The Tenth Daughter of Memory - FEAR IN SHATTERED COLOR

My first conscious thought was the cold wind blowing past my face. I shivered, and blinked my eyes open. I was in... an unfamiliar room... A bedroom... in a large bed. The girl, Ravynwings, had disappeared, but the Joker was sitting in an armchair, his deep brown eyes observing my every move, every shift in my limbs, every twitch of my fingers, every search of my eyes. I shivered again, involuntarily, and he drew himself out of the chair.

Crossing over to the window, which I had now noticed was wide open, he shut the window and clicked the locks, all while keeping his eyes on me. His eyes were not evil, not menacing, but kindly, though I knew he was evil, and he was menacing. He sighed, and shifted to my bedside. I propped myself up, and cringed away from him, fear blurring my eyes, making all the colors shatter and run together. My fear in shattered color made my tremble as I tried to regain control of myself.

A slight chuckle from the painted face above my head, a slight smile of the red lips, a slight rustle of the dyed hair, as he watched me gain control of my motions. I took a deep breath, and looked up to meet his eyes. He smiled widely at me, and began to speak, the scars of his face creasing as he spoke.

"Well, your seeming better." He motioned to my torso, which had the shirt ripped off and a wide bandage along my chest. I raised my hand a touched it gently, and flinched. The wound, though stitched, was still painful, and I placed my hand back beside me.

He startled me by speaking again. "I'm afraid Ravynwings had to leave... She won't be back." Something in the tone of his voice made me feel like she couldn't come back. The colors around me began to piece themselves together and shatter simultaneously. He watched me, all too observant, so I did not allow any emotion to break onto my face. I kept my face a serene masquerade as he spoke once more.

"What an... amazing coincidence I would run into you. Here, of all places!" He spun around and held out his arms as he spoke. He stood near the window and addressed me. "The snow is so beautiful... the colors shattering off the white sparkles of winter... Makes you feel like you have... nothing to fear..." he trailed off. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. I moved over to the door when he turned. I sat myself quickly in the chair beside me, and he chuckled.

"It's no use trying to leave, and you have a reason to stay!!" he whispered excitedly. "You can join me!! Since your... precious Batman is dead," he paused when I cringed, "Your available. I need someone like you, someone sacrificing, someone willing to do... anything." He grinned widely at me, his scars twisting as his sick smile decorated his face. His brown eyes searched mine as I crossed over to him beside the window and looked outside.

"Well," I murmured, "that's certainly an option..." I turned to him, knowing exactly what to do. I drew a breath, and...

Theme Thursday - Snow/The Tenth Daughter of Memory - Threshold/Happy Birthday, Mum!!!!!!!!!!

As I stared up at the painted face of my, as clichéd as it may sound, nemesis, my mind was busy making plans for escape. Ducking back under the water, swiping his legs out from under him, jumping and running away, swimming away. None of these plans made very much sense, so I just stared stupidly. His face started to become confused, and he watched me with dark, puzzled eyes and a small smile playing on his lips. I tore my eyes from his, with enough difficulty, to look past him.

His figure blurred as I focused on a castle in the back. Looking back up at him, I realized I had a stone in my fist from when I had clenched the snow - it must've snowed recently, there was a light dusting on the ground - at the shore. Asking fast, on impulse, I threw the stone, along with several clumps of dirt, into his face. While he was turned away, trying to dislodge the dirt in his eyes, I launched myself onto the land and sprinted towards the stereotypically gloomy castle, perched atop a small hill.

Whilst I ran, I felt the pain in my chest from where the weapon stabbed me. I realized the sword was out of my body, and I also realized I don't remember it being in my chest when I was in the water. Was it possible they had taken it back out of my body? The wound was no longer bleeding - the cold water had stopped that. Still hurt, but I couldn't focus on that right now.

As I pushed myself up the winding path towards the door of the castle, I looked over my shoulder frequently, watching for him. I knew that was useless, because the Joker wouldn't directly follow me, but it was an instinct to watch my back. I saw my footsteps in the newly fallen snow, but not his. I jostled the doorknob of the castle, to find it unlocked. I launched my body through the threshold - was this symbolization, perhaps, as the threshold I had crossed into my new life without Mr. Wayne? - into the vast space of a foyer and up the stairs, where I collided with a brunette woman. She fell backwards, and looked frightened.

I stopped, and observed the character at my feet. She was small, maybe 5 feet tall, with curly brown hair and deep chocolate eyes. She seemed kind, so I turned my back on her to run and shut the door. I slammed the door shut, and paced back over to her. She had pulled her self back up, and was watching me with curious eyes. I quickly explained my story to her while she watched with her wise eyes. When I finished, she stood, and whispered to me, "I'm glad you found fit to trust me with this."

She turned around, and I saw the words written on her back for the first time. "Ravynwings". That didn't sound familiar at all. Was she like me? A crimefighter? A hero? She walked to the far wall, and pulled down a sword. I realized there was blood encrusted along the sword, and she turned to face me. "What are the odds," she whispered, "That you would end up here?"

My curiousity of her actions turned to black suspicion, and the enormous door I had entered through opened. I jerked backwards, stumbling, and turned around. The Joker stood there in the doorway, and 'Ravynwings' crossed the floor over to him. She handed him the sword, and he tsked. "Such a mess you made of my sword, Robin!!" he scolded me. I gasped and moonwalked backwards to the wall, and ran my hand over to the mantle, and grabbed a small, solid statue. I advanced towards them, statue held high, when the Joker looked up and noticed me. His dark eyes watched me move, and when I raised the statue above my head - a clown, figures - he jabbed the sword back through the wound in my chest, and, for the second time, I collapsed. The last thing I heard was faint giggling.

(Happy Birthday, Mum!!)

Theme Thursday - Friend

As I lay unconscious in the bubbling brook that surrounded my broken body, I had flashbacks. You know, people always say your life flashes before your eyes - I think people do it on purpose, so they can remember everything, in case there is something after this. In case they die. Or, maybe, they remember it so they don't think, "Why did I live simply to die now?" and remembering is their way of saying, "That is what I lived for, and it was worth it."

As I pondered these deep thoughts I never really considered, I was reliving the happiest moments of my life. Coincidentally, they all happened when I was with Mr. Wayne, my best friend. My only true friend, really. It was really a shame I had had to trick him. Me, Jason Todd, unwilling "victim" of the Joker. The Joker wanted to get to Mr. Wayne by getting me - told me he'd kill him if I didn't leave his life. I knew this would hurt him, but nobody dies this way and everyone could keep Batman. Why Joker didn't kill me, I will never know. Maybe to keep me with the pain of knowing I could've stayed, wondering what could've been.

In my dream-like state, memories passing in front of my eyes like a slide show, I slowly began to feel cold spreading through my body, like I swallowed ice water. I began to feel pain, in my chest, my fingers, my knees, my head, especially. I suddenly recognized I was moving, in the water, not on top, underneath the surface, hovering in a midway. My face, above the surface, my mouth gasping for air as it spits out water in return, felt the hot sunbeams. I felt the strange urge to duck my head back underwater to avoid the scorching sun, but I fought it, unable to breathe in the first place.

I struggled to move my limbs in a swimming formation for any surface I could reach, any land, any rock, any branch. A fish, even, would be useful. I squirmed between two rocks and grabbed hold of one. As I lay, gasping for air, I heard a familiar chuckle. No, not a chuckle - chuckles are light-hearted, good-humoured. This was an evil sound, a dark-humoured one. I forced my eyes open, blinked in the blinding sunlight, into a familiar painted face. The scarlet lips moved, in a hypnotizing way, in an all-too-familiar, rasping voice, "Robin!!" He grinned, as though delighted to have found me, "We meet again!!"

The Joker had come back.



(teehee, I cheated and posted this December 6)