Gotham- Chapter 1

Walking home was, with no doubt, the biggest mistake of my life, but also the luckiest thing that had ever happened to me. Why didn’t I take a cab or even the bus? I knew what Gotham City was like at night; I had been a street kid my whole life. I was an expert in the ways of surviving on the streets, I should have known better than to walk the alleyways at night.

It was because I was cocky. On the grainy TV in my Group Home, I had watched a News story about Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo. Batman kept us all safe from the big villains; crime lords, mafia bosses, and the Joker, while Robin patrolled the street crime, like muggings and robberies. They were the city’s heroes, accepting the Key to the City time and time again. I was grateful for this, and it made me just a little bolder than I already was, which is saying a lot.

I shouldn’t have been out in the streets at that hour, but the woman who ran the Orphanage, which is basically what the Group Home is, never really paid attention to us. She made us clean and put on bright faces when city inspectors came, and when they left, she went right back to drinking. It was basically like living alone at fifteen years old, except that somebody else paid the bills.

Gotham City during the night. The relative safety of daylight disappeared, and the city became an Underworld of gangsters, thieves, murders, and rapists. The police force was corrupted, paid off by the mafia to stay out of business. On the outside, this town was nice; a place of corporate trade and business. But in reality, many of Gotham’s citizens got their paycheck by going against the law. Human trafficking was big too. Girls at my school would be there one day, normal as ever, and gone the next. Nobody cared, because we were all too scared to point it out. Even with the Dynamic Duo, crime ran amuck; after all, they were only two people, and one of them was my age. They did the best they could, as they also had to keep up their mild-mannered alter egos.

There was a huge thing at my school about who Robin really was. I had once said that since ours was the biggest in all of Gotham, it would make sense for Robin to go there. He would blend in better. My… well he wasn’t really my friend. I just didn’t hate him as much as I did everyone else. We ended up partnering up for school projects and we often sat next to each other at lunch, so I guess that to people on the outside, we were friends. Well anyway, my “friend”, a nerdy rich-kid named Dick Grayson agreed with me. Robin must go to our school.

Dick, (unfortunate name, I know) was the adopted son of the richest man in town, Bruce Wayne. Wayne was rich for no apparent reason, but he donated to charity, especially to orphan houses, so I couldn’t be anything less than grateful to him. He and Dick lived in a huge mansion in town. I had been there a few times, and it was very elaborate. They didn’t have any maids, which struck me as odd, since Wayne was certainly rich enough to afford them. But the man did enjoy his privacy, as he often spent the time that I was over in his rooms. Dick liked privacy too; I was only ever in their library, their kitchen, and their bathroom. Once, I had stayed for dinner, because the woman who ran the orphanage had been binge drinking that night. There were many rooms in the mansion that I hadn’t seen.

That night, I took a short-cut through an alley, trying to get home as quickly as possible, because if I missed the 12:30 curfew, I would be locked out, onto the streets. It was 12:10, and I was still forty blocks from home. Besides, I was almost certain that I had a can of mace in the front pocket of my book bag. I could hear the crying of a child from one apartment, and the sounds of yelling and glass breaking in another. Far off in the distance, I could hear a fire engine siren, a car alarm going off. Gunshots blasted off far away, and the light calling Batman appeared in the night sky. There was no R, the trademark of Robin, with the Batman signal, so the job was for Batman only. Robin would be somewhere else in Gotham, if he was even out, which I was certain he was.

I was only a block away from the Group Home. So I slowed, trying to delay the time until I got there. I had five minutes, and it was a two minute walk if I kept booking it like I had been doing. I tried to be in the Group Home as little as possible. That place was like Hell on Earth.

I stopped to lean against a trashcan in an alley, stretching my walk weary feet. Just as I was about to continue, a heavy force grabbed my from behind, flattening my back against the wall. In this, he had knocked away by book bag, squashing any hope that I had of reaching my Mace. This man pressed his sour mouth against mine, shoving his slimy tongue in my mouth. I hoped and prayed that he was just a drunkard who was going too far with a joke. I pleaded; please don’t let him be a human trafficker. Please.

No such luck. The man was much too strong, so any struggle that I raised didn’t do anything as he forced me to the ground, holding my arms down as he tied them with rope that rubbed painfully on my arms, leaving red marks. Now that I was tied down, he took my pants off of me.

Already, I was bawling, certain of what was to come. He was a great weight on top of me, using his knees to force my legs apart. Then the greatest pain came as he raped me. I screamed, but nobody came. Nobody cared.

Just as I was giving up hope, certain that I would become one of those girls. Here one day and gone the next, and I knew that nobody would miss me. Oh, perhaps Dick would wonder where I was for a few days, then he would soon forget about me. But I knew that this man would take me away, sell me to other men who would do the same thing to me.

Just then, a dark figure threw the man off of me. I couldn’t get up, and I could only watch as the two shadows fought. The new figure was much slighter than the man, and he seemed to be wearing a cape. The figure finished the man off with a roundhouse kick to the head, and the burly man crumpled to the ground. The figure in the cape dragged the man towards the railing of a fire escape, handcuffing him to the railing.

I still couldn’t see the figure, but he removed his cape and put it over me, so that I wouldn’t be naked. He pulled a small flashlight from his belt and turned it on, shining it on me, out of the way of my face. And now I could properly see who it was.

I felt very stupid, because I was surprised that it was Robin. He looked just like on TV; a black and white mask covering his eyes and eyebrows, spikey black hair, and a strong jaw. He held the flashlight in his teeth as he bent over to untie me, working his long, gloved fingers into the tight knots of the rope. I pulled my pants up from around my ankles, ashamed that I let that man do that to me. Robin helped me to stand, and I gave him back his cape. I was still sniffling quietly, but I managed to say, “T-thank you, Robin! Here’s your cape.” I handed the black and yellow cape back to him. He shook the dirt out and re-attached it to his back.

He frowned, saying in a commanding voice, “I only wish I had gotten here earlier. He took advantage of you, didn’t he?” He seemed to shoot a glare at the man, but I couldn’t tell where his eyes were pointing with the white mesh that covered his eyes as the mask.

I rubbed at my eyes, where tears were still spilling over. I hated being like this. “Please don’t say that he “took advantage” of me. Call it what it is; rape. He raped me, it hurt a lot, and now he’s going to jail. Right?”

He nodded. “Yep. I’ll deliver him to the City Jail after I know that you’re okay. Where are my manners? What’s your name?” He held out his hand gloved in green.

I took hold of it, surprised at how firm his grasp was. “Vivian Kramer. But call me Vinnie. I’ll kill you if you call me Vivian, and I don’t particularly care if you are the Boy Wonder.” I had stopped crying, but was left feeling violated, and much more scared than I had been before.

“I’m glad I could help, Vinnie. You’ll be okay? Do you need an ambulance?” A line appeared on his forehead, as if he were scrunching his brow in concern.

I shook my head, going over to pick up my book bag, readying myself to go back to the orphanage. “No. And I don’t need a big fuss made over me. Put the guy in jail. Now I really gotta go; I’ve already missed the curfew.” I turned and ran away, my old worn sneakers slapping the pavement, leaving Robin the Boy Wonder in the dust.