Gotham's Unknown 3 Predator and Prey

Chapter 3: New Face in the Mirror

Sarah sat at her desk filling out paperwork then leaned back in her chair rubbing her eyes then she noticed her phone was ringing, it was Adam. She swiped the screen and put the phone to her ear. "Adam, I'm at work right now I can't talk." Said Sarah in a tired tone.
"It's an emergency! It's Lorraine I don't know if she's gonna wake up or not! God there is so much blood! What do I do!?" Asked Adam as his panicked words put Sarah into action.
"Adam just calm down, I'm coming home now. Tell me what happened?" Asked Sarah very calmly trying not to panic.
"She went to the bathroom and I went to check on her because she had been in there a while. There was blood under the door so I opened it. There was so much blood on the floor! She was covered in it! She slit her throat with Dad's razor." Said Adam as Sarah ran through the Asylum until suddenly she was stopped by a familiar voice.
"Sarah what's wrong?" Asked Malcolm as he grabbed her arm.
"It's a family emergency! I have to go!" Said Sarah as she continued running until she ran out the parking lot and got in her car.

Sarah raced home and ran into the house. She opened the door and ran upstairs slamming the front door shut. "Adam!? Adam!?" She screamed through the house as she ran into the bathroom in the hall and saw Adam sitting on the floor with Lorraine who was awake. Sarah stood there for a moment then collapsed on the floor sitting on her knees. "I'm so glad you're ok but why did you do that!?" Demanded Sarah as Lorraine hung her head.
"I was in pain and I just wanted it to stop. You said it would stop after I died so I wanted to die." Said Lorraine in a cold and calculated sort of way. Though Sarah disapproved of her methods she understood why she did it. Up until now Lorraine had had an easy life compared to parents and even her older brother so it was understandable that she couldn't handle the pain. Sarah held Lorraine close to her and just sat there like that for a while.

Eventually they got off the floor and cleaned up the blood. Sarah laid Lorraine down in bed and then went to talk with Adam who was just sitting on his bed staring at his blood soaked hands. Sarah put her hands over his and sat on the floor in front of him. "Adam it's alright, I promise." Said Sarah as Adam looked at her. As Adam stared into his mother's worried eyes his vision started fading and slowly he stepped out of his stream of consciousness and let another take over. This other had no name nor really a look to him, he was purely a shadow of light with no features or look but what Adam did know about him was that whenever Adam was scared and overwhelmed by everything around him, this being would take over his mind and give him a break. This person was calm and collected in situations that often caused Adam great deals of distress but the presence of another mind inside of his own wasn't something that worried him. He actually found the feeling of being taken over to be kind of comforting.
"I'm ok, Mom." Said Adam's second personality softly as he squeezed her hand. Sarah gained a soft smile as she had noticed the change in his behavior.
"You're not Adam, are you?" Asked Sarah as they smiled and shook their head.
"No." They said with a bit of a smile.
"Then who are you?" Asked Sarah as they shrugged.
"I don't really have a name, I just know that I'm going to do everything in power to protect Adam. Whether from physical danger or emotional trauma, I'm not going to let him get hurt." Said the being as Sarah stared into his eyes.
"Understand this, my son has a really good thing going in his life and if you mess that up I will get him on medication to make you disappear! Got it?" Asked Sarah firmly as the man nodded.
"Then we're in agreement, if you deem that I have stepped out of line please talk as firm of action as you feel fit, I won't fight you." Said the man as Sarah smirked.
"I think we're gonna get along just nicely." Said Sarah as she stood.

That night Sarah and Daniel sat in the dining room discussing the events of that day. "I had no idea you could just skip past all the agony you and Adam had to go through." Said Daniel as Sarah rolled her eyes.
"That's not the point!" She growled as Daniel looked at her.
"I don't know why you're so upset! She came back!" Said Daniel as Sarah glared at him.
"But what if she didn't?! We would've lost our only child!" Said Sarah as she lowered her head.
"You mean daughter right?" Asked Daniel as Sarah nodded.
"Yes that's what I meant..." Said Sarah as Daniel scoffed.
"You still don't consider Adam my son do you?! I've spent these past three years doing nothing but taking care of him and Lorraine and you still don't see me as his father!" Said Daniel as he has a sour look on his face.
"That's not the point, Lorraine killed herself today! Don't you think that'll have adverse effects on her!?" Demanded Sarah as Daniel sighed.
"It might but we'll just have to keep an eye on her." Said Daniel as Sarah nodded.
"Until I'm certain that she's mentally healthy I don't want her enrolled in school." Said Sarah as she looked at Daniel who still had a sour look on his face. "Of course I consider you Adam's father, I consider you his father more than I ever considered Victor to be." Said Sarah as that didn't seem to help so she sighed. "I just have a hard time accepting that he won't disappear on me again..." Said Sarah as Daniel put his hand on hers.
"I understand..." He said as he chuckled. "Sometimes when I'm laying in bed at night, I wonder if this has all just been a dream and I'm gonna wake up in Arkham with you still hating my guts." Said Daniel as Sarah held his hand with both of hers.
"No matter what you did to me, I never hated you. Not once." Said Sarah as she kissed him. "Come on let's get to bed."

The next morning Sarah dropped off Lorraine at Oswald's but pulled Edward aside and explained to him the events of the previous night and her worries. "I just want to keep an eye on her and inform of any changes in her behavior." Requested Sarah as Edward nodded.
"Of course, but may I ask why you're not telling Oswald about all of this?" Asked Edward as Sarah sighed.
"Even though Oswald and I have only been on good terms since Lorraine's existence but I know him well enough to know that if I told him Lorraine killed herself he would do something foolish and rash. I can't have Lorraine finding out she's being watched. She's smart enough to pretend not to be crazy if she knows you're looking for signs like that... She really reminds me of my father with how she uses her glorious gift of intelligence." Said Sarah as Edward nodded.
"Oswald is quite emotional, especially when it comes to his family. When he gets emotional he makes stupid decisions and it has cost people their lives, either by his hand or just by proximity so I understand." Said Edward as Sarah opened her purse.
"Here's the number to my office phone if you can't reach me on my cell." Said Sarah as she pulled out a business card.

After she left Edward just treated the day like it was any other day with Lorraine. She and Oswald played pool that morning, then she and Edward played around with some chemicals but everything seemed just as it always was with her.

Later in the day Sarah called the house and checked in on Lorraine.
"Hello?" Asked Oswald as he had gotten to the phone before anyone else.
"Hey Oswald, I need to talk to Edward." Said Sarah over the phone as he covered the receiver and called down to the next room for Edward.
"Ed it's for you!" Oswald called into the next room. Edward wandered over and Oswald handed him the phone.
"It's Sarah." Said Oswald as he walked off.
"I assume you're checking in on Lorraine?" Asked Edward as he smirked at his own personal genius.
"Of course, how is she?" Asked Sarah as Edward leaned against the wall.
"Actually she hasn't seemed any different than any other day with her, so in my opinion she's perfectly fine to be brought out into the rest of society." Said Edward as Sarah sighed.
"That's good, maybe I was just worried over nothing." Said Sarah. "Well thank you for keeping an eye on her." Said Sarah as she hung up the phone.

Edward went back into the room where Lorraine was and watched her play with the highly volatile chemicals he had been using. "Sorry your mother called." Said Edward as he walked over behind her.
"Did you tell Mama that I was acting like such a good little girl, or did you tell her that I was being psychotic?" She asked not even looking at him. Edward froze.
"What?" He asked as Lorraine started laughing.
"You really think I don't listen in when my parents talk about me? She asked as she turned to him with a smile on her face like she was pleased by his confusion.
"So you have changed?" Asked Edward as he grinned.
"Bingo." She said as she turned back to the chemicals.
"Why tell me that? What's stopping me from telling your mother?" Asked Edward as Lorraine grabbed two vials of chemicals and turned.
"Nothing, except my love for chemistry." Said Lorraine as Edward recognized the chemicals in her hands. The one in her left was bleach and the one in her right was vinegar. "One little oops and this room gets filled with Chlorine gas, I'll survive but you and Oswald will most certainly choke on the fumes and die." Said Lorraine as she tipped one of the vials as if she were going to pour it in.
"Enough!" Said Edward as he wasn't willing to test this new mood that overtook his granddaughter. "Why are you so determined to enter society that you'd threatened to kill me and Oswald?" Asked Edward as Lorraine put the vials back where she had grabbed them from.
"Every villain needs their first kill and with how my brother is tormented-" Lorraine snapped a pencil at the thought of the way her brother was bullied. "I thought his bullies would be the perfect test subjects for some toxins I'm dying to try out." Said Lorraine as Edward came over and kissed the top of her head.
"You are definitely the third generation of Oswald and I." Said Edward as he tucked Lorraine's brown hair behind her ears but noticed that the underside of her hair was now white like her mother's. "Give em hell, Lorraine." Said Edward as he smiled in a devilish sort of way.

After Edward's positive reports on Lorraine's faked behavior Sarah enrolled Lorraine in school. Lorraine had killed herself at the same age that Sarah's body had hit it's breaking point so Lorraine started her freshman year at highschool. By the time she started her first day every hair on her head and turned bright white matching her mother's. Once Lorraine started school so did her greatest experiment.