The smooth soles of my shoes slapping against the stenciled linoleum floors echo off the sterile walls of Arkham, muffled by the thumping beat of my heart attempting to burst from it's chest. My own words drift in background, tangled among the static like thoughts going on a loop inside my brain.
"There's something I haven't told you."
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The expression on Joker's face when I said those words, his strange blue eyes seemed to cloud over and flash like lightning from dark fog in a blue sky. My neck hairs stood on end as he bent down to level himself with my face once again, his silver teeth glinting as his red stained lips pulled into a sneer, the growl of a predator rumbling through. And all I could do was sit like an idiot and stare, with eyes and a presence like his it was nearly impossible to do anything else.
*Doctor Matthew Diaz -Access Granted*
The feminine voice of a automated message chirped out brings me crashing back to the present as a small green light blinked from the machine. I pull out my ID card after wrapping my fingers around the steel door momentarily popped out to allow my entry into the room. A dark room is before me, the only perception of distance or depth come from the blinking light from humming monitors and Central brains. I step into the room, closing the door behind me like a tomb .
For a moment, I am enveloped by darkness but make no attempts to find a light switch so to make my presence nearly invisible. With careful but sure footsteps, I make my way deeper into the room and head towards the very back, flicking on the tiny flashlight in my hand once I'm far enough in that light won't leak from beneath the door frame. There. In the furthest corner I find the system I'm looking for. My lips draw into a stiff line as I remember the moment I gave away what was meant to be Arkham best kept secret to a psychopath clown. . .
"Things in Arkham have changed, a lot, since the escaped. The technology has changed, security has changed, become more advanced and harder to go around."
"Ember . . . You see. . . " I sigh, once again fumbling my words at the worst possible time.
“Out with it doc.” The Joker spits out the order, knuckles on his hand growing whiter as his fist clenched.
I swallow, no longer searching my mind for the right words, after all there is no right way to say this.
“Thanks to your last escape, Arkham has stepped up their game, upon entry every patient is given a check up mentally and physically.” Sweat begins to build at my hairline at I remember the part I play in Embers demise. “For patients like you and Ember, there's the kill switch method. A kind of fail safe, you'll receive “vaccinations”, which is really code for the millions of nanites flooding through her system right now, each of them programmed to attack the nerves in her spine and . . .”
“Turn my spit fire into barbeque.”
The Jokers face contorts with rage, I can hear the way his silver caped teeth grind against one another as he snarled, grabbing the front of my already wrinkled shirt.”Fix. This. “ He orders, drawing me so close our noses touch but this is far from intimate.
I stare at him, wondering if he truly understands what the just said, that breaking Ember out might kill her.“What am I supposed to do? “
“You're the PHD,Figure it out.”
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Figure it out.
I figured it out alright, but what I was about to do would put all of Gotham in danger. Deactivating the nanites of every nut case here just to ensure the survival of one beautiful and volatile psychopath who's attempted to kill and manipulate me on more than one occasion . . . Was I really willing to throw everything away, my career, my freedom, my conscience for a woman?
Images of Ember begin to blanket my vision, memories of everything from her scent to her hair overstimulating my senses. Her eyes bright like the sun, the curve of her full lips being tugged into a grin, that laugh that filled me to the brim with an explainable happiness and her voice that made my heart race, breaths short.
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With my hands shaking, I punch in the number sequence, set the timer and do every single step with a firm resolution despite the way my conscious damns me. Yes.
For the sake of Ember Les Madaton, I was willing to let the entire world burn.
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••••
A/N
I've been away for a while, I know and believe me it wasn't my intentions but for the past month nothing has seemed to go right. I am sorry for disappearing but for those of you who aren't authors we need to to remember that we're human. We do the same things you do everyday, we go to work, we go to school, we have friends and family, we get sick, we battle depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, eating disorders we have to do everything you do to live and survive. Somewhere in between the chaos of everyday life, we write. We have to make and find time in order to write the stories you love and read comments, respond. We need you guys to try and put yourself in our shoes, remember that we're human too.
