Nightmare in Arkham
Chapter 24: "The Poisoned" (Part 1)
-"Who did this to you, Selina?" Bruce asked with anger in his voice.
-Selina was quiet for a moment as she contemplated the best way to explain what happened. "Bruce…I know how crazy this is going to sound but you have to believe me. I was attacked by a man inside of my dream."
-Bruce was silent as Selina continued, "His name was Freddy. When I fell asleep…I found myself wandering this decimated city that looked like Gotham had fused with Arkham Asylum. I heard screaming, so I ran to investigate and saw Dick Grayson falling from a rooftop."
-Dick? Bruce's eyes grew wide with fear, He went after Dick?
-"I saved him just as he was about to hit the ground and then this horrid, grotesque man appeared out of no where. I actually had a previous encounter with this man a few weeks ago but I didn't think much of it until Barbara-" Selina abruptly stopped and starred frozen as if a horrible image had just flashed before her eyes.
-"What is it?" Bruce asked with urgent fear.
-"Barbara," Selina replied with her eyes still frozen.
Barbara Gordon sat upright on her hospital bed with Jim Gordon sitting right beside her. Now joining them was Officer Montoya, who was pacing back and forth at the foot of Barbara's bed. Jim and Montoya looked bewildered.
-"Listen, you have got to believe me," Barbara insisted.
-Montoya stopped pacing and turned to Barbara, her eyes sympathetic.
-"Barbara, honey, it's not that we don't believe you it's just-"
-"Look at this!" Barbara said pointing to her shortened hair, "You think I did this to myself?
-"Barbara, listen, this is a huge story you're laying out here-"
-"Why would I make this up?"
-"Nobody is saying you made this up. You've been out cold for a long time, so there's a very good chance you're still reeling from the nightmares that you endured for su-"
-"I'm telling you: I could feel his hands when they grabbed me, I could feel the knives when they dug into my back, I could smell the death on his body, and I even felt my foot being burned. In fact, take a look at my foot," Barbara instructed.
-Montoya looked down where Barbara's feet rested at the foot of her bed. She slowly lifted the covers and then gasped in shock. Barbara's left foot was dark reddish-pink; a few sections of the epidermis were scorched to the point where they had formed severe blisters, and the ankle, as well as the outer arch had dead skin that looked like wet paper.
-"Jesus!" Jim exclaimed.
-"That happened to me in my dream," Barbara said with emphasis.
-"Montoya, get a doctor," Jim instructed.
-"Yes sir!" Montoya replied before rushing out of the room. Jim turned back to his daughter.
-"Dad," Barbara said nearly on the verge of tears, "please, I wish I could make this sound more realistic but I'm telling you the truth."
-"And I believe you," Jim replied. Barbara fell silent.
-"You…you do?"
-"After all the crazy shit that's gone down in this city over the years, I'm willing to believe anything now. I still think you need time to recover, but dream or no dream," Jim clenched his hand into a fist and continued angrily, "all I know is that when I get my hands on this son-of-a-bitch, I will watch him die slowly."
-Barbara smiled with relief, but then her smile faded when Jim turned to her with worry in his eyes.
-"In the meantime," Jim said in a soft, concerned voice, "there's something we need to talk about."
-Jim slowly took a seat in the chair beside his daughter. "Barbara, believe me, I wanted to tell you this for a long time, but I was afraid that if you knew, it would put a much heavier mental burden on you. But if I had lost you before you I had a chance to tell you this, I would never forgive myself."
-"What is it, Daddy?" Barbara asked both curious and nervous at the same time. Jim opened his mouth to speak but he was interrupted by a commotion in the hallway that caused him and Barbara to turn to the doorway.
-"Wait! Hold on son!"
-"Get out of my way! I have to see her!"
-"You need a pass to be back here!"
-"Screw your pass!"
-"Guard! Guard!"
-A third voice chimed in.
-"Hold on! Ma'am, the boy is with me."
-"I don't care! Unless you're a family member, you have to schedule a visit ahead of time. You can't just barge in here like a lunatic and-"
-"Here, will this change your mind?"
-After a pause, the female voice responded, "Alright, go on in."
-Barbara Gordon's door flew open and Dick Grayson staggered into the room panting heavily. His body was riddled in sweat and he seemed nearly out of breath.
-"Dick!" Barbara exclaimed with joy.
-Dick shot his head up. When he saw Barbara awake, alive, and smiling at him from the comfort of her bed, all the energy he had lost sprinting to the hospital instantly returned.
-He ran to her and wrapped her arms around her laughing with joy. Barbara retained an equally tight grip on her boyfriend until she opened her eyes and saw Bruce Wayne standing before her.
-Barbara's smile faded and she let go of Dick. Dick held onto Barbara a little while longer while Barbara stared back into Bruce's deep, solemn eyes. Part of her was afraid to see him; frightened by the fact that now she would have to face her mentor after failing him.
-Eventually, Dick released Barbara and she opened her mouth to try and speak to Bruce. However, she could not form any words. For a second, Barbara was actually expecting Bruce to yell at her, which she felt she rightfully deserved. But suddenly, Bruce's eyes filled with tears.
-He dropped to his knees and encircled his protégée in a tight bear hug weeping on her shoulder.
-"Thank God, thank God you're safe," he whispered into her ear before planting a soft kiss on top of her head. Barbara was speechless, but a gleam shined in her eyes.
MEANWHILE…
-The beam of light slowly grazed across Poison Ivy's no longer shining eyes. The only reaction she gave off was an occasional twitch or flutter of the pupils. Otherwise Her face was like a porcelain mask: no emotion, no movement, just an artificial stare.
-"How long has she been like this?" the male doctor asked.
-"A few days," the female doctor responded casually as she continued to trace Ivy's gaze in an apathetic attempt to get a response.
-"Geez," the male doctor said, "Poor thing."
-The female doctor froze, "Excuse me?"
-"I just said 'poor thing'. I mean, look at her, she's practically dead."
-The female doctor scoffed at the remark and turned to the male doctor with a large sneer.
-"Well you certainly got the "thing" part right, but poor," the doctor turned back to Poison Ivy, "that adjective belongs to the dozens of people this monster slaughtered as she tore the city apart. Not to mention the hundreds of innocent people whose lives she took for walking on the grass or cutting down a few trees to progress the city."
-"Yeah but, our job is to heal not to judge. And besides, every living creature has to be capable of some form of compassion, right?" the male doctor replied.
-The female doctor turned again, this time she looked at her partner with both annoyance and disgust.
-"Open your eyes! Don't you realize who this is? This is Poison…Ivy. She preys on people like you. She either kills people, uses them as puppets, or both."
-Then the female doctor gave Ivy a murderous stare and brought her face up close to the plant woman until their faces were inches apart.
-"We shouldn't be wasting our time on you. Why don't you just die so we can focus on the lives worth saving?" she coldly said to the plant woman. Then she stood up and started walking toward the door.
-When she was out of the room the male doctor leaned close to Ivy and said to her, "Don't mind her. So long as your ass is still green I will always have hard-on for you baby," then he gave a wink before exiting the room.
Inside of Poison Ivy's mind, she sat curled in a fetal position. Although Ivy was physically awake, her mind had detached itself from her body and was still trapped within the dream realm.
-"I love you, Red," Ivy's whole body shook with devastation as the last four words Harley would ever say to her played in her mind over and over. Harley, the one that had made Ivy feel human after so many years, the one who Ivy swore she would protect, the one who looked up to Ivy like a mother, said "I love you," and the final memory that Ivy had left Harley was her cold, selfish rejection. All because Ivy just wasn't satisfied with having her as a friend, as a daughter, she just had to had have Harley as a lover, even if it meant manipulating her just like the Joker, just like the man who had turned Ivy into the creature she was today.
-But the thought that had completely destroyed Ivy, the one that had dealt her one of the most heart-shattering blows she had ever been dealt was: where was she when Harley needed her? Where was she when Harley cried out to her while the Joker tortured and mangled her? She was getting stoned. She had decided Harley was too much of a mental burden so she decided to block her out and left her to die. This had opened Ivy's eyes up to what she truly was: a poison; a force of nature that could only take over a living creature's mind and body and destroy it from the inside.
-While Ivy's body remained physically intact in the real world, her mind had completely deteriorated and the physical effects that it had on her body inside her nightmare were catastrophic: Her emerald-green skin was now a mixture of red and yellow, large patches of her flesh were now covered in blight, her tendrils had hardened to the point where they now resembled brown roots and the leaves and flowers that usually bloomed on them had withered and died, and her lush, red hair had wilted into a gray mass of what looked and felt like Spanish moss.
-While Harley's words continued to haunt Ivy, another sentence broke through her psyche: "Why don't you just die?" "Why don't you just die? Why don't you just die? Why don't you just die?"
In the real world, even though Poison Ivy's mind had been severed, her subconscious still allowed her brain to register the sights and sounds of her environment and react involuntarily on those thoughts. When the doctor's words registered in her head, Ivy turned her head toward the window, starring at the dead tree.
*Bruce Wayne had stepped out of Barbara's room to report back to Selina Kyle that she was awake and to fetch Leslie Thompkins to come and see her. For the first time in what felt like years, Bruce finally felt a sense of joy. But as Bruce rounded another corner, that joy was shattered by an image of the Joker.
-The Joker stood leaning his back against a wall. Blood dripped from various parts of his body and on the side of the Joker's face that was facing Bruce, he could see the enormous, reddish-black imprint from where he had struck him.
-The Joker turned toward Bruce and gave him a devilish smile; blood seeped through the teeth.
-"Well, well, well," The Joker said to the startled Bruce, "How have you been hanging, Bats?"
-"What?" Bruce said horrified, "How do you-"
-"Oh, ya know, it's amazing what a little bonker on the head'l do to ya. Makes ya think in ways you never thought, makes you see things like you've never seen them before, its like I'm back in the 70s all over again HAHAHAHA-" The Joker was cut off by a pained cough that sent blood shooting out of his mouth and onto the floor where it instantly evaporated. Then the Joker turned back toward Bruce.
-"Y'know if I'd ever been curious about your identity I'd have torn off that mask years ago."
-"So why didn't you?" Bruce asked.
-"Well, I always figured the truth would be a let-down. But I have to say, masquerading as Gotham's least interesting socialite is one hell of a cover story. The dead parents are just icing on the cake!"
-Bruce bared his teeth in anger and charged the Joker, slamming him against the wall.
-"Shut up! Or I'll-"
-"Go ahead," The Joker responded in a daring tone, "You've already done it once."
The Joker raised and eyebrow, "Well, actually it's been more than that, hasn't it? First there was poor little Johnny Crane, then Jervis, Barbara," the Joker narrowed his eyes and his smile grew wider, "and let's not forget my personal favorite…," after a long pause the Joker said, "Ivy."
-Bruce's heart sank as he was forced to listen to the names of the lives he had allowed to be destroyed. The Joker cocked and eyebrow, "Did I miss anyone?"
-Bruce raised his head in anger. "OH! How could I have forgotten about my sweet little honey-poo? Then again, I hadn't really thought about her until Ivy came knocking on my door." Bruce clenched both of his hands into tight fists as the veins in his neck began to bulge. "Look, Brucie sweetie, I know how torn up you are about Poison Oakey, but don't feel too bad. I mean, she's still alive at least. Better off than Harley. Kinda hard makin with the "yuks" when you're worm food."
-So much blood flushed into Bruce's face that he started to bleed from his nose as he grinded his teeth in absolute fury.
-"You're a fucking disease!" Bruce yelled at the Joker.
-The Joker smiled and replied, "Then you best stand back…I might be contagious."
-As the Joker gave off his maniacal laughter, Bruce yelled in a rage and swung his fist at the Joker. So powerful was the swing that Bruce's fist smashed through the wall sending a loud crashing noise echoing through the hallway. Bruce then began to pant heavily as he raised his head…and he was shocked to find that, not only was the Joker gone, but a frightened Leslie Thompkins was standing in his place. Bruce's fist was embedded in the wall less than half a foot from the old woman's head.
-Bruce backed away breathing heavily in absolute horror. The Joker's laughter still pounded in his head. Bruce grabbed at his hair and shouted, "No! No, leave me alone!"
-"Bruce?" Leslie said still a bit frightened, "Bruce!"
-Bruce closed his eyes and fell to his knees on the verge of tears, "Just go away! Make him go away!"
-"Bruce!" Dr. Thompkins rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him, "It's okay, Bruce! It's okay!"
-"Stay dead, damn you!" Bruce cried.
-"There's no one here, Bruce. It's just me. Calm down, everything's going to be okay," Leslie said tightening her grip around him.
-"BRUCE!" a female voice shouted from the hallway. Bruce opened his eyes and looked up to see Selina Kyle limping toward him trying her best not to stagger and fall over. Eventually, the pain that engulfed Selina's body became too much of a strain and she began to fall.
-Bruce shot to his feet and caught her before she hit the ground.
-"Help me get her back to her bed," Bruce pleaded. Leslie immediately made her way over to him and put Selina's arm around her shoulder. Together, they slowly and carefully brought Selina back to her room and eased her back onto the bed.
-Bruce looked at Selina as she stared back at him with worry.
-"Barbara's safe," Bruce responded, "She's awake and I just got done talking to her, she's unharmed."
-"Oh, thank God," Selina said with a sigh of relief, "When I saw how distraught you were I thought…wait, then what happened Bruce?"
-"I…I…," Bruce stammered.
-"Bruce has been under a great deal of stress these past few days," Leslie answered for him, "But don't worry, I'll make sure he gets as much help as he needs," she said eying Bruce as if she were telling him she wasn't giving him a choice. Bruce nodded.
-Leslie took Bruce by the hand and they slowly took their leave.
-Before they exited the room, Selina said, "Thank you, Bruce."
-Bruce stopped and looked back at Selina, "For what?"
-"For being here for me. I know I like to come across as someone who doesn't need anyone, but the truth is that's only because I know I have someone looking out for me."
-Bruce smiled, "When you have someone to care about, you always have to hold them close to the heart. I love you, Selina."
-"I love you, too, Bruce," Selina replied with a smile. Then Bruce slowly exited the room and closed the door.
-"This Joker business really has done a number on you, hasn't it Bruce?" Leslie asked with concern as they walked down the hall toward Barbara's room.
-"It's not just the Joker, Leslie, it's everything that's happened. I feel like it's all poisoned me."
-"Why do you feel responsible for it all?"
-"Because I didn't watch them. If I had been there when they needed me the most, they would all be here today." Leslie put a hand on Bruce's shoulders.
-"But some of them are here, Bruce. Selina may be hurt but she has once again proven that she is tough as nails. And Barbara, she's finally awake and very much alive. And Poison Ivy's still alive, too. And as long as she's still breathing she still has a chance for recovery, just like Barbara."
-Bruce was about to say something when a passing doctor interrupted, "What's this I hear about Poison Ivy?"
-"Oh, we were just-"
-"I heard you say something about her making a recovery. She actually woke up not too long ago."
-"What?!" Bruce responded anxiously.
-The doctor looked surprised by Bruce's response and when Bruce realized he had reacted a tad bit abruptly, he lowered his tone, "I mean, is she…is she stable?"
-"Well…" he said hesitantly, "I would have to say 'more or less' to that. I mean she is breathing but-"
-"Can we see her?" Bruce asked.
-The doctor was silent for a moment; he seemed a bit reluctant. But then he responded, "Ah, what the heck? I'm sure she wouldn't object any visitors and it's not like she can hurt anyone," the doctor seemed like he was attempting to be subtly humorous with that statement but Bruce didn't know why.
-The doctor took Bruce and Leslie to the door right next to Selina's and motioned Bruce to have a look inside.
Selina was starting to feel fatigued and slowly began dozing off as she continually snapped herself awake. As she was on the verge of drifting off, she was jolted awake by the sound of the doctor screaming next door, "Oh shit!"