The Demon Of The Night [OUTDATED VERSION]

Nepenthes Villosa

"So I take it that you and Richard are a couple?" Pamela's dress slightly lifted up as she swung her leg over the over, exposing part of her porcelain-white thigh.

"You tell me. You're the one who seems to know everything about my life," Barbara spat.

Pamela chuckled. "Despite my... sharp perception, I do not know everything. Like the exact nature of your relationship."

"Why do you care?" The girl scoffed.

"I don't." Pamela rested her cheek over the palm of her hand. "But you should."

Barbara's eyes narrowed from behind her glasses. "Why?"

"I know how these things end." Pamela's tone had turned grave and grew lower and lower with each word. "You should have never gotten involved with him. You were a fool to even trust him. Despite what he is, he is still a man." Her gaze bored right into Barbara's increasingly anxious one. "And man is the misery of all women."

It was as Barbara listened to Pamela's warning that her eyes noticed a silver cross covered in dust on the table to the side of her. The memory of Richard's wariness with such an item came to her and she knew at that moment the cross could be a weapon.

She just needed to get her hands on it.

"Is that why your...associates are only women?" Barbara asked, hoping to distract the woman. "How long have they been with you?"

A distant look crossed Pamela's eyes, making her appear nostalgic. "Indeed. They have been with me for several years. Since they were children."

"That's quite a long time. You practically raised them then." Barbara slowly started to inch her chair over.

"Yes, I suppose you are right. I have seen them grow while I have remained the same." That look was still in Pamela's eye. "Much like with my plants."

Barbara stopped moving. "Plants? What has that got to do with anything?"

"They have to do with everything." A smile appeared on the woman's red lips. "They are what have given me purpose again. They are what I must protect."

"From what?" Barbara scrunched up her face in confusion.

"From mankind," Pamela hissed. "I have seen what humanity has done to this planet and with the dawn of industrialization, it has only worsened."

"When I first became this... I often asked why. What was the reason for this? But I came to see that I am the Earth's protector; its angel. I was made into this to bring in mankind's destruction." A pair of fangs were protruding from Pamela's red lips. "I am the organism closest to being with nature. I am not alive, so I do not poison it. What I feed off, only helps with overpopulation. And how I dispose of them, gives back nutrients. I return to the Earth what humans have taken away."

As much as Barbara wanted to thoroughly listen to her justification, she knew she had to go back to her task.

"Gotham City is as toxic as I remember. And Wayne Enterprises has just furthered that toxicity. Just all the more reason to despise that family." Pamela scowled, failing to notice the girl inch towards the cross and grab it. "But you, Barbara," the woman turned to her. "I can offer you something you desperately seek, a new life away from Gotham."

"Are-Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Barbara hid the cross under her leg.

"Yes." Pamela towered over her. "You can be an associate of mine."

With no hesitation, Barbara dived forward and plunged the cross into Pamela's sternum. "I respectfully decline," The girl smirked, seeing the cross pierce the skin and draw blood.

Pamela's eyes gazed down at the cross sticking out of her chest, pulling it out of her with a smirk of her own. "You had the right idea, Barbara. But the wrong material."

Barbara's eyes went wide with horror, seeing the wound was already healing. "But- But-"

"Kirk, come out here." On command, the man entered the living room from the closet. "I need you to go to Gotham," she started to say out loud before whispering the rest of demand into his ear.

Barbara slumped forward and stared at her hands in denial. "How- How could I have miscalculated?"