Requiem for a Dream - A Short Story
Theme: Requiem for a dream - Hans Zimmer (link: www . Youtube . com / watch?v=Klw9DSto3jU)
My name is Alice "Whisper" Wayne, I am 26 years old and this is my story.
I once had a dream, that dream was to become the best hero the world has ever known but much like my life that dream has been crushed and burned for the sake of another. My life has been nothing but heck since my brother was born; I've been ignored and cast aside, shadowed by my brothers' achievements and goals. All this because of a difference between my parents and I, I have red and green hair I was born that way along with pale skin and light sea foam eyes, my parents and brother on the other hand looked flawless with their dark brown hair, brown eyes and tanned skin. My parents didn't like me very much because of that difference and never let me be a part of their lives or my brothers, I don't hate them though and I know I never will because they are my family, my flesh and blood and I love them with all my heart even if I don't say it out loud.
When they died, my parents, I greaved yes but not as much as my brother. I left when he did and traveled the world just to see that people aren't very accepting to people who are different than them, a freak that's what they called me no matter where I went. Let's just say that when Bruce came back, he was a hero; but when I came back to Gotham, I was the villain known as Whisper. And so the story really begins.
"Hello again Gotham" I greet the dark, gloomy city as I walk through the town "gloomy as ever I see" I laugh at my own joke, sliding my tongue over my lip. I walked for a while taking in all the new and old sites before going straight to my brother's mansion and knocking boldly at the front door as the door opens a rather large woman becomes visible "h-hello" she asks in a scared voice "what, is it my face?" I ask pointing to the scar on the left side of my face; she shakes her head "well you want to hear a story?" I ask leaning in closer to her "well, I won't lie and tell you silly stories so here it is, I was walking down the street minding my own business in New York when a group of thugs dragged me into an alley next to a tattoo shop where they gave me this scar, then they took out an old tattooing machine and said 'it's gonna hurt a bit' before giving me on my right hand a twisted smily face then the man dragged me into another alley and took out his knife 'happy Halloween' he whispered carving the left side of my mouth from the corner to my ear. Did you like my story?" I ask the woman she shakes her head frantically "oh well, not everyone likes. Well nighty, night" I whisper bashing her head on the door frame and walking inside. "Nice office Bruce" I chuckle "good picture of yourself and Batman…on…the…wait a minute" I walk over to the desk and pick up the name plate "Marla Greave" I read slowly "oops wrong mansion" I mutter turning around and leaving the room.
"Now that's more like it" I say as Alfred answers the door "hello Alfred long time no see" I say smiling "miss. Wayne" he says in surprise "come on in" he opens the door wider for me "thank you Alfred, would you mind taking me to Bruce?" I ask "no problem madam" he says walking down the hall, I follow close behind admiring the décor "he is in the room Miss Wayne" Alfred gestures to the large oak door in front of us "his study" "ah his office" I chuckle before walking in the doors and seeing my brother "hello Bruce how is life treating you?" I ask casually when I see my brother seated in a chair by the desk; he looks up from his paperwork shock drawn all over his face.
Weeks passed and I was still in Wayne manor, though ready to leave as soon as possible. I'm getting tired of this boring old house cooping me up I thought time to spread havoc around Gotham city I chuckle darkly just as Bruce walks in "is this a bad time?" he asks "no not at all, I was just impersonating a criminal of Gotham, I'm not too sure which one yes though" I nod and gesture for him to enter "there is a masquerade tonight in the ball room, please come Alice you missed the last ball I threw here" he pleads "I will go if I wish to Bruce" I say my mind working fast "alright, just try please, for me" he backs out of the room then. I look around and drop to the floor, crawling, I get to the bed and pull a dusty box out from underneath it I blow the dust off and open the box, what's inside makes me smile a Cheshire grin.
Halfway through the party:
Where is that girl? Bruce asked himself she's supposed to be here by now. Oh well, she always freaked people out anyways.
Suddenly a crash is heard throughout the room and three single gunshots are ringing in the air "stay down low, I do not wish to hurt you" a slightly masked female voice is echoed all around "all I want to do is get in and get out, with a simple hello" she chuckles crazily "wait you did this just because you wanted to say hello?" someone asks "yes, and I was quite bored too" she clicks her tongue and Bruce begins to slowly back away "no, don't go Mr. Wayne, not until I go" She says dropping the gun and jumping back out the window Who the heck was that? Bruce asks himself and jumps as an explosion is heard outside "Good Luck Getting Home!" she yelled as more explosions went off, her maniac laughter is heard until the explosions die down.
Back to Alice:
"Well that was fun" I say quickly slipping out of my costume and into my pyjamas then quickly hiding the box with my costume in it under the bed and jumping in the bed just as Bruce bursts in the door "what happened?" I ask innocently "I heard gun fire" I bite my lip and looks childish "nothing happened; it's good that you are ok" he says sighing and walking out the door. "Idiot" I mutter lying back on the pillow and falling into a deep sleep.
The next day I woke up to the sun in my eyes "Alfred" I groaned "really, right now?" I sigh and roll out of bed "Bruce" I call hoping he wouldn't answer, and he didn't "Alfred" I call next, but again there is no answer "good, I can go out without someone snooping behind me" I mumble as I get my costume on again and head out the door of my bedroom, humming the James Bond theme as I glide down stairs and towards the front door but something glinting gold catches my eye, stopping I see a strange looking gun sitting on the mantel of the fireplace, checking for rounds I tuck it into my gauze wrapped boot and continue on my way out the door and onto the streets, well in my case onto rooftops. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop is one of my favourite pastimes as I pose as my villain self Whisper because I am as silent as my name gives because of the gauze-wrap costume I had on and wrapped around my face. The wind on my face was amazing and by the time I finished my jumping the sun was setting "Blah, I'm bored now" I mutter licking the scar on the inside of my left cheek "oh, lookie, lookie" I coo as I spot a bank across the street from me "I guess it's time to rob a bank" I giggle insanely as I jump down from my perch on the roof and grab the gun from my boot as I land Front or Back? I ask myself Back, I'll have the element of surprise I run to the back as I continue to giggle like the maniac I turned out to be.
The inside of the bank was glorious and the guards were fast and strong, too bad they were too stupid to notice the gun in my hand 5 down 2 to go I think as I spot two other guards, a quick bash to the head was enough to knock them out. I kicked open the doors of the bank just as three others entered from the front door, two large bulky men with clown masks and the other was skinny but you could tell that he had muscle, he was wearing a purple coat that went down to his ankles with a grey one underneath that went to his hip, purple striped slacks with a silver chain, brown shoes, a green vest, green tie, purple gloves, a blue-ish dress shirt with hexagonal shapes on it, his face was painted white and he had dirty-blond roots with his green hair, scars were seen underneath the smeared red clown smile that made him forever smiling, black surrounded his eyes that seemed as though they changed colour, the man all in all was pretty good looking, tall at the height of 6'1, and very intimidating with a knife in his hand and his shoulders crouched and tense yet he looked calm and alert.
Joker P.O.V (point of view)
As me and my men walked into the bank I spotted a woman that looked like she was wrapped in gauze from the head down, the only parts of her that were not covered were her nose, her eyes, part of her forehead and lots of hair coming out of the gauze bandana around her head. Her hair was two different colours, red and green, her eyes were light green and calculating, she looked about 5'7.5" and she was not wearing heels or sneakers or dress shoes but a sort of boot with no heel "Who are you?" we asked at the same time who am I? Is she messing with my mind or does she truly not know who I am? I asked myself before I started laughing like a maniac right about the same time she did.
Alice P.O.V
"Who am I?" he asked once we calmed our laughter "yes, who are you?" I ask "I am The Joker, who are you?" he replies with a question "I am Whisper, people all over the world shudder when they hear the wind howl because of me. Why haven't you heard of me? My laughter makes children's skin crawl" I reply raising my arms in triumph as the wind howled when I wanted it to "how can you not know me? The great Joker, a single smile from my lips makes people run in, ah fear, I have been mostly in Gotham really, and that-t is why I suppose you haven't-t heard of me but really? You haven't heard of my scars, all the havoc I caused in this, ah city and what I put it-t through, my laughter makes grown men's" he pauses "skin crawl" The Joker boasts "right, pleasure to meet you Joker" I say nodding at him, as I nod I hear the crunching sound of two feet on glass, just as the crunching stops behind me I use the Sing method from Miss Congeniality and grab his keys off of him, I walk towards the safe and unlock it I toss the keys behind me and grab 4 bags of money from the table and leave the safe then out the door and into the warehouse that I was perched on top of before I went into that bank, I could feel his eyes following me the whole way before he ran to get in his van with his bags of money and his goons as the streets fill with red and blue light and sirens. I set the bags down in the middle of the warehouse and begin to pace and think about what to do with the money but my thoughts are always interrupted by his voice and his laughter I know, I have no use for the money so I'll set it aflame I grabbed the matchbox I had hidden in the gauze and striked it on the side of the case, the flame lit and I dropped it on the pile of money still in the bags I turned away from the flame and took a few large steps until I decided to watch the flame but the flame got bigger and bigger, slowly consuming the warehouse Crap, crap, crap, crap I ran outside and began a slow walk and I ignored the explosion behind me as I walked back to Wayne Manor.
A month, that was how long I had been in Wayne manor the very place my childhood turned to ash. The very place I left and hoped to never see again, but here I am sitting at the dining room table across from my successful younger brother eating a small dinner, in silence. "Bruce?" I questioned breaking the silence "yes Alice?" he looked up from his half empty plate "I am going out tonight, to reacquaint myself with the city" I told him scooping some mashed potatoes into my mouth "no problem, stay out of trouble alright? There was a robbery and an explosion today so you know that this city is a busy place filled with crime" he reminded me, I rolled my eyes yes how could I forget my own robbery and burning building I thought chuckling silently as I finished my dinner "well, I'm going to put this in the sink then I'm heading out" I told him as I stood up from the table "oh you can leave the plate there, Alfred will get it" Bruce said cutting the pork on his plate "alright, I'm going to get my bag then" I walked around the chair, pushed it into the table and then walked to the living area to grab my bag that held my spare costume, my money and the gun that I found yesterday. "Have an nice evening madam" I heard Alfred call as I left "I will" I called back as the door closed behind me, looking around to see if anyone was looking out any windows I took off with a run full speed towards the middle of the city where I knew something was going to be going on and to add onto that I need to open a bank account, Bruce gave me $300 for no reason when I got home.
The bank I decided to go to was not the bank I robbed but a larger one stupidly named 'Gotham Central Bank', anyways I was standing in front of a teller about to open an account when the door burst open and three men with clown masks and guns entered "everyone down onto the floor, drop your bags, boss wants to look at them" the one in the front said I sat calmly onto the floor with my eyebrow raised and my bag resting in front of me, The Joker walked in next with his famous knife in his hand "why are you here Joker" a random citizen asks "didn't you rob another bank already today?" "yes but this time I'm, ah looking for someone" Joker replies "oh and you should watch your mouth because next-t time you speak, you will have scars like mine" the citizen draws back in fear "now, has anyone heard of the villain named Whisper?" he asks but gets no response from any of us it's not like I'm going to tell him I think rolling my eyes and tilting my head to the left faking curiousness "fine" Joker says "if you won't tell me anything then we will search you" he clicks his tongue as his three goons go to peoples bags and look through them I really chose a bad day to bring my bag with my extra costume in it didn't I? I ask myself sighing as the goons get closer to me. I close my eyes and breath as I hear a goon open my bag, I open my eyes and see his eyes widen and look up at me I smirk at him and he jumps up "Boss, I have something here" he says his voice quivering, sighing I reach into my bag "I wouldn't do that i-if I were you" the goon says "really?" I ask laughing as I take out my gun and shoot him in the head "is it so hard to go into a bank in Gotham without this happening" I say standing up and blowing on the barrel of the gun and grabbing my bag from the floor "nice gun, I saw it yesterday in the boot of the masked villain Whisper, so unless you stole it-t, got a copy or killed her, you are her" Joker said walking slowly towards me clicking his tongue and licking his scars "hello Joker, pleasure seeing you again" I say "well, I guess I can forget opening an account now" I sigh licking my lips and brushing my hair behind my ear and away from covering the scar "well you might want to scadattle before Batman comes, I know I am" I say heading calmly towards the door "No you're not-t. Russo, stop her" I hear Joker say behind me, one of the goons steps in front of me blocking my path to the door "now, take her to one of the vans and wait until we are done here" Joker says "might as well get some cash, this is a bank after all" with that the goon starts to drag me outside as Joker laughs sending chills down even my spine.
Once we were outside the goon, Russo, shoves me into the side of one of the vans, I fall down from the force of the shove "it was a stupid stunt to rob the bank earlier today and take some of that cash. The boss and I agree on something, we don't like you" Russo says shoving me again as I try to stand causing me to drop my bag "don't move" he orders turning his back on me to keep watch on the bank "stupid move" I mutter kicking his feet out from under him and pushing myself up off the ground the trained gymnast I am and pounce onto the groaning man and plant my foot heavily on his gut "you shouldn't have said that Russo" I hiss as he whimpers at the pressure I am putting on his stomach "what does Joker want with me Russo? I ask before laughing "you know what I don't have time for this, nighty night Russo" I punch him in the face and knock him out with the palm of my hand sniffing and licking my lip I lift my foot off him and drag him to the van, I open the back doors and toss him inside then I quickly grab my bag from where I dropped it and placed a tracker onto the bumper before climbing onto a rooftop, changing into my costume, putting my gun in my boot, stashing my bag in a corner of the rooftop and waiting for the Joker and his other goon to come out. A few minutes later they do and from where I am perched I can't see his face but I know his expression is one of confusion "Russo?" the other goon calls looking around as he puts the money into the back of the other van "there you are" Joker says cheerfully as he sees Russo in the back of the van I threw Russo in, there was a smile on Joker's face as he tutted and dragged the goon out of the van, once on the ground Russo sat up ready to defend himself with his jerky movements "oh, oh, oh come on" Joker says helping Russo to his feet "now tell me Russo" Joker starts pacing in front of Russo with his hands moving as he speaks "where is the girl?" Joker asks a dangerous growl becoming present in his voice, Russo visibly shuttered "I-I don't know boss" Russo stuttered fearfully "you don't know?" Joker asks stopping in front of Russo "how could you not know where a girl with a scar like that is?" Joker yells outraged before throwing his head back in laughter "oh you should have seen your face" Joker says calming down "well, back to business" Joker pulls out a gun and kills Russo and leaving him dead on the ground before walking over to the other van and getting in the passenger's seat "come on Tavers we don't have all day" The Joker cackles yelling out the window to the other goon, Tavers quickly gets in the driver's seat and starts the car here I go I think as they start off down the road, I pull out my tracking device and watch as Joker heads off to his little hideout place you wanted me Joker? Well you've got me I laugh into the cold night air as I begin jumping rooftops in the direction Joker's van stops.
Minutes later I arrive at an old abandoned warehouse "typical place for Joker and his goons to use as a hideout" I say chuckling and jumping into the warehouse through one of its windows. Glass showers onto a group of goons sitting in the room I jumped into as the window shatters "hello" I greet them as they stare at me "Joker wants me right?" they nod "well come and get me" I cackle jumping into the shadows and onto the rafters above them, watching them search the room for me makes me laugh, as I do so they look up and all around the ceiling but it is too dark to see where I am and my laugh sounded from everywhere above them great acoustics I think enjoying them frantically searching until one is smart enough to turn on the light "great now you know where I am, smart cookie" I congratulate the smart goon clapping slowly, mockingly from the rafter and laughing "there she is" a goon points out "yes, here I am. Now the question is how will you get me down?" I counter raising my eyebrow and laughing again "it's easy" one goon says "oh really?" I ask "yes" he says "very easy, you just-" but before he finishes I shoot him right between the eyes "anybody else?" I ask putting the gun back in my boot "nobody?" I continue as nobody volunteers "alright" I say jumping down "now, you have me down what are you going to do?" I ask tilting my head to the side and stretching my arms out to my sides, palm up. A goon walks up slowly and grabs the gun from my boot before punching me in the jaw; I laugh "good hit Tinkerbell" I say rubbing my jaw lightly "again" I challenge he swings again and I laugh as he hits "enough" I mutter as a rather large goon charges at me, stepping to the side I watch as the goon rams himself into a wall "again" I say darkly narrowing my eyes and stretching out my arms again bowing my head slightly. Another goon charges and just before he hits I step to the side and clothes line him rendering him unconscious "again" I ask, another charges and this time I change my tactics and grab him by the throat banging his head on a wall rendering another goon unconscious "anyone else?" I ask watching as each goon ran out the door and not closing it behind them "rookies" I scoff rolling my eyes and heading towards the door "going somewhere?" a voice in the hall says "yes I am, I was going to search for you but it seems as though I don't need to anymore" I say watching as The Joker walks in with a girl in a latex jester costume latched on his arm "what did you want me for anyways?" I ask sitting down on the floor cross-legged "I didn't know who you are. And I like when I know every villain and they know me" he laughs "Harley get off my arm" Joker says throwing the girl off his arm "but puddin'" she whines "no" Joker glares at her and she scampers off into the hall "clingy?" I ask "yes, just to go rob that bank I had to lock her in her room" Joker says emphasizing the word Lock "ouch" I say chuckling "is something funny, is it my scars?" Joker asks walking towards where I say "do you think my scars are funny?" he asks as the dangerous growl coats his voice "you want to know how I got these scars?" I rolled my eyes "sure" as I said this I dragged my tongue over my bottom lip, Joker took out his knife and pressed it against my right cheek "well, I had a drunk as a father and an abusive mother. One Halloween when I was a young boy at about the age of 12, I decided I wanted to be a Clown, don't ask me why, but when I was ready to go out my father comes in the room with an empty beer bottle in one of his hands and a bloody knife in the other he walked up to me and slurred 'you want to be a clown son' I nodded with a scared look on my face 'well, you don't look like one' he brought the knife to my face 'You're too serious, why so serious?' and with that he held the knife in my mouth like this" Joker paused and put the knife in my mouth "and carved my face up, let's just say that my father didn't live too long after that" with that he took the knife out of my mouth and asked "not scared?" Joker asks sitting down in front of me tilting his head and licking his lip, this strangely attracts me to him more Snap out of it Alice, he is an escaped insane criminal. But I'm an insane criminal too I mentally shake my head as I blink at him "stay here" he says standing and walking out of the room while looking uncomfortable.
Weeks later Batman still hadn't caught the Joker and I (or Harley Quinn for that matter, who was in a random warehouse sulking) and Bruce had posted a few posters saying that I was missing around the city. All the while Joker was turning out to be nicer than he seemed, well at least to me.
At the moment we were about to pull off a heist that could leave the city speechless in hysterics and us amused and laughing, we were going to kidnap 2 important people and lock them in separate buildings full of explosives, then put out warning videos that say the time that the buildings blow. We were going to kidnap The Mayor, and Commissioner Gordon.
We snuck into Gordon's house and brought him to an old coffee shop and tied him to a chair surrounded with explosives. Then we got the Mayor and did the same to him except he was in an apartment building. We each stood in beside one of them with video cameras as they started to wake, I was with Gordon and Joker was with the Mayor.
"Hello Gordon" I say pointing the camera at him "say hello to Gotham" I grabbed his face and held it in my hand by his chin as he awoke "w-what?" he stuttered "where am I?" "Oh I'm required not to tell you that" I say laughing at him "who are you?" he asks struggling in his bindings "I'm Whisper, Joker's partner, nice to formally meet you, well as formally as this is" I say laughing "wha-" he begins but I tape his mouth shut and point the camera at myself "now I greet you Gotham, Hello" I laugh "this here is your dear Commissioner Gordon, Joker should be somewhere with the Mayor" I throw my head back with laughter "Gordon here will be blown to bits at about 12:00 tonight. Now Bats, I'm warning you, be quick or don't come at all" with that I break down laughing rolling on the floor and therefore showing Gotham all the explosives "have a nice night Gotham" I laugh as I turn the handheld camera off "this will be fun" I say walking away from the screaming Gordon and outside.
An hour later the videos were on the newscast Jokers then mine. "Time to go and cause havoc" Joker says grabbing my hand and running out the door with me just behind him. Both of us were laughing the night away as we caused the riot that spread all over Gotham. But all fun has to end, Batman just had to burst in and ruin our fun.
As we were zipping down the road in a car we stole Batman is suddenly driving beside us "hello Bats" Joker says with only one hand on the wheel "why so serious?" he laughs and I smile a toothy smile under my gauze mask; Joker wraps his arm around me "have you met Whisper?" he asks the mask is too hot now and I take it off, Batman's eyes visibly widen "Alice Wayne, who would have thought you to go bad?" he says "I haven't gone exactly bad, just insane with a bit of pyromania, it's my mental state Bats" a truck is now right ahead of us and Joker doesn't notice "Joker" I warn "one minute Alice" Joker said "Joker" I warned again as we got closer to the slow truck "one minute" he growls "really Joker" I warned for the last time "what is it Alice?" Joker growls turning to me "what is it that it's so important to interrupt the conversa-" he is cut off by the car hitting the bumper of the truck, groaning both Joker and I got out of the car "why didn't you tell me about the truck?" Joker asks "I tried Joker" I told him "call me Mr. J" he said rubbing his probably sore head "alright Mr. J" all of a sudden Batman was in front of us "hello Bats" Joker says "back to Arkham with the both of you" Batman says in his grumbly voice while taking out two pairs of handcuffs, Joker and I look at each other and shrug before holding out our wrists.
Here we are being dragged into Arkham Asylum, never pictured this day I thought to myself as they put me in a straight jacket as well as the Joker "you realize that I can get out of this right?" I ask "yes but you won't" the doctor informs me I shrug and look over at Joker, he is saying something but I cannot hear him though he gets louder once we begin out trek to the intensive treatment ward "just let me go over to her, I need to do something" he begins struggling in the guards grasp "fine, just because you annoy me" the guard says pushing him over in my direction Joker glares at the guard intensely then looks at me, he shuffles over with his feet cuffed together like mine he looks me in the eyes and kisses me lightly on the lips, this action shocks me but I close my eyes and give in (albeit still shocked). Suddenly the Joker is being dragged away towards his cell while I stare after him, the female guard shoving me lightly on the shoulder towards where Joker was dragged to got me out of my stare "you know he's never done that" she tells me as the criminals in their cells stare at me through the bullet proof glass of the front wall of their cells "done what" I ask "kiss someone, not even Harley" she informs me as we reach my cell "this is your cell and your clothes" she says stopping in the cell across from prisoner number 4479, coincidentally Joker's cell, I walk in and quickly get out of the straight jacket and I put on the mandatory orange t-shirt, with a white patch reading 'AAC2' and under that '4480', over my white t-shirt I then take off the jeans I am wearing and put the orange pants that go with the shirt. As I sit down on my bed to go to sleep the last thought in my mind is that Joker and I will be out of Arkham soon enough.
Disclaimer: I do not own Batman, Joker or the picture at the top of the story all I own is my character, Alice Wayne.
My version of The Joker is based on the YouTube Show TheJokerBlogs; the patient number is also from there.
Picture is from a story on Quizazz; I liked it so I used the girl for the looks of my character and used the edited version of the picture for the 'poster' of my story. (Poster on my profile page)
"You see there are three kinds of people in this world: the optimistic that find the glass half full, and the pessimistic that see it as half empty, then there's the paranoid that just think that someone's drinking out of their glass"
"well which one are you?"
"I'm the one that knocks the glass over" –The Joker – The Joker Blogs
"Did I ever tell you that you have lovely eyes? They go well with the rest of your face, It's not like I wanna pop 'em out of your skull and carry 'em around on a keychain….That's a complement" – The Joker – The Joker Blogs