(UNDERGOING REWRITE) Crime & Chaos [ ᴊᴏᴋᴇʀ ]

Chapter 5: Emerald Green

Crime & Chaos

" EMERALD GREEN "

by alwaysgeia

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It was 8 am on a cold and cloudy Tuesday. A girl in beige descended the dreary and littered street; her coat hood hid her face from the wolf-whistling men of Gotham City.

He, too, had his hood up to hide his gnarly scars; still, he earned glares from strangers and the usual mothers-pulling-their-child-away as they passed him. At the end of the street, the girl had bought a coffee from a small outdoor café business.

He'd give this week a miss. He had to plan. Give her a shred of hope that he had disappeared, been killed, arrested...

"Enjoy. Have a nice day."

"Thanks, you too." A gust of wind blew through the air and her hood fell on her shoulders. Her hair flowed in tousled, amber wind-swept curls—springy coils that danced in the air with every movement. As though the wind was a vicious predator, she pulled her hood back over her head.

Toooo nice, he thought; thanking a stranger is a low-blow, Jules. Take it from me. He was stood behind her now, and her vanilla perfume evaporated off her skin into the air—a lovely difference compared to the smell of shit and garbage. She was, in his words, a burning candle in a deep cave, slowly dimming. After he was done, the wax would be melted down to the core.

She cast a glance behind her, but he was already gone. He turned his back to her and pretended to look at a tower of postcards that had fake pictures of the shiny new Statue of Freedom in a 'joyous' Gotham City. The Statue that stood today was mouldy with bird shit. Who would buy these anyway? Why would anyone choose Gotham as a holiday? This city was just a smog-ridden dystopia, barely fit for human life. How Julie had found herself in this ugly place was laughable to him; it was the worst place to possibly live in, a place that no one would look at.

She had turned the corner towards a two-story building—presumably her college—and entered through the main double doors and out of view.

The one-man security guard checked her lanyard and let her through, eyeing her up and down with a smile on his greasy, stocky face. She kept her head down the entire time, staring at her phone and texting her group's chat.

The tiny TV in the corner of the college's reception murmured in the background. "549 arrests have been made following counts of racketeering, fraud and murder..."

As she walked down the hallway to her form's room, a sharp pain shot through her torso. Biting her lip, she clutched her side and leant against the wall for a few seconds. The night he had broken in, his boot had cracked one of her ribs, so now she had a bruised right side and a pain in the ass to walk with it. Her tongue had mostly healed over, but it had left a gnarly scar in its track that was still painful to eat with. She was glad Beth had let her stay the weekend; she wouldn't have been able to sleep in her own house.

She inhaled and exhaled heavily. A few people walking past had looked at her strangely, but she didn't care. They don't know the reason, and they never will. She clutched her biology folder tightly and threw the strap of her bag further over her shoulders, freeing herself from the wall.

The day was passing rather quickly and she hated it. It was coming to the end of her afternoon class and she pulled up her phone to scroll through various news articles; one caught her eye from GCN.

"BREAKING NEWS: BATMAN DEAD?"

Scroll.

"One civilian said: 'If Batman doesn't turn himself in, he will be the cause of hundreds of deaths.' Another commented: 'I think it's selfish. Criminal vigilante or innocent people—it's a no-brainer.'"