BATMAN: Black Mirror Vol. 2

Night 10: A Darker Knight Still

     A phone rung in Selina's room. 

"What the? I thought we unplugged all the phones in the house." 

Holly went into Selina's room and saw the small cellphone ringing on her bed. Maybe it was a call from work, or one of Selina's many gentlemen callers. If the call was from the club, Holly giggled at the thought of telling their boss exactly what she thought of him, then hanging abruptly up in his ear. She picked up the phone. 

"Huh, I don't recognize the number."

She didn't answer. It kept ringing. Holly dropped the phone back on the bed, feeling a little uncomfortable and suddenly claustrophobic. 

"Remember, don't talk to strangers." she told herself. She ran to her bags and decided to begin carrying them downstairs.

     For the last time she locked the door using a gloved hand and slid the key under the door for good measure.

"Good riddance." Holly smirked. Her clunky bags banged against the stairs as she made her way out of the apartment building. A car slowed to a stop in front of her.

"Yeah, I got a call for a cab from a Mrs. Silvia Clark?" the driver poked his head from out of his window. Holly had to think for a moment. The driver saw the girl didn't trust him.

"The call came from this particular address. Did your mommy make the call sweetie?" he tried sounding more friendly. Holly remembered the name being one of Selina's many aliases, so the driver was legit.

"Yeah, you're good. You on the way to the airport, right?" she asked.

"Yep. Your mother told me to escort you and your luggage."

     Holly dragged her bags to the trunk of the car. With the help of the driver, she loaded the luggage and got into the front seat. Before anything else, she checked the man's credentials. He had a picture of his wife and three children taped to the front of his dashboard, a cross dangled from his rearview mirror and the car was clean and smelled of his laundry scented air freshener. Overall, Holly felt she was in safe hands.

"Don't worry hon. We'll get there in record time. Just buckle your seatbelt and we'll be on our way." the driver smiled. Holly did as she was told and the car pulled off. Watching Gotham passing by was a mixed bag of feelings. For a long time this city was Holly's home. At some time she assumed she had lived with a loving family in one of those many tall buildings. She couldn't remember her parent's faces, but she did remember the sound of her mother and father yelling a lot. 

"Fuck 'em." she muttered. 

     She went into her purse for her phone and began calling Selina about her progress. 

"Yeah I've left already. Uh-huh...we're a couple of blocks from the airport now. Oh yeah, your "work" phone was ringing on your bed before I left. No...no of course I didn't answer it. Yeah, I just left it there...okay...alright, well tell "daddy" I said I love him and see you two soon. Yeah, bye mom."

She hung up.

"Your folks doing alright I assume?" the driver asked. "It's nice to finally see and hear you kids checking in with your parents nowadays. Such a responsible young lady your parents have raised."

Holly listened to the man drone on and on about his own kids. It was annoying, but comforting. She preferred it to being her last decent conversation before taking off to the skies and never coming back to Gotham ever again.

*    *    *    *

     Of course Bruce wasn't home. Selina didn't know why she half expected anything else. Wayne was in the middle of a lawsuit that was bound to take his precious company, so obviously there wasn't going to be any time where he'd be home for long. Selina had reached the front gate and waited for ten minutes before giving up and deciding to head over to the 'Pussy Whipped' for one last drink with the girls. She still had plenty of time to catch her flight after taking a couple of shots. After digging around in her pockets, she found a small letter she had written and placed in the small rusted mailbox covered with ivy. The trip back into the city felt like the embrace of an old toxic friend. Somehow, Selina felt as if the city was laughing at her. She knew why she was still here and only planned to remain for a couple more minutes. In the back of her mind, she could still here the laughing. She still heard it when she parked her bike in front of the club. She heard it when she was greeted with her friends and coworkers and when they gathered for their private party in the back room. She definitely heard it the loudest when her phone buzzed in her pocket.