Blurred Lines.

Scars.

I was startled at first. Red carried me out of my cell and into a hallway. A single man was laid down in the floor and he was bleeding. He had been shot. Before this, I would probably have found it a bit disturbing, but I had been cut off from the world for too long. I found it kind of funny. 

He looked left and looked right. His head snapping side to side and then settled for running right. He held me close to his chest. Like a child afraid of the monsters, I buried my head into his chest. Raw emotion was threatening to take me. I was feeling everything there was to feel upon my rescue. 

Red Hood pulled a gun from his waist line and pointed it around the corner as we flew by, but there was nothing there. He hesitated as if he sensed something was wrong and then turned back around and ran the way that we had just came. 

Maybe we had gone the wrong way? Maybe he could see the danger that I couldn't. I'm going to go with the fact that he's just lost. That was, until I hear the shooting that is coming from the area that I had just left. 

He mumbles something under his breath and takes a run back into the room that we just came from. He stands me on my own two feet and points against the wall. I do as I'm told and stand next to the furthest wall away. 

With ease, he throws my bed away and attaches three things to the wall. He twists them all and takes a huge stride back to me. His body is covering mine. He crouches his head down protecting it with his arm, which is comical to me. 

Doesn't he have a helmet on? Wouldn't that protect him? 

I don't have time to think about, because the wall crumbles to a hundred pieces. He grabs me again, carrying me bridal style and we run into the night. The night air is cool, but I can see the stars glistening and if I wasn't absolutely afraid of being killed, I would have asked for him to slow down and let me see them. 

He tightens his hold on me as we approach what I assume to be a hill. He stalls again. His head snapping left to right and backwards. He says a string of cuss words. His whole body tenses. I can feel the difference between when he found me and when he can sense this danger. 

I thought I heard him mutter something, as if he were having a conversation with someone. And he takes of running in a different direction than before. His body leans forward as he pushes hard against the wind. I tried to move my head in the direction to see which way he was running or what the outside looked like, but he pulled me tighter into his chest. 

So, for now, I had to be content just being a passenger. I heard the roaring of an engine coming close to us. My heart was beating like crazy, but not his. He was perfectly calm. He ran toward the vehicle. 

When we got to it, he opened a door and set me down inside softly. I looked up at him, tears running down my eyes and I realized that I had been crying from the moment that I had laid my eyes on him. 

He hesitated, but not before the driver cleared his throat gathering his attention. I wondered what I must have looked like to him. Was I just a girl that he had saved? Was I just another mission accomplished? 

Of course, I was. I was the missing girl. I was the greatest mystery to happen to my small town. Maybe they just labeled me a run away? That would probably have been the easiest explanation and really if my parents had,  I wouldn't have blamed them. I would probably do the same. 

"Where the hell were you, man?" Red Hood said as he reached up and took off his helmet. It didn't make a difference to me. He still had a red mask on so that I couldn't see his face. Which was odd, I always thought that even if you were wearing a mask that someone would know what the person looked like, but that wasn't the case. 

"I don't know if you noticed or not, but you created a shit storm. Placing the explosives took a little longer than it was suppose to. You know, because I kept getting shot at. Whose the girl?" He says casting a look back at me. 

So, I wasn't apart of the plan. I was just an add on. I looked out the back glass. It looked calm enough. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

"I don't know. I found her in one of the rooms. I think they were keeping her there. I want to get her back to Dorothy and get her examined." The Red Hood said. He held up a button and looked back at me. 

I watched wide-eyed as one of his gloved hands pushed the button. I heard the blast about the same time that the blast shook the SUV that we were riding in. 

"My name is Agatha." I said in return. "I have been kept there for three years. I think, I know, I was kidnapped." I said and saying it out loud made it seem a lot more real than being locked in the same room for three years did. 

"Well, princess, I'd like to tell you that I'm going to return you home, but that's not an option at the time being." He said. I didn't even think about not being able to go home. What if I was rescued from my kidnappers just to be kidnapped again by someone even worse. 

But I didn't feel anything when he told me that. I think at some point you just have to accept that the life that you once knew was never going to come back again. You were changed, your life was changed, and your future has been changed. 

"Can you tell me where I am?" I ask and I wondered if I sounded dumb to them. Red turned and faced me. His face was hard and cold. He was void of all emotion, especially sympathy. But the lack of emotion comforted me. I realized quickly, I didn't want someone to pity me. I wanted someone to make me strong. I wanted someone to help me gain my own strength. 

"We're in Florida." He said a matter of fact. I tried to remember if I could recognize him, but I couldn't. I didn't know him before. 

"A long way from Gotham." I said mostly to myself. He froze for only a minute. Something passed across his face, but he seemed to fix it quickly as if showing some kind of emotion would give away one of his biggest secrets. 

"So, you a Gotham kid, huh?" He said as he turned back around and stared out the passenger side window. He didn't seem interested in the conversation any longer, but he kept sneaking glances at me through the side mirror. 

"Yes. I've lived there my entire life. My family are middle class. Dad worked delivering newspapers and mom worked at the bakery. We were normal people." I said as if remembering something as old of time. 

I could still smell the cakes that mom would bring home for us. I could smell the old ink that would be on dad's clothes as he took off his jacket. I missed those times.

"I'm familiar with Gotham. I'm from there myself. My family and I have lived there a while as well." I wanted to ask him more about his life, but I didn't want to pry. Funny considering that I was so willing to talk about myself. 

"Small world, huh?" I said and I thought I seen a hint of a smile on his lips. 

"You could say that again. So, how old are you?" He was staring at me now through the rear view mirror. 

"I was twenty when I was taken. What's the date today?" I ask suddenly realizing that I had no idea what the date even was. As far as I knew it could be Christmas. But it wasn't and I knew that. 

It was early fall. If it had even officially turned to fall yet. The leaves were bright colors of orange and red and even I knew that. 

"It's October 1." He said. He turned back around to look at me. The driver was oddly quiet. I think he was soaking it all in. 

"Oh good. I'm still twenty-two." I smiled more to myself. I hadn't celebrated birthdays since I was taken, mostly because I didn't know the date, but I was happy to know that at least I would celebrate my twenty-third out of the cell. 

"We still have quite a drive to go. I have some contacts in Gotham. Someone with some real power there. I'll get in touch with them and see what they can do. What's your last name?" He has his cell in his hand and is typing something. 

"Brown." I finally said. "My name is Agatha Brown."