WARNING: Pre-Joker for a while and then a development in to The Joker. Mature. Drugs, murder, dark stuff, you get my drift.

Chapter 1

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice,
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

- Robert Frost

The smell of metallic rust and decay hit me full in the face, I grimaced, scowling at the intrusion. It wasn't uncommon for such odors to be present. There was no nice part of the Narrows, every corner and crevice was just a plain symbol of how much Gotham had deteriorated and I lived right in the middle of it. I fumbled clumsily for my keys doing a quick check to my left, then to my right and a quick one over behind me. Nothing. This was routine, it had to be done. I had learned rather quickly never to keep my guard down in the Narrow's. It was thick with crime.

I inserted the key in to the door and turned sighing in relief when I heard the locks give way.

Oh, glorious, glorious home.

I rushed inside and quickly slammed the door behind her disallowing anyone to follow me back in to her home. It had happened one too many times when I let my guard down and I immensely regretted my stupidity. Bolting up all three locks on her door expertly, I stood staring at the door a small smile playing on my face.

Ha, she'd like to see someone kick my door down.

"You're home late."

I screamed, eyes wide, whirling around and dropping my black leather handbag on the floor in-front of me. I took in the figure before me. Long black hair, brown eyes and amusement plastered on her tanned face. I let out a breath that I didn't even realise I had been holding. My eyes softened and I tutted in disapproval.

"You shouldn't just sneak up on people like that Eileen, you could give them a heart attack." I scolded.

Eileen was my best friend. I had known her since we were teenagers. We both grew up in the Narrow's and had the absolute fortune of being able to move in to near by apartments. Eileen lived in apartment 103, I lived in apartment 108 which was just down the hall. I knew that it was a good thing Eileen lived so close by, it was comforting knowing you could have someone to fall back to if the rent was tough or if you didn't have enough soap powder.

"Rightttt, well, I wanted to know if I could borrow your Sweeney Todd DVD?" Eileen asked with a smirk.

I shuffled in to the kitchen, eager to get to fridge and settle my rumbling stomach. I opened the pristine door and sighed in approval when I eyed the heavenly selection of pastries waiting to be devoured.

"For?" I asked with a mouth full of chocolate cake, my head still in the fridge.

"To watch?" Eileen asked, cocking her eyebrow.

"Oh" I said looking up. "Why are you even asking? I thought we were passed those kind of pleasantries."

"I thought I'd be polite for once." Eileen laughed, making her way towards Victoria's huge stash of DVD's.

I scoffed, plopping down on the sofa and removing her shoes.

"Oh my aching feet." I whined.

"Rough day?" Eileen asked absentmindedly inspecting the back-cover of my Dancing On Ice DVD.

"Yeah, I had to mop all the milk from isle two after some damn kids knocked over a load of bottles. Then I had to put all these items back on their shelves after someone left a discarded trolley near the entrance. You'd have thought they were shopping to feed the whole of Africa." I ranted, furrowing my eyebrows.

Eileen laughed. "Why don't you just quit that job? Who would want to work in a Supermarket anyway. It's boring."

"I'm in no position to be choosey. How does the saying go? Beggars can't be choosers - or something like that." I replied picking at the cuticles on my fingers. "And anyway, it's not like I have anything better to do."

"That's probably true, no boyfriend, not even a cat to come home to." Eileen teased.

I threw a sofa cushion at her and scoffed. Eileen stood up, smoothing out the creases in her clothes. Her brown eyes met my hazel ones with amusement.

"Well, I think it's time that I took my leave." Eileen announced glancing at the Sweeney Todd movie in her hands.

I rubbed my eyes tiredly. "And I think it's time I took a shower and went to bed."

Eileen grinned, saying her farewells. I leaned against the door watching Eileen walk down the hall to make sure she got to her door OK. It was another routine thing I just had to do. You could never be too safe in the Narrows. When Eileen reached her door safely and closed it, waving goodbye, I also followed suite, securing all three locks and heading straight to the bathroom.

The next morning when I awoke I cursed out-loud indignantly, staring at the alarm clock. Bright red numbers read 7:35am. Grabbing my uniform and some clean underwear I got dressed, skipping breakfast and attacking my, long, dark brown hair with a brush. I couldn't be late again or I'd hear it from my boss. By the time I left my apartment and locked up it was already 7:50am and it took over 20 minutes to walk to the supermarket as I was way too poor to afford the expenses and upkeep of a car.

I was of a slim stature but I looked far from delicate, relatively tall and pleasantly proportionate. Men paid a Hell of a lot of interest in me and would constantly ask me out for drinks as to which I would politely decline. It wasn't that I was stuck up or snobby, it was just that I was painfully shy and awkward around the opposite sex. I never knew what to say or do, and every-time I went out with a man I just found myself tripping over words and making a complete mockery of myself. I already knew that I had no time for a man in my life but I often found myself wondering how easy it would be to pay the bills if I had help instead of fending for myself using my crappy weekly salary I earn at the supermarket.

I ran the last five minutes to the supermarket, slightly out of breath and looking flustered. Composing myself outside I walked through the employees entrance and greeted my colleagues who were all sitting around a magazine with hot coffee and tea, pointing and whining about "how they wished they looked like her" or "how they wished they had a man like that." I grimaced when I eyed my boss staring accusingly at me from across the dimly lit room. I could see in his face that he was expecting me to be late and was mildly disappointed he couldn't scold me today. I grinned triumphantly hanging up my black raincoat and taking a swig of water I had brought with me.

I could see my boss making his way over to me and I bit my lip hoping I hadn't done anything to earn a scolding in front of practically everyone.

"Victoria" came his slimy voice.

"Yes?" I answered meekly peering up from underneath my lashes. My boss wasn't majorly tall, maybe only a couple of inches taller than me and I stood at 5'8.

"There's been an accident on isle four. Some of the boxes tipped out of the crates and there's lucky charms sprawled all over the floor. Make sure you clean it up." he commanded. I stared at him, oh how I wanted to tell him all about himself. How his bald head looked ridiculous when it reflected the light and how the few strands of hair on the sides that he tried so hard to comb and gel wasn't doing anything for him. But instead I bit my tongue, it wasn't in my job description to express my opinion after all. Sadly.

"Yes. Right away." I answered biting my tongue. I barely ever judged from appearances but my boss literally drives me up the wall. Okay maybe not so.. literally, but definitely figuratively. He always seemed to pick on me when it came to cleaning the floor, or restocking shelves, the least favourite and most demanding jobs out of them all. I would have loved for just one day to sit at the till and scan people's shopping in. It looked so invitingly easy, but no. I was always doing the hardest jobs and that's why I was always exhausted when she returned home. 100 percent labor I tell you.

He nodded satisfied and stalked off to pick on someone else. I sighed making my way to the shop floor. When I reached isle four I nearly had a heart attack. There were lucky charms everywhere. And there was no understatement on the everywhere. I scowled getting my cleaning equipment ready. It took me almost an hour to clean up everything and throw it out in the trash. By the time I had finished that I was assigned to restock the shelves and I was thankful that it was finally break time where I sat back in the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the employees kitchen.

"erd you 'ad to clean up all 'em Lucky Charms on the floor" came a gruff voice.

I looked up and smiled at the elderly man in font of me: Darren. He was a lovely man really, in his early fifties and he had a slight limp to his step that he apparently got in a car accident. I couldn't really understand why he hadn't retired yet to be honest.

"Yeah, it took forever." I complained, taking note of his thick accent that I couldn't seem to get enough of.

"Welp, it'll be keepin' you 'ealthy miss." he offered kindly.

"Yeah, you're right." I answered appreciatively.

By the end of the day I was exhausted and made my way to my apartment. I frowned when I noticed piles of brown boxes lined up outside of 107 which was the door opposite to mine. Side stepping around the boxes so as to get to my own apartment, I peered in nosily when I noticed that the front door to 107 lay open. None of the lights were on and it seemed as if someone was moving in. I grimaced. I hoped it wasn't some low-life drug dealer or one of the mob, she had just about enough of them around here and I didn't need some greasy Falcone living directly opposite to me. I heard a squeal of excitement and turned my head to see Eileen skipping door the hall her black hair bouncing behind her.

"Have you seen the guy who's just moved in?" Eileen asked with wide eyes.

"No?" I half answered, half asked - slightly confused at her enthusiasm.

"Wait until you see him." Eileen breathed.

At that moment a man walked out of the darkness. He stood over 6 feet and looked lean and muscular. He was wearing a black pair of slacks with a plain dark blue button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up half way. He was fairly handsome, and had blonde wavy hair, but that wasn't what had caused the excitement that I saw in Eileen. It was then that I noticed the huge angry scars on both sides of his mouth, bubbly and disfigured. I wanted to stare and inspect every part of him, a thousand ideas as to how he had gotten the scars popped in to my head but I politely looked away.

Staring was never nice and i didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable, especially when he had just moved in. He didn't seem uncomfortable though, regardless of the fact that a gawking Eileen beside me was staring profusely at his scars. He instead swept his eyes disinterestedly over Eileen and then came to rest them upon me. I could feel the apples of my cheeks turn pink and I felt myself growing hot. I couldn't stand people staring. I realised that both myself and Eileen looked like a pair of idiots just standing there watching him so instead I fumbled in my bag in search of my keys for something to do.

I could sense his dark eyes on me, when I saw them they had looked almost black and had lacked any spark at all. I heard him grunt. I peered up underneath my lashes to see him lifting all three boxes at once and couldn't help but watch mouth wide. Sure he was muscular but he didn't look THAT muscular to handle three heavy looking boxes. Upon finding my keys I unlocked the door and scraped my routine check quickly stepping inside the dark hall way. Eileen was still standing there staring at the man like he was an animal in the zoo and I had to grab her arm and pull her inside to stop her from embarrassing us any further.

After the door was locked, I heard his door slam also.

"Did you see those scars?" Eileen breathed excitedly.

"Yes, and it's rude to stare you know." I scolded her.

Eileen made her way to the sitting room, plopped herself on the sofa, whilst I followed ungracefully.

Eileen rolled her eyes. "I couldn't help it, they just looked so.. freakish"

"Eileen, that's not fair." I said disapprovingly. I did realise they looked a bit.. odd, but I wouldn't go ahead and be as drastic to say they looked freakish.

"How'd you think he got 'em? Maybe he's something cool like a shark wrestler." Eileen giggled childishly.

"I rather doubt that Eileen." I responded dryly. "Maybe he was in the army or something."

"He looks like a drug dealer to me." Eileen admitted.

I had to agree there, he did look rather shifty and I also couldn't help but wonder where they came from.

"Oh! We didn't even introduce ourselves!" Eileen pointed out. I realised this and knew it was slightly rude, but he hadn't made a move to introduce himself either.

"We should probably just leave him alone, I mean he just moved in an-"

"Nonsense!" Eileen cut me off. "Let's go and say hi now."

"No.." I mumbled growing red.

"Why are you blushing Do you like him or something?" She asked incredulously.

"No of course not, don't be silly. I've only seen him once." I snorted.

"Well let's go and say hi then!" Eileen shouted enthusiastically, and with that she had bounded outside to his front door. I followed her slowly, staring at his door in-front of me, I couldn't help but feel a sense of impending doom. Maybe it was because I was so shy and she felt so painfully awkward around men. Yes, that was probably it.

Eileen knocked three times on the cold, hard pine. I could hear rustling from behind the door. Eileen squeaked and then quickly ran back in to my house slamming the door behind me, giggling profusely from behind the door like a little school girl. My heart skipped a beat when I had realised what Eileen was planning all along. She had clearly set me up and now I was outside and he was about to answer the door to me and I had absolutely no idea what to say.

I couldn't just say hi, I'd look... weird. My heart stopped when the door opened and a tall figure stepped out looming over me and looking down with an unimpressed expression upon his face. His black eyes bore in to mine, and a breath stifled in my throat.

"What can I do for you, doll?"

A/N:Review you lovely people.

Revamped: 14th September 2012 04:38am.