Terra Firma

Cosette

"YOU SONOFABITCH!"

Oh, haze.

My body was ice cold, my legs on fire. I was in complete and utter darkness, my mind as hopeless and stiff as the position I was in. I could hear an angry male voice, bitter and caustic, in some room not too far off. I tried to move and felt chills run through my body, like electric shocks.

the water the water I was soaking wet

"I let you in here, I give you a room to stay in, I have your little underground 'club' all ready to go... I give you one. SIMPLE. TASK. And you bring me some other girl!"

His voice now, his smooth talking voice, sending chills down my spine of a different, more confusing kind, "Well, I would hardly call it a simple task, considering I'm stealing a ruby from a man with no limits..."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH."

A gunshot, matching the screaming pain in my bruised legs as I jolted. I could hear him dodge, his cane gliding gracefully across the floor (it must've been made of metal, the pain was so strong in my shins), then his voice as he spoke up:

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a serious impulse control problem?"

"Don't smart-mouth me, Carny-boy!"

I winced, hearing more yells. I cried out weakly at my fingers now registering satin beneath me.

oh god oh god i'm in a bed he wants me he wants me as a sex slave or something another riddle another puzzle oh god where's mom mom help me!!

I shut my eyes, feeling more shivers rack my weak body. I hoped I wouldn't catch a cold. Kind of a silly thing to worry about it when you're among crazy men with tempers, but when you lived a life like mine or my mother's--your priorities were slightly off balance.

I needed her now. I needed Ivy now more than ever. I needed her next to me with her flowery smell, stroking my green hair, telling me it was going to be alright and that I was safe while the madman in the other room threw chairs at the wall and stabbed deep cuts into his wooden desk, crying tortured tears for a lost past.

But she wasn't, and a madman (or men?) were arguing close by. I figured maybe it was the birdman I'd seen at the restaurant, but judging by the conversation this man sounded a little younger and more familiar

the night is darkest just before the dawn. and the dawn is coming

but maybe it wasn't. Who I was thinking of, that is.

Trapped in that dark room, I could only think of my mother--Ivy--and her first encounter with The Joker. Had she been afraid? Of course. There was no question, no doubt. She was probably still afraid at times. Did she fight, cry, kick, scream? No. I knew if she had, she wouldn't be here.

"You have one week to find her. One week. Got it, green boy?"

who are they talking about why isn't Angel here Jay somebody save me I'm far from home

"Excuse me?"

his voice is so dark so pretty like red wine in a glittering glass

glass broke broked redrum murder redrum MURDER.

"...Riddler."

"Yes, boss."

"Go play with your bitch or something. I need to be alone."

No no no no no.

Much to my horror, a door opened close by, revealing the ghost of a light outside the room with a tall shadow standing upright in the middle, and a cane clacked forward.

Jay

"Holy shit."

I stared down the hallway, where twisted bodies littered the floor, red blood flooding almost every inch of the tiles and smeared on the walls from opened heads and lipstick marks.

"You know the sad thing?" I heard Gordon sigh gruffly next me, "Judging by the thickness and color of the blood, I'd say this whole ward of men died at around the same time."

I was about let out a low whistle, until I heard the quiet sobs. Gordon and I turned, walking over slowly. A woman sat, hiding behind a water fountain.

"Are they gone?" Her small voice cried.

We rushed over, eyes searching for any blood, any sign of harm. Amazingly, not a scratch. A few splatters of blood stood out against her tan skin, but probably from the spray of the nearby corpses, now congealing in the afternoon sunlight pouring in.

They were long gone. A cold trail. Just like the riddle, just like the carnival. These criminals were so crazy, and the crazier they got, it seemed the better they got at what they did.

I was always one step behind. I needed someone to help me catch up. Gordon and I worked well together, but we only got so far. We were always at the worse of the crime cities in Gotham, for his experience and my gut feelings were always the best on the force.

But our best was never good enough.

"Did you see anything? What did you see?"

"Her! Poison Ivy!"

Gordon and I nodded.

"I ran when I saw her," The woman's voice was thrilled despite her frightened tears, nothing like the eyewitness of 'The Riddler' crime, "But I just had to stop and watch you know? She saw me and laughed, walked right up to me..."

"What'd she say?"

"She asked me if I had a kid."

"Do you?"

"Yes. Yes. I told her about my daughter, that I was only working here to pay my bills. That I didn't like how they treated the inmates! I really didn't. But she shushed me... told me to go home... but I was scared.. so scared I froze... the laughing..."

"What laughing?"

"The Joker's." Gordon said it like we were stupid.

"No, no. Everybody knows his laugh. This definitely wasn't his."

"Wha..."

"Gambol! Gordon! We found something!"

We followed, helping the woman up on her feet and directing her to an ambulance truck outside. There were only a handful of survivors so far. They were all women. All Mothers.

This crazy woman had one weakness, that was for sure.

"....Oh my God!"

"Is he dead? Is he dead?"

"The one guy.. the one guy who did any amount of good without expecting anything..."

"Another Harvey Dent. Lost."

I stood confusedly on the outside of the circle surrounding 'the one guy', peering over to see what was going on.

"BACK OFF. EVERYBODY. I DON'T WANT ANYBODY RUINING EVIDENCE."

Leave to Gordon, the guy who knew how to get everyone to move. What I lacked in seriousness and authoritative tone, he made up for. And I was there to twist his thinking, make the force chuckle.

Charisma...

Funny, a guy like The Joker inspired it all.

"He's alive. Just unconscious." Gordon got up from his position on the floor as a collective sigh of relief ran through the back up force. I nudged my way gently through the guys, looking down, not too shocked at what I saw. In this town, I'd seen it all.

Gordon now handed me a familiar looking card--aged, dirty, covered in blood and bordered by a tiny, creeping plant. In the center on the front: A joker, dancing merrily among thorns, taunting me with his happy face. I turned it over.

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE TASTE OF LAUGHING GAS?

HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

J I

Great. Fucking great. I rubbed my head, thinking about how badly I needed a good, strong drink.

"We've got this Riddler kid, The clown, a sideshow Beauty Queen. Carnival's back in town..." Gordon groaned angrily, slapping Batman's jaw to wake him up.

"Oh no. That's where we're wrong." I frowned to myself, only half realizing I was saying the words aloud, "it never even left."