I knew Batman

Chapter 12 -- The Amusement Park

⚠️Trigger warning: violence.

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When I woke up, the first feeling was the cold of the steel handcuffs on my wrist. I slowly came to my senses and looked around. I was handcuffed to a pipe on the wall. I was in some dark hangar or warehouse. But wasn't a warehouse though. There were strange objects around me: a huge dummy dressed like a witch, a plastic skeleton, a tall gingerbread figurine. There was dust and dirt everywhere. I realized that I probably am in an amusement park. From my childhood memories, I faintly remembered the Gotham Amusement Park, closed down when things got worse in the city.  Probably, I was in the building of the Enchanted Castle. I still could see some fake walls,  castle-like furnishings and strange mirrors.

The only source of light was a small clown-shaped lamp not too far away from me. I didn't realize that I was not alone until I heard the voice.

"Finally, you woke." I knew that voice. He was Ed Nygma. I looked in the direction of his voice. He was handcuffed to a rollercoaster car not far away from me. Another man was handcuffed to the wall on the other side of the room. He had grey hair and wore an elegant suit. I didn't know him.

"Why are we here?" - I asked them.

"We obviously made wrong friends." the grey-haired man cynically said. - "Nice to meet you, Dr Newman, I'm Salvator Maroni." 

I heard about him. He was a well-known mob boss in Gotham. He seemed impassive and quite calm compared to the situation.

"What do you mean, wrong friends? Who brought us here?"

Nygma answered.

"There is this guy, a clown in Gotham for a while... He started to take over the drug business in the city and made some interesting 'friends' from Arkham Asylum. But this Bat-guy made for him harder and harder to do things. So now, he wants to know more about Batman. And he thinks that we can provide some information."

I became more tense. I nervously squirmed in my seat.

"And do you have information about Batman?" - I asked them.

They both shook their heads in denial. I was relieved. 

"Why are you here then?"

Nygma looked away. "I did some bad things earlier in my life, somehow this guy got to know that and started to blackmail me... He asked for information about ongoing investigations and then to cover for Fries... and asked for more and more... I tried to break the deal with him but .... well, here I am. He thinks I gave information to Batman about the hypothermia victims. But I wasn't."

"And you?" - I asked Maroni.

"Hard to admit, but Batman shot down a big part of my drug business. He must think that I know something about him."

"And do you know why am I here?"

Nygma looked away even more and didn't answer.

"Ed?" I asked him impatiently.

"I may have mentioned your name to him..."

"What??? Why?" I became outraged.

"You were interested in the cases, then Batman became involved, then Jim Gordon asked me some suspicious questions... Connecting the dots that you helped Batman with the autopsy files wasn't hard. You did help him, right?"

I was unsure what to answer. After all, I was the one here who had all the information about Batman. His identity, his hiding place... his personal life... I also became scared. What if this guy tortures us and I cannot stand the pain and tell him these things... I cannot betray Bruce.