Divination (Joker x Batman x OC)

Chapter 75

The sound of the 6 a.m. Catholic church bells woke Adriana. She looked up at the grid of the glass window above her and watched two birds there for a moment before one flew off, and the other followed. After a few seconds of momentary confusion, she remembered where she was. She remembered everything that she knew she would never be able to forget.

For a few moments, she wondered if it had been a dream.

Stay asleep. She told herself the words over and over in her mind. If she didn't move, didn't get up, didn't begin the day, then maybe that would somehow make it not real. Stay asleep. Maybe it was a dream. She could sleep and then wake up at home and laugh about how absurd this dream had been.

She closed her eyes. As soon as she did, she saw it over again. Flashes of embracing...writhing...kisses. At first, she fought the memories. She twisted the sheets with her fist. It had not been a dream. 

Her chest began to heave, and she started to cry, at first with just her voice. But then eventually the tears began to fall. She turned over onto her side and cried her heart out. Her chest burned as she screamed into the pillow, bawling until her throat felt raw.

Adriana did not know why she was crying so hard. She did not feel sad. She did not feel hurt. She did not feel repentant.

 She felt a type of relief she had never known before.

After she gathered herself, she left the bed, pulling herself slowly to her feet. She was alone.

While walking to the bathroom, she realized that her entire body felt different. She felt like she was floating as she crossed the room, her feet barely touching the floor. She expected to feel filthy and racked with guilt and shame. But instead, she felt cleansed. She felt a sense of purity.

Adriana stood in front of the bathroom mirror without looking into it. If she didn't feel it, she'd look it, she told herself. She imagined she would look completely trashed. Humiliated. Ruined. And then she looked.

The look in her eyes...such a contrast to how she was used to seeing herself. Her entire life, she looked into the mirror and saw her eyes..wide open..a bit paranoid looking almost, but she figured that was just how she looked. A bit like a deer in headlights. She was always in headlights, always hearing thoughts, always disturbed. Even in photos of herself as a child, she could see the distress in her eyes.

But now her eyes looked so relaxed, almost to the point of looking predatory. Siren eyes.  Her eyes reminded her of a lion after a gratifying hunt. She moved her face closer to the mirror, trying to convince herself that she was imagining it...but she wasn't. Her skin was rosy and radiant. She touched her cheek with her fingertips. For the first time in her life, she looked into the mirror and felt beautiful.

.

.

.

After showering at home and putting on a huge t-shirt she decided to return missed calls from the previous night. Damien had called her 11 times...Harri twice...Bruce once. A missed call from Bruce. She imagined the previous night had never happened as she called him first.

"Hello," Bruce said, straight away after picking up the phone.

"Hi, Bruce," Adriana said, hearing her own voice for the first time that day. She sounded relaxed.

"I won't take up too much of your morning-" he said to her.

"It's fine, I am not busy," she said. "What's up?"

"You attended the masquerade ball last night," Bruce said.

Adriana swallowed.

"Yeah," she said, cutting his words short. "I only stayed for a bit...left really early."