Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been a while, but I've been SO busy (tests)! But I finally managed to finish this chapter; be warned, this is where the story starts to get a little stranger than it has been (but what do you expect? Sarah tailors costumes for super villains, there's no way she has a normal life).

Anyway, here we go!

Chapter four: Cat Out Of the Bag

My eyelids felt as if they weighed a hundred pounds, I struggled to open them. I blinked the sweat from my eyes and looked around. I was lying on a cold, dirty floor; it was so dark that I could barely see two feet in front of me. I tried to sit up and ended up hitting my head on the low ceiling; I could feel a bruise forming there. From what I could tell I was in some sort of crawl space, or maybe in some sort of cellar. Not knowing what else to do, I hunkered down and crawled forward on all fours, looking for an exit. After crawling along for a few minutes I saw a chink of light; it was small, but it was there.

I scrambled forward, feeling my exposed thigh graze a sharp object on the floor. I winced sharply and continued to crawl, this time being more careful. I finally reached the end of the hallway and found a hatch, slightly askew and letting in a chink of light. I threw open the hatch and crawled through the opening into a small room. From what I could tell by looking around I was in some sort of living room, a green and purple living room. A frayed green sofa sat in the center of the room along with a rocking chair and an equally green standing lamp. There was a small, lime green table with a white telephone on it, the wall paper was green and covered with little black question marks. I gingerly stood up and observed the gash on my thigh, a small amount of blood trickled down my leg but it didn't look that deep. Is this Edward Nigma's house? I thought, feeling my heart race. I rushed to the door at the end of the room; I reached for the doorknob, and found that it was electrified. I shrieked with pain, drawing my hand back as quickly as I could. I knew that I could pull the latches back on the window and open it. The window latches are probably electrified as well, I thought. I looked around the room, what to use what to use? I spotted the rocking chair in the corner, it was made of wood.

I ran over to it and turned it over, yanking at one of the legs as hard as I could, "come on, budge!"I growled, desperately tugging at the limb of the chair, I tugged and clawed desperately until finally the limb broke away. Getting a running start, I charged at the window and swung the cylindrical piece of wood at the heavily reinforced glass, bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt! The electrified window latch shrieked angrily as I whaled on the window pane; try as I might it would barely even crack. I screamed with fury, striking the window again and again. Crack! The piece of wood broke in two; one piece went flying behind me and hit the back wall. The window hadn't even dented.

I stood there for what felt like ages, the only sound in the room was my heavy breathing. Tears of frustration and terror ran down my cheeks, he really wants to keep me here. I thought, I'm going to die here, aren't I? I am not ashamed to admit that I bawled. I wasn't brave back then, and even so, I was in a terrible situation. The shock of what had happened to me added to my fear and hopelessness. Amidst my profuse crying, I made out a high-pitched noise in the background. After a few seconds I stopped wailing and listened to the sound. It was the phone, the phone's ringing. I turned around and saw the white cordless phone vibrating in the receiver. Am I supposed to answer it? I thought. I shrugged hopelessly what the hell? I walked over to the hand set and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" I asked,

"I don't take kindly to you destroying my property Sarah."

"Riddler…" I breathed,

"Hello again," he said cordially,

I could almost see the grin forming on his face, "where am I?" I snarled,

"My, my, you see, but you do not observe," he snickered, "look out that window you tried to break."

Clutching the phone in my right hand, I walked to the window and peered out. My eyes widened, I was staring down McLaughlin Street, a green, warped version of McLaughlin Street. Leon's Grocery Store was right across the street, except the windows had been broken and rotten fruit sat in the stalls outside. Next to it was what I assumed was a Laundromat, but the structure had nearly collapsed, and rusty washer-driers were visible through the cracks; graffiti covered most of the buildings. It was like looking at a post-apocalyptic version of Gotham, through night vision goggles.

"Welcome to my little Gotham" said the Riddler "complete with taxi service."

"You have a replica of Gotham just, tucked away somewhere?" I asked, wondering where he could possibly hide something like that.

"Well, all of Gotham between 23rd Street and Dennison Avenue" he replied, "with a few improvements of my own" he quietly added,

"Why have you brought me here?" I demanded, "I did what you wanted, I didn't tell ANYONE about our 'exchange'; not my best friend, not the cops, no one!"

"No you didn't" he replied bluntly, "you're very good at keeping secrets, your boss isn't."

My eyes widened, Peabody… "Then why have you kidnapped me?"

"I'm surprised you haven't figured that one out on your own," he replied, "he had so much faith in you that I decided to see if you're everything he claims. You should have heard him gush about you; he claims you're 'brilliant' 'wonderful' 'going to make him a rich man!' Well, if you're really as brilliant as he makes you out to be, then saving his life should be no trouble, should it?"

"Yeah, Peabody's a bigwig; he blabbed! That's not my f-"I stopped short "save his life?" I breathed.

"Yes, you heard me correctly. You see, I have your boss strapped to an electric chair somewhere in this place, this 'Riddler's Gotham' shall we say. In order to save him, you must solve various puzzles. They could be anywhere in the city. Each puzzle will give you a clue as to where he is, if you solve the puzzle and find every clue you should be able to find him."

"Okay" I replied with a slight nod.

"Oh and one more thing; I don't like cheaters." He seethed, "next to my hand is a red button which triggers the chair, rest assured that I alone have access to it. If you fail, or cheat, I press the button and Roscoe here receives 2,000 volts of electricity, enough to kill a human being, for your trouble. Are we clear?"

"Crystal" I winced, "how long do I have?"

"Let's see, the time is 12:54 AM, you have until 2:00 AM to find him, which gives you… a little over an hour."

"An hour!?" I gasped,

"An hour" he repeated, "I believe that it's more than fair as I could finish this challenge in less than twenty minutes."

Too scared to be offended, I took a deep breath and replied, "Alright, now what's my first puzzle?"

"Simple." He replied, "Escape this room!"

Escape the room! I thought angrily, isn't that what I was just trying to do?

"…But as that was probably your first instinct anyway, I thought I'd add an extra incentive."

Whoop! A sharp, sucking sound rang out through the room. I cried with alarm as freezing water poured through the crawl space I had just been in and raced across the floor, placing a thin layer across all of it in a few seconds. "Oh dear, it appears we're taking on water!" Mocked Nigma clearly pleased with himself. "Good luck, I'll be watching!" The phone went dead.

I slammed the phone onto the receiver, I ran up to the door and slammed into the wood of it with my entire right side; the door creaked but didn't even come close to breaking open. I tried again, and again, to no avail. No, brute force isn't the answer here. The water was over my toes now. I pressed my body against the wall and patted down each wall of the room closely, looking for any hidden object; my finger caught a tiny gold tab on the wall, I instinctively pulled on it, yanking the cord out of the wall;

Big mistake.

Shmmmp! The water began to pour into the room faster than before; it had climbed up to my thighs and continued to rise. I cursed myself, no, a hidden compartment? That's too easy! I looked around the room; where else could someone hide something? I pulled the pillows off of the sofa and tore them apart, only to find plain white feathers, nothing that could help me. I did the same with the armchair to no avail. The water was circling around my torso now, I glanced frantically around the room; I've checked all the furniture, where else to look? My eyes fell on the standing lamp; I realized that it hadn't been giving off any light, and lacked a plug. I pulled the lampshade off revealing an incandescent light bulb, but I could tell that there was something off about it. I unscrewed the light bulb, raised it over my head and smashed it against the wall. Amidst the bits of shattered glass I saw a thin, wooden object where the filaments should have been. "A key!" I called out triumphantly, the water circled around my abdomen, I looked at the door, how am I going to fit the key inside if the door handle is electrified? I thought hard, wood doesn't conduct electricity…

I screwed the key back into place where the filaments should have been, fit the key in the lock and turned, praying that the door would open. Click. The water stopped rising, I smiled triumphantly. Not willing to risk shocking myself again, I lifted my right leg and kicked the door open, water rushed past me, flowing out the door and onto the street below. I leaned against the door frame, breathing heavily and shivering from the cold. Brrring! I looked back into the room, but there was no way that the phone in there was still working. I looked down at the sidewalk below and saw a payphone standing in front of the fence which surrounded the house. I raced down the walkway and picked up the phone, "yes?"

"Wonderful, you escaped the room without drowning and you watered the lawn, how kind of you!"

"You son of a bitch! When I get my hands on you, I swear I'll hit you so hard that you won't even remember why the chicken crossed the road!"

-Is what I wanted to say, but instead I quietly asked, "What do I do now?"

"Go to the place where it all began; you have 58 minutes." The phone went dead.

I put the phone back on the receiver. Where it all began? I rolled my eyes, Hallward's.

I looked up at the street sign; I was at the intersection of Kellerman Boulevard and Dennison Avenue. If this were an accurate representation of Gotham, at least building-wise, I would be about four city blocks away from Hallward's. I sighed; I didn't like Peabody at all after what he did, but I didn't want him to die. I turned like a marionette with a string cut, and proceeded down the street, eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. Just as I reached the end of Dennison Avenue, two metal gates swung open and blocked the entire street. I yelped with surprise and jumped back, as soon as I had caught my breath, I groaned. There was only one other road that I could take to get to Hallward's, but that was Cottonwood Street, which was the first left off of Kellerman Boulevard and, as the replica ended at Kellerman, meant it wouldn't be in the replica; this was the only way there. I guess I could climb over the wall… I thought, but that would be cheating… "Alright Nigma, how do you expect me to get there now?!" I shouted to the heavens.

There was no response and I didn't expect there to be. My eyes landed on a small screen on the left side of the metal wall. I walked up to it and tapped it twice, it buzzed and came to life, and green letters appeared on the screen.

Every day I stalk you all day long,

With every move you make, I never make one wrong.

I vanish twice a day with the sun's height and fall,

I will follow you anywhere,

Even the bathroom stall.

What am I?

A small chill ran up my spine, creepy riddle… I thought. I paced back and forth, thinking hard. Another set of words flashed on the screen;

49 Minutes!