Chapter Thirteen
Shaking off the oddity of my encounter with the Eddie guy, I got to work climbing the stairs to my apartment. I must've been chatting with that guy for hours, it was late dusk now and I was intent on cooking a package of instant ramen and going to bed. Approaching my door, out of breath, I realized it was ajar. I stopped in the hallway, catching my breath and anxiously studying the doorknob. I had locked it after I left this morning. Leaving it unlocked and ajar was sloppy and amateurish. Steeling my resolve I used my crutch to knock the door back and peered into my dark room.
When nothing jumped out I shuffled into my apartment and glanced around, even into the bathroom. Nothing was out of place, there weren't any monsters, and I didn't find any mysterious new additions to my belongings. Confused I rubbed my arm from the cold and relocked my front door. I froze. Whipping around to face the back wall I got a moment to see my previously sealed window now gaping open with the frozen Gotham air blowing in before a black mass launched itself through the small opening. The back of my skull connected with the door and my feet lifted off the ground as a gloved hand squeezed my throat. I gagged and my eyes bulged at the unexpected pressure.
"What did Nigma want?" the bat asked in his thunderous hoarse voice. Unable to breath I pulled fruitlessly on his fingers and weakly wacked him with my crutch before it was torn from my grip. He eased up enough that I could gasp for breath.
"Who?" I asked as my eyes watered. Batman grabbed my cast-covered leg and twisted it so that the question mark was the center of attention. "Nigma. What did he want," it wasn't a question so much as a command. Beginning to feel lightheaded I was pulled from the door and thrown belly first into my warped wooden floor. A thousand pound knee pinned me as one of my right arm was twisted against my back. Gasping against the cold floor I blurted through a sore throat, "Bla-Blackgate – let me go!" I moaned. When he leaned harder against my back and continued turning my arm I let out a sob and scratched at the floor with my free hand.
"What about Blackgate?"
"The week, the siege, he couldn't find video recordings," I whimpered, "wanted to know what happened. He said he'd blackmail Black Mask if I didn't talk!"
Just when I thought he let me go I felt something crack in my elbow and screamed into the floor, digging my nails into the surface as the massive weight lifted from and my right arm flopped painfully to the side.
"Stay away from Nigma." Even delirious with pain and fear I wondered how I was supposed to prevent getting kidnapped. "Tell Sionis whatever he's hiding I'll stop him." And like that the bat absconded through my window and left me heaving face down in my shitty apartment with a fucked up arm and a threat.