Arkham's Ghost

Disclamer: The only person I own here is the "ghost". Those meanies won't let me have Batman, despite much begging.

A/N: I was bored...So beware! Also, this is kinda...I don't wanna say 'lame'... -Begs- DON'T KILL ME IF IT IS!

Teaser: Is Arkham haunted?

The Riddler:

The Riddler was playing his new game, 'Riddle of the Sphinx', when her first heard it.

It sounded like someone was crying. The problem was, he was alone in the cell. 'Oh, great. Now I really AM losing it!' He thought, peering around the dark room. "Who's there?" He rasped out. "Come out."

"Why?" Asked a voice from the other side of the cell, a childs voice. Riddler's eyes widened as he saw a small girl, no older than 12, slide out from the shadows. She was dressed in what looked like a nightgown, and she had shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes. And she was terrified, shaking so hard that he could see it from across the room.

"Who are you?" He asked, softening his voice. "What's your name?"

She looked like a deer caught in headlights. "I-I'm Aurora. Who a-a-are you?"

"Nice to meet you," he smiled. Unlike the Scarecrow, he didn't like fear that much. And she was just a child. "My name's Riddler. Why are you here? Visiting someone?"

She shook her head. He could tell she was calming down.

"Put here by force?"

She hesitated, and Riddler wondered what a child could've done to provoke the Bat or police.

"I don't remember." She whispered, wrapping her pale arms around herself. "All I remember was a lot of light and then...It all went dark..."

Riddler honestly didn't know how to respond to that. 'It's a puzzle.' He thought, glancing from the girl to the computer. 'Oh, what's the worse that could happen?'

"Sooooo," Riddler said after the girl had explained it again. "You don't remember anything before that? You have no idea how you got here, or where 'here' is?"

She nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed and watching as he paced around the cell. "Well, you told me I'm in Arkham, so I do know that." She looked around doutfully. "I just always thought of this place with more screaming..."

"Oh," Riddler chuckled. "That's just because it's 3:10 in the morning and they're all asleep." At the apologetic look on her face, he quickly rephrased what he said. "Oh, it's alright. I wasn't asleep anyway." He motioned to the computer, which was still on the 'Pause' screen of the game. The girl's eyes widened.

"I know that game! I loved playing it, I got to the fifth level, but there was a glitch in my game..." She, Aurora, trailed off. But Riddler smiled.

"You noticed that too?" He went to the computer and tunred the game back on. "I found a crack to get passed it. Its simple after you actually figure it out." As he spoke, Aurora appeared at his elbow. "Would you like to play?" She nodded, her eyes shining. "Alright, I'll put it on two-player."

A minute later, both of them were too busy playing the game to notice when the sun came up.

Anyone walking by would have seen Riddler palying his game, and a second controler beside him. They wouldn't see the girl.

"Wow, this place is BIG!" Aurora commented as Riddler gave her a 'tour' of the asylum. It was more along the lines of she was following him and asking questions, and he'd answer as best he could and try not to be seen 'talking to himself'. "I'm suprised people don't get lost in here!"

Riddler smiled and whispered back, "Who says they don't?"

Suddenly, an orderly came up beside him. "Riddler, talking to yourself? Really, I thought that was theVentriloquist's act." She tsk-ed and shook her head then walked away. Aurora was just staring after her.

"Wow, the people here are so nice." She rolled her eyes, like any other child would, and she looked around the lounge area where the inmates were occasionally allowed for good behaivor. "Oooh! T.V.!"

As she took a spot on the couch, Riddler walked over and turned the television on. Catwoman, who was seated nearby, looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Look who decided to join the world of the living. It's a miracle." Riddler ignored her and took a seat in the rocking chair across from the t.v. set.

"Anything on?" Poison Ivy came up from behind him and plopped down on the couch. "I swear, if I see one more info-mercial..."

The television got just about any channel you could imagine, so there was always something on, just not always a good something. "News, Cartoons, Sports, more news, more cartoons, more sports, a documentary, but not on anything we'd like..." Riddler narrated for each channel as he clicked the buttons on the remote. "School supplies, more catoons, how to cook a pie, what animals have gone extinct in the last decade..." He stopped on one channel.

"What's this?" Asked the Catwoman, leaning in. "Hey, my name's up there!"

"I'm not sure," Harley Quinn answered, squinting to see. "My name's there to! Your's too, Red!"

Ivy scowled, "Well, unless it says anyone on there gets three million dollars and a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card, I don't care."

Two-Face walked over, eyeing the screen. "Anybody know what 'it' is? And is it a good thing my name's up there too?" He was flipping his coin repeatedly.

"I have a terrible feeling about this." The Mad Hatter voiced from somewhere behind him. "What if that's the order they're going to kill us in?"

Joker snorted. "Then I'm glad I'm at the bottom!" When everyone looked at the screen, they saw about five more names scrolling across,at the end was 'Joker'. Then it started over. "Look! Riddler's on top!" Everyone turned to stare at him.

'Joy, not only do I have some girl following me around, now my name's on some list' Riddler felt the blood drain from his face. "What?"

"Oh! Riddle boy's gonna be thr first to go!" Joker laughed insanly. "I wonder who gets his stuff when he takes the last ride to the asylum in the sky?"

Catwoman looked the list over as it scrolled again. "According to this, it'll be Riddler, Calender Girl, me, Scarecrow, Harley, Mad Hatter, Ivy, Two-Face, Penguin," It named just about every major villian in Arkham. Riddler could tell they were geting nervous. By now, Catwoman was near the end. " Phantasm, Freeze, Joker."

"Okay, I can understand why they'd wanna get rid of those pathetic Calender Girl and Phantasm," Poison Ivy said after she was finished. "But why us? Well, Joker is understandable, but the rest of us..."

"Hey!" Harley said, glaring at her. "Puddin's just as good as da rest of ya! Betta' even!" Her accent made the already funny comment sound ridiculous. "Besides, if only abouttwelve of us are up dere, wha' happens to da rest of us?"

Silence was the only answer.

Riddler stood up. "I'm going back to bed. There's nothing to do anyway." As he walks off, he sees the girl is missing. 'I wonder where she went?' He walked out and to his cell. Opening the door, he saw her standing at the back wall. "Aurora, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she answered so softly Riddler wasn't sure he heard her. "I just don't like crowds. That, and they almost sat on me." She smiled faintly at that. "That's one of the bad things about people not seeing you."

Now that no one was around, he didn't have to worry about anyone thinking he was talking to himself. Even if someone came by, it was a sound-proof room. "They can't? Why not?"

"I'm not sure. They just...can't!" She shruged and looked at the ceiling. "It's not fair! What'd I ever do to deserve this?" She yelled at no one in particular.

"Life isn't fair, child." Riddler flinched and was glad the room was sound-proof. "Now then, would you like to play another game?"

She looked back at him and nodded. "Okay. Do you have 'Mystery of the Iron Castle'?"

'How did I get beaten by a child?' Riddler wonderedas he gawked at the high score lists. 'One others can't even see'

After thefourth day with Aurora, he was getting used to her disappearings. He wondered how long she'd be around. It was actually nice to have someone to talk to who wouldn't use it as blackmail or try to psycho-analize it. And, unlike most children he'd met, she actually seemed to know what she was talking about.

"Hey, Nygma, who's dat?" Harley Quinn's 'slightly' obnoxious voice came from over his head. "Man, dey got you beat!" She laughed loudly and wandered away.

In her place stood Aurora. "Man, can she get any louder? I think I lost an eardrum there!" She snorted and looked over his shoulder. "She had a point though..." A grin that almost outmatched the Jokers spread accros her face. "I did beat you, and very well, might I add."

He rolled his eyes, then noticed the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing...It's just, I'll have to be going soon..." She looked down, her brown hair falling in front of her eyes. "I-I'm not sure when, but soon..."

Riddler raised an eyebrow. "Aurora." He'd learnedto not draw attention to talking to her, esspesially after Joker had accused him of 'Falling on his head again'. "Why do you have to go?" He'd asked her lots of questions since her first arrival here, many which were answered with 'I-don't-know's or 'I-wish-I-knew's.

She shrugged. "Because, They say I have to."

Riddler blinked, and she was gone.

A/N: Ever heard the old saying 'There are no mistakes in art'? Well, there's no mistakes in my story either! ((Not that I've seen, anyway.)) Who's this 'They' Aurora mentioned? Who'll be next to be 'visited'? Why is she even there in Arkham in the first place? All this and more, in later chapters! STAY IN TOUCH! ((PS: She's done with Riddler, just so ya know!))