The Batman & The Investgator

The Price of Answers.

A bright light blares down onto my face pulling me harshly from my dreamless state and back to reality.  Although I am greeted with consciousness, my body feels as though it is in a deep slumber, every movement feels sluggish and awkward and I am yet to muster enough strength to pry my eyes open. Indistinguishable sounds play in the background but my brain is too disorientated to process any information I'm trying to feed it. My head thumps heavily and as if triggered by my becoming aware of it, a point on my forehead suddenly blares with a white hot pain, devouring my whole head in a throbbing ache.

As my mind is slowly gaining back some of its function I remember the few moments leading up to my current situation, finding my apartment in disarray, hearing a sound and then darkness.

The side of my neck aches from where I was drugged and my sides and hands hurt from the rope currently tightly wound around me, keeping me from moving.

The muffled murmurs in the background slowly morph into voices- no just one voice- a man by the sounds of it.

In a hushed voice the unknown man rants to himself, his words sounding unhinged and hard to decipher to any spectator. "You nearly got found by that stupid cop friend." A moment of silence rings out before he proceeds to mutter again. "Of course she was apart of it you remember the case."

I keep my eyes shut, as to avoid alerting whoever this is from realising i'm awake. Unfortunately for me as the pain in my head eases and my thoughts straighten out I start to actually comprehend the situation i'm in. I can keep my eyes closed but i'm unable to stop myself as I start breathing a lot more frantically, panic setting in.

"She's awake. Quicker than we had anticipated." My eyes shoot open, I know it's futile trying to pretend any longer.  The light of the sun disorientates me for a second. He's doing this in broad daylight?! this is not good. My gaze shoots around the scene in front of me as I try and gather as much information as possible, its a warehouse almost identical to the one I had been in only just last night, except the front roller doors are closed, bright light floods down from the high windows and it's my desk that sits out of place in the middle of the floor. The only other sound in the area is the slow melodic drip of water falling from the iron roofing all the way to the cold concrete floor.

"Wh- Who are you." I stutter, my voice sounding weak and battered, perfectly portraying how I feel in the moment but betraying the hard exterior I was trying mask myself with.

"You don't remember me?" He turns to me, taking his attention fully off what he was doing, throwing down the half shredded documents onto the pile he had already created and pushes himself up off the ground to meet my eye level. I can almost sense a hint of hurt showing through in his voice. I stay silent, my heart thuds loudly in my ears slowly gaining speed. He sighs, and takes a few steps in my direction I tense slightly as he draws near, pulling absentmindedly at the ropes, causing them to cut deeper into my wrists but I keep going despite the pain, I would do anything if it meant being free of these restraints. My desk in front of me is currently the only thing separating me and this serial killer and I am beyond grateful for it.

For the first time, I look up to his face, he's younger than I thought , a lot younger in fact. He cant be more than 20. His light brown hair sits scruffy and tangled, falling across his face that is dirtied by a few smudges of black and red, my mind already coming to the chilling conclusion of what the red smudges adorning his cheeks could be. His eyes catch me off guard, instead of looking into the soft eyes of a young boy I gaze into an empty void finding nothing but hurt and crazed, unhinged excitement. But in that moment is when it clicks.

"You." I say, unable to go further as my brain is already working to its capacity trying to make sense of this all. I recognise this boy from the case we found the files on. It was his father that was convicted for killing his mother, his Father confessed and all. "Your Father killed your mother and went to jail for it."

His face flares with anger and he lashes out in a rage, slamming his fists onto the desk between us, causing everything on it to shake and threaten to fall to the ground and a loud thud to ring out into the air. "It wasn't him.' He growls. "And I hired you to prove that." He points angrily to his chest, all his gestures adding to his sadistic look right now."If you had done your job he wouldn't have died in that prison." He raises his voice slightly and it echos out in the cold warehouse. This is news to me.

"You are the one who hired me?"  My voice is soft, scared that anything I say could enrage him further, that is the absolute last thing I want.

"It wasn't him." His gaze darkens and for some reason his tone leads me to think he is telling the truth.

We both stare at each other in a painfully long silence, breathing heavily until I cant bear it any longer and I divert my gaze to the ground. Right now I want nothing more than to pass out and sleep through the pain but the adrenaline pumping through my veins keeps me alert. "Last I heard your father was serving his sentence peacefully at Blackgate penitentiary."

He lifts his still clenched fists from the table and takes a few steps back, the paper loudly crunches under each step. "A year ago he was killed in a riot or something. I never got many details but I do know that if you had just found the truth that it wasn't him that killed my mother then he wouldn't have been in that damn prison in the first place." He raised his arm and angrily shoves it in what I assume to be the direction of the prison.

"How do you know it wasn't him?"

"Because." His voice sounds final and makes me want to ask more questions.

"How do you know? He confessed." For some reason I push, trying to get an answer from him.

"IT WASN'T HIM" He starts to get more angry, his tone startles me a bit but I keep going.

"Your Father killed your mother Ethan." The use of his name seems to be the last straw and I have to sit and watch in horror as he charges around to my side of the desk.

"ShUT UP!!" He yells as he comes towards me. My eyes are wide and I pull away as much as I can but its futile against my restraints. As he nears he reaches to his back and pulls out a knife. The whole atmosphere shifts. I hadn't known he was armed.

Stupid stupid stupid. He's a serial Killer Lenna, why'd you push him for answers.

Without hesitation he pulls back and pushes the knife deep into my side, I yell out in pain until again it all fades to black.

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Hey guys sorry for the delay on this one, I had a lot of school work recently but we backk, I also think I put it off because I didn't want to it mess up. Also, I accidentally bumped publish earlier, so if you saw that- sorry. Anyway I hope you all enjoy <3 - @_ReindeerGames