THE BATMAN: HALLOWEEN KNIGHT

PART THREE

"IF HUMAN BEINGS HAD GENUINE COURAGE, THEY'D WEAR THEIR COSTUMES EVERYDAY, NOT JUST ON HALLOWEEN." — DOUGLAS COUPLAND

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

GOTHAM RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT

10:03PM

The taxi pulls up to the house, one that continues to comply with the unwritten two-storey rule. However, the house was much wider than its neighbors. A bigger driveway, a wider lawn, and a well-polished mailbox labeled as THE MANCHESTERS. Jim and Lucy disembark from the taxi, with Jim wrapping his arm around his daughter to shield her from the persistent rainfall of Halloween whilst they jog through the walkway and towards the front door. With Lucy pressed against her father's side, she digs into his pocket to retrieve the keys. She takes the liberty to unlock the door for the two of them, finding all the lights to be turned off. The eerie atmosphere of Halloween Night seeps in through the front door — the Devil INHALES. 

"Heat the leftovers, will you, sweetie?" Asked Jim.

"Yes, daddy." Replied Lucy, who breaks off from her father's warm embrace to head for the kitchen. 

Jim would lock the door behind him before proceeding to place his key on the hook adjacent to the door frame and strip himself of his jacket, followed by leaning on the wall to untie his shoes and place them on the rack. Jim reaches for the small switch beside the hooks to activate the light on the porch — a golden yellow glow. Now free of the shoes, he tilts his head upwards whilst simultaneously flexing his toes. Jim EXHALES deeply. He notices that the only thing he's heard was his own exhale, as matter of fact, the silence was almost DEAFENING. He couldn't remember the last time the house was this quiet. The longer it took to break the silence, the more noticeable his heartbeat became. It pounds harder and harder, like a drum that slowly crept up his chest and into his own mind.

"Lucy?" He finally called out, but was met with silence—

"Yes, dad?" 

—for a while. 

The sound of his daughter's voice had put him at ease, almost more than the feeling of freeing his toes.

"When you're done, change your clothes, alright? It's laundry day tomorrow."

"I know, dad." She replied, with an unmistakable intonation. Lucy comes out of the kitchen, her shoulders slumped and her face following the sentiment of a protest against having to do the laundry. A father knows his children and the idiosyncrasies they frequent to communicate, or at least, he SHOULD know them.

"Lucy, honey. It's just you and me now, alright? You and I have to pull our weight if we're gonna survive." He explained. Jim approaches her, giving her another heartfelt embrace to calm her nerves, and perhaps, to calm him too. "Go change, I'll set up the dinner trays. We'll watch a movie tonight to get our mind off things. "His fingers find themselves running through the endless fields of golden locks, just like that of her mother's. 

Lucy complies, nodding and parting from her father's stomach to head upstairs to change. Her steps grew distant as characterized by the wooden stomping that grows softer and softer with every step she took. Jim entered the kitchen to locate the dinner trays he had neatly folded in the corner the night before. He passes by the fridge and the microwave that currently heated their dinner for the evening with a continuous HUMMMMMMMM. He then proceeds to embrace the dinner trays, one tray under each arm with a firm grip to lift them up. Upon turning on his heel, he notices that the kitchen window was slightly OPEN. 

Did Lucy open this window? Was it always open? Nevertheless, he closes it.

Upstairs, Lucy exits the bathroom now dressed in cozy pajamas for the rest of the evening. With her costume neatly hung upon her forearm, she moves across the hall to enter her room where the dim light from the small desk lamp was turned on, reflecting in the eyes of her stuffed bear who welcomes her with its gaze whilst it sits on her bed. Seated very politely, the light acts as the UNHOLY irises of the bear; it smiles at her for finally coming home. Lucy's fright had paralyzed her nerves, and consequently, her heart. She could barely scream, only manifesting the effects of the scare by a loud GASP. She was frozen, knowing that she had turned her desk lamp off before leaving.