Disclaimer: I don't own the Joker or any of the other Batman characters in this fic. They all belong to DC Comics and are based on the characters in The Dark Knight. I only own my plot and any original characters that I may choose to include.
Mindless Majority
Chapter 1: Silence
A/N: Based on, and dedicated to the late actor Heath Ledger for his magnificent role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. T.T I finally got the guts to put up my own TDK fic after reading some really good ones.
Song: A Little Push by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
The sickly gray walls of Arkham Asylum gave off an eerie aura that sent chills through all who wandered its corridors. The flickering lights seemed to embrace the suffocating terror within the halls, and the heavily plated steel doors that trapped the asylum's inhabitants cast a frightful glare upon the passersby.
Arkham's "best" were contained on the eighth floor, completely isolated from the goings on in the outside world. Nothing awaited such demons except the death penalty, but the chances of any of them even making it that far, were slim to none. Heavily armed guards paced the halls, keeping a watchful eye on one cell in particular. Arkham's newest addition to the "family" of maniacs, was a psychotic bastard with no ulterior motive other than to watch Gotham burn and toy with Batman.
Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon had personally delivered the lunatic to Arkham, warning the head administrator, Jerimiah Arkham, that the asylum's newest arrival was far more dangerous than Johnathan Crane and his lethal fear toxin. And that fact alone, was reason enough for Jeremiah to double the security for that special new addition. Strangly, the madman had no name, no other alias, no matches on DNA, prints, or anything else. All clothing was custom with no labels, and the only things in his pockets were lint and a large assortment of knives. Or, as Gordon had so calmly said, "Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint."
With the Joker, it was just one question after another.
The guards unfortunate enough to be assigned to watch over the mass-murdering psychopath were less than thrilled. The bone-chilling laughter that rang through the corridor was almost enough to unnerve the guards and send them into hysterics worthy of a padded cell. It was a sheer nightmare. And several of them, including the new recruits, had been so desperate to bore the Joker's nightmarish laugh from their minds, that they had taken a bullet to the head while on duty. Others had been able to find a little solitary confinement in the office of a Gotham therapist.
But for those poor bastards who survived, therapy wasn't nearly enough to cure them.
The events eventually became a sort of daily routine. The Joker would erupt into a fit of hysterical laughter, for no known reason, and the guards would either take a bullet or run like hell to inform the head administrator that they couldn't work in the madhouse any longer. The guards that remained were, obviously, more than capable of holding their own against the Joker, for which Jeremiah was grateful. One of the new recruits that had been sane enough to remain, was Mark Daniels, a six-month graduate from Gotham University.
Some of Mark's coworkers had told him that they had been at Arkham for years, which made him compare their apparent sanity to that of the freaks they monitored. The "results" weren't always very reassuring. Background stories often said a lot about a person, but Mark wasn't too sure he wanted to know the life stories of his new "friends." The dreadful silence that hung about was almost as much of a hell as the manic laughter that rang out at random intervals throughout the shifts. It was never easy trying to keep the fucking psychopath quiet, because the more they talked shit at him, the harder he'd laugh.
Unfortunately, this was one of those times.
The silence was, once again, shattered by the laughter, driving both the guards and prisoners crazy. One of the guards near the elevator shot up from his seat and stalked to the cell, loading his rifle. A card key was swiped and the door buzzed as it unlocked and opened. The guard pointed his weapon at the giggling bastard within the cell.
"Shut the fuck up, you son of a bitch. I'm through with your shit. One more outburst like that, and I'll let the bat take care of you."
"It's the same thing every time," came the response. "You guys are almost as bad, if not worse, than those mob fools. You're all in the same sad situation. Always trying to control your pathetic little worlds..."
"This bastard's far from being a normal criminal," one of the other guards said with a snicker.
"'Normal'is such a... relative term. If you think about it, no one is 'normal'. Who's to say that all of this," the Joker waved gestured at his surroundings, "isn't 'normal', and that which we call 'abnormal' is, in fact--"
"Stow it!!" the guard barked. "I don't wanna hear another word outta you!! Now wipe that goddamn smirk off your face, before I come in there and blow it off!!"
The door slammed, and the Joker began humming some nonsensical tune under his breath.
"You'll see," he muttered. "I'll show ya. You 'civilized' people won't last much longer... Enjoy the silence while you can. When I get outta here, the silence won't come for a long time...."
Hahaha!! Please review. I really wanna know what you guys think of it.