Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #64

Issue Details

Synopsis

TERMINUS  An unidentified narrator observes Studs, a young junkie, meeting his dealer underneath a bridge to buy drugs, only for the dealer to hold out until he receives the money first. Studs instead stabs the dealer to death, only to discover too late that Batman was following the dealer and has witnessed the murder. Studs flees through the streets to the Terminus Hotel, a crumbling and seemingly abandoned dive hotel in a desolate and empty part of Gotham. In an empty room, Studs shoots up the drugs and begins to hallucinate fire, which somehow "feeds" the narrator.  Studs sees Batman's silhouette outside his window and, terrified, begins to flee through the hotel, still hallucinating fire. As he does so, the noise he makes disturbs other residents who appear to be within the hotel, each with their own reasons for hiding there: Eddie, a fired factory employee who killed a baby while driving drunk; Clyde, a gambling addict who murdered his boss while trying to rob the safe to pay off a debt to the mob; Joan, an abused wife hiding from her husband, who murdered her lover and threatened to murder her; and Sal, a serial killer who fled to the hotel after realizing too late that his latest victim was the sister of a prominent gangster, whom he is convinced is hunting him for revenge. Each individual eventually returns to sleep, though not before briefly reflecting on what brought them to the hotel and expressing a dread that the person hunting them will one day find them.   As Batman pursues Studs through the hotel, the narrator seems to enjoy Studs' fear, implying that it is a demonic presence within the hotel feeding off the fear of those sheltering within it. It is intrigued by Batman's anger, strength and determination as a hunter, however, approvingly considering him a hunter like itself, and expresses a desire for Batman to remain in the hotel. As Batman eventually catches Studs, however, Studs' hallucinations of fire consume him in the form of a demonic, fiery entity -- and we simultaneously learn that apparently the gangster who had been hunting Sal did find him, dousing him in kerosene and setting him on fire in vengeance for his sister. Sal, and implicitly the other residents of the hotel, is already dead.   Studs seems to suddenly awaken, apparently having dreamt the entire evening's events. Realizing that Batman and a crew of paramedics are outside, he decides to hide in the hotel and shoot up again -- not realizing that the paramedics are in fact carting away Studs' corpse. Having apparently died from a result of the toxic combination of the drugs he took, coupled with his fear and exertion, Studs' spirit is now trapped within the walls of the Terminus along with the other residents, doomed to unwittingly remain prisoner there forever. After seeing Studs' body removed, Batman, having vaguely sensed the supernatural presence within the Terminus, takes one last look at the hotel; as he leaves, the narrator expresses disappointment that Batman must hunt through "a wider hell", but expresses a hope that Batman will return one day.