Chapter 15 Chapter 15
Megan climbed up and fell, hitting her back and legs. She had bruises all over her body, and a bump on her head. Although she had no broken bones, she couldn't walk. The Joker let her stay in his cell. As for the darkroom? That mess still needed to be cleaned up, and if he didn't keep an eye on her, who knew what she would do next.
The clown asked others to be careful to protect her, but he didn't expect that she was the one who caused the most trouble to herself. He kept her under his eyes, but on a whim he rubbed her bruised parts and used too much force when applying the medicated oil.
Children with dull perception are not without the sense of pain, but they just don't know how to express it. However, in the past few days, she has learned to pretend to be asleep and hide from people. She can't express pain, but she can escape. This makes the clown wonder whether she is smart or stupid.
Megan sat in the corner of his cell, picking up his tools and looking at their shadows, but the Joker had had enough of her stupidity and snatched the dial indicator from her hand. There was some impatience on his face, but then it became thoughtful. He squatted down and pointed to the numbers on the dial to her, "0, 10, 20..."
"Do you know numbers?"
This is the most important and most critical issue! Look at how lively, healthy, and versatile Batman's assistant is, but the child he brought home has a little problem. She may not be able to read or count, and is a complete idiot!
This made the clown extremely dissatisfied, and his already distorted expression became even more crazy and chaotic. He threw the dial indicator far aside, grabbed the wildly growing green hair on his head with both hands, and was distressed about it, but he soon thought of a solution.
He looked up, his eyes fixed on Megan, and began to smile inexplicably, "You are welcome, kid."
"I'm a charming person, but it's a shame they don't approach me, even though I'm so friendly and kind! Are they just too timid? Oh no, this is such a hard truth to accept. They won't even sit down with me to chat and drink tea. I have so many jokes and ideas I don't have anywhere to vent!"
The Joker lowered his hand and touched Megan's cheek instead. "Their exclusion is driving me crazy, but you're different, Megan. You're different. You're very popular in Arkham. You're the kid they all like."
He grinned and said, "When you feel better, go out and play more often. You will have playmates."
"Oh, and the teacher."
His Megan had some minor issues, but she couldn't just be an idiot without learning. And what about teachers? Arkham was the best teacher, filled with geniuses in various fields! They were just crazy, not having forgotten or discarded their abilities. In fact, being crazy was more conducive to creativity and research and development...
Otherwise, why are they here? And those wealthy people, those politicians, those military officers outside are secretly collaborating with them. This is a fact that almost everyone in Arkham's high-risk zone knows, but the people of Gotham are completely unaware of it.
They wantonly stirred up chaos in Gotham, causing countless bloodshed and sacrifices, and wrote a bloody and cruel chapter, and all of this was used to appease these madmen. What price did they have to pay? Just some scientific research results, some reports, and their "exclusive authorization."
It was Gotham that fed them with flesh and blood, but there were others who sucked the blood at the very top, but those beings were almost untouchable.
The clown had a meaningful expression on his face, "Learn some knowledge, and then become a valuable person." He didn't want the fun he raised to be suddenly 'sacrificed' one day, which would make him furious.
…
Megan was just injured in a fall. Children's skin is tender, and the slightest bump will cause bruising, making the injury look serious. She was detained in the Joker's cell for about a week.
She became a little more 'lively' than before, looking around and getting into the habit of playing with the Joker's things when he didn't give any instructions, such as miscellaneous tools, playing cards scattered on the floor, and many things related to Batman. The Joker got too lazy to scold her after seeing so many of them.
But her cognitive ability was always limited. Megan's consciousness was recovering, but her condition, whether congenital or acquired, was not recovering that quickly. In her empty head, she still had obedience and 'dependence' on the clown, just like now—
A very short and small child, she would be easily overlooked. For some reason, she liked to stick to the clown's legs. Even if the clown told her to get away and not get in the way, she was obedient at first, but then she became worse and worse, sitting directly on the ground next to him, insisting on being close to him.
The clown was annoyed with her and threw her out the door by the collar, staring at Megan with a gloomy expression.
"I'm not you, Megan. You can do nothing, but I can't, okay? Oh my God! You're always messing up my thoughts here, but I'm still worried about the next show!" He is too used to performing, even in front of a child with an empty mind, and she has an advantage that she is easier to fool than ordinary people.
The clown casually kicked the annoying child out of the house and slammed the door shut, but in order to protect his clockwork puppet and prevent her from crashing, he also gave an order: "Go out and play, play with whoever you want, and come back after dinner." He just ignored her like that.
Megan was thrown out and stared at the closed door for a long time. She had gone out to 'play' alone before and was now a little more conscious, barely able to react like a preschooler.
She poked the door lightly with her outstretched fingertips, but it gave her no response. Megan didn't see the clown, nor did she receive his instructions, so she turned around and went to play somewhere else.
Walking in the dim corridor of Arkham's high-risk area, Megan's steps were slow and she swayed a little when she walked. She started like this when she fell - she shook her head under the light just to see the moving shadow, and this alone would waste most of the day. The Joker was impatient with her dull appearance and stuffed the tools in her hand, which led to her taking his things to look at later.
Now the light was dim, and she could barely see any shadows. She was shaking only because...
The clown gave her the illusion that she had to move to attract more of his attention. This was also the case with most young children. Even newborn babies would cry and struggle to gain attention and express their needs.
Even when the Joker wasn't there, she continued this behavior, finally reaching a wall with a narrow window near the top. A little light shone in from outside, and she raised her arms to her sides.
Like a fledgling.
But Megan only wanted to see the shadows, just "see", she couldn't think yet, and couldn't establish a complete thinking logic, which required a lot of experience and time. In order for her to have these, the Joker took her to Arkham Asylum and tried every means to let her survive here.
Arkham is her petri dish, a nest for her growth. All the factors she needs are here. Even if it is crueler than the outside world, it will give birth to her faster.
Megan looked at the shadows cast on the wall and the ground. Would it respond to her?
Her limited curiosity was focused on things that seemed extremely boring to others: the dust on the ground, the spider webs in the corners, the shadows cast by the light... They were tiny, ubiquitous, had no sense of existence, and would not respond to her.
But this young child likes to look at them, paying more attention to them than to people. No one knows the meaning of her gaze. Perhaps it is precisely because they are silent and dead objects that they can attract another dry and dead soul. Perhaps in a sense, she is the same as them.
Standing in the tiny light, Megan suddenly heard an exceptionally clear crisp sound.
She reacted very slowly and heard the coin spin a few times after it fell to the ground. It was still spinning even after it fell, with its edge sticking to the ground and turning around and around.
Megan followed the sound and saw a coin lying on the ground. On the side facing upwards was a smooth, new lady's profile. Someone said slowly and calmly, "A coin that represents good luck. Um... a lucky child."
"It's certainly a good thing not to have to see the cruel side, Megan, pick it up."
A familiar voice.
Megan didn't ignore him this time, but she was still slow to react—she didn't know whether to take his instructions or not.
The two-faced man originally thought that this time would be the same as before, and Megan would not respond. He was prepared to continue to be ignored. No matter how mentally ill he was, he would not bother with an autistic child who obviously had brain problems.
However, Megan moved after a long time. She slowly squatted down and picked up the coin. Her palm could not hold the whole coin, so she squatted on the ground and looked at it. Her short curly hair hung down, covering her eyes and most of her face.
Two-Face narrowed his eyes slightly. He had already seen some clues. He thought that this was the clown's property, and that madman... it would be easy for him to change a child.
He smiled, "Good boy, now it's yours."
Megan understood the meaning of 'hers'. She held the coin in her palm but still didn't look up at anyone. She didn't know what to do and just squatted there, at a loss.
Eventually, she wandered through Arkham again, walking through many familiar corridors. However, she would not attempt to set foot in places outside or within the high-risk area that she had not been to, without any extra curiosity.
However, when she arrived at a place she had only been to once, it was a large passage with much taller entrances and exits. There were two forks on the other side of it, and Megan had never been there. She stood in a corner and heard the heavy sound of the wind again... and even more muffled footsteps. When they approached, it seemed as if even the floor was shaking.
Megan kept her head down and saw a huge toe covered with green scales. It came from the end of her field of vision and was about to pass by her. She also saw the tail she had seen before, it was shaking.
She subconsciously wanted to follow it, and when she saw the tail stopped moving, she squatted down, looked at it for a long time, and then poked her finger at it.
Hard, cool, and a little wet.
It moved very slightly, and Megan's eyes followed it, and it was obvious that she was curious about it.
The owner of the tail, the hideous and terrifying monster turned around to look at her, his vertical pupils, which were purely animalistic, did not express any emotion. He was extremely tall, and the light shone from the front, completely covering Megan in his alien shadow. He let out a long exhalation from his nose, then turned around and continued to move forward, but he deliberately swung his tail to let her follow.
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