Chap 2

"…At who?"

"I don't know, he said he "knows" who she is."

Then everything went quiet and she guessed their boss had entered the room next door.

She heard a husky voice, "And I do…."

The doorknob to her room turned and the door squeaked open. Through the small amount of light, she could tell the man had clown makeup on. She knew immediately who he was. Her eyes went wide. The Joker walked up to her and looked her over. His eyes lingered on her small chest and immediately she wished she had put on something more. The cold was getting to her. Finally, his dark eyes met hers.

"I see you are, uh, happy to see me?" he smiled and chuckled to himself.

She glared at him "What do you want with me?"

He grinned. "I just want to, get to know you better. What's your name, beautiful?" He subconsciously licked his lips.

Scarlett looked down, thinking "but I thought he knew it…"and replied,

"Alice. Alice…Sssmith." She glanced back up to his face. His smile grew and he cocked one eyebrow up.

"Now, we both know that is not your name, Scarlett." He replied simply and cackled.

Her eyes grew wider and her mouth opened a bit; how did he know that?

"How do you know that?"

"You can learn a lot about a woman by the contents of her purse, Miss Ravin" he remarked while pulling an unseen chair to face her.

"Then why did you ask for my name?"

The Joker was sitting now, on a chair a few feet from her, legs spread, leaning back, and after a few moments her replied "I wanted to see if you were an honest person." He clicked his tongue, and then looked her back in the eyes.

She sighed, "Do you really expect me to be honest with a psycho?" she said defiantly.

His smile faded. He looked down then slowly got up. He pulled a knife out of one of the many pockets he had and came face to face with her. He licked his lips, and reached around her with his knife. Her heartbeat quickened. Then she heard a snap and the rope against her wrists fell to the floor. She pulled her hands to the front of her and looked at them. Then she looked back at him, questioningly.

"I am not a psycho. I'm not. I just know how the world works better than most. And I don't like unhonest people" His eyes were burning into her.

After a beat, she repeated her question from before, "What do you want with me?"

As he heard her voice break on the last word, he smiled and stood upright.

"You are Bruce Wayne's new squeeze, and a policeman's daughter. What would I not want with you?" he grinned and cackled again. "And you are going to be my assistant for my next trick." he added while heading towards the door.

"And what would that be?"

He turned his head around slowly while grinning, "You'll see…" and he walked out.

--

Scarlett stood as the Joker left the room. The last few words he said gave her chills. She didn't want to be a part of it. She wanted to go home or to Bruce and tell him everything. But Scarlett had no idea where she was. It was probably not in a good part of town anyway.

Then for the first time in days, she remembered why she was out in the first place that night. To get medicine for the thing that was killing her. The thing that was unstoppable, and unpredictable. Just like the Joker.

Heh.

Scarlett decided she couldn't stay there so she looked around the room and saw that there wasn't much furniture, then looked at the door, the only door in the room, and walked cautiously towards it. She placed her hand on the doorknob, and turned it slowly; it was unlocked. She pushed the door open, and peeped her head outside. Coast clear. She stepped into the also dimly lit hallway and tiptoed a few steps into a living room where four men sat playing cards. She gulped and crouched down behind a couch, looked to the left and right, and saw another door in front of her a few feet away. She crawled as slowly and quietly as she could.

Suddenly she heard "What are we hiding from?" She jumped and looked behind her to meet the face of the Joker, grinning. He stood. She leaned backwards onto her butt and scooted away as the Joker came closer. He walked all the way over to her, and grabbed her by her wrists with one hand. He picked her up easily and licked his lips before saying, "Finders, keepers. You belong to me now."

That angered her, "I belong to no one" she growled and before she knew it she yanked free and backhanded him. I guess it caught him off guard because he stood there for a moment, then looked back down at her and grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against the wall. He raised her off the ground to his height. She was struggling and he liked it. By now all his henchmen had stopped what they were doing to watch.

"Please…let me go" she gasped. Then he kissed her full on the mouth, and let her drop to the floor. Scarlett was trying to catch her breath.

"Look, I can see ya don't want to, but you are staying here." he smirked, and began to walk away then turned around, "Oh and by the way, your bedroom is down the hall and to the left." while pointing out the directions. He grinned and laughed as he walked out the front door.

Scarlett laid where she fell for about an hour, still in shock. Then she finally got up and wandered in a daze to the bedroom. It, unlike the rest of the house, was almost cozy. It had a lamp, a bookshelf, a couch, a television, and a bed. There was another door in the back of the room. She glided back to it and opened it to find a shower and a toilet. The light in there was burned out though. Scarlett walked back over to the bed and laid down and fell quickly to sleep. When she awoke, it had to be about 3 am, she thought of what her options were this time.

"There is not a window in here, so that's out…um…I don't have a gun…I can't find my purse anywhere. No purse, no phone. Fuck."

She thought through every escape she could until her head started to pound again.

Then she came to the conclusion that she COULD just stay here. Start over. Live a life of crime. "I'm dying…so even if I did get caught I wouldn't have to suffer for that long. And I do NOT want to go back to working as a stripper. There's no respect. At least with him people might give me some…" She smiled to herself.

--

Okay, first off thank you for the reviews and the subscriptions :D
They mean alot. And secondly, this was sopposed to be two chapters, but they would both be wayyyy too short.
So now I am working on the next chapter already, and plan to have it out by this evening.