Tears of a clown
Jack had never been normal. He'd had abusive parents, who were always drunk, and beat him for the slightest infraction. At school, he was bullied. He was a very clever boy, and the bullies thought he was a show-off. So every break-time they would find him, and they would beat him up. That, along with the beatings he got at home, ended up with him going to hospital 3 times. The first time, it was broken ribs and a fractured leg. His parents said he'd fallen down the stairs. That was true. What they'd neglected to mention was that his father had pushed him downstairs for spilling his beer. The second time was a broken jaw. That was from the bullies at school. The third time was a lacerated cheekbone. That was because his father had punched him for tripping over and accidentally knocking the T.V over. That was when social services came and took away Jack. After that he'd had an OK child-hood. He still got bullied, but at least his foster family never beat him.
When he was 28, he met a beautiful woman called Martha, and they got married a year later. One day, his wife gave him some unexpected news.
"Jack, I'm pregnant!" she said to him. He was overjoyed with happiness, but he was also very nervous. The bank where he was working at was going through tough times, and there was talk of being laid-off. He knew he had to get money from somewhere, but he didn't know where. So he asked some shady characters if he could get a job with them. Now, as luck would have it, there was a job that very evening. They were going to rob a chemical plant, and they needed someone to keep a look-out.
When he told Martha about this, however, she was horrified with him. She told him that if he went to do this job, she would not be home by the time he got back.
"Martha, please, can't you tell that I'm doing this for you and our baby?" he begged.
"I don't want to be married to a law breaker, Jack. If this is what you want, then fine. But you can have this back." And she gave him her wedding ring.
"Martha, please don't go," he cried. But she walked out of the door, and left him standing in the kitchen.
After this, Jack called the people he was supposed to be doing the job with, and begged them to let him quit. But they said that if he wasn't at the chemical plant, they would find him and his wife, and kill them. Jack didn't want Martha and their offspring to die, so he went to the chemical plant.
Unfortunately, the police arrived. Terrified of being arrested, he turned and ran, up the stairs over one of the sluices where the excess chemicals were drained, and smack into a terrifying creature. It was a man dressed entirely in black, with a half-mask covering his head, and a long black cape. He had an emblem of a bat on his chest. In his half-crazed state, Jack thought he was some kind of demon sent to drag him to Hell. He leapt over the side into the sluice, and went sliding down it. He was thrown straight out of the pipe, and under the surface of the chemicals. But somehow, he didn't die, and when he emerged, he caught sight of his reflection. He had black eyes, a chalk white face, bright red lips, and green hair.
Like I said, Jack had never been normal.