dick's face who was staring worriedly at Jason. "Ahh… Lovely…" the girl whispered, expression almost dreamy.
"My name is Amy, Amy Howard." She introduced herself to Dick, "We went to the same high school, back in Gotham… Though I'm sure you don't remember, you were a couple years ahead of me."
Dick focused on her, frowning. She was clearly unstable, quick to anger, but he couldn't pin down what it was that she wanted. If she was the one who had done all this, leaving the video and the pictures and threatening Jason, then why? To what end?
"I'm sorry…" he said slowly. "I don't remember you." He didn't. Which wasn't surprising, he had a lot going on then.
She waved a hand. "It's no problem. I knew you wouldn't." she said, still smiling. Her smile was unnerving Dick, the way she watched him so intently, barely blinking. He felt like a fly caught in a spider web, with no concept of when or how he would be consumed. "I suppose I should tell you a bit about me, huh? I mean, I know so much about you, and you know so little of me…" she said, patting Dick's chest familiarly, prompting a snarl from Jason. She rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore the younger man in the room this time.
"Let's see… Well, I'm something of an expert on computer sciences. Not that I've ever studied. It all just comes pretty natural, and I've had a long time to work out the kinks of the trade." She said, looking thoughtful. "I don't have a job, per se, but you'd be amazed by how easy it is to get into people's bank accounts these days." She giggled. "If you only take a little from each account, no one even notices. They think it's bank fees." She clapped her hands, pleased with her own apparent cleverness. "But I'm not just a typical, uncreative nerd, I wouldn't want you to think that!" she was quick to add, "The computer thing, it's a means to an end. But my real passion is art!" she said, skipping over to the duffle bag and pulling out a book, a photo album from what Jason could tell.
She brought the album over to Dick, opening it to the first page and holding it out to Dick. The man's eyes went wide at the images in the album, his olive skin paling a little at the images.
"Aren't they beautiful?" Amy murmured, eyes intent on Dick's face. Jason writhed a bit against his chains, struggling to try and get some of his lock picks out of his clothes, but he didn't have enough slack in the chains to reach his own pockets. Whatever Dick was looking at was clearly bad and Jason wanted to get them both out of here before it got to that point.
"What… What did you do to them?" Dick murmured, eyes scanning the photographs. Faces, mostly, faces of people in anguish, interspersed with full body images of people curled in pain, bleeding, crying. Every flavour of pain was carefully documented and lovingly scrapbooked into the album. Men, women, and, in one sickening photo, a child.
Amy shrugged. "Whatever I had to." She said. "That's the beauty of it, in a way, that for each person it works differently. For some, it's enough to just hurt them. You break a couple fingers and all of the light in their eyes just brightens right up." She said, sounding so pleased with her work, turning pages to show Dick more. "For others it's more difficult. Physical pain makes some people go all blank, and that's just not what I want. So for them I try other methods. I might snap the neck of a little animal in front of them, which seems to work well on women. I make sure they know that I'm doing it because of them." Dick looked up at her, horrified. She was insane. The kind of insanity he'd encountered before but had never had focused so intently on him before.
"Did you kill them?" he asked her, wanting to know what he was in for, aside from pain. Plus he wanted her attention on him. He didn't know why she'd grabbed Jason, or how she'd gotten them both down here, but he didn't want her to hurt Jason because of her obsession with Dick.
"Of course I did." She said, like the logic was plain. "I couldn't have them running around telling people about my artistic process." She laughed a bit. "Plus, part of my work is what happens after…"
Dick licked his dry lips nervously. "After?" he asked.
Amy nodded. "Yes, my fans often want to interact with my models directly. Getting to interact with the art first hand is the real magic of it."
Fans?! was Jason's alarmed thought, lifting his head further, straining his neck to try and see the door that Amy had come in through. There were shadows there, silent bodies looming just out of his sight.
His heart was suddenly hammering in his throat. This explained some of what had happened, such as how a tiny woman had gotten two grown men out of the bar and into some underground room. It didn't answer much more though, other than ringing every alarm bell in Jason's head. Alone, this woman wasn't too threatening, but her instability coupled with outside help was enough to have him struggling harder to reach his picks. He hoped desperately that Tim had managed to track them here, that someone would come looking before long. But he couldn't hold his breath waiting, he didn't even know how long it had been since they'd been knocked out. It was impossible to tell in here.
Dick glanced at Jason and back at Amy, his thoughts going down a similar track. He looked into Amy's cold but bright eyes and swallowed thickly, clearing his throat. Maybe if he kept her talking… She'd said this was her passion, surely she'd want to talk about it more.
"Why me?" he asked, clearing his throat again. "I mean, why pick me as a model?" he asked more clearly, his voice thick with worry. He didn't like the implication of her previous words, how she'd hurt or killed creatures in front of the people in the pictures… It shed a worrying light on why she had grabbed Jason as well as Dick, especially with how little she seemed to care about Jason being there.
Amy smiled slowly, tracing a line over Dick's cheekbone, making him shiver. "Ah… Well. You're gonna be my masterpiece." She purred, her eyes heavy and predatory.
"It started when we were in highschool. See, I was pretty smart, but I wasn't that smart. No one was going to call me a genius or anything. No one really noticed me at all. But I didn't mind. I liked it that way." She hummed, looking nostalgic. "I would watch the other students, listen to them. They never knew how much I knew about them…
"You got talked about a lot. Hot topic of gossip, you were." She said with a little chuckle, shifting her weight onto one leg, holding the album to her chest like a prized toy. "I honestly didn't think much of you at first. You were just another guy with enough looks to keep people's attention. Boring…" she said, licking her lips a bit, clearly getting to a more exciting part of her story. "But then I started seeing the football player." Dick blinked, a cold feeling starting in his stomach. "What was his name again? Oh, it doesn't matter. He started "dating" me," she lifted one hand off the album to make air quotes, "because he figured I would be so grateful for the attention from one of the popular boys that I would gladly do whatever he wanted." She shrugged a bit. "I let him have his fun, it never mattered much to me. But it turns out, he would lead me to something wonderful…"
Dick was paling under her gaze, her eyes knowing. "I found it in his room… He kept it inside his mattress, where he'd cut a hole. I expected to find porn, or something equally gross and boring. Instead… I found you." She sighed dreamily, reaching out to touch Dick again, the man turning his face away as she stroked his face with a hungry expression. "You were my inspiration." She said in a breathless voice, hushed with awe. "I'd never seen anything so beautiful in my life. Your face so full of pain and yearning to get away, trapped and struggling. Nothing had ever touched me like that before."
Dick was shaking as she continued to pet him, tracing his features reverently. Jason was listening, sickened by the depravity, but his concentration was on Dick and on working his way out of the chains. He gritted his teeth as he felt the pull, metal almost cutting into his skin. He was trying hard not to rattle the chains, to keep his efforts secret, but no matter how hard he pulled he couldn't budge the cuffs or reach his picks. He wasn't sure how he was going to manage to get free without dislocating his thumbs and making a lot of noise, which would undoubtedly bring in whoever was waiting out in that hallway. He needed a plan, or a miracle.
"My first model was my father." She said, all matter of fact. "He was a drunk. It was easy to tie him down and do what I could to get the pictures I wanted." She looked almost sheepish. "The photos weren't very good. All I had was a little digital camera and no studio or help..." she sighed a bit. "I knew I needed to get better if I was going to use you as my subject. So I practiced.
"Dear old Dad didn't last long as a subject, I'm afraid. I blackmailed a couple of the cheerleaders and football jocks into helping me get rid of the body. I had that disk, after all, they had to do what I said. Once that was done, though, I couldn't risk them telling anyone. So, I arranged the accident. Wasn't hard, really. The bus driver didn't even notice the leaking brake fluid until it was too late. I took pictures of the ones who survived the original crash. They were much better than the ones of my father, but they were still lacking something… I didn't call in about the crash until I was sure everyone was dead."
Dick stared at her, hardly believing what he was hearing. Surely, this hadn't all been connected? Was his life just some big cosmic joke?
"I lost track of you after highschool for a while." Amy continued with a soft sigh, "But I kept practicing! I knew I would find you again eventually, and I wanted to be ready." She grinned a bit, patting Dick's chest lightly before she pulled back walking the album over to the duffel bag and putting it back inside. "I started watching you once you moved to Bludhaven. Accessing traffic cameras, webcams… I even set up some of my own cameras around your building to keep tabs, since Bludhaven's camera network isn't the best… It didn't take long to figure out that you were Nightwing." She said, causing Dick's eyes to snap to her. She grinned wider, cat-like. "Yes, I know about your night job." She said with a giggle. "I've been watching you since you came here, it wasn't hard to tell."
She pulled something out of the duffel bag, a long black rod, about the size of a police baton but slightly thicker. She walked with it over to where Jason was laid out on the floor, pressing her boot heel into the middle of his back to push him flatter. He growled at her and she giggled, looking at Dick again. "Seeing you as a vigilante just inspired me more. You're just so wonderful to watch. I've seen you injured and nearly killed. I've recorded the just perfect expression you get when you're too late to save someone." She licked her lips with an almost blissful expression as she recalled. "Mm, the best ones in my collection are the ones from the night Blockbuster was killed."
Dick looked stricken at that, glancing at Jason and back at her. She chuckled. "Does he not know?" she wondered. "Seems like people just love to hold you down and use you, hm, Richard?" she said with a teasing tone. "It's too bad that Tarantula woman was in the way of most of the shots. Seeing you taken advantage of when you were vulnerable again… Gorgeous."
Jason frowned, glancing up at Dick who had closed his eyes tightly. He hadn't wanted Jason to hear that. It was one thing to be a victim, but to be a repeated victim stung in ways he couldn't describe. Some irrational part of him had thought it made him weaker, that Jason would accept once, but more? At that point it must mean that Dick was inviting it somehow. Between the way Tarantula had used him, and the ways, even as Robin, men like Slade had touched him like they wanted to violate him too, he'd often questioned whether there was something wrong with him. If he somehow broadcasted it.
Jason opened his mouth to say something, to try and tell Dick that it would be okay, that he'd get him out of here, that he'd beat this crazy bitch's face into pulp, but just as the words were going to come out a scream escaped instead. While they'd both been distracted by her story, Amy had flicked a switch at the bottom of the rod, making it buzz with electric current before she jabbed it hard into Jason's back. Surprised as he was he couldn't hold back the cry, and his body spasmed as the current made his muscles clench and unclench painfully.
Dick's eyes snapped open, looking at Jason with alarm and anger. He pulled hard against the chains holding him. "Stop!" he called out to Amy, "Stop it, he has nothing to do with this!" he yelled at her, struggling harder, almost yanking a shoulder out of its socket.
Amy pulled the rod away from Jason's back when it looked like Dick might hurt himself, tutting at him with a sigh. "Now, now, calm down." She said chuckling a bit, like Dick was an overexcited child. "No need to make a fuss before I set up the camera." She said with an impish expression. "I just wanted to make sure my guess was right.
"I've been setting this up for months, you know. I had to cut down on the time that I spent watching you to prepare for everything." She kicked the chains holding Jason down. "Originally, I planned to pull someone off the street to put here. You're so protective of innocent people, after all, I was certain I'd get a perfect shot if you had to watch someone you couldn't save…"
She turned her gaze to Jason, who was panting a little in the aftermath of the shock, scowling at him and pushing her boot harder into his back. "But then, when I sent the copy of the disk to the Manor so Mr. Wayne could watch it, to get you ready for the shoot, you weren't home like I thought you would be." She said with a deeper scowl. "I never got to see your reaction to the disk! That would have been a wonderful shot! And then he showed up!" she said, giving Jason a stomp that forced a grunt out of him. "You didn't get my pictures for days because you were with him, weren't you?!" she said, sounding furious, stomping Jason again with the air of a tantruming child. "And then he was there all the time! And he was ruining all my plans! He was taking the pictures I sent you and keeping them away! He was stopping you from letting out all your sadness and pain! I had so many plans!" she said, sighing and raising her free hand as if to calm herself, eyes falling closed as she breathed in deep.
"But, I didn't let his presence ruin everything." She said. "When I saw that the two of you were romantically involved I figured it wasn't all lost." She said, smiling at Dick with an expression that said that all the fury she'd been displaying was barely contained, boiling under the surface. "At first I just tried to get him away from you. I thought, if you were heartbroken it would be that much better for the shoot. I got people to approach him, try to lure him away." She gave Jason a quick glare again, her fingers tightening on the rod like she wanted to shock him again. "But he didn't take the bait… So I had to change my plans again." She muttered, looking back up at Dick with a sunny smile. "But, out of adversity came inspiration!" she said, taking her foot off of Jason's back and making a beckoning gesture towards the door. Two men came in at her gesture, burly men with surly expressions and tattoos covering their necks and hands that pointed to connections with the Russian mob. She passed one of them the rod and went back to her bag, pulling out camera equipment and starting to set it up in front of Dick, making sure his view of Jason was completely unobstructed. "These men are fans of my work." She said brightly, prompting smirks from the men in question. "And they are also not so big of fans of the Red Hood." She said, glancing at Jason with a somewhat crazed smirk. "Actually, there's a lot of people that aren't big fans of you, it seems… There's a whole lineup waiting to get at you." She said, chuckling and adjusting her lights and tripod quickly, making sure the camera was focused entirely on Dick's face. "And what better way to hurt you, than to let all those people do whatever they want to the man you love?" she said.
Dick looked horrified, staring at Jason with wide eyes, "No…" he said, "No, please…" he said, looking at Amy pleadingly. She snapped a picture when he looked her way. "Ah, yes." She purred. "This is going to be perfect…" she said.
Her high giggle made the hair at the back of Dick's neck stand on end and he looked back at Jason helplessly, starting to struggle against his bonds again. One of the men kicked Jason hard, right in the same side Amy had kicked before making Jason grimace against the anticipated pain. "Keep still." The man said, "Or I'll break 'em next." He growled at Dick, stilling the man's movements.
Jason looked at Dick and shook his head slowly, holding the older man's gaze with determined eyes. Dick swallowed thickly, closing his eyes and swallowing the lump in his throat. I can take it. Jason's eyes told him. Don't give her what she wants. Dick took a shaky breath and schooled his expression carefully blank.
"Well, let's get started, shall we?" Amy said, ducking behind her camera as the stun rod was pressed once again to Jason's back, bringing a strangled yell from his lips even as he tried to hold it back, for Dick's sake. His back was on fire, his lungs feeling like they were seizing as he tried to inhale and could only cry out.
Jason really, really hoped that Tim and Bruce were on their way.