Danica burrowed through the city. Half of the GCPD were staking the grounds to find her. She didn't know where to turn. Cops cars everywhere. Danica went through an alley.
I'm going to kill him! Danica replayed Jerome's murder over and over. I should have left earlier. I'm going to kill him!
"THERE SHE IS!" cried out a police officer who have spotted her in the alleyway. Danica jumped the fence with exceptional athleticism. She was being chased by five patrolmen.
Keep running! Keep running!
As she passed a dimly lit building, a hand grabbed her and pulled her aside.
A man.
"Follow me!" He said, taking her hand. "Follow me!"
He pulled her through a gate, then down a staircase, through a hallway. This man, whoever he was, invited her into an underground club. There was hard metal music. Drinking. Drugging. But that wasn't what made Danica stare.
Above a stage where a metal band played, an overhead projection replayed over and over the recording that Danica had filmed with Jerome when they took the GCPD.
"Hang onto your hats, folks! Cuz you ain't seen nothing yet!"
Danica stared at Jerome's laughing face.
"Wake up! Be free, like us!" Jerome's voice echoed through the atrium.
The camera feed showed Jerome turning the camera toward Danica on screen, where Jerome's voice projected through the music,
"Be free like us. Isn't that right, Kitten?" Jerome laughed.
"That's right, Darling!" Danica had answered him, grinning happily at him. Jerome had set the camera down on the desk while he and Danica shared a kiss.
"Hang onto your hats, folks!"
Danica turned to the man, opened her mouth to speak, but the entire crowd cried out in unison enthusiastically,
"Cuz you ain't seen nothing yet!"
Danica looked at the crowd in front of her. They all wore clown make up. Wore uniforms like the strait jackets that Jerome had worn when he came back from trying to light a school bus on fire.
The man released Danica's hand.
"Danica," he said, "My name is Dwight."
"What's this?" Danica asked, inclining the projection of Jerome's face.
"Something I thought you needed to see. We're really big fans." Dwight said, beaming with delight. "All of us."
The music died. The crowd turned to Danica. All beamed at her. Some of them wore hazed, drunk looks; others were sober as could be. But they turned to her.
Dwight stood in front of Danica.
"You were Jerome's most faithful follower. A queen to a king. We are yours to command."
Danica watched, dumbfounded, as sixty bodies fell to their knees and bowed in a cult-like worship. In their silence, Jerome's voice in the recording pierced Danica's broken heart like the knife that pierced Jerome.
"Be free, like us! Isn't that right, kitten?
Danica looked up to see the kiss. She felt a calling. Then turned her attention to her knelt followers, followers of Jerome.
"Well, then," Danica exhaled, angry yet honored, "let's get busy, yeah?"
A roar of approval and applause.
"Hang onto your hats, folks—" Jerome's voice said once more, and the cult answered,
"CUZ YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!"
YOU ARE READING
Freedom
Fanfiction( GothamDumpsterFire) Danica Bauer meets Jerome Velaska while doing a stunt in Arkham where he releases her inner-maniac. Romance/Horror. Triggers: Knife play, SMUT, drugs, alcoholic.
