Alright, this is the first thing I've written in maybe 5 years. It's a story about a girl who lost everything and has no goal in life anymore, then she meets the joker and her whole life is turned around yet again. Rated M for violence, sex and language.

Please let me know if you liked it or not, I can take criticism, as long as it's constructive;)

Oh, and I apologize for my horrible spelling and grammar, English is not my native language.

Oh and one other thing, I do not own any of these characters except for Laura.

Now enjoy!

Chapter 1: Games

I have felt dead inside for about 5 years. Then, I saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel, followed by an explosion…

Another day, another dollar, as they say. Gotham city was half asleep, the other half was either drinking or robbing someone. Laura was one of the drinkers. She didn't usually go out, but today she had felt so numb, she thought maybe a drink would help.

When you stop feeling, you can't put your finger on it. You remember that you used to be happy, or at least normal. But, when you lose everything, you start to wonder what the point is of feeling happy, it doesn't solve anything. But she did want to feel sad, she needed to feel sad. Her life was a mess, she had no purpose, no friends, no nothing, she had lost it all. So she decided to drink, she wanted to get mad, to cry, to scream at people she didn't know, it didn't matter, she just wanted to feel something. But nothing came, she had sat alone in the corner drinking whiskey, she hated the taste of it but at least it had a lot of alcohol. She had drunk more than she could remember, but still, as she walked down one of Gotham's many small alley, she didn't feel anything except drunk… And sick.

She decided to light another cigarette, worthless things, just another way to kill yourself slowly, why not do it quickly. Before she could think about this anymore, a wave of nausea came upon her. She grabbed the wall, her cigarette fell on the ground half smoked. Everything was spinning and she knew what was going to happen next. Still holding on to the wall, she let all the whiskey come out again. She felt totally stupid, why had she paid for all that expensive whiskey if she couldn't even keep it in. She didn't even feel anything, except for self-hatred of course, her faithful friend.

She smiled without realizing it and walked on. Yeah, leave it to her to fuck everything up. Not only had she wasted a good deal of her monthly paycheck on the whiskey that was now decorating the pavement in some deserted alley, she still didn't feel anything.

She realized she had lost her cigarette somewhere along the line and decided to grab another one. But when she grabbed the carton out of her pocket it slipped though her fingers, right in a big puddle. That was it. She hadn't been realizing she was smiling, but she sure noticed the giggles now coming out of her mouth. She tried to stop them from coming up but that just made it worst. Everything seemed funny to her now, the stupid whiskey she could've poured on the pavement to begin with, to save herself some nausea. The way she seemed to care more about her cigarettes than anything else her life. The way she faked a smile every day towards the people she met.

She got very angry at herself for her laughter, why should she laugh when everyone she had cared about was death, and people she thought she cared about had left her. But her anger didn't do anything to stop her laughter, if anything, it just made it worse. 'Always the same stupid story, lost everyone, no reason to live, and so on, come on girl, get a life!' she thought, which made her laugh even louder, the sheer miserableness of her life seemed like the funniest thing in the world right now.

Slowly, her giggles died away. That was the moment she realized her giggles weren't the only ones echoing along the lonely streets. She slowly turned around, but saw nothing. Shrugging, she turned towards home again, that was when she saw him.

He was standing in the middle of the street, his large smile carved into his face. Sure, she had seen him on the news. Blowing up hospitals, killing policemen, the whole shebang. She hadn't much cared for the whole thing, she thought maybe secretly she had been hoping she would be one of his victims. Killing herself was something she could never do, but dying, she wouldn't have such a big problem with that.

At last, he stopped laughing. Slowly, he walked towards her, pulling a knife out of his jacket's pocket. She just stood there. She couldn't keep from smiling somewhat. When he was only 2 or 3 feet away from her he started to talk:

"Well, hello there, we're in a merry mood today". She couldn't think of a reaction, so she just stood there and stared at him. For a moment she thought about using the taser in her pocket, but that thought went away quickly, this could actually be the most interesting thing that had happened to her in years.

He took a few steps towards her, now they were standing face to face. He grabbed her face with his gloved hand. She didn't cringe or step back, maybe it was because she just couldn't be scared anymore, maybe she was just too drunk to care.

"why so quiet, don't you want to just, uhm… scream?" He asked, looking deep into her eyes. For a moment she noticed how incredible those eyes were, and wondered what he would look like without the scars or make-up. Then she got herself back in touch with reality, which was, being assaulted by some wackjob in some backway alley. Ah, well, things could be worse.

She smiled a little at her own weird thought. Wow, that was the second smile today, must be a personal record. This made her smile even more. Unfortunately the joker didn't have the same kind of humor as she did. Within a second he had thrown her on the ground, banging her head against the hard tiles.

She slowly sat up, hoping she wouldn't faint.

"what did you do that for?" She asked.

"oh hey, you can actually.. uhm… talk." He said, grinning and grabbing her face again. Licking his lips as he pressed his knife against her throat "Now, you listen. I need you… to, uhm, do me a little favor."

"Sure, sure, it's not like I have anything better to do…" Was she actually being sarcastic to this madman, it had to be the booze talking, no other explanation.

He threw his head back and let out a high pitched chuckle. "Right, right, ok, you'll still will have time to get drunk alone." He giggled at his own witticism.

"How long have you been following me?" Like it mattered. It wasn't even the real question. What she really asked herself was 'WHY the hell would you follow someone like me.'

"All the questions, you are starting to bore me… How about some fun." He had drawn her closer to him, so the last word was no more than a whisper close to her ear. The blade was piercing her skin now,

"Go ahead then, kill me, get it over with, I mean, you're going to do it anyways, why not get it over with."

His grin widened. "Kill you, oh, no, no, no, no, no. Well, not yet. We're going to play a little game first. Here, here, take this."

He shoved an envelope in her hands. Then she felt the pressure on her throat disappear, just before he turned and walked away.