The Dark Knight

[Nikki]

I feel better now because I see more of a man and less of a monster. Less of something that could open its mouth and swallow me whole.
But then again.
A shiver passes through me, partly because of the rain and partly because I just realized...I miss the monster when he's not around, as I miss the man when he isn't.
Good, he says. Good I'm finished. I was finished the moment I saw him, and then again when my face hit the floor, and then again on that strange close street where we went to die.
"You can't remember anything, can you?" I say suddenly. I don't know where it comes from. "You can't remember anything, not for sure. And it makes you want to..." I trail off there because I have no idea where that was going.

[boo radley]

"I won't remember," is what I say quietly. "Both because I can't, and don't want to. It's amazing how much power will has over mind."

[Nikki]

I don't even stop to wonder why he's sharing all this with me. I'm just glad that he is- and at the same time, I don't like it at all. It creeps me out because this is the man the whole city lives in fear of. This is the man parents tell their children will kidnap them in the middle of the night if they don't behave. And he's standing here quietly beside me, telling me in a very un-frightening voice about his uncertainties.
"No one wants to look under their own bed," I say. "Everyone shoves the things they don't want to think about under there."

[boo radley]

I smirk a little at that. "But you know, whatever's under the bed always ends up coming out, dragging you underneath it, and tearing you to death. That's what the monster under the bed came from. No, no, no... I let my problems thicken the air."

[Nikki]

"You would know all about the monster under the bed, wouldn't you," I mumble, not thinking. But he's got a point.
Oh, has he got a point.

[boo radley]

I chuckle, ever so slightly. Then I realize the make-up is starting to drip a little too much. I stand up and walk to the covered basketball courts, in silence. Not to commemorate anything. Merely to think. And to keep the makeup from completely getting wiped.

"I do know a little something. And I also know that if you let things brew beneath the bed, you're not just danger of losing your mind, but... your exterior facade becomes so fake that you're as shallow as a barbie doll."

[Nikki]

"What if you have no choice?" I say so quietly I'm not sure if he can hear. Every time I try to let things out the way I need to, I get thrown back against the wall.

[boo radley]

"Then... then you force that choice out. Regardless of how anyone's gonna take it." Hell, I should know. I wrote the book.

[Nikki]

My heart does a leap into my mouth when he says this. "Obviously you don't understand what I'm saying or you would talk me down from that one."
I can see my reflection in every puddle. Just a normal girl. I look like a normal girl in a lot of pain. The terrible urge to cry is still stinging my eyes.

[boo radley]

"Talk you down? Harlequin, it isn't my job to 'talk you down.' My job is to have no job. To just...do. You can't understand that, CAN you?"