I woke up in a room filled with writing.
“No,” I muttered, shutting my eyes. My back was pressed against something hard and cool. “No, no, no.”
“Wake up Katrina,” he chuckled a few feet away. My eyes snapped open and I sat up, staring at the man diagonally to my right. Jonathan smiled sadly at me from his bed, book in his hands and glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose.
“You, you brought me here,” I hissed at him while my body shook with fear. “After… after all of that you…”
“I didn’t Kat,” he rushed. John’s eyes fell the slightest bit and he took a deep breath before continuing. “Batman woke up sooner than I thought and I had been in the process of moving you out of my room. He’s the reason we’re in here.” I stared at him for a moment longer before I was convinced this was the truth; his heartbeat never faltered.
“Why would they put me back in here?”
I looked at all the damaging and hurtful words I had written in my fit of insanity and cringed. There were eyes staring at me from every surface, throwing me off even more. A dragon blew fire at me on the ceiling while another one few on the wall I shared with a missing Catwoman. A groan escaped my lips when I found that my bed frame had been removed completely and only my mattress remained; it was tucked up in the corner I shared with Edward and the back wall. My mind raced as my eyes slowly scanned the walls around me.
“Kat, just stop it,” Jonathan’s voice broke through to my consciousness. Looking up at him, I could tell he’d been trying for a while because his face was red and he was standing against the wall closest to me. “Don’t focus on anything you wrote or drew okay? Just try and sleep, you need your rest.”
“Why are you so worried about me Johnny, really?” He furrowed his brows at my question. “Is it because you nearly killed me and decided that you owe me something?”
“That’s how it started, yes.” John’s voice had gotten softer and he looked at me sadly for a minute.
“Okay, so now… what is this?” I gestured to the air around me and started to feel the weight of my weariness.
“Just sleep Katrina, sleep and you’ll get better.”
I stared at him as he pushed his glasses back onto his face and picked up his book, once more leaving the world of the living. My feet started to move towards my mattress and my eyes were closed before I ever felt my head hit the uncomfortable springs.
--
Everyone was milling around the cafeteria for dinner, paying no attention to the slop on their plastic trays. The guards let me sleep most of the day and ignored my sleeping form when they called out for dinner. When I finally woke up Dean was waiting to escort me to receive my daily meal.
“What’s going on in here?” I looked up at the warden to see that he was less than pleased. “Dean, what’s going on?”
“Alright!” The tall man left my side and started yelling at the inmates to return to their seats and finish eating before he threw everyone in solitary for a few days.
“You just missed it,” John chuckled quietly behind me. I jumped at his sudden closeness and spun around to see him smirking. “Why are you so jumpy?”
“I just woke up and nothing’s really making sense right now; so stop scaring me.” I yawned briefly before looking back up at my highly amused friend.
“Stop scaring? I feel offended Kat,” he scoffed. “I understand how Edward must have felt when you asked for a direct answer.”
“Stop making fun of me and help me find something decent to eat,” I mumbled.
“You keep expecting impossible things to happen,” John laughed but nonetheless, he accompanied me to the food line.
Once my pathetic tray was filled with even more pathetic ‘food,’ I sat down at a table nearest to the windows. It was raining outside while lightning split the sky. Despite the threatening weather, there were guards walking around the perimeter and all through the complex.
“Being antisocial are we?” I looked up and came face to face with Jason Todd.
“What are you doing here?” My eyes were wide with shock and I nearly choked on my food.
“I got dragged here with you and Jonathan,” he shrugged before sitting next to me. Where did Johnny go?
“I didn’t see you in Crazy’s Lane.” I made the mistake of taking another bite of the grey mush they slapped onto the center space of the tray.
“They didn’t lock me up with you two,” Jason chuckled. “They said I wasn’t a big enough threat to need that kind of security.”
“Congratulations,” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to listen to Joker’s laugh twenty-four seven.”
“I didn’t think he was locked up?”
“He’s not,” I sighed. “I just need a new cell.”
“All the writings and such right? Jonathan was talking about that on the ride over.”
“Glad you two are still discussing my mental health,” I growled while glaring out the window. Thunder broke over the sounds of conversation in the cafeteria. Everyone was silent for a moment before deciding it was safe for them to talk again.
“Now Kat, don’t mess with the weather,” Jason ‘scolded’ me.
“I didn’t do it, you can’t prove anything.” A small smile broke out across my face before quickly disappearing again. “Did you happen to see where Jonathan went? He was walking with me when I got my food, but disappeared on the way over here.”
“I think he stopped to talk with the Mad Hatter.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and easily found our Scarecrow and Hatter enjoying their own conversation.
“Poor Jervis, how’d he get caught?”
“Bats had him in the car before getting us.”
“Fun,” I sighed, unsure of how else to continue our conversation.
“Before you get whisked away to your cell,” Jason gave me a mischievous grin. “Have any plan to break out?”
“I leave those things to Jonathan,” I waved it off. “Besides, he wants me to be stuck here for a while and actually see a doctor. I might as well try it,” I sighed.
“Well, if you come up with anything let me know. I’ll see you later Storm,” he called over his shoulder before the guards finally caught up to him and led him back to whichever detention center he was staying in.
“Time to go Storm,” Dean called from the front of the hall. Everyone suddenly went silent as I stood up and walked over. I approached the warden and he ushered me out of the room once the conversations struck up once more.
“So I’m Storm here?” I yawned again, stretching my arms over my head before letting them fall to my sides.
“Who else would you be?”
“Jervis and Jonathan got in the habit of calling me Cheshire, but Storm is fine I guess; I do have that shocking ability and all.”
“You have an appointment with a doctor tomorrow, try to play nice.” We rounded a corner before walking through the swinging double doors that led to my new home. I cringed when he opened my cell door and gently pushed me inside. “And Kat,” he whispered. “Please, just cooperate.”
“I’ll try my best,” I muttered. Dean exited through the doors nearest my cell and I was left alone, caged inside my very own hell. The writing started to meld together and I swear I could hear it talking to me.
Closing your eyes won’t help.
We’re still here.
You’re never going to be a good person again.
Katrina the murdering psychopath.
“Shut up!” I fell to my floor, yelling over and over again to myself.
By the time the rest of my fellow inmates returned from social hour, I was laying on my mattress; cold, tired, and breaking further out of reality. Every heartbeat entered my head until they all managed to merge as one. Their footsteps made my own heart speed up as they got closer and closer. I eventually closed my eyes as more salty water slid over my cheeks.
“Cheshire?” Jervis’ voice was soft. He must’ve been in his cell though, because I couldn’t hear a close heart.
“Let her sleep Jervis,” Jonathan sighed. They must’ve thought I was unconscious again. “Right now what she needs is sleep.”
“Why is she crying in her sleep?” Jervis sounded like a frightened child, his voice was soft and urgent at the same time.
“She’s lost.”
“Like my Alice,” Jervis perked up.
“She’s not your Alice,” Jonathan hissed menacingly.
“Chill out down there Scarecrow!” A random guard called out from the opposite side of the room.
“I didn’t mean to upset you Jonathan,” Jervis sighed. He didn’t sound anything like the normal madman we all knew. “I was simply asking if there was anything we could do to help.”
“I can’t help her, I’m one of the reasons she’s hurting.” Jonathan sounded so fragile at that moment that I considered ‘waking up’ and showing him that I was okay; even though I wasn’t.
“If that were true, she wouldn’t want anything to do with you,” Jervis snorted. “I remember her coming to the hat shop when she was truly hurt by someone, and she never went anywhere remotely near them; you have nothing to fear Jonathan.”
“That doesn’t sound right coming from you Tetch,” John chuckled. Before realizing what I was doing, I stretched my legs and effectively stopped their conversation. “Kat?”
“Mhm?” It wasn’t hard for me to fake being sleepy or tired, so they bought it and went on talking after I settled down again.
They stayed up most of the night talking and I just lay there occasionally catching a word or two. By the time lights out came, they went to whispering and eventually falling asleep. I could hear the rain hit the roof of the main building and it started to lull me to sleep.
“Katrina, Katrina Wayne?” A quietly strong voice whispered. I sat up slowly and looked at my cell door to see it was open. “Katrina, come here.”
“Who are you?” I whispered, cautiously stepping outside my glass box. “And it’s not Wayne!” I hissed.
“Come here Katrina,” the voice taunted.
I walked through the swinging doors and shielded my eyes from the blinding light. I could hear heartbeats all around me, but they weren’t close enough for me to worry about them. My mind started to blank out on what I was doing when I heard the voice chuckle. Barely registering the movement in my feet, doors blurred as I ran towards the new source of torment.
“Almost there,” he chuckled. I walked through a new pair of swinging doors, only to see that I was back in Crazy’s Lane. “Come on, just a few more feet.” I walked slowly until I was outside of my cell again. Inside it there was a man grinning at me with glowing eyes, wearing oriental robes.
“No,” I breathed, backing up against Jervis’ cell door and probably waking him up. My hands tried to grab onto a door handle or something so that I might be able to support myself.
“Yes,” he chuckled, stepping closer to me. “Who were you expecting Katrina?”
“No, you… not you,” my voice caught in my throat; I thought I was done with him!
“Did you think I had forgotten about you, little Storm?” Ra’s exited my cell and ran a finger down my face, stopping under my chin before grabbing me around the neck. “You think I forgot what you did?”
“I did what you said,” I spat at him. He tightened his grip in response and lifted me higher against Jervis’ cell.
“You stole from me, just like your filthy parents did,” he growled. “Only this time I have someone to torture for information.”
“You couldn’t torture me Ra’s,” I managed to chuckle. “Because you’d just get hurt.” I grabbed his hand and poured some of the electricity from the building into his body. He quickly released me, but I wasn’t recovered enough to move like I had planned on.
“You can wear yourself out with that trick,” he mused to himself before grabbing me again and lifting me higher, grinning up at me. “I can die countless times and always come back. You, on the other hand, are restricted to the rules of mortals. Sure, you might have gained a few tricks from our last meeting, but you are no match for me Katrina.”
“Your ninjas will need more training to keep up with me though,” I coughed, gasping for air.
“Are you referring to Jase?” My eyes widened for a moment. “Do not fear for him dear Storm, he’s drawing breath. In fact, he’s proved to be quite useful. He’s the only one of my assassins that can find you and the only one to gain your trust.” I kicked out at him but he threw my head back against the glass; how was no one up yet? “I’d be more concerned about yourself.”
“What… what do you mean?” I continued to gasp for breath as he hand tightened in his boredom.
“The Pits are meant to reanimate the dead and you were neither dead nor dying when you fell in. I’m quite interested to find out what will happen to you Katrina, but there could be some unforeseen side effects. For example,” he glanced back at my cell. “Your mind will crumble and you won’t be aware of your surroundings. Or, you will be aware and your morals start to blend in with the things you fought against for so long. It’s hard to say.”
“Go to hell Ra’s,” Jonathan hissed from behind his wall. I glanced to my left and saw the anger on my friend’s face.
“Oh, the doctor has awoken from his slumber,” he chuckled, letting me go. I fell on my side and took in deep breaths, coughing on occasion. “I will be back Katrina, and you will cooperate.” The Demon chuckled as he disappeared into the shadowy hallway.
“Kat,” Jonathan’s voice returned to its normal concern. My head was spinning and I found this particular spot of floor quite comfortable. “Kat!”
“Shh Jonathan, I’m fine,” I mumbled into the stone floor before passing out.
--
“This is Doctor Young, day one with patient 2642, Katrina W-“
“Boudreaux,” I interrupted the older woman speaking into the recording device. “It’s my legal and birth name.”
“Katrina Boudreaux, also known as Storm.” The doctor across from me was probably in her thirties, had brown hair that she pulled into a tight bun, cold blue eyes, and wore a pant-suit. She had the posture of an old German school teacher and an expression to match.
“So, Doctor Young, what is the point of all of this?” I was currently in traditional clothes for me, sports cutoff and a pair of fairly decent black shorts; they let the rouges wear what they want… within reason. We were in a white interrogation-looking room and I was currently cuffed to the table.
“I’ll ask the questions Miss Boudreaux,” she sighed, clearly annoyed with getting stuck as my doc. “Now, what were you doing before your visit to Arkham?”
“Gotta be more specific than that, doc. I’ve been lots of times.” I leaned on the table and flashed my biggest grin. “Now were you trying to refer to this most recent time or when I was first introduced to the obvious lack of intelligence here?” She gripped her papers tightly and let out a quiet sigh.
“The first time, when you claim there was a ‘lack of intelligence.’” She spoke calmly, but her shoulders were tensed with a swelling anger.
“There was a lack of intelligence,” I rolled my eyes. “Here I am, touring the asylum for a job-shadowing day and there’s a huge break out that no one was prepared for.”
“If he had known that there was going-“
“But that’s my point!” I slapped the table, trying to drive home my point. “You shouldn’t have to ‘know’ that something’s going to happen, you need to constantly be prepared for it. Let’s face it, the security here sucks and all of you docs have more than a fifty percent chance of turning insane like the rest of us.”
“So you admit to being insane?” She smirked and started jotting down my reaction. I stalled my movements for a second before smiling and leaning against the back of my chair calmly.
“I admit to not being normal; not by your standards. You see, normality is completely subjective…”
--
“How’d it go?” Jonathan asked as I sat down for lunch with a salad instead of the mystery meat.
“I think I’m going to get a new doctor,” I chuckled.
“What did you do,” he groaned, running a hand down his face.
“Nothing much really, I just refused to talk about myself and she compared my methods of evading her questions similar to Eddie’s.”
“What on Earth could you have said to that woman to convince her of that?”
“Nothing,” I shrugged. “I just gave her my take on how normality is completely subjective.” I grinned as Jonathan groaned and put his head on the table.
“Katrina, you’re going to get yourself locked up in solitary.”
“You’re the one that wanted me here in the first place,” I pointed a fork at him.
“So, how’d your session with the doc go?” Jason Todd somehow materialized next to me with a plate of the famous mystery meat. His black hair was all messy, so I started to fix it. “Hey, what gives?”
“It bugged me, hold still!” He complied and sent a ‘secret’ smirk to Jonathan. “There! All done.”
“Thank you,” he chuckled before stabbing at the food on his tray.
“Katrina, what happened with you last night?” Jonathan’s voice was cold and far from friendly. My eyes flashed up to his before going back to my salad.
“Ra’s showed up,” I mumbled.
“I could see that.”
“Hold up,” Jason looked over at me. “Ra’s?”
“Yes!” I threw my hands up in the air, rolling my eyes. “Ra’s al Ghul was in my cell last night!” My voice grew louder than I thought it would. “This is why I didn’t want to be here Jonathan! Because if Ra’s or whoever wants something from me were to find me anywhere else other than here, I could fight them off or escape. Here, here I’m trapped and it’s not fair!”
“Katrina,” Dean’s voice was quiet. I looked behind me to see he and two other guards had a hand on their weapons. “You need to calm down.” I took a breath and the lights suddenly grew slightly brighter and stopped flickering. “Come with us.”
“Where’s she going?” Jason started to stand up but I put a hand on his shoulder.
“That’s for me to decide,” Dean glared him. “Stay still or I’ll have you thrown in solitary.” Jason stayed down, as did Crane, as I was escorted out of the cafeteria and down a hall I had never seen before.
One of the guards behind us pulled out his nightstick and bashed the other one in the head. I was going to say something but Dean’s grip on my shoulder got tighter and he continued to walk. The guard that had attacked gave me a sly smile as he met my eyes; it was Hush. Before I could scream Dean, who I assumed was Clayface, put a hand over my mouth and started to drag me out.
“Hey, Elliot, why don’t you help out?” It was definitely Clayface’s voice that came from Dean’s mouth.
“It’s not like we have to bring her far or anything,” Hush growled before opening a door that lead outside. We were on the backside of Arkham, facing the ocean and rocky cliffs.
“Whatever man, let’s just get this done with.”
“Let’s go.”
They dragged me around the entire complex before finally reaching the garage and stuffing me into a van; how original. The whole time I kept thinking how Jonathan’s gonna kill them when he catches on to what happened. Wait, why don’t I just zap my way outta here? I let electricity pulse along my body, but Clayface just laughed.
“You think you can shock me? You’re adorable Katrina.” Basil just laughed at me while Hush drove into the city. “Don’t worry, we’re not doing anything overly dangerous tonight; just have to drop you off somewhere.”
The car ride was actually fairly calm. Hush blended in with the rest of society by obeying the speed limits and every traffic law for that matter. We came to a stop in front of an older looking brick building. Basil opened my door and pushed me out of the car onto the street curb.
“We like our pay in cash you know!” he yelled before they drove off. I looked around to see the street was deserted and I cursed them under my breath.
“I figured you’d be happy to get out of there,” his charming voice called from the shadows. “Besides, we didn’t expect Ra’s to come after you anymore.”
“Edward,” I closed my eyes and let out a silent breath. “Why did you have them come and get me?” Spinning around, I came face to face with that charismatic ginger.
“They were the only ones I trusted not to get caught. Besides, Jonathan knew what was going on and would have intervened if something went wrong,” he shrugged. “Now, would you like to come inside and sleep? I know you don’t get much of that done when you’re in that cell.”
“Luna won’t mind?” I teased, walking past him and into the lair I had once called home. Before that egotistical genius could say anything sarcastic, I had flopped down on his sofa and was out.