Swallowing The Spider

[After Transition] 

Leaving the village office I begin to wonder just what the goal is of the person who put that ad in the newspaper was because they had to pay to put it in the newspaper so it wasn't a prank or something and this message was for Batman after all so they must have had some kind of goal to send this to him under the name Aaron Kane who turned out to be a piano player who killed his family and burnt them all inside his own house but there must be more to this and it shouldn't be as simple as that Village Office manager was making out and so whoever put that letter in the newspaper must have wanted Batman to investigate this Aaron Kane person but that's kind of hard to do if your suspect is dead which is why I must find someone who will know more about the situation and I'm pretty sure that manager said the mayor of this island is close to everyone and that he was close friend to Aaron Kane as well so if there is anyone that will know more about this situation then it would be bound to be him and I believe the manager of that place said he is at the community centre, I'm making my way towards the community centre using the map when I happen upon a young boy and a woman in a doctor's coat conversing. "Are you listening, Kenny? Make sure you keep yourself warm while you sleep, we don't want you to fall ill do we?" The woman in the doctor's coat tells the young boy who nods his head quite happily, turning around the boy then runs off while leaving some parting words for the good doctor. "Okay, I will. Bye, Doctor Nichols!" 

Seeing that the woman appeared to be quite friendly and helpful I decide to approach her and ask for her help so that she can direct me towards the community centre because while I can go there just using the map I think it would be better to get directions from a native and probably pick up some more information on the way, it doesn't hurt that the woman looks quite beautiful wearing some black shoes, a blue skirt, a light purple turtleneck sweater with her doctor's coat on top with her hair done up in a ponytail and since I have got two weeks holiday to stay here I figure that it wouldn't hurt to get friendly with the locals and I think she looks like the perfect person to get friendly with so I approach her with the intention of asking for help and if it leads somewhere else then so be it. "Excuse me, Miss. Do you know where the community centre is?" I ask her and she turns around to answer me, she looks quite happy to help as well. "The community centre, huh? You've just got to take a right at that corner and the community centre is at the end of the street, you can't miss it. But if you're asking how to get there then you must not be from around here. Do you come from the mainland?" She asks after answering my question probably used to being so open here as it is an island and everyone knows everyone here so she probably asked that of me naturally without any hidden intentions, since she doesn't have any ulterior motives, I don't mind answering her question and maybe I'll be able to find out a bit more about her like whether or not she's single at the moment. "You guessed right, my name is Nick James and I'm from Gotham. It's nice to meet you..." 

"Nice to meet you as well Nick, I'm Alex Nichols and as you can probably tell I'm a doctor. So, you're from Gotham are you, my family is also from Gotham but I was born here. I've visited Gotham a few times but I don't like it as much as this island, unlike Gotham isn't this island so wonderful? There is hardly any crime on the island. compared to Gotham, the air is clear and it's so quiet here too." Just as she finishes saying that a white truck drives by with the words 'Community Planning with Vitality' with the name 'Shaun Masters' written just underneath the slogan and it also has a megaphone speaker on the top, just as Doctor Alex finishes saying how quite this island is this white truck with the megaphone speaker on top drives by blaring "Residents of Moonshade Island, in order to protect the island's fishing grounds, vote for me, Shaun Masters!" so loud that it sounds out stopping Alex's conversation with me as it goes by. "Well, normally the island is quiet but the mayoral election is coming up. There are three candidates for Mayor at the moment with them being Karl Tate, Kevin Hale and Shaun Masters whose truck you just saw go by, according to my patients it's looking like Kevin Hale is the favourite to win and he is the one that will most likely be elected as the mayor of Moonshade Island. Actually, if you are heading to the community centre then you just might be able to meet the three men that I just mentioned, after all the previous mayor Isaac Kingston's second-anniversary memorial service is being held there tonight. I've actually got some patients to go and see so I'll see you later, hopefully." Saying so Doctor Alex Nichols turns and walks away waving back to me and so I wave back watching her go before I decide to finally go to my destination and so I follow her instructions to get to the community centre, I take a right at the corner and then I walk along the street till I see the community centre. 

Finally reaching the community centre I can see a big photo frame displaying the portrait of the previous mayor at the front of the community centre but a lot of the attention is taken away from it by all the protesters outside the front of the community who are holding up sign stating 'Get out Mayor Tate!' with quite a lot of the protesters holding such signs and even more shouting at the community centre to not let Mayor Tate get away with his tyranny of polluting the fishing grounds but ignoring all of them I walk around to the entrance of the community centre and when I enter I'm greeted by a reception and so I go up to the receptionist at the main desk and get ready to put on the charm, I don't even really get the option to though as I state that I want to meet the Mayor and when I'm asked for my identity and reason I show the receptionist the inside of my wallet which not only has my ID inside but it also has my Wayne Enterprises pass inside which the receptionist sees and doesn't even wait to hear my reason for coming and instead calls someone on the phone straight away and tells them of my arrival being very specific on the Wayne Enterprises part and so the receptionist leads me to a bench in the hallway and asks me to wait there before they go leaving me alone in the hallway, getting quite bored just sat here I focus on my hearing and all my other senses to spread them all over the building and see if I can hear any useful information and in doing so I locate the Mayor who is a few floors above me and currently talking to a woman. "Unbelievable, the previous mayor's memorial service is tonight and they are outside protesting. How rude can you be?" The mayor is a bald fat man in his fifties who is dressed in a black memorial suit and he's talking to the woman stood next to him and analysing both of their behaviours and body language around each other I can tell that they are quite familiar with each to most likely father and daughter since the woman seems to be in her mid-twenties nearly thirty, she responds to the mayor with a similar attitude.  

"Indeed, they're so noisy. Harold, what are you doing? Hurry up and go shut those villagers up." She tells the man bespectacled man dressed in a suit who is most likely a butler or aide to the mayor and he quickly nods his head and runs out of the room, and as he opens the door and leaves another man enters the room dressed in dark clothing as wells as wearing some black circular sunglasses along with a grey beanie that allows his ponytail to peek out of the back. "Yo, are you guys all right? According to the villager's babe, the odds are against your dad in the upcoming mayoral race." He tells the woman who is now confirmed to be the daughter of the mayor as well as his partner/girlfriend/wife or whatever but they are all so caught up in their conversation that they didn't notice someone else come in through the door that was left open, it was a tall lanky man who seemed to be in his fifties but unlike the mayor, this old guy has a full head of grey hair along with a pencil moustache and he too was dressed in a black memorial suit. "That's right, it seems that I have the most support from the villagers." He tells them and since he has stated that he has the most support than going by what Doctor Alex Nichols told me he should be Kevin Hale who is the favourite to win the election as opposed to the current mayor Karl Tate who doesn't look like he's going to be re-elected, the current mayor is clearly not happy at that much to the joy of Kevin Hale. "The only reason you've got so much support is that you know how to use your money." The mayor tells Kevin Hale to which he responds with a biting remark. "I'm just copying your methods, I learned from the master after all." But before the meeting could really heat up and fights began the butler Harold came back into the room to inform them of something, I don't even think this guy even went to stop the protest because I honestly stopped paying attention to him once he left the room but I don't think nearly enough time has elapsed for him to have dealt with the protestors outside so there must have been something urgent which forced him to waylay that order and return to the room. "There is somebody downstair who says he would like to meet with the mayor, right now. Apparently, this man is from Gotham, and he works for Wayne Enterprises."  

After that they started fussing over the fact that someone from Wayne Enterprises is here when in fact I'm not here in an official capacity and they begin to start talking about it and I get bored of listening to them think that this is an opportunity for them when it's not and so I stop paying attention to them figuring that either they would come down here to meet me or someone would come down here to fetch me and take me up to them but they are certainly going to take their time for all of them to get her since there is like two flights of stairs they have got to get through, getting a bit bored of sitting here and waiting for someone to come I decide to instead have a look around the place and my eyes are immediately drawn to the big double doors at the end of the hallway that look mighty important and so I head there and slowly open it to peek inside but the big room is basically empty except for the lone grand piano in it and when I walk to take a closer look at it I glance out of the window and I realise that this building is on the shore because outside of the window I can see the ocean and Gotham in the distance which actually doesn't look too bad from this far away and without the loud screams that usually accompany the city. 

Ignoring the view, I continue on towards the grand piano to analyse it better and when I do, I can tell that the piano itself is very old but I can't tell much with the key lid/fallboard covering the piano keys and so I move my hand towards it to lift it up, but before I can even get a finger on it, I am interrupted by a loud shout. "DON'T TOUCH THAT PIANO! That is the cursed piano played here at the concert the day that Aaron died..." 

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<AN> I now have a Pa treon up and running and when a chapter is ready it will go up on Pa treon first so please take a look. Some support from you guys would be appreciated and motivate me.

Currently 34+ Chapters.

(pa treon.com/GutsyRipper)

A special thank you to my patrons Stormrall, Turtle, Matthew Laird, Sage Honos, Darth Bane, napier Crawford, Marcus Lane, frank ivkovich, Alex, Jermaine Koster, Ethan Fuentes, Luke Soper and Striker.. Thank you for the support.