System malfunction || DC

Chapter One

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The Blue Haired Girl

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The darkness was perfect, a sort of visual silence that gave revered awe. With eyes closed, there was the simple sweetness of existing, of being, of breathing, and how those moments extended with such grace until the dawn chose to bring back the colors.

It is the type of coldness that reaches into your bones, as if your heart were a door left wide open to the icy wind, slamming only to open again. The only thing to do is keep moving, keep heading toward home and the steady warmth of a familiar place.

The sky is a rolling blanket of clouds the color of wet ash, and the ground its damp reflection. Each step becomes a prayer for home as you walk through the night, seeking the light of the doorway in our flickering daydreams, letting it become more real than the stormy night.

Jocelyn Ylvera walked the streets of Gotham with the confidence of a local. She understood the rules for securely navigating the dark alleys and slick sidewalks: one foot forwards, then the next, head down, never making eye contact, and if she heard a noise, she quickened her pace.

Though she was still figuring out the shortest routes from home to work, she knew what not to do and where not to go. Gotham wasn't a safe place in general, but add a pretty girl into the mix and you get every true crime episode in history.

It was far later into the night than she usually would have liked. Every noise and lack of noise sent shivers up her spine and put her senses on alert. Anxiety pricked her skin and whispered dark horrors into her imagination.

The dark veil of the night had long descended, bleeding the shadows into a never-ending sea. The air was cool, and the wind howled like a drug addict going through withdrawal. The fact that this place was desolate did not alleviate her worry.

It was exactly the reason she decided to trust Google Maps and take a shortcut that seemed better in her mind than in reality. But all she had to do was walk three more streets and she'd be on the front lines of the "good" area. A place without potholes and potheads at every turn. It was also the location of her flat, nestled snugly amid the bright streets and steady buzz of foot activity. Jocelyn felt more secure knowing that there were witnesses available 24/7.

She hoped that soon she'd be able to strip naked and snuggle under her weighted blanket and soft sheets. The ability to sleep naked demonstrated how far she'd progressed in life, along with her courage to fight to the death with her titties exposed. That's how Jocelyn wanted to be remembered. Strange, but not afraid to creep someone into submission. She, on the other hand, did not want to be recognized as Jane Doe, discovered in a dark, stinky alleyway.

If she didn't hurry up, then it might become reality. Someone had been following her for the past ten minutes. Their footsteps were messy and lacked rhythm, proving that one was more likely two or three and they wanted her to know that they were there.

But to see if her paranoia was warranted, she performed a U-turn test. It's when you make three right turns, or three left turns, to determine whether your pursuer will follow. Either they were stalking you or just wanting to reach out about your car's extended warranty.

When they continued to trail after her, she knew it was no longer a paranoid coincidence. In Gotham, it wasn't unusual for her to be cat-called or accosted obnoxiously by some musty weirdo, but this was the first time she had been actively stalked. It frightened her to think that her juicy ass would put her in danger.