We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

XLVI: Queen of the Damned

"Her head had turned quickly away...Not to hide her tears but to soften the fact of their absence." ― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

~()~

"What the hell is this?" Reggie yelled, as he fought against the ropes that tightly bound him to the chair, his breath rushed in and out of his lungs from fear with the dark cloth bag that had been placed over his head.

He blinked rapidly when the bag was removed from his head and he stared at a man he'd never seen before, a man who upon closer inspection not only was bald, but also didn't have eyebrows or even eyelashes.

"Who are you?" Reggie demanded to know through clenched teeth, before yelling, "Let me go!"

"Well, hello to you too." Victor grinned with a darkness in his eyes as he proudly said, "I'm Victor Zsasz."

Before Reggie could point out that he didn't know him, or ask why the hell the man had taken him; he heard another voice.

"Remember me?" Bird questioned as she stepped out of the shadows from the far side of the room. Letting out a low whistle she held up a roll of hundred dollar bills and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she said, "Quite the chunk of change... now I wonder how someone like you got this much cash?"

Looking between them his mouth hung open, not sure what he needed to say to get himself out of the situation as he resumed trying to break free of the restraints.

Watching him helplessly struggle Victor let out a laugh before he said, "There's no getting out of those."

"It's true." Bird nodded, walking even closer and pausing to take a deep breath before she asked, "Why did you do it? My brother welcomed you into our family's home –to stay there for free out of the cold with hot meals and clean water. I sat there listening to all your old war stories of how far back you and Alfred went... and then you stabbed him."

"You have to understand, I never meant for anything bad to happen." Reggie tried to plead his side of the case before he questioned, "Alfie came through it okay though, right? He's going to be fine?"

"Ooh..." Bird teased, "Careful, Reggie... you almost sound like you care."

"I do care!" He asserted, shaking his head from side to side, "You're in over your head. You have no idea what you're dealing with!"

"Is that a threat?" Bird laughed, looking to Victor who laughed along with her. Holding up the bag they'd taken off of him she accused, "What I'm dealing with is a has-been, someone who by all accounts used to be a great man, a solider –and look at you now, Reggie. A washed up addict." Shaking the bag in the air she continued, "I'm going to guess Heroin, judging by the syringe padded cot we found you sleeping on."

"That's mine!" He yelled, his voice roaring through the room of the abandoned building in The Narrows, he'd been brought to, "That's my medicine!" With his breathing growing erratic he clarified, "That wasn't a threat... and I'm not talking about me. You really haven't a clue in the slightest what you're getting into."

Repeating something Falcone had said to her, Bird cocked her head to the side as she dangled the bag right in front of his face and said, "It's a terrible thing, being caught in the throes of addiction..."

"What do you want?" Reggie finally asked.

"The truth." Bird asserted, stepping forward, "I don't think it's coincidence that you turn up out of the blue after my brother had a meeting with the board at Wayne Enterprises. I've seen far too much to believe in coincidences."