Cobblepot was sleeping in his bed at night. Suddenly, he heard the crack of a whip wake him up.
"Penguin, wake up!" A female voice sounded.
"Catwoman?" He asked. "I thought I got rid of you years ago." The ghostly apparition of Catwoman stood tall with her sleek black catsuit, staring down at Penguin's presence.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past, and I will remind you what Christmas was like when you were much younger." Catwoman opened a portal to the past. "Come." Penguin walked through the portal and arrived in the memory of his childhood.
Oswald Cobblepot as a little boy awoke on Christmas morning.
"Yea, it's Christmas!" Little Oswald ran down the stairs to the Christmas tree and opened his first present. It was the severed head of his beloved parakeet and a note. He read the note.
Dear Oswald Cobblepot,
You owe $1,000,000 in debt to the Thorne Crime Family.
You visited the Thorne Casino near Panessa Studios on Sunday, December 8th.
Since then, the interest has multiplied week by week and you owe 1 million in debt.
To help you remember this message, we beheaded your beloved parakeet as a warning.
If you or your family do not pay off the debt by New Year's Day, it will not be the parakeet. It will be YOU.
Sincerely,
Rupert Thorne
"That was my bird! My beautiful bird!" Little Oswald held the head of his bird in his hands and cried.
"Perhaps I am playing the wrong Christmas memory." Selina assumed she had made a mistake.
"It's no mistake, this is what all my Christmases were like." Oswald explained. "This is the reality of Christmas in the mob, in Gotham no less." The Ghost of Christmas Past vanished, and Penguin was back in his bed. The next ghost would appear shortly.