The picture of the Joker moved so lightly. He is holding a stick and looks down at the tree captives with a big smile.
I can't believe he does it, she thought and crushed the pillow against her chest.
"So which of you fine gentlemen would like to join our team?"The three bodyguards on the screen all nod. The Joker snaps a pool cue.
She smiled staring amazed onto the clown. She'd had already seen this about a million times and she almost knew all the lines I revo. But she just couldn't get her mind of that cool character. She had never seen any character even near as crazy and as fascinating as this Joker.
"Only one slot open right now- so we're going to have try-outs."
The Joker drops the broken cue in the middle of the men.
"Make it fast."
The room smelled salt and popcorn and it was dark everywhere. Jackie loved the way the Joker moved, she loved the way he was talking. She even loved the way he was acting and his jokes even though they were really bad. Perhaps it was only because Heath Ledger played the part of The Joker, without him Jackie would never have gone into this obsession. And now Ledger was dead, so there wouldn't be another Batman with Joker in it again.
The lights in the room were suddenly lit and Jackie almost dropped the bowl of popcorn in her arms along with the pillow. She turned her head alert to the door, but the only person who was standing there was a very irritated mother.
"Shit… mom. Don't you ever knock?"
Her mother stepped into the room and picked up a blanket that had been thrown on the sofa with no intention of being used. She folded it as Jackie paused Batman The Dark Night on the TV. "You have seen that movie a couple of times already. Isn't it enough now?"
"But, mom" Jackie complained. "This is my favourite movie, its really great." Jackie had already told her mom so many times.
Jackie leaned her head on the sofa and awaited for her mother to start giving her the stupid lections she always gave her when she did something her mother didn't like. But this time it was just stupid.
"Jackie, it's not good to get too attached to something like that. It's not normal. It's not good for you."
Jackie threw popcorn in her mouth and chewed as she looked into her mother's eyes. "Will you let me decide what's good for me?"
Rosa as her mother was named threw the blanket on the sofa and roared with a load voice. "If you're father was here you would've…"
Jackie stood up furious the second her mother named her father. She had never meat her father so how could her mother possibly bring him up. "Well, he isn't here!" Jackie interrupted her mom. "He's never been here, and I'm pretty sure of two things. He doesn't care about me or anything about me and I don't think he has any plans of coming back, at all. So will you drop it!"
Jackie sighed and turned of the TV while her mom stood shocked staring at the floor. With no word Jackie left the room. The atmosphere had changed and she would've continued watching the film, but the feeling was just wrong now. Besides she knew she had made her mom upset by talking about her father like that.
Jackie never really cried when she and her mother had fights, which happened very often obviously. Her mother always had to bring up people in Jackie's life that she hadn't even met, ever. People like her dad, her granddad and grand mom and then her mother always compared her with her "angel" cousins. Stupid, Jackie thought and slammed the door to her room shut.
Lucky she had a room where she could at least get a little privacy. The room featured three black walls and the fourth wall where the door into the rest of the house was white with black patterns on it. Everywhere there were paintings she had drawn, mostly black and white paintings and drawings with black lead.
She stood in front of the mirror on her wall, around the mirror it had been decorated with black feathers. She also loved to paste up things onto the wall, right beside the mirror. It gave Jackie the feeling of freedom and happiness.
She looked into the eyes of the girl in the mirror. She wasn't that hot, but she also knew that she did look a little cute. Her mother wanted her to dye her hair brown gain, or at least let it grow out from the dark black hair. Her eyes where brown, obviously from her dads side. Her mothers eyes where green.
Sometimes Jackie did wonder about her dad, if he was ok. What he was doing for a living, and did he do anything to try to find her? But obviously he didn't care about her since he left her mother while she was pregnant.
Stupid, Jackie thought again and put her hair up into a ponytail. She stepped over the stuff on the floor and hopped onto her bed and pulled out a sketchpad. Every side of the sketchpad featured a picture of her self, her mom or some kind of obsession she had. Lets say 60% of the sketchpad was The Joker. And it was good drawings; she had sketched some out of her mind and some she had sketched out of a picture or a scene in the movie.
"We are pretty much alike aren't we?" she whispered to the drawing of the Joker. "You hate you're dad and so do I. But I think I'd like to meet my dad at least for just once. Maybe I'll show him a thing or two."
She put the sketchpad into her bag again and took out her ipod instead. Sometimes it felt like life punished her by making her restless and in no mood to do anything at all.
A song worked up in her ears, almost like a lullaby even though the sound isn't even anything close to being a lullaby. After a couple of minutes, she fell asleep.
*****
Everything was blurry in her mind; small patterns guided their way throw a dark silhouette with bright lights. A strange feeling of water interrupted her lazy resting and she half dreamed she was swimming in the ocean, and looking up at the blue sky. The dark silhouette turned slowly into a beautiful blue shining light. She felt calm, and almost at peace, but at the same time it felt like something was threatening her to wake up. She really didn't want to wake up. The blue sky turned again into the dark silhouette but this time it turned darker, almost like space. In the middle of the dark valve a circle of light started to appear and it was turning brighter and brighter. After a few seconds Jackie realised she had opened her eyes and was staring into a bright streetlight. She scowled. What?
A metallic sound echoed beside her and she shot up like a rocket. Confused she looked around herself. What happened to her room? Instead of her being safe in her room, she was standing in the middle of two brick buildings and between them where a lot of trash cans and containers.
She turn around in the valley, looking around for what seemed like some kind of escape or at least something that looked at least a little familiar.
"..M.. mom?"
Her voice sounded weak. She stepped closer to the end of the small alley between the two buildings. This was obviously just a dream.
"No" Jackie said and shook her head smiling ironically. "You're joking with yourself Jackie. This is just a dream. You're going to wake up in you're own room safe and sound."
The wind went right threw her clothes making her shake freezing. It felt so real. "Oh, no" she said again and pulled up her sleeve. "Wake up, sleepy head. Time. To. Wake. Up."
She pinched herself as hard as she could and closed her eyes preparing herself to wake up in her room. But when she opened her eyes she was still standing in the dark alley.
The disappointment washed over her body and she waved her hands once in the air as a marking of submission. This is stupid, she thought.
Giving up she fell to the ground to sit down, but she squeaked in pain as she sat down on something hard. "Ow!" she looked under herself. Her bag had apparently appeared here together with her. At least she had some company in this dark, scary alley.
Jackie got an idea and she smiled all proud of herself and picked the mobile out of her bag. Ha, haha, she thought. Unlucky spirits screw you. I'm gonna call mom.
With a quick hand she had called her mom threw her phone book. Hopefully this plan was going to work and go through if not the unlucky spirits enjoyed seeing her in further irritation.
"Yeah" answered a dark voice on the other line.
Jackie's eyes went wide and she could hardly say anything.
"Hello?" said the dark person in the voice again.
Had her mother gotten another boyfriend again without telling her? How could she? Last time she did that Jackie had made a living hell for the guy.
"Hi" Jackie said angrily. "Can I speak to my mom, pleazz…"
The voice on the other line chuckled lightly. "Miss, you've obviously called the wrong person. I'm 50 years old and I'm not you're mother."
Jackie rolled her eyes. "Thanks I figured that last part out myself. Now could you hand the phone to my mom, I'm not enjoying this cruel joke. If she wanted a day out with a guy she could have told me instead of dumping me out here."
"Miss, I'm sorry. But I have no idea what you're talking about. Now, I was busy when you called me. I have stuff to do. Good luck in finding your mom."
"Yeah, thanks" she said and clicked the red button.
She sat down on the ground again. Someone really hated her up there. She had used the phonebook to call her mom. How come it diled to another phone?
No, I'm not doing that again, she thought and picked up her bag and started walking her way out of the alley. She was just going to have to find her own way out of the problem.
After she had walked in a couple of minutes she spotted a small restaurant, he had never seen it before but somehow she recognized it. She strapped the bag around her shoulders. She didn't have much choice did she?
If she recognized it then maybe she knew somebody in there and maybe this somebody could give her a ride home.
As she walked up to the main door to the restaurant she saw big guys with sunglasses and costumes standing in front of the door with their hands behind there backs.
Obviously it's not open right now, she thought.
Right in those few seconds the rain started to pour down from the sky. At first it just came in a few drops but now it was really pouring down.
"Great", Jackie told herself as she ran to the backside of the restaurant. The space of the back was filled with containers and trashcans, and it really smelled rotten, mostly rotten fish.
The unlucky spirits better not screw this up for her; she just wanted some shelter from the rain and a ride home that was all.
Her hands gripped the big handle and pushed it. To her surprise it obliged and opened. She gave out a small eep of happiness and stepped in.
She was all too exited and too busy with looking at the room that she didn't even think of the fact that she was trespassing and that she could be prosecuted if anyone found her here. The room was bright and it was filled with machines and it seemed like this was a very cheep restaurant. There where only a few benches with kitchen fittings. Perhaps it as a small company that had just been started and waited to get more money so that it could be edified to something more.
She sat down and leaned her head against the wall, just beside a swinging door. She was proud of herself that she'd been brave enough to get inside of this place with no permission, but she had done it in vane. She realised that much now. Not a soul was working here, the whole place was empty. Just a poor soul had forgotten to lock up the whole thing. But what about those men that guarded the main entrance? There had to be someone here…
She opened her bag and pulled out a black blanket, funny that it was there.; she was kind of cold at the moment. Maybe she still had some luck left after all.
She pulled out her sketchpad after she put the blanket over her legs and opened it examining her drawings. Some people say the strictest viewer of a drawing is no other then the one who created the drawing. It was good to examine your mistakes if you wanted to learn from them.
Funny, Jackie thought as she looked from the picture of the Joker onto the kitchen hall. This kind of looks a little like…
Her thoughts where interrupted as a small sound of voices started to grow louder. It was coming from behind the swing door…
It was hard to hear specifically what was being said, but when Jackie put her ear to the door she could hear a little better.
"Obviously, no one can know about me." Said a strange voice with some kind of accent.
It almost sounded like a Chinese accent to her.
"If the police were to gain leverage over one of you everyone's money would be at stake."
"What's stops them getting you?" said another voice with a germane accent.
"As the money is moved I go to Hong Kong."
Jackie frowned her forehead. What was this? It sounded like some kind of business meeting, but almost like it was secret. And she had been right; the first person that spoke obviously was from China since he mentioned Hong Kong.
"Far from Dent's jurisdiction. And the Chinese will not extradite one of their own."
This was getting weirder and weirder. Her brain kept deja vying; almost everything they said reminded her of something, but she couldn't place what it was.
Suddenly a very familiar laugh echoed in the room, grew and grew until it filled the whole room. "Ha, hahaha, hihi, hoho… and I thought I told bad jokes."
Jackie's eyes went wide. No, way…
The laugh didn't sound like it came from just anybody. She knew where she had heard that voice before, that ghoulish and yet funny voice.
"Oh, my goodness", Jackie said.
It was not possible!
Wait! She thought. I must consider the possibilities. There is maybe just a movie going on. They are just laying a movie! That's it.
Suddenly she felt so stupid for thinking a very stupid and immature thought.
"Give me one reason I shouldn't have my boy here pull your head off", said Gamble.
Jackie knew their names and she almost could the script backwards. There was only one way to find out if this wasn't a nightmare.
She took out a package with gums and pushed the door open just a little enough for her to see and she placed the package between the space of the door and the wall. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then opened them to look into the dining hall.
A shadow dressed in purple cloth pulled out something of his pocket. It was a freshly sharpened pen. His back was turned to her, she couldn't see his face which was kind of disturbing.
"How about a magic trick? Hm?"
He slammed the pencil onto the table, where a group of men where sitting.
"I'll make this pencil disappear."
No, Jackie thought to herself denying it. It just couldn't be real. Either she was crazy or she was having a pain in-the-ass nightmare. The man with the purple suit and the greasy green hair couldn't be denied, and neither could the black man who was sent by Gamble to take care of the clown, face-planted right onto the table.
Jackie's eyes widened when the clown bent down and moved exactly like the Joker. "The pencil is gone. Magic."
He laughed again and bowed then sat on the on the chair.
Jackie managed to give out a smile. This was still a little fun. She moved her mouth as the man managed to say the words exactly like in the movie. "And by the way, the suit wasn't cheap. You ought to know. You bought it."
If she hadn't held her hand over her mouth they would probably have heard her giggling.
"A year ago, these cops and lawyers wouldn't dare cross any of you. What happened? Did your balls drop off?"
Jackie shook her head. This had to be some kind of live show or something. These people obviously where obsessed with the movie and just had to live it up for themselves. But everything was so perfect! Even the Russian Chechen looked like he did in the movie.
"See, a guy like me-"
"A freak" said Gamble.
Everyone started to laugh, just like in the movie.
"A guy like me…listen, I know why you're holding you're little group therapy sessions in broad daylight. I know why you're afraid to go out at night. "
Jackie turned alert again. She knew exactly what The Joker was going to say now. If they are here. Then does Batman also exist?
And she was right; The Joker said the viend fighters' name.
"- Batman. He's shown Gotham you're true colours unfortunately… and Dent? He's just the beginning. And as for the so called-called TV plan-" she could see how he waved his hand pointing at the TV that surprisingly had the correct face of the Chinese in it." Batman has no jurisdiction. He'll find the weak ones and make them squeal. I can tell the squealers everytime. Mmhm.."
Jackie nodded. "He is a squealer!"
"Did you hear something?"
What! Jackie placed her hand where her heart was as if it was going to pop out. Maybe it was more real than she took it for. She hadn't remembered they could her.
She knew she had a few choices she could make, she could just stand up, leave that place and never return again. But she didn't, things weren't that easy. Something made her stay, and god knows she wanted to and at the same time not.
The Russian asked The Joker what he proposed they do.
"It's simple" he said. "We kill the Batman."
Everyone in the dining hall started to laugh again. To them it was so stupid, but to Joker it was fairly reasonable and actually it was quite logical. If they worked in the right way together they would have the Bat dead in no time. After a few seconds Jackie snapped herself out of those thoughts. What was she thinking? She wasn't on the bad side? She was on the good side, and that was in fact weird because she was obsessed with someone who was on the bad side.
She glanced at the jokers back. But at the same time, it was possible to be on one side and yet admire someone on the other side. Joker was fascinated about Batman, he thought he was so much fun that he got a little obsessed with him. At least in the movie. Who knows what these dudes will make out of this live show. If it was one of course….Hell, what could she think? Oh, yeah everyone in the movie exists for real! No!
"If it's so easy why haven't you done it already?"
"If you're good at something, never do it for free."
The phrase was no surprise, in fact Jackie had even declared it as one of her own mottos.
It had suddenly gotten silent. No, one spoke. What, those mobs didn't think there would be a catch in killing Batman?
"How much do you want?" asked the Russian finally.
Joker bent forward, and answered almost hesitatingly. "Ahh…half." And he shrugged when everyone in the room started laughing, including Jackie but she tried to laugh as silent as she could.
The chair squealed against the floor as Joker rose. "You don't deal with this now, soon little Gamble here won't be able to get a nickel for his grandma-"
Gamble smacked his hand against the table and stood up. "Enough from the clown!" He moved at the Joker who casually opened his coat.
"Atatahh.." he said.
Jackie couldn't see but she knew he revealed explosives wired to his chest and with one flick from his thumb he could've blown the whole place out. Gamble stops biting his jaws together hard.
"Let's not blow this out of all proportion." he said and chuckled at the same time.
"You think you can steel from us and just walk away? I'm putting the word out- 5 hundred grand for this clown dead." Gamble looked at the assembled and then his eyes returned to stare hard on the Joker. " A million alive, so I get to teach him some manners, first."
The Joker simply shrugs. "You know what, here's my card. Call me when you start to take things a little bit seriously."
Jackie was amazed over the acting. How could they get it so perfect? This is the scene where the Joker kicks up a door and leaves the meeting…
She looked around her and suddenly a flashback came:
The Joker backing towards a swing door with his hand safely held over the explosives. As he is there, he kicks open the swing door and runs away. The swing door, still not closed reveals a white room, something that looks like a kitchen.
Shit! Jackie swore in her mind. Shit, shit, shit.
She stood up and fumbled with her belongings and almost considered to take the package of gum, but the hell with it. Those weren't so important.
If this was just an acting crew then why did she not want to be seen? It was not like they were going to kill her… they were just acting. Weren't they?
"Let me know when you change your minds.. m… mmm."
Stress! Fear! Where to hide?
Jackie ducked under the nearest table just the second the swing door was kicked open. She put a hand over her mouth to keep sound from coming out.
After a few seconds the man with the purple suit stepped in to her sight; if he just turned a little bit he could've seen. It was perfect…
She didn't see his whole face, but she saw enough and they had made a hell of a job. He ran to the door and smacked it open and ran outside while laughing.
The door crashed on the side of the building because he had thrust it open much too hard. She waited a few seconds after she couldn't see him anymore, then she stood up from under the bench and she stormed out of the restaurant out into the rainy weather.
So she hadn't found a ride home there… but hopefully she would find something or someone that could help her. She held the blanket over her hair and ran almost screaming over the road, and that was stupid. She didn't notice the white van that had to stop abruptly because she was standing in the way.
The car slid to the side as it was trying to stop from hitting her. Jackie stopped and stared at the van. In those minutes she felt like her fate had been set. She was obviously going to die in a car crash and end up in a cheap grave because no body knew who she was.
She tried to move, but her feet wouldn't listen. It was as if someone had put up a trap for her.
Suddenly she heard a strange sound. It was as if the shrieking sound from the van had disappeared and the only thing she could hear was footsteps closing in on her. Her head was turned to the side and she didn't have time to pick up what pushed her, but she saw a shadow.
Batman?, she thought.
It hurt to be thrown on the ground and not just that she was thrust to the ground and was hit by the force of the ground bouncing upwards and at the same time the body of her rescuer pushing her down and a very heavy body of that. For a few seconds she was finding it hard to breath and she could hardly see.
"O…wee.." she said as she felt the pain in her gut.
"Didn't you're parents ever teach you to wait until the cars have passed."
Jackie rested her head against the moist ground. "Father left when mom was pregnant with me… mom couldn't care less. Now could you please get of me."
She felt how the person shifted on top of her and then a white and scared face covered her view. "Well, I'm ah…not so sorry to hear ah… that." The voice echoed in her head, at first she couldn't place the voice but the longer she repeated the word in her head and tried to identify the voice the more she started to realise who she was dealing with now.
The male got up and brushed of the dirt from his purple suit while he was chuckling lightly. "Nice weather isn't it? Perfect day to spoil a great escape for a great crook in Gotham, stupid girl."
Jackie crawled up from the ground, the stinging pain from the back of her head made her confuse her coordinates and found herself stumbling on the ground. She pulled the blanket from her head and saw the perpetrator in a better view. "Aaahh… SHIT!" she said with high disappointment when she saw who he was.
It was hard to the express on Jokers face, the ghoulish smile and all the make-up hid everything in view, but for a second Jackie could almost see a puzzled look on his face. Well, it didn't surprise her, she hadn't been worried about expressing herself loudly, so to speak.
"I'm sorry, do I upset you?"
"Well, who the hell would voluntarily want to end up in a place with the likes of you."
Joker smiled up at her. He took a step forward. "You seem nervous… is it the scars? Wanna know how I got them?"
Jackie rolled her eyes. It's always the scars isn't it?
The bag Jackie had been carrying still lay on the ground and with a fast movement, surprising herself since she still felt a bit dizzy, Jackie picked it up and dug hand into it. "I'm warning you", she said. "I have a gun and I'm wont hesitate to use it."
There was small silence. Awkward was the only word that could describe it.
The Joker was smiling at her and in some weird way, which she had never seen before he crumbled a little bit and waved his finger around and round. "You might wanna turn around, sweetheart."
She knew this joke. The fact that he put pranks on people all the time and tricked them most of his time didn't come as a newsflash to her. "Oh no" she said laughing and shook her head. "Either you take me down when I turn around, or one of your guys are standing behind me ready to take me down for you. Lazy-ass."
The Joker crocked his head to the side and slowly neared her. He was chuckling lightly. "We wont hurt you…"
She gave him a smile back and gave him a death glare. There he had said it… he had used the word we. Therefore there was someone behind her.
The Joker licked his hand and swift a few green oily and clearly wet straps of green curls out of his face as if he was grooming himself. "Well, you said it yourself. But you should know, baby. I'm a man of my word."
She lifted her eyebrow. What had she gotten herself into? This couldn't be a live-show, it clearly wasn't one. The seriousness and yet goofy joke in his face matched the real one so perfectly.
Her face turned into a serious mask and she shook her head studying what she now realised was the real Joker. "I don't trust you, Jack."
Then she took of in a sprint to the side, running as fast as she could. The raindrops were falling the opposite side she was running, and slammed into her face like small rocks.
She could hear the footsteps of her stalkers behind her, it sounded like more than one, steps slamming into the pools that had been created by the cruel rain. Jackie knew that she had a chance of surviving; she had always one the running championships at school. At least to the point where she was competing district championship.
Out of mere instinct Jackie picked up her phone. Another flashback came in the sight of her cell:
Fox enters the dimly lit room. At one end is an extraordinary array of thousands of tiny monitors. Fox approaches, fascinated, as they quietly display architectural patterns individually and in concert. The images become a map.
"Beautiful. Isn't it?"
Fox nods, staring at the monitors as Batman approaches. "Beautiful. Unethical. Dangerous. You've turned every phone in the city into a microphone..."
Lucius presses a key. The babble of a million conversations at once fills the room. Every cell phone in the city.
"And high frequency generator/receiver."
"Like the phone I gave you in Hong Kong. You took my sonar concept and applied it to everybody's phone in the City. With half the city feeding you sonar you can image all of Gotham."
Fox turns to Batman. "This is wrong."
Maybe she had a chance. If she spoke loud enough than maybe they could hear her, but had Batman turned every cell phone into sonar's yet?
No, he doesn't do that until after they get a hold of Lau from Hong Kong, she thought.
Jackie found herself in front of a cross road, she had to make a decision fast. Either she could continue down the road and risk meeting another car that makes her stop, or worse she could run into another dark alley and risk meeting a dead end. A sound of an engine closed up behind her. Jackie glanced behind her and saw the dirty white van that had almost hit her before. She put together two and two and understood that this was The Jokers fast escape from the mob meeting.
With a rapid decision Jackie abruptly turned into the alley almost at the last minute, but it was also to create confusion for her stalkers. Then she diled the number to the GCPD, which she thought obviously was 911.
"GCPD at your service."
Jackie tried to talk in the phone as she at the same time was trying to jump over all the dumpsters that she couldn't afford to stumble on. "Hello" she said breathing into the phone. "I've…got The Joker behind me. He's trying to kill me."
The women in the phone sound confused. "Excuse me, ma'am could you repeat that."
Jackie had to drop phone into her bag again when she saw the big container in her way. She jumped up the container flexible and crawled over it as fast as she could, used muscles she never knew she had. Stood up as fast as she could and with a scream of effort she jumped down the container to continue her escape again. She didn't have time to worry about the pain that started to form in her legs from the force of hitting the ground. Then she put the cell to her ear again.
"I'm being stalked, and if I don't get saved in any minute now, these people will haunt me down, I will most probably get killed, so don't mess with me!"
The woman in the other line seemed to have hard time finding words to say. "Are you outside?"
"No, I'm inside my bedroom and were running around the table. Of course I'm outside! Their right behind me!"
The stress made Jackie furious that they didn't understand right away. She ran into another of the alleys trying to find her way out.
"Are you capable of hiding somewhere!"
Jackie screamed of fury and looked behind her. Not far away she could see a big guy running after her, but there was no Joker there. "No!! Are you out of you're freaking mind! I said their right behind me!"
Jackie could almost imagine how the woman on the other line scowled. "Ma'am I'm just trying to help-"
"And I'm just trying to survive. Look I don't know where I am and I have no idea what these guys want but could you please send a unit or something. Track my cell or whatever you guys usually do to help people."
She could've liked to think that Joker wouldn't hurt her because…frankly she is his biggest fan. But in the movie he had been heartless and merciless for those who begged him for mercy several times, she didn't want to risk getting killed. He could treat her the way he treated the fake Batman and torture her because he was insanely crazy!
"Find the nearest place where there is a full crowd and go deep within it. Don't bother too look behind you when your in the crowd, if you want to spot your stalkers look at their shoes. Stalkers tend to change clothes in order to change identities to make you confused; shoes are a bit hard to change. Remember your stalkers might as well try to look like women and be in cars stalking you."
"Ok, really big crowd and shoes. Got it! Thanks, gotta go!"
Beep!
Shit, shit, shit she thought as she ran out of the alley and ran into the open road. Right across the road was a street full of people, looked like they all were businessmen making their way to their jobs. With no word she ran right across the road, cars stopping for her and she ran into the crowd jostling her way through it.
The big man in the alley stopped just in front of the point where the pavement met the road. He backed down into the shadows again and lifted a walky-talky to his mouth pushing himself to the wall, trying to be careful so that no one saw him. "Boss", he said with a dark voice. "Lost her… sorry."
"Get out of there you idiot! We can see you from here-..Mm Batman didn't appear.." then he started to laugh in the microphone as if it really was a funny joke. "Oh what the hell… Get your ass out of there, grumpy."
***
Jackie was sitting at the statue; it was situated right in the middle of the street. She was taking support from her arms that lay on her legs, she was bending forward trying to breathe properly. The adrenaline had rushed through her body so powerfully that she hadn't noticed any of the wounds she had gotten or the muscles she had strained too much, she hadn't even noted her own deadly exhaustion from trying to run from a full grown male, and one that seemed well trained.
It had stopped raining and the sun had come forward now. She was safe.
"Holy shit", she said and could hardly believe what she just had been through. "Holy shit!"
She sat up looking up at the sky, still gasping for air. Suddenly she felt the touch of a hand on her shoulder and she stood up, snapped out of her rest, suddenly alert again.
There she saw a woman in her suit, she almost looked like she was ready to go to court, sitting on the statue a little startled over how Jackie reacted. It was Rachel Daws.
"Holy Cow!", Jackie half yelled both over the fact that Miss Daws scared her and the fact that Rachel Daws, or the woman that played the part of Miss Daws was standing in front of her.
"Never do that again…", Jackie said a little calmer now and sat back down.
This time Rachel put her hand on Jackie's shoulder without Jackie reacting in a negative way. "I'm sorry, you looked like you didn't feel ok. Is there something wrong?" she asked.
Jackie turned her face to Rachel. "I…I'm ok, but thanks for your concern, Miss Daws."
At first Rachel looked a pit puzzled but then her face turned to its normal structures. "I guess you have read about me in the newspapers."
A little more than that I'm afraid…It was strange to know that this woman was going to die by being blown up. As Jackie looked at her she felt somehow like she had to do something. She knew what was going to happen, shouldn't she do something about it? It wasn't even certain that it would happen, she didn't even know for sure what was going on. She didn't know what to think really, but the only thing that felt right at the moment was to assume that this was a dream. A very bad dream that she should play along with it and she felt like she had a responsibility to change things to the better until she found out what she needed to know. Was this a dream or not? It felt too real to be a dream, but she knew that dreams had fooled other people before.
Jackie nodded and smiled. "My name is Jackie Jacobs, you don't have to tell me your name I already know it."
Rachel smiled back and took Jackie's hand, shook it. "It's nice to meet you Jackie Jacobs. If you'll excuse me-" Rachel stood up waving lightly with her hand as she tried to finish.. "-I have to be at-"
"The Maroni case didn't work did it? You tried to frame him but the other mobs are too powerful and you didn't have enough proof. The witness didn't testify the way he should have. You need more solid proof than that. Lau has gone to Hong Kong, out of Dents jurisdiction. He's the one who handles all the criminals money, if you take him down you'll be able to take all the other criminals too."
Rachel stopped and stared at Jackie wide-eyed. Slowly she moved back to the seat next to Jackie. "How did you know about… Lau? And how do you know that he's gone to Hong Kong?"
Jackie took her arm. "Please, you need to hurry and get him. That way you can take down all the criminals faster."
The woman smiled. "Jackie was it? I'm not sure how you came to posses all this information Jackie, but I'm sure Lau is at his place and I don't think he's going anywhere. "
She stood up to leave again.
"Please don't leave me here!" Jackie heard herself yell to the woman. "I… I have no place to stay. I don't know where to go."
Jackie bit her under lip. It was actually kind of embarrassing asking for help in this kind of way. She felt like a beggar, and she wasn't proud of it.
Jackie stood up. "I lied to you when I said I was ok… I'm not ok. I woke up here in this place about forty minutes ago, I don't know much about this place. I don't even know what this friggin street name is. Until forty minutes ago I have never seen this place, I don't even live little close."
Somehow something told her to leave out the part about her being chased by the Joker and his men.
Rachel looked at Jackie with some kind of compassion in her eyes. "Are you sure? Have you tried to call someone?"
Jackie nodded and looked down on the ground. Time to put up some theatre.
In a few seconds Jackie had produced tears in her eyes, and forced herself to think sadly and look sadly. She made up a story as fast as she could in her head. "My mother and father are separated… I was trying to get to dad… I don't have any money and I don't have any cell phone. Please don't leave me here…"
She sat down on the statue again and sobbed as real as she could. "I'm really scared out here, Rachel."
Rachel opened her mouth but nothing came out, she simply stepped up to Jackie and put her arms around her, hugged her because she felt sorry for her. Jackie leaned into the hug and sobbed into her suit.
Hopefully this woman would be able to help her, if not… whom could she turn to?
"It's ok, Jackie" Rachel said and started to rock her back and forth. "It's going to be ok."
Jackie nodded trying to play along, but after a few seconds she could feel the pain somewhere inside of her. Without being able to stop it, she started to cry for real.