GOTHAM CITY
May 2, 01:27 EDT
I am the biggest freaking idiot that the East End has probably ever seen. They told me to keep my head down and my mouth shut, but what do I do? I friggin’ look right at the head honcho and call him 'Shizzle Cesar Shorty with a side of Sheik Fatness'.
What does that even mean?
Now I'm being used as an 'example' to show the other girls what happens when you disobey.
Good job Andy.
Another fist connects with my face, causing my head to snap back with force and then my neck to slowly loll forward. Blood pours from my face as it hangs limp against my chest.
"You learn your lesson bitch," asks the punk punching me, with a thick Romanian accent.
It's funny how Mr. Shizzle won't do this himself; we wouldn't want to dirty his hands with my blood now would we? He just stares me down, rubbing his gold ringed fingers with his purple suit and tie while draped with a fur cape and white hair with gold rimmed, pink tinted sunglasses, waiting for my answer; an answer to a question that I wasn’t supposed to answer. I just put my head back down.
I’d heard about girls being taken off of the streets by Dragos Ibanescu (a.k.a. Mr. Shizzle) and his crime ring. I guess I just never imagined that I’d be one of them; that I was too smart for them to catch.
Man was I wrong.
I feel a hand grab my hair in a tight grip, yanking my head up by the roots to meet his rat face.
Now, my Romanian is a bit rough but what Ibanescu said next to his men pretty much brought back on my fight.
It was something about branding.
I struggle against the hands that now bound me to my chair as another asshole emerges with a glowing rod. Another pair of hands rips the sleeve of my sweatshirt and pushes away the material to expose my shoulder. As the one with the glowing rod advances to me, I use my legs to kick out and continue to struggle for escape.
“Get away from me you asshole!”
Okay I’m panicking.
Can you blame me?
Some more hands strap down my legs and another whacks me in the face. Then something presses up against my skin, right under my collar bone.
I never understood why people screamed when they were being hurt. Seriously, if someone was hurting another on purpose, they probably wouldn’t stop because of some screams. A part of them took pleasure in it; wanted to hear that pain. Screaming was like a gift to them. And yet here I am, screaming my head off, giving these fuckers what they want, and for what? No one is going to 'save me', no one was going to call the cops. You kidding me?
This is Gotham.
It actually takes me a second to realize that it was me screaming. All I can focus on was the pain that bubbled up inside of me, burning from that point of skin beneath my collar bone and spreading throughout the rest of my body. As if it all was on fire.
I can feel it, my skin was now marked, owned by someone else.
I'm now just a thing.
Another one of their ‘dogs’.
And here I am singing to them.
The rod pulls away from my skin and they all leave me. I stay where I am, trying to calm myself down.
I don't have the heart to look at my new 'feature'.
I have the rest of my life to do that.
There is a noise to my right and I look lazily to it’s direction, only to see half of the other girls that were with me being pulled away.
Suddenly, an anger floods up inside of me. They made me pity myself.
“You fucker,” I snap my head back to the crime lord. I’m not exactly sure if Dragos understood what I said, but regardless he just smirks and walks in the direction that the girls were dragged to. The Gorilla that first ‘seasoned’ me took Dragos’ place.
“You’re going to work the Track, quota starts at $300 a night. You pretty lucky, normally I start higher,” Pah, how lucky am I? “You come back without the cash, lets just say this won’t be your last beat’n. Now…” I notice a shadow behind him, it was quick and I actually can’t tell if it is something that I really saw or not. I search the back of the warehouse, trying to get a look at any more ‘shadows’, but I can’t see past the crowd of thugs working around dog cages.
There’s suddenly some movement in the back and one of the men randomly disappears.
Ookaaay. Am I seeing things?
“Bitch you listen’n to me?!” My head jumps up to be greeted by the barrel of a gun.
There’s some more movement in the back and more guys start disappearing quietly, completely unnoticeable by anyone else.
I finally catch a glimpse of the ‘shadow’.
Ah man, really?
Of course here comes the Batman saving the day and here I am tied up like a fuck’n damsel in distress.
Whoop-de-do.
Insert sarcastically enthusiastic finger circles here.
“Where’d you take those other girls?” I stare back down the gun intensely, probably going cross eyed, like I was challenging it to a fight.
A fight that I’d probably lose.
He presses the gun forward to my forehead forcefully.
Yup, it’d win.
“You wanna join them?”
“Well that’d depend on where they were going. I hear the Bahamas are beautiful this time of year. Well, every time of every year.” I’m totally being sarcastic; it's basically pooling out of my mouth like drool, just egging him on.
He pulls the gun back from my face, only to come back and whip it across my cheek. I bite my tongue, not sure if it was on purpose or not, and take deep breaths at the feeling of my cheek cracking open and caving into my mouth.
Is it bad that I have Hit Me With Your Best Shot stuck in my head?
Did I just say that outloud?
“Do you wanna die?” His face gets all up on mine, trying to intimidate me and it was kinda working.
“Uh, yeah,” I nod thoughtfully. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
There’s suddenly a loud cry that echoed throughout the place; which is pretty impressive due to the amount of activity going on, causing the gunslinger Gorrilla and basically all of Dragos’ other men, that were still remaining, to wave their guns around in the air like lunatics.
I look back at the other girls behind me on the floor. They’re completely terrified, balled up in a fetal position or just frozen in place.
Ugh, what am I supposed to do?
Unfortunately, Gunslinger decides that for me. He grabs me and hauls me up so that I was standing in front of him, shoving his gun to the back of my head.
“Stay back or I’ll shoot her brains out!” I roll my eyes and wince.
“Please stop yelling, your voice is annoying.”1083Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjHiVospm2V
“Shut up!” His hand grips the material of my hood as he basically flings me around like a ragdoll. The lights starts going out one by one with a pop, causing Mr. Grabby behind me to back up and drag me with him. There is only one light left that’s behind us, so the entire warehouse is completely covered by darkness except for the few rays of moonlight coming in through the windows.1083Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyspahF1XGr
The sounds of the other men stop and I look to my right and see that the others girls had disappeared, creating this silence throughout the room.
I hope the girls are okay.
An urge to get the hell outta dodge flies through me. I throw my elbow up like an idiot to the Romanian behind me with a force that causes me to turn around and face him.
A shot rang out.
The turd just shot me.
It feels like I’ve been punched in the gut by a javelin.
“Ugh.” I clutch my stomach and sink to my knees, taking deep breaths.
“Get your ass back up.” He grabs me by the elbow and hauls me back in front of him.
“Look man,” I can feel the blood soaking into my shirt and I’m starting to feel drained, “you just shot your one and only hostage. If you let him take you in, you’ll be out before morning. Dragos’ll just make a little call and the cops will let you go. Just-”
“Shut up!”
That’s when I saw him, like actually saw him. It’s like staring into the eyes of the tiger.
But you know, instead of a tiger it's a bat.
So it sounds a lot less catchy.
Hey! Now he can’t be ripped off by Katy Perry, too!
“Let her go.” That voice made us both tremble with fear.
Man this guy is intimidating.
The gun is shaking at my temple and I’m starting to get dizzy, so I really don’t want to keep standing here. Next thing I know, I’m swung around and hit my head, face first into the wall.
~Woot~
GOTHAM CITY
May 2, 02:09 EDT
“-stopped, but there’s not much else I can do here. She needs to get to a hospital.” I open my eyes quickly and look around. I’m in some room and there are voices coming from behind the closed door. Looking down, I see that I have a white sheet over me and I throw it off.
My hoodie and shirt are on the chair to my left and I jump up to get them. I then regret my fast action.
Oh yeah, I was shot.
There is a bandage taped securely to my wound and my face is throbbing due to the treatment I was previously given.
Still, I reach for my clothes and put them on carefully then make my way over to the window and slide it open.
“Don’t.” I look back at The Batman and Robin in the doorway.
When did they get there?!
I look out the window, to freedom, then back at the duo, trying to decide my best course of action.
They’d catch me.
I sigh, Yeah…
I shut the window slowly and clear my throat.
“Um… I, uh, was just getting some fresh air,” I lie. They know it.
Another figure steps around them and comes up to me.
“Come lay down dear.” She leads me back to the bed and sits me down.
“Dr. Thompkins?” I stare at her white hair and blue eyes. I went to her a couple of years ago for some help with…
“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you.” She smiles at me and then lightly pushes me onto my back by my shoulders.
“What’s your name?” I look up at the masked face of Batman.
“Andy.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.” His eye slits narrows at me, detecting my lie. I roll my eyes. “Twelve,” I answer honestly this time and sigh. “Look, can you just let me go? I- What are you doing?!” Dr. Thompkins has a needle in her hand, ready to sink into my arm.
“It’s just something to help the pain,” she explains, looking confused.
“I don’t need that. Just let me go,” I try to get up, only to be held back down by Robin.
“We will, just chill,” his voice sounds very boyish and I stop struggling to look at him.
“Psh, talk about twelve! How old are you?” He lets me go and gives me a look.“What? You guys can ask but I can’t?” They didn’t say anything. “Whatever.” I feel my arm being lifted again by Dr. Thompkins and I yank it from her grasp.
I don’t like needles. Sue me.
“Look, it’ll only be a second and you’ll feel better.”
I’ve heard those words before.
“No. I don’t-” She did it. She just stuck it in my arm and gave me the shot. I look at her, eyes wide. My chest tightens; I start to breathe quickly and I feel like I’m about to throw up.
Dr. Thompkins pulls away from me and gives me this smile like she is reassuring me or something. I close my eyes and try to control my breathing. I pull my sleeve down over the injection site and circle my arms around my torso, trying to keep my heart from beating out of my chest and my head to stop spinning. Betrayal bangs in my heart and I tighten my arms around me for protection.
“Do you know where Dragos Ibanescu went,” Batman asks me and I turn my head to him, trying to focus on something other than the whole needle situation.
He didn’t catch Dragos?
“No. He probably went with the other girls.”
“What other girls,” Robin asks.
Don’t they know anything?
“They split us in half. I was with the group that was supposed to stay and work here but some were taken off to be sold or something.” I start to feel drowsy, probably because of that drug that Dr. Thompkins gave me. “Its been happening a lot lately.” The drug is really kicking in. My body starts going numb and my eyes keep sliding shut. I was just about to give in when a thought pops in my head and I reach out to grab Batman’s arm.
“Don’t take me to an orphanage.”
Then darkness takes over me.
~Woot~
GOTHAM CITY
May 2, 08:26 EDT
The sound of something beeping wakes me up and I slowly open my eyes to a white ceiling. I look around and see a nurse next to me.
“Oh, hello. You’re awake,” No duh. “Let me just get your doctor, okay sweetie?”
Do I have a choice?
She leaves quickly and I groan.
The Batman may not have taken me to an orphanage, but the hospital will.
Well played Bats, well played.
