Burn
An unusual softness filled the theater as darkness loomed over the flickering light of a dim flame. Holding an unlit cigarette over the dancing flicker the Joker sighed and ran gloved fingers through his damp hair. Green hair chalk stained his glove as he groaned loud and low in his throat. Stress lines creased his washed over face as his green eyes flicked to the dancing flame that hovered over the candle on the coffee table in front of him. The heat emanating from the ginger scented candle made his eyes water, forcing him to blink two or three times to dry them.
A cigarette hanging loose between his marble lips the man sat back taking his attention away from the flame to stare up at the shadows it casted on a dimly lit ceiling. His long wet strands of faded green hair fell back against the pleated couch as he felt something in his chest start to heave and race...his Stomach twisted into a tight knot...that Stupid girl. Out of the darkness of the hallway came a slender form with round thighs and crystal blue eyes shining with tears, shaken to her core quivering in her boots as she stood gripping a suitcase in a red gloved hand.
Only his green orbs turned to give her any form of acknowledgement, he did not shift or even stir for fear of showing her any emotion. He wouldn't give her any satisfaction tonight, how dare she stand there looking so venerable. "If...if You don't say it now...I'll Leave you...t..tonight..." her voice was a mess of quivering and slurs through tears she was trying so hard to suppress. The Joker cringed slightly at the sound of the words as they filled his head. Harley would be gone...her laugh would fall silent...she wouldn't interrupt his work anymore...she wouldn't occupy his bed at night anymore...he'd never hear her say 'Puddin' again...the dried up organ in his chest was screaming at the mere thought but he was the Joker, the highest class of being and to above groveling for the affections of a mere little Harleen Quinzel and so the words left his mouth, rolling off his tongue sharply "Get the hell out of here...Don't come back again little girl, this is no place for you"
Tears flooded her crystal eyes as her suit case fell to the hallway floor with a dramatic thud! The red leather box fell open between the base of the wall and floor. Not much fell out clothing wise, she didn't have much to take...but with a few sweaters, one of Pam's button downs, a t-shirt and a few of her suits came out what looked like over 4 dozen pictures. The images scattered across the floor, each a memory that the little blonde held dear to her breaking heart. Each a memory the Joker dared not reflect on for fear of crying on spot. "Harley" his voice was stern but behind it all, behind the stern tone behind the sharpness behind his tongue that could cut like a blade his voice cracked.
Violent sobs filled the once still darkness that loomed over the theater "No! I don't need ya! You'll see! I don't! I nevah did!" screeched the crying harlequin, her cracking voice piercing her clown prince's ears. "I really never meant a thing to ya did I?" mascara streamed down her ivory cheeks as her lower lip, painted ebony quivered violently. Swallowing the lump in his throat the green eyed man stood finally lifting his ominous form from the shadows he crossed the room in a slow saunter. The click clack of his leather shoes along with the splush of his wet socks against his feet was all that could be heard over the crack of the flame that lit the candle and the soft whimpering escaping Harley's shaken form.
Blue eyes widened with reflections of the treachery she feared awaited her as he all to slowly snatched her face up in his gloved hand, smearing green hair chalk across her ivory cheek as he got a firm hold on her, almost bruising her skin as he pressed his fingers hard into her cheek, trapping her jaw between his thumb and the side of his forefinger "No...you were never anything more...then the hired help" that sharpness in his tone felt like a blade in her already oh so fragile heart. Harley winced and searched his eyes for something...anything...emotion...regret...but she found nothing before he released her face from his hold and back handed her, hard. The blow sent her reeling across the room in tears. Smacking the tile with a loud thud! The blond rolled right into the door, head slamming against the frame as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Goodbye...Harley" said the Joker without so much as glancing at her over his shoulder. Harley watched his hands ball into tight fists and for fear of being struck a second time she stood on shaking legs, gripped the door handle and ran out into the darkness without so much as thinking about grabbing her suit case. She didn't want those memories anyway.
The tendons in his hands strained as tears streamed down his cheeks in violent fountains that seemed to never end. Nails dug into his palms as his fingers begged for release but his entire body was tense as ugly sounds escaped his paling lips. It was those pictures...the ones scattered all about the floor. In those images he saw all that was familiar to him that wasn't a loaded gun. Harley's bright eyed smile was sprawled all over every picture...no matter the position...a few depicted her clinging to his arm while he gave her an annoyed grimace while others showed him coming in from a heist with an obscene sum of money in a large bag which he was hauling over his back like Santa clause. He'd never had a taste for money but when he came home loaded Harley would get so excited...he liked to watch her bob up and down as dollar signs flashed in her blue eyes. The little blonde could never wait for a shopping spree. She was always so proud of her Puddin.
Collapsing in the darkness The Joker fell to his knees, placing his weight in his hands as he stared down at a picture of him lying in bed, an old thermometer poking out of his mouth and a wet rag on his forehead while Harley was kissing his cheek. She was always taking care of him. Quivering slowly the most dangerous man in gotham snatched up a handful of the photos and threw them across the room in a fit of rage. Swinging his body around the ginger scented candle flew across the floor, glass shattering as the flame grew engulfing the leg of the coffee table. A loud crackling filled the air at green eyes gazed into the consuming flames of the fire he'd just started. Feeling across the floor for another handful of pictures he grasped them tightly and threw them right into the dancing flames. Tear filled green eyes watched as the images burned out from the corners in. Each memory disappeared slowly with each crack of the fire.
As flames ate away the picture of her clinging to his arm he watched the way it consumed her slowly, devilishly eating toward the center of the picture corners to middle until the only image remaining was his chalk white face. The loud screech of a fire extinguisher made the green eyed man jump. Harley...did she come back? Eagerly swinging his head around to see if it could really be true The Joker laid eyes on Rocko one of his henchmen. Rocko was a young man in his early thirty's with baby blue eyes and fair skin. Pale hand grasping the fire extinguisher with blue eyes reflecting the dying flames Rocko whispered "Boss...what were you trying to do?" Joker rose to his feet soarly as he looked down at the floor "Burning her memory" his tone was vague. "What?" asked the young man only to gasp loudly when he found himself stairing down the barrel of his boss's revolver. Wincing in fear Rocko knew he was done for, the boss didn't use a gun often...too quick he said...but if ever he drew a gun...the person the bullet was intended for never lived to tell the tale.
The reverberating sound of the gunshot filled every nook and cranny of the old theater as Rocko's blood splashed against the back wall and his corpse crumbled to the floor in a heap. Blue eyes still wide open, mouth a gape and fingers twitching as The Joker dropped his revolver and walked down the hallway to the bedroom he and Harley once shared. Something painful twisted up in his chest, a feeling he'd only ever felt once or twice but never really knew how to express. It just hurt, it felt raw and when he moved across the room to stare into the mirror the look in his eyes was strange...though it was a look he knew well...the look his countless victims harbored in their eyes right before he killed them...perhaps this is the real Joker.
The man in the mirror staring back at him through sullen blank green eyes looked defeated and so for what was left of his sanity he threw his fist into his reflections face. The glass shattered around his gloved knuckles and he staggered backwards letting the blood seap through the cloth of his white glove. Letting his weight fall back on his bed The Joker stared up at the ceiling without uttering a word. He hated her, he hated her because he didn't understand her, he didn't understand how to love like she did and in some aspects that meant she could do something he could never do. He didn't like that...but he didn't want her gone yet. This wasn't the first time Harley had attempted to leave him...it was however the first time her memories haunted him so.
Hearing the front door creak open he shot up out of bed. She was going to pay for leaving him alone once again. Her faint foot steps filled the hallway as The Joker opened the bedroom door just enough to watch what she was doing. Harley was knelt down on one knee gathering her clothes into her suit case. That was all she'd come back for. She'd come back for her clothes not for her Puddin.
That fact alone was enough to contort his heart into an even tighter knot as a lump formed in his throat. He fucking hated her because she made him feel. With every ounce of her being she made him feel...her glossy eyed smile, her ivory skin, her oh so soft delicate hands...every part of her did something for him. He snarled with disgust as he watched her stand shakily. "Harley" his voice was a growel as he flung the bedroom door open, the handle swung right into the dry wall creating a large cracking hole in the wall where it hit. Fearful blue eyes widened as Harley squeaked staring directly into the eyes of her used to be clown prince. Her fingers gripped the handle of her suit case as her entire form trembled. "Put it down...Harley" snapped the clown prince as she squealed and swung her body around running across the living room floor, feet kicking a dust cloud of ashes from the fire into the darkness that now filled the theater.
Darting in her direction, growling as he choked on ash and soot he growled "Harley!" low and sharp in his throat as he stalked after the blonde. Feeling her lungs burn as her legs ached and her blond pony tail billowed in the wind behind her the blue eyed blond teared up as she darted out into the road. In a flash of squealing tires and all to bright head lights a black pick up truck swerved two seconds too late. The Joker's green eyes went wide as a puddle of crimson formed around Harley's head, soaking her blond hair in her own blood as she lay lifeless and pale in the middle of the road. Head lights illuminated her still open crystal eyes as the last of her tears slipped over the bridge of her nose in a beautiful shimmer. "NO!" screamed the Joker as the driver jumped out of the drivers seat. He was a middle aged trucker wearing a base ball cap and a pair of dirty overalls. The man's combat boots splashed through a mud puddle as he ran to Harley's side.
"Oh my god!" cried the man who'd just run her down as he moved to gather her lifeless body into his arms. He stopped only when a pair of gloved hands wrapped around his throat and squeezed tightly. "You killed her" the growl emanating from the Joker was threatening, promising "heh...heh...wanna hear a Joke?" The trucker winced and tears lined his eyes, due to the Joker crushing his windpipe he did not respond but the Joker snickered "Whats black right now but red in 3 seconds?" growled the clown prince right at the mans ear. "I...I don't" the man choked out as best he could as the Joker burst into sick uproarious laughter. One gloved hand threw the mans hat and snatched up a handful of the truckers thick brown hair. "Your truck after I'm done with you" the trucker winced and cried out as the Joker slammed his head down face first into the hood of his truck. Lifting his slowly bloodying face only to slam it back into the same place, breaking the mans nose with a loud viscous crack that would dent the hood of his truck.
"Please!" screamed the trucker as his face was lifted from the puddle of blood forming in the dent that marred the hood of his truck "Stop this! It was an accident!" that man was crying, sniveling and Joker snickered seeing how the blood had pooled there he slammed the mans face back into it making sure he was nose deep in his own blood.
"You didn't stop for her" said the clown prince ominously as he watched the man struggle to get free as he slowly drown in a shallow puddle of his own blood. When his moving came to a slow stop the Joker let his body crumble and fall to the street corner as he turned on his heel and gathered Harley's lifeless body into his arms. Tears filled green eyes as he kissed her forehead with shaken lips.
She wasn't warm anymore and blood soaked the arm of his purple coat as it poured from the back of her head. She was limp and felt heavy in his arms...so pale...so sickly...lips still painted ebony...such familiar ebony lips...leaning Forward he placed a sullen kiss on her lips as if it would work like the poison in snow white...maybe he really could be her prince...but When he broke the kiss...nothing Changed...Harley Stayed dead.
A loud gasp escaped marble lips as the Joker shot up in bed, wet gloved hands gripping at the sheets as he let out an ear piercing scream. Sweat coded his neck and chest and rolled down his forehead in beads as he panted and gasped for air. "Harley!" he managed to scream out feeling all over the bed for her but she still wasn't there. Standing shakily he sauntered across the room and opened his bedroom door. In the living room area he could see dress shoes lying near the corner of the wall...Rocko...he Vaguely remembered shooting him in the head as he walked out of the hallway and stared at the pile of ashes in the middle of the floor. A little white piece stood out and so he leaned down to pinch it delicately between his thumb and forefinger.
It was a picture that only burned at two corners. Unable to help smiling fondly at it he relished the image. Running his thumb over it he could faintly remember the memory it depicted...Harley was wrapped around him and for once he looked happy to have her on his arm...it was the first time he'd brought her home. Back then he treated her like a clown princess...she was his clown princess...why had he ever stopped treating her like that? He looked over his shoulder when he heard the door creak open slowly "Harley" he asked softly. The blond stood mortified in the door way.
She'd expected him to be asleep. "I just...want my clothes" A raw pain filled the clown prince's chest as he stood slowly to move toward her. When he took that first step she swung herself around rapidly and darted out the door. "Harley no!" The Joker screamed as he ran out after her. His head hurt, everything was so blurry. A sudden feeling of de'ja'vu' came over him as images of Harley lying dead in the road filled his head. No! No! No! Not if he had anything to say about it. As he rushed after her images of cold dead crystal eyes and pale sickly skin flew back at him rapid fire. The feel of her cold lifeless form in his arms burned fresh on his skin as he watched her round the corner and it all disappeared in a flash of screeching tires and all to bright head lights.