I awoke sitting up against the same bloody, brick wall. My neck hurt and when I felt the area were the needles went in there was nothing. I quickly lifted up the right sleeve of my dark purple hoodie, to reveal a normal arm. I couldn’t have slept that long could I, so long my arm had healed? No, if I did I would be dead; falling asleep in a Gotham alleyway is a death sentence. I looked at the blood on the wall; it was so dry and frail that if you touched it, it would shatter into a hundred pieces.
“I….I don’t understand.” I said to myself in the darkness. I tried to stand, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed something. It was quiet, much too quiet for Gotham to handle. This alley was much too still compared to the one I saw the burlap man in. At that moment I stood up and swung my head to the left, facing the direction I remember the two men were laying.
Nothing was there, not even one drop of blood on the concrete. Something is wrong here, where could the burlap man and his partner go without leaving some kind of trail? My heart began to beat faster in fear. All the street lights were off and only the crescent moon concurred in the sky, no clouds, planes, or helicopters. I knew at that moment that this wasn’t the same alley. The blood on the wall crumbled and fell when I started to walk away, and something about the alley became uncomfortable.
It was a cold night in Gotham, which was weird considering it was the middle of the summer. I pulled my hoodie tighter around me, hugging myself to keep warm. The wind picked up when I got to the street; so much that I was blinded for a moment. When I got my sight back I saw the emptiness of the city. Nothing was living, not even the rats that live in the sewers had surfaced to find a meal.
I couldn’t escape the feeling of something watching me, but there was no one to be seen in the whole city. Beginning to walk down the street, still contemplating what had happened, I looked over into another alley way and saw a shadow gesturing me toward it.
“Shit.” I muttered. I was tripping over myself trying to get away from the figure. While I was running I heard the shrill, high pitched laugh coming from the alley. For some reason, my instincts told me to run and hide in the next alley. They were right, there was a dumpster in the alley, but it was locked so I hid behind it. Facing away from the street I heard footsteps behind me, they stopped once they reached the alley entrance.
“I know where you are child,” I heard the figure say in my direction; “you can’t hide from fear!”
With that the dumpster went flying to the other side of the alley, smashing against the wall and leaving me exposed. I twirled around and stood up, making eye contact with the figure. Trembling, I felt like a caged animal getting ready to be slaughtered. The atmosphere became smothering when he started walking toward me. Its eyes had lighting caged inside, creating a gold glow inside its skull. Suddenly the figure stopped and glared at me; studying me.
I was too afraid to move, but I knew if I wanted to get out of here I’d have to do something. I moved my foot back and felt a piece of the brick from the wall. If he started coming at me, I’d be ready to fight. As if he knew what I was thinking, he took a step toward me.
“There’s no point in fighting it child,” He said with a chuckle, “you are completely on my terms.” His voice rose to another high pinched laugh.
“W-what do you mean by ‘your terms’?” I said letting go of my idea to fight back. If I was on his terms then there would be no point.
He chuckled at this “You’ll find out soon enough child, soon enough.” His stitched grin spread across his face. With that I heard something behind me move. I half turned before I recognized there was another figure moving around. The man in burlap chuckled and waved bye before he took a step into a shadow and disappeared. I was left with something hiding in the darkness. Before I could determine what it was, I just ran out of the alley. The figure threw something at me and it wrapped around my ankles. The ground rushed up to meet me and I felt my skull crack open, sending me into a pain filled sleep.
