AN: Edited and replaced on 8/14/12. Lyrics removed to make fanfic happy. But go listen to Thriller by MJ while you read this; I did pattern it somewhat off of the lyrics.

The four of us walked out of the movie theater as the sun was just disappearing. My other three friends were giggling and laughing, but I was relieved that we were out of there. It was Halloween night and we high-schoolers had brilliantly decided to see a horror movie. Bad Idea. I had literally spent most of the movie with my eyes closed and ears plugged. It had been one of those movies where everyone dies in horrible ways and only one person was left alive. We all had our costumes on, because we were going to a Halloween party after it. My friends stopped talking amongst themselves and said, "I still think you should have gone with the saucy pirate costume at Party City, Sherrie."

"It wasn't a saucy pirate, it was a skank with skulls, and I look fine." I was wearing jeans, a long-sleeved tan shirt, and a long vest (from Party City). With a plastic sword, bandana, and cheap medallion from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, I was a real pirate. Britt, with her dark hair, was a black cat, Mallory was a mattress tester in PJ's, and Veronica was a dark fairy with blue wings. "So when does this party start?" I asked, trying to get my mind off the movie.

"Around eight," Mallory said, shaking her curly hair. "We've got plenty of time." We started walking down the street to get to the party.

The party was going pretty well when we got there. Refreshments were laid out and there was a space cleared for dancing. The lights were dim and disco lights were going on and off randomly. Mallory, Veronica, and Britt went off to talk to some people from our school. There were tons of people there from Gotham High, but I didn't know many of them because I had just moved to Gotham that summer. My phone began vibrating in my pocket. I looked at the caller ID: Mom.

Maria Holt, my mother, was Gotham's new DA. Her job change had been the prevailing reason for the move. I wasn't all that happy about it. Wasn't Gotham supposed to be crazy central or whatever? It was going to make my junior year stink.

"Hey Mom," I said.

"Honey, what time is this party going to end?" she asked, her tone worried.

I checked my watch. "Around ten or eleven."

"Do you need me to pick you up?"

"No, Britt's mom was going to pick us all up at the end, I think." I still hadn't taken driver's Ed.

"Okay sweetie, if your plans change call me, okay? I'm going to be working late."

She was always working late. " 'Kay, mom. Love you."

"Be safe. Love you. Bye."

I disconnected the call.

It was 8:45, and I was feeling left out. My friends had started dancing with boys and people they knew, and I had no one to talk to. I desperately didn't want to start crying, but that usually happened when I got sad. I bit my lip. I do not care. I do not care. I do not-

"Hey… Sherrie, right?"

I turned around. A tall guy with brown hair and gray eyes looked down on my 5'5" frame. I recognized him from my AP US History class, but I couldn't remember his name.
"Hey…"

"Scott," he supplied, seeing my scramble to figure out who he was.

"Yeah, Scott. Sorry. I'm bad with names." I had no idea why he was talking to me. "So… having fun?"

"Yeah, it's okay. It's a better DJ than last year." I had no idea because I hadn't been here last year. "How 'bout you?"

I looked away, and then back. I didn't want to lie. "The music's pretty good. I just, you know, don't know too many people so…"

"That's understandable." He looked at me with sympathy.

"I like your costume," I told him. He was dressed in a Jedi robe.

"Thanks. I've got a light saber, too." He pulled out the plastic toy and opened it up; it was blue.

"Awesome."

"Okay, everybody, how 'bout some fun dances like the cha-cha slide?" The DJ yelled over the dance floor. A ragged cheer rose up as the music started playing.

"You wanna do it too?" Scott asked me.

"I don't know how," I said, regretting it.

"It's easy. The song tells you what to do. Come on," he said, pulling on my hand and tugging me into the dance.

I think it was just the jumping in part that was scary. After I got into it, I found it was really fun. Scott and I did the cha-cha slide, the YMCA dance, and started a conga line. It was awesome.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Scott said in between songs.

I was too out of breath from laughing to respond.

I had slipped away to use the restroom, and as I was coming out, a door slammed loudly and a shot rang out. I jumped and asked myself, was that a gun?!

"Gents and Gals, we are tonight's entertainment!" I shrank into the shadows as men in clown masks seemed to appear out of nowhere. One of them took over the tech booth and shone a light on the small stage where the DJ usually stood. A tall man in a purple suit with white and red face paint stood with a gun in his hand.

Oh God that really was a gun! That's the Joker, the crazy guy that did all those horrible things in Gotham! Mom why the heck did we move here?

"Did you know, Halloween is my favorite holiday? You wanna know why?" The Joker said to his shocked and fearful audience of high school kids after grabbing a microphone. His voice had funny inflections, like he was putting the wrong emphasis on certain syllables. "It's because people want to be scared on Halloween. So I'm doing you a favor, really. I'm scaring you for free." He licked his scars, and I shrank down behind a refreshment table. The kids on the dance floor were cowering, not sure where to look or if they should run. "But I do have a, ah, purpose for coming here tonight. I'm looking for Sharon Holt. Any of you seen here? I need to talk to her Mommy, but the only way she'll listen to me is if I have her kid. So how 'bout it? Seen her?"

I clapped a hand on my mouth. GOD! HELP! The craziest, scariest guy in Gotham is at this party and he's looking for me!

Whispers buzzed around, and heads turned, looking for me, I guessed.

"So you haven't seen her? Okay. You want to play a game? I like games. We're going to play a game." He shot his gun into the air and a couple of girls screamed. "We're going to play Hide and Go Seek. I'm the seeker," he motioned to himself, "and these are the rules. Listen up now."

I swear you could have heard a pin drop in the room.

"You can't leave the building. The clowns are blocking all the doors. So you can hide anywhere inside. I'm going to count to one hundred, and then I'll come seeking. If I find you, you die, unless" he held up a gloved finger, "Someone finds Sharon Hold first and brings her to me. Then you're safe." He shot the gun again. "Go."

The Joker started counting and everyone ran just as fast as they could out of the room. The girls were screaming, and a few people tried to rush the doors. The men in clown masks fired into the crowd running at the doors, and some kids fell down dead, bleeding from a bullet to the skull. I was glad my hand was still on my mouth, because I felt like hurling. I kicked off my shoes and ran for the hallway, letting my hair obscure my face. Someone grabbed my wrist, and I screamed.

"Sherrie, it's me! It's okay!" Scott.

"Please don't turn me in, please," I begged, scared for my life.

"I would never do that, Sherrie. Come on, let's go." He tugged me down the hall.

"Where are we going?" I asked him as we ran.

"This is actually a much larger building, like a convention center. It's got tons of rooms that people rent for events and things. There might be a chance that a door is open!" Scott told me as we sped down the hall.

We hurtled around a corned and came face-to-face with a clown holding a gun. I shrieked, probably shattering Scott and the clown's eardrums. We about-faced and careened down another hallway as gunshots rang out behind us, ending up at the base of a grand staircase.

"Up!" Scott said, and up we went. At the top of the stairs, a maintenance closet was open and we hurried in and carefully shut the door a tiny bit, leaving space for light to come through. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911. It wouldn't connect. I had no signal.

"What the heck? I just had signal an hour ago when my mom called. What's going on?"

Scott said, "They probably have a jammer to block all our cell phones." His phone was out and it had no signal, either.

"What do we do now?" I asked in a small voice.

Scott thought for a minute. "Okay, option number one: stay here, be scared, and wait to be found. Two: keep walked around and try to find a way out. Three: find a better place to hide."

"I don't like any of those options," I said in a small voice, gripping my plastic sword. Was that movie coming true? I recalled the pictures on the screen full of blood and gore, and the kids lying on the dance floor with bullets in their heads. "He's despicable," I whispered. Scott put his hand reassuringly on my shoulder, and it fell weird but good at the same time.

"You know you could turn me in and save yourself," I told him in a low voice. "They won't kill me right away, anyway. They want leverage on my mom."

"Why?"
"She's the new DA."

"No, I meant, why would I do that? You're my friend, Sherrie. I don't turn my back on friends to save my skin," Scott told me in no uncertain terms.

I felt like tearing up. "Thanks," I whispered brokenly. How many people did I know that would say that? Very few. "Thanks."

"I choose a combination of options 2 & 3," I told Scott.

He cautiously opened the closet door and looked out in both directions. "Okay, come on. Which way?"

Did it really matter? It seemed like all ways led to death somehow. "That way," I said, pointing toward a new hallway. We tip-toed now, having no way of knowing where the Joker or any of his clowns were. My feet were cold by now and the floor creaked under them. A cold draft wrapped itself around my ankles and I shivered, clinging to Scott. A loud creak behind us made me jump around 180 degrees. There were four girls and two guys behind us. We stared at each other for about three seconds, and then the taller of the two guys recognized me. "Hey, it's that Sharon chick that the Joker wants! Get her!" They all bolted toward us. I couldn't move; I was paralyzed. Scott jerked my arm into a bare room, and the rest of me followed. He slammed the door and groped for a lock; there was none. He swore and braced himself against the door. I joined him just as the people in front hit the door.

Their collective impact opened the door about four inches, but we planted our feet in the carpet and shoved to keep the door from opening any more. I was surprised that it hadn't opened more, considering there were six of them. Maybe the girls had declined to shove the door open?

The door buckled, and then held firm. "Why are you doing this?" I hollered. "What did I ever do to you?"

"You got us in this mess!" A hysterical girl screeched. "We're going to all die if he doesn't get you!"

"It's not my fault!" I bawled back as the boys renewed their barrage against the door.

Suddenly all the girls screamed collectively and the weight against the door disappeared, allowing it to slam shut. Scott and I could hear the pounding of footsteps running away in the hallway. We ran out of the room and into another room down the hall, shutting the door as quietly as we could.

We slid down and sat with out backs against the door, absolutely quiet. The screams grew louder and the pounding feet came back.

"Now, you aren't playing by the rules. You were supposed to hide," a voice with funny inflections said right before someone fired a whole bunch of rounds off.

I started to shake, and Scott slipped his arm around my shoulders. Feet walked away into the distance. I put my head in my hands. Their screams… those shots… I doubted if I would ever get them out of my head.

"Oh, God…" I whispered brokenly… "I'm so sorry, God… I should have given myself up…"

Scott shook me roughly. "Don't think that," he said in a low, hard voice. "It is not your fault. It's that sadistic killer that's killing everyone out there. Blame him, the #$*&%$ $^."

I rubbed the tears that had leaked out of my eyes away and sniffed to clear my head. I took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay. What now?"

"Wait a bit. Then we'll have a look." I couldn't see him in the dark, but I knew his grey eyes were on me. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm sorry it took a stupid Halloween party and the Joker to get to know each other."

I smiled, even though I knew he couldn't see me. "Yeah. Is this regular for Gotham?"

"Stuff like this happens all the time, but you still think it will never happen to you. You know?"

"Yeah." I know.

After about ten minutes, Scott said, "Let's check now." He turned the handle of the door while I hovered by his side. No one was in the hallway. No one except bodies. I gasped and choked. "Don't look," Scott said, taking my hand and guiding me away. How can I not look? I'll step on them if I don't look. They died fast from gunshot wounds. I clenched my hands into fists and gritted my teeth. I would not fall apart. I would not! The Joker would not win. I had to believe that.

We turned the corner and my blood turned into ice. There in front of us were three clowns with pistols. Whirling around, we tried to go back, but the Joker blocked that way. Scott curled his arm around my waist and turned sideways so that he shielded me with his body. If I weren't purely terrified, I would have thought it was sweet.

"Well, wh-at have we he-re?" The Joker cackled, walking down the hall to us. He was even scarier up close. His eyes stood out from his face, an effect produced by the black face paint surrounding them. His scars went almost all the way up to his cheekbones, and they were colored red. His eyes were full of something I could not name: Malice? Satisfaction? Sadism? Brutality? It could have been all of them and more. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. Is this actually happening to me? Can this be real? I asked myself, my hands sweaty and icy. My mouth went dry.

"Sha-ron Hol-t. Or do you prefer, Sher-rie?" I could not physically respond. I knew that if I opened my mouth, all that would come out would be a scream. "How do you like my, uh, little game?"

I managed to muster a reply that wasn't a shriek of terror. "It's despicable," I said in a whisper.

He burst into this strange cackle/wheezing laugh that grated on my nerves and offended my musical ear. "Oh that is rich, coming from you, of all people. This game was all for you, Sher-rie. How else was I supposed to get your DA mommy to list-en to me?"

"Why do you need me?" I demanded, hysteria creeping into my voice.

The Joker walked forward, knife in hand. "Fear is an important quality. Your mommy hasn't been around Gotham long enough to know how scary I am. She isn't really scared of anything, is she? I'm going to teach her to fear." He was probably about five feet away by now. Both Scott and my eyes had been trained on him, so we didn't see the clowns until it was too late. They pried us apart as I screamed incoherently. Purple-clad arms wrapped themselves around my waist and lifted me off the ground. I shut up when I felt a knife blade press into my throat, though.

Scott wasn't dead; two clowns held his arms and the third held a gun to his head.

"Can I ask you something, Sherrie? Is this your boyfriend? If he is, I'll let you look away as he dies."

I twisted violently, but to no avail. "This isn't fair!"

"You know, I'm an agent of chaos. And you wanna know something about Chaos?" The Joker asked me. "It's impartial. Just. Fair."

Something about this statement struck through the fog of fear to my brain. "No, it's NOT. Chaos is random. This was methodically planned and has purpose. It is NOT FAIR!"

The Joker considered this. "Well, he's still gonna die." He cackle-laughed in my ear and I felt a part of me whither and die. No, oh no, please God no.

The clown with the gun cocked his pistol as Scott fought mightily to get away. The other two had to wrestle him to the ground. "Say goodbye," The Joker told me. I couldn't speak; I tried to communicate with my eyes: I'm so sorry, Scott. I waited for the shot.

But it never came. A flying bullet of black material plowed into the clown with the gun, but I didn't see anything else because the Joker was pulling me down the hall and around the corner. He was muttering something to himself like, "…have to do everything yourself. C'mon, c'mon, keep up." I assumed the last part was for me. I obstinately did not pick up the pace one bit. As a consequence, he stuck his knife back in his pocket and threw me over his shoulder with no effort at all. Now his shoulder went into my stomach painfully, and I couldn't breathe. Glass broke in front of us, and suddenly I was flying through the air, coming to a painful stop by hitting a wall. I turned myself right side up, and pushed my hair out of my face to see what was happening.

Batman was the flying bullet I had seen earlier, and now he had busted through the window here and was taking on the Joker. How did he get over here so fast? I thought as I scrambled backwards down the hallway.

Helping hands lifted me up and turned me around. Scott! I jumped into his arms and threw my arms around his neck, giving him a bear hug. Batman and the Joker had fought their way outside the building. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" I might have been crying, I don't know.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault. I forgive you," Scott said, stroking my hair. Police officers appeared out of nowhere, assessing the situation and securing the area. The Police Commissioner, Jim Gordon, came on the scene and the Batman came back in.

"He got away," he said in a low, growly voice.

"He's starting to show his hand. We'll nab him soon," Commissioner Gordon said.

Suddenly my Mom shows up. "Mom! Mom!" I ran to her and hugged her hard. She hugged me back.

"Oh, Sherrie, I'm so sorry" –

"Mom," I told her, "there's nothing to be sorry for."

"If you want, I can send you out of Gotham and you can live with your father. I wouldn't blame you a bit if you did, honey."

I looked around her at Scott, whose statement was being taken by a policeman. I shook my head slowly. "I think I'll stick around. Gotham has bad stuff, but it has good things too." I smiled. "I'm glad tonight is over." Scott came over to us and I wrapped my arm around his waist.

"Tonight was some thriller, huh?" he asked me.

It was definitely a thriller.

The End