Riddle me this...

Chapter nine

When she finished crying she carefully picked herself off the floor and made her way over to the mirror. Her neck was bright red and beginning to form fingerprint bruises. Her ribs were bruised but weren't broken and her head was sore from where she had hit the floor. Overall she did not look as bad as she felt. She was angry, sad, consumed by a need to disappear for a while.

How could he have done this to her? She thought as she eased herself out of the window and onto the fire escape. It squeaked and groaned as she stepped. She wasn't thinking straight, she was barefoot and jacketless and was about to go wandering around Gotham in a dress which was now crumpled and covered in her blood. Nina was thankful for the cold air. It hurt to breathe but it somehow felt easier with the cool metal beneath her feet and air in her lungs.

When she dropped to the floor she let out a cry as her body protested.

Nina walked north, away from the lounge and towards the docks. Seeing the ocean sounded amazing and she stumbled that way. Nina wasn't sure whether she'd come back. Her life had been nothing but misery, so was there any point carrying on now. Maybe she'd throw herself in the water, she wouldn't have the energy to fight the current, that way she could just gently drift away into nothingness.

By the time she reached the docks her feet were cut from the concrete and blue from the cold.

A shipment was arriving for the mafia at the other end of the docks, Fish was having her last resort delivered to her, a new, developed chemical compound that she hoped would end the Penguin's reign over her. It wasn't a secret that she was receiving this delivery as Oswald had beat this information out of a snitch earlier that evening, just as Edward and Nina were sitting down to dinner.

Oswald's goons had arrived in a black sedan jumping out to assault Fish's men.

Nina jumped at the gunfire that was rapidly escalating to her left. She vaguely wondered if it had anything to do with Oswald but then put him out of her mind as she dangled her feet in the water.

One stray bullet struck the barrel and ignited the boat sending everyone and everything in a half mile radius away. Nina felt the explosion's impact as it struck her, sending her plummeting into the water. She struggled, the pain in her ribs excruciating as she swam towards the surface, trying her best to hold her breath. She broke the surface and took a deep breath. Her whole body was protesting as she fought against the pain, treading water. The boat had thrown debris into the water and Nina was able to pull her body onto a floating piece. The explosion had lit up the docks, the fire casting an orange light that seemed to snake towards Nina, across the water. As it approached it began changing colour, easing towards her from side to side as if exploring. The now green fire engulfed Nina, burning her. She let out a scream and squirmed, falling back into the water but the water didn't put out the flame, she could see the green light beneath the water. She was pulled under by what felt like hundreds of arms, each hand clawing at her skin, each claw igniting a flame with every scratch. She couldn't scream, she couldn't hear anything except water clogging her ears and her vision was blurry. The darkness took her.