With a clang, the iron door was shoved open. Brucie barged into the powerless Arkham Asylum with a flashlight.
The place had long since been abandoned. Following the route she remembered, Brucie navigated the twisting corridors under the beam of her light and found where Harley Quinn had been held.
This was the wing for life sentences. Ever since Harleen Quinzel had fallen in love with Joker during treatment and helped him escape prison.
When Harley Quinn had been locked up again, she had already beaten her until only her eyelids could still blink. Yet in the end, she had escaped anyway.
Brucie looked at the bloodstains on the floor and the several bodies that had long gone cold. She suddenly felt exhausted... and deeply saddened.
The flashlight shone into the cage. Halin, wearing a white coat, saw her and smiled happily.
"Puddin', Puddin', I found her! I found her! We invited you to our wedding, you know."
Watching the delighted Halin, Brucie's expression darkened. She took out the Unlocker, pried open the iron cage door, grabbed Halin by the collar, and slammed him against the metal bars.
"Talk. Where is Harley Quinn? Where did that bastard run off to?" Brucie demanded threateningly.
"Run? We didn't run. You're the one who ran." The excitement vanished from Halin's face, replaced by utter seriousness.
"This is all your fault. If you had never left, maybe none of this would have happened. Can you hear the wailing outside?"
Halin pressed on earnestly. "Can you hear it? Who lost a husband? Who lost a wife? And who lost their beloved child? No... perhaps it was the children who lost their parents."
That final sentence struck Brucie's heart like a heavy hammer, dragging her back to that alleyway from many years ago.
Those two gunshots,