The elevator pinged open.

Cassidy stepped inside in a dreamlike state, but not the kind of dream that someone would want to stay in, tucked in their bed, cozy and warm.

No.

It was a nightmare.

She stared wide at the four walls, trailing over the dents and scratch marks, as if there had been a struggle.

Was this it? What was she supposed to do?

She couldn't think. All that was gone the moment when Pearl's blood hit her face.

"This is useless! No one's gonna pick up!"

"Just keep trying!"

Static voices echoed from the roof. Cassidy picked up the female voice, stern, unmistakable.

Joan!

Finally- someone who could help!

Cassidy spotted the escape hatch, hanging off, the hinges broken from the outside. She wanted to get up there. She needed to.

She climbed onto the handrails, steadying herself before pushing the hatch open.

With every ounce of arm strength she had, she pulled herself up.

"Rgggghhh!"

Her muscles burned, hitting her threefold as cold air pierced her from above, cutting into her skin like a thousand knives. She couldn't feel the floor, and it made her want to-

Don't look down.

She took a deep breath, pulling her lower body further and further until, finally, she was at the top.

Her arms throbbing, she looked around the elevator shaft.

The cables and rails were narrow, claustrophobic, stretching up to a tower that didn't appear to have an end. Cassidy didn't look to see what was at the bottom.

"Is anyone out there?! Hello?!"

Cassidy turned, following the voice as decay clogged the air like rotting fruit.

She shriveled back.

A security guard. Left presumably for hours, on the side of the elevator, his neck twisted like a Helter Skelter. Dead.

His face was a deep shade of purple, bulged and cracked open by his skull.

It took everything for Cassidy not to throw up.

In his pockets, she spotted a can of mace and a walkie-talkie, crackling through the speakers.

Wrestling with guilt, she made a grab for both, shoving the mace into her pocket.

"... H... Hel...l..." Cassidy choked, pressing the button.

"Wait- Cassidy? CASSIDY?! IS THAT YOU?!"

Cassidy whimpered a small 'yes'- but it was enough.

"OH GOD!" Joan cried "We're- no, forget it! You're fine. You'll be fine. Just tell us where you are and-"

The elevator rumbled.

"Cassidy? What's that noise?! What's happening?!"

The car moved up, throwing her off balance.

Panicking, she jumped down the hatch with the walkie-talkie, and landed on her ankle. Hard.

She yelped, gripping it tight.

"Cassidy!"

The elevator screeched.

Cassidy squirmed as the 1st Floor hallway opened up, splattered with blood and other body fluids.

A voice crackled over the Arkham speakers.

"Roll up, roll up- for the greatest show in town!" Joker began, his voice rolling off the tongue. "See our contestant race against the clock, performing death-defying feats that will astound and amaze!"

Shaking, Cassidy lifted herself up and stepped out of the elevator. Nothing was waiting for her around the corner except blood, spread in a line down the hall.

Joker had promised her a trail... And a trail she got.

"Will she survive? Will she be dismembered on the roof? Who knows! But trust me- you don't want to miss it!"

The speakers cut off, and all was silent.

"Cassidy! Are you there?! Say something!" Joan shouted.

"I- I'm ok... I... sprained my ankle, that's all"

"What?! How?!"

"It's..." Cassidy faltered, brushing it aside "... Not a big deal, really... I can walk..."

Joan swore under her breath, trying to calm down.

"OK. Listen to me- I can guide you to the exit, just-"

"But, Joker... He-"

"I DON'T CARE! You get out of here NOW. Do you understand?! This isn't a game!"

Cassidy went quiet, collapsing against the wall.

"He's got hostages..."

"I know..." Joan trembled "But it's not your responsibility... Cassidy... Just leave... Please..."

Cassidy held the walkie-talkie close to her chest, hearing Joan's pleas, each more desperate than the last. But Cassidy could no longer focus. 'You can't' 'You'll die' 'Don't do this'- all of them sounded the same.

She looked at the 'EXIT' sign towards the North Wing and almost took a step forward.

It would be so easy to run, to get out. Some of the doors were still open after all, that's what Joan said. But she soon turned back to the trail of blood, and in that moment, memories of the day came back to her.

It seemed funny, in a cruel sort of way, that earlier that morning she was laughing with Pearl in the Staff Room, and a few hours later- she was dead.

All the hostages in the basement; she thought of them too, what would happen if she left. She already knew the answer.

Her fists clenched, Cassidy followed the blood trail. Every step she took, the soles of her shoes left an imprint. Everything that it left behind was real. Everything that was happening was real. She finally understood. Joan was right. Nothing about that was a game.

And Cassidy knew she couldn't leave.

"... I'm sorry...".

///

The Panic Rooms were a lifesaver. Large steel vaults, hooked with CCTV monitors and enough emergency supplies to last for weeks.

Not that Joan cared about that.

"This is insane. This is actually INSANE"

Joan paced back and forth as the rest of the staff remained quiet.

"Is everyone ok with this?! She's out there- on her OWN- while we're sitting on our asses doing nothing!"

"What do you expect us to do, Joan?!" Alyce snapped back as others joined in.

"Yeah... No one's getting in or out- we just gotta wait-"

"Wait for what, exactly? The U.S. Army? BATMAN? We're trapped in here!"

"Jesus Christ..."

"Hey guys! I found her!"

On one of the monitors, Cassidy hobbled down the South Wing with her injured ankle as inmates were running the opposite way.

"Looks like she's heading through the-"

Joan shoved in, leaning close to the monitor as she held the walkie-talkie.

"Cassidy! Can you hear me?!"

"I'm here"

"Good. Ok. Can you see anything?"

"Just a few patients-"

The staff watched on the monitor as Cassidy turned her head.

"Wait..."

Cassidy wandered the hallway, distracted by whatever it was she was following.

"I hea-///-th///"

"Cassidy- you're breaking up! Hello?! SHIT-"

Joan, frustrated, shook the walkie-talkie, slapping it as if it would help somehow.

"There's probably signal interference- maybe a- hold on..." One of the staff said, refixing his glasses. "Can anyone else see that?"

The staff pointed to the monitor as Cassidy approached the kitchen.

Messy writing decorated the kitchen door, childlike, which spelled out:

'Circus of Strange'

Joan twisted in revulsion, covering her mouth.

"NO...".

///

"//-DON///!"

The walkie-talkie cut off completely as Cassidy approached the kitchen entrance, leaning her ear against the door.

Music echoed from inside. Muffled, but the theme of Tchaikovsky's 'Sleeping Beauty' was unmistakable. Cassidy had watched the Disney version so many times as a kid that the melody had stuck.

Cassidy shoved the walkie-talkie into her pocket and pushed through the door.

The kitchen itself; disheveled, with pots and pans stacked over the ovens, and a split bag of rice that spilled into the drainage.

Before she could take a step, she heard a scream that dropped her to the ground.

It was a horrible, wailing sound, as if some poor animal was being skinned alive.

"Shhhhh-"

The screaming went on as Cassidy crawled around the corner of the worktop.

Staff and inmates alike, wrapped on steel tables with butcher's string as a radio played behind them. All had doll masks strapped over their faces, with two writhing against their constraints. A young inmate; her arms scarred with cuts from top to bottom, and a guard; with old mud halfway up his trousers. The rest were limp, unconscious. At least that's what Cassidy told herself.

"Nearly there now"

Cassidy looked up as a figure hovered over them.

Lazlo Valentin.

Bulbous, with a frilly apron and surgical gloves up to his elbows. The most disturbing feature was his pig mask, with bulging cheeks and a snout that made him look like an abandoned theme park mascot.

He lit the blowtorch, lowering it down as the guard struggled to wriggle free.

"Almost finished... Just a little more and-"

The guard screamed in agony as the blowtorch burned through, sizzling his skin.

Cassidy hid away, covering her ears like a child until, finally, it stopped.

"There! Look at you! You're perfect!" Lazlo cheered, clapping with excitement. "I knew mommy's work would pay off!"

Lazlo heard crying from across the table and turned to the female inmate, banging her fists to be set free.

"I know, I know- you're sad- no more! No more talk of curfews, or pills, or sleepy time- we can all be friends!"

He twirled towards the inmate, lost in the music, until the blowtorch snuffed out cold.

He fiddled with the buttons on the handle, switching them up and down, but nothing was igniting. He didn't seem to mind, and trotted to the cupboards, humming as he did so.

Cassidy snuck over, dragging a cleaver from the kitchen side.

She didn't know if the guard had survived, she didn't even have time to look as she locked her gaze on the female inmate.

Cassidy pressed her finger to her lips as she began cutting the strings. Adrenaline took over as she sliced, quicker and quicker.

"- Mrrfff!"

The inmate motioned with pleading eyes for her to turn around. Bad move.

Lazlo spun around, catching both of them off guard.

Cassidy slammed a heavy food cart into him, tumbling him over as the inmate ripped herself off the table.

"COME BACK!"

The inmate fled outside as Cassidy tried in vain to catch up.

"!!"

Grubby hands snatched her hair from behind.

In a desperate move- Cassidy twisted around, snapping Lazlo's arm like a twig as he squealed.

Ripping her hair from his grip, she limped to the stairway. Her scalp throbbing.

"She could have been perfect!" Lazlo sobbed. "Are you sad too? Is that why you took her away?"

Lazlo followed her up the stairs.

There was no need to chase her. Her bad ankle dragged behind. Slow.

He was a few steps away.

"Don't worry! Pyg can make it better! Pyg can fix you!"

He flipped the blowtorch, letting it hiss as he crept closer.

"Make you pretty as a doll-EEEE!"

Cassidy dodged the flames, spraying mace from her pocket.

"AAAAAGGGGHH!"

Lazlo stumbled back, clawing at his eyes as he missed a step, sending him tumbling down the stairs.

In the silence, Cassidy peered down the railing.

A rush of guilt overcame her as she saw Lazlo, slumped at the bottom of the staircase, his chest struggling to move.

"Great job kiddo!" Joker said through the speakers. "Looks like Pig-face is down for the count! Guess that's 'Score 1' to you, eh? Haha!"

Cassidy turned away, trying her best to ignore him.

"Awww, cheer up! By the end of the night, you'll be feeling much better! You'll see!"

The speakers cut out, and she winced, looking up at the 3rd Floor.

///

10:50 - and the traffic in Gotham was getting worse, congestion building by the minute.

Jim Gordon swerved onto the sidewalk, turning past the amber road sign:

'Arkham Asylum

5 Miles'

"Any updates Bullock?!"

"Nothing. Freaks ain't making demands, we're like sitting ducks over here!" Bullock radioed in.

Jim pressed hard on the gas pedal, swerving past the roadworks and parked cars.

"Just stay where you are! I'm on my way!"

His knuckles hit the dashboard as sirens blared.

"God help us...".

A/N: Between Professor Pyg, Zsasz and Joker- I don't know which one I'd rather have kill me...