The Only One Laughing

Holly was seventeen now. She would turn eighteen in a few weeks, but she didn't care. Sure, she would be able to vote, but what was the point? Harvey Dent was going to win by a landslide, anyway. And even if she was able to be admitted into some of the night clubs, why would she go? For alcohol? Holly got that well enough with a fake ID. No, the only remotely useful thing Holly would gain from turning eighteen being able to move out.

Plopping down on the food stained sofa, Holly grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. The station was set to the news. "And now back to Andrea Anderson." Holly giggled to herself. That is either so a fake name or your parents were heart less. She thought to herself. Probably the latter. She always watched the news before school in the mornings. It wasn't the most cheerful way to state off the day, but everyone in Gothum constantly had their TV on channel 7. Crime reports came with coffee. Holly was about to shut off the boob tube when a picture in the news caught her attention. It was a mug shot of a man wearing smeared clown makeup. Green hair curled on his head. His red clown mouth was painted in a grotesquely large grin, and he seemed to be laughing. Their was something haunting in his cold eyes. Holly turned up the volume until the TV was blaring. "…at 11:37 last night police stormed the Joker's hideout, arresting him along with what seems to be all of his henchmen. The Joker is now in Arkham Mental Asylum and is under the controlled treatment of Dr. Crane. As for the other men arrested, they will stand a public trial this weekend in court."

Holly stared open mouthed at the television. Could it really be true? The Joker, the horror behind all that happened in Gothum for almost fifteen years, finally caught? No. Holly would not allow herself the luxury of feeling safe. Yet. If three weeks went by, and Joker was still in the mental house, then Holly would breathe freely. The Joker had escaped from Arkham before. Who was to say it wouldn't happen again? Their was another thing that seemed wrong with the news report, but Holly couldn't quit place what it was. Grimacing she thought back to years previous when the Joker had just introduced himself to the city.

Holly was three years old when she first encountered the Joker.

It was a Saturday in November, on a pleasantly cool day. It was the time of the year when all of the trees in the City turned fiery orange. A tall, slender woman was pushing a yellow stroller through the courtyard across the street from Gothum Police Station. Wet leaves stuck to the wheels of the stroller, sometimes making the wheels stick. Suddenly a large BOOM filled the air. Simple pedestrians and commuters on the street ignored the noise and continued on their way, some with noses in news papers, others sipping warm drinks. The woman with the stroller stopped, however, and gazed around curiously for the source of the noise. The toddler in the stroller poked her red head out and looked behind the stroller at her mother. The woman shrugged at the girl and they continued on their way through the park. creek. Creek. CRACK. Now people looked up from their drinks and papers. The noise was becoming increasingly louder. The woman pushing the stroller looked over at the large oak tree in the center of the court yard. To her horror she saw its roots slowly pop out of the ground like strings being plucked on a violin. With a defining snap the tree fell over, landing on a taxi, and sending mounds of dirt and glass spraying. Everyone in the area stood stock still, unable to speak or move out of pure surprise. Everyone but the little red haired girl.

She had noticed something else no one had. Un-buckling herself from the stroller she got out and padded across the park to an ice cream truck. A small man was hunched over, his back to the girl, and he was shaking with restrained laughter. Holly moved her lips to the side of her face as she pondered what the man was laughing at. Frowning slightly, she asked, "What so funny?" The man immediately stopped laughing and whipped around, smiling sinisterly down at the little girl. A layer of white makeup covered the man's face; while charcoal make up surrounded his eyes. The sight would have terrified anyone alone, but to top it off, his cheeks and the sides of his mouth looked to be sewn closed by black thread. The wounds looked new and slick from discharge. "You ask me what is so funny?" The man asked, his voice deadly quiet. Holly did not blink. She felt no fear, why should she? She was a naive child, blissfully ignorant that she could be staring death in the face. "Uh hum." Holly nodded. "You see that tree?" The man asked. "Uh hum." Holly nodded again. "I made it go boom and fall over!" The man shrieked with delight and resumed cackling. It was a noise that Holly had never heard before, and she decided that she liked it. Cracking a smile, Holly began to laugh with the stranger. The man stopped immediately when he noticed Holly chuckling with him. She stopped as well, and they looked at each other for several long minutes; his dark brown eyes boring into Holly's baby blues. "Holly?" The woman pushing the stroller screeched. Holly turned around and waved at her mother. "Oh my god!" The woman yelled and ran towards the ice cream truck. Catching her foot on a raised crack in the side walk, the woman toppled to the ground, feet from Holly and her decided new friend. The ice cream man hollered with laughter, only this time Holly didn't join in. She scowled at the man. "No funny!" She chastised. "What if happened to you?" She said.

"Honey, get away from there, NOW!" The woman said, painfully picking herself up. "Baby face; let me tell you a little story." The man said looking amusingly down at the strange girl. "One day my sister comes home, tells me she's in love. I ask who the guy is and she tells me. Guess who it is?" The man didn't wait for an answer. "A mobster!"

"Is this really necessary?" The woman asked angrily, getting to her feet and picking up her child.

"YES!" Shouted the man. He continued. "So I tell her I'm not happy. Not. One. Bit. See I knew he would break her heart, see?" Holly nodded as her mother fumbled with the straps on the stroller, desperately trying to get away from this lunatic. "Sos I wait up for her the next night when she's out on a date with him. It's 11 and she doesn't come home. I call her cell, no answer. Then it's 12. Then 1. Then finally at 5 a.m. someone answers. But it isn't my baby sister, now is it?" Holly shook her head, drinking in every word the strange clown said. "It's her boyfriend, the mobster. And he says," the man licked his lips. "He says to me hey I killed your fucking sister. Dumped her body in the lake." The ice cream man looked directly into Holly's now intrigued eyes. The little girl's mother finally got her daughter buckled in. "So I find him and everyone that helped and I kill them. All of them with my knife," the man held up a large switch blade. The woman began rolling away Holly quickly. "And say, 'who's got the last laugh now?' HAHAHAHAHAHA. SEE? NOW I'M ALWAYS LAUGHING! IT'S FUNNY! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Sweetie, you don't talk to strangers, and especially strangers in clown makeup." Holly's mom said as they trotted away from the still guffawing mad man. Holly looked back over her shoulder to see the ice cream truck gone.