Selina Kyle | The Beginning

Prologue

"Life will be so much better in the future for us Ms. Kitty. I promise." Selina looked up at the night sky as she ran her fingers through her black cat's fur. Now fifteen, Selina was getting used to the streets that she lived on. She was finally starting to accept the way things were and instead of feeling bad for herself she was going to make things better for herself. She was ready for change.

She sighed, "We've survived for this long, we'll get by." She thought she heard someone climbing the ladder of the building she was sitting on, coming to find her on the roof. "Time to go", she whispered in the cat's ear and scooped the ball of black fur up in her arms and ran toward the opposite side of the roof. She was going to have to jump to the other roof, something she usually did, but this time her hands were full and she wouldn't be able to catch herself if she fell. “You got this,” she told herself, “you got this...Go!”

        Her legs stretched into a ballet leap as she pushed herself across the space between the two apartment buildings. She pushed her upper body towards the next roof to bring herself closer to it. Finally, she landed safely on the other roof, but didn't waste a moment to check who was behind her. All she heard was masculine screams calling after her as she ran further away. When she made it across this building, which was much larger than the other, she jumped off the side onto a metal fire escape and climbed down to the streets of Gotham. She ducked behind a corner of an apartment building and waited. Safe. She needed to find her way back home. As she started to make her way back, careful to keep a distance from anyone else walking in the alley ways,  she began to reflect on her past. 

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"I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM HIM! I TOLD YOU!" Brian ran toward Maria and slammed her face into a wall. He then began to hit her with rage in his eyes. 

        "PLEASE BRIAN, YOU'RE DRUNK! STOP PLEASE! THE BABY, BRIAN!" He continued to beat her while a young Selina watched in horror from behind the couch. Her mother, Maria, escaped from her husband's grip and ran to Selina. She picked her up and ran upstairs into Selina's bedroom and locked the door behind them. She then grabbed the old bureau and pushed it up against the door to block her drunken husband from getting to them. Selina cried out to the world. On the inside she begged for someone to help them, anyone to help. Though she was small, she still understood what was happening and was so tired of seeing these same arguments, the cycle of a life that her and her mother experienced when her father would get himself into a drinking rage. 

        Maria looked into her daughter's eyes as she held her and felt her whole heart break. In her daughter's eyes she saw so much pain and suffering, she saw unhappiness in such a young child. All the good she wanted for her daughter when she was pregnant with her, all the dreams and plans she had for her life would never happen. Everything she wanted for her daughter she helped to take away by staying here, but leaving wasn't an option. Maria felt that she failed her daughter and the guilt and pain was finally too much to bear. She squeezed Selina tight, kissed her forehead and said through her tears, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Selina." With that Maria just didn't think she could do it anymore. With her husband pounding on the door screaming for her to open it, she let go of Selina and Selina watched as her mother walked to the window in the back of the room, and through herself out of it. 

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        "MARIA I'M SORRY!" Her father hadn't stopped drinking since her mother's death and now he was once again caught in a terrible moment. Now her father wasn't as angry when he drank, but he was upset. He cried miserably with the guilt of driving Selina's mother to kill herself. Five years had passed since she died. Selina was now ten years old and alone. No matter how scared, sad, and alone she felt, she couldn't stop hating her father. Instead of taking care of Selina after her mother's death he ignored her, beat her, and hated her because she reminded him too much of her mother. She had been in and out of foster homes and orphanages for bad behavior and running away from home but everywhere she went she saw too much, was neglected, and was always alone. 

        Finally her father stopped screaming and the house grew too silent. She had been sleeping in a closet because her father insisted that after her mother's death, she go back to sleeping in her room, but how could he expect her to sleep easy in the room that her mother killed herself in? She had been younger then, but she hadn't forgotten anything that happened the day of Maria Kyle's death. When Selina noticed it was too quiet, she unlocked the closet door and stepped out. Still not a sound. It was so silent that she could even hear her own heartbeat.

"Dad?" She called, slowly walking down the old creaky steps in fear. "Dad?" When she made it to the first floor, she saw bloody handprints on the wall leading to the kitchen where her father usually drank. "Dad!" She ran into the kitchen and saw her father sitting in his usual chair with empty bottles of liquor everywhere. However, nstead of sitting up, his body was slouched in the chair and his head was sulked down, completely motionless. “Is he dead?!” She thought. “Dad! “Selina ran to the cordless phone in their trashy living room and dialed 911. 

"GCPD What's your emergency?" Said a male voice on the other line.

"It's my dad!” Cried Selina. “I think he's dead, I-I- I can't breath!" She tried to grab onto the couch to balance herself, but fell to the ground. 

"Okay, calm down,” replied the man, “I need your street and house number. Also, I need a name and your age."

"Number for-forty-two third street in Arkham City." She dropped the phone and ran back upstairs. I can't stay here, she thought nervously, I can't give them my name. They'll put me away, back into the girls home, back to the shelters!Selina grabbed a small black backpack from her closet and filled it with the small amount of clothes that she had. Suddenly she heard sirens from outside her house and knew she was running out of time. She pulled the backpack over her, quickly put on her only pair of shoes (black combat boots), and ran to her old room. She hadn't been inside the room for years and it was left just the way it was when she lived there five years ago, with her toys and dolls spread across the floor and on her bed. The pink paint on the walls now chipping, the only physical difference now was that the window in the back of the room looked completely different since they replaced it after the incident, but emotionally, the room was a stranger to Selina. She remembered this being a fun place where she would play with her mother when her father wasn't home ,a peaceful escape where she would clumsily walk to when her parents were fighting. Now the room felt dark and cold and cruel, this room mocked Selina and stood as a constant reminder of the sad and lonely life she lived. She ran to the window when she heard the cops break the door down on the first floor but hesitated when she opened it. This is the window her mother fell from, outside this window was where she saw the last images she'd see. Selina looked outside the window and could hear yelling coming up the stairs. She heard the cops running up the stairs and as the tears fell down her face she climbed up and out of the window and hung from the ledge. Now crying hysterically, but quietly, she inched her way on the ledge toward the neighbors porch, holding herself from a death drop with just her hands. After what felt like forever she made it over the porch, dropped down, and clumsily jumped off the porch onto the streets of Arkham City alone and terrified.