The next story of Countdown to Merry Christmas, Jonny T.


Dark Knight


Christmas Out Of Arkham

A dark figure walks through the city of Gotham. He was dressed in a dark cloak, with a hood over his head. It was a cold Christmas Eve night, and snow covered the sidewalks. Nobody seemed to notice the figure, or maybe they didn't even care. The figure's cloak was slightly covered in snow, leaving us to believe that he's been out for awhile. The figure looked around a lot, studying his surroundings. Everytime he saw the police, he would turn down a random alley. He had done this at least five times already, knowing that no cop would find him. He finally came to a diner and entered. He grabbed a newspaper on his way in and sat down at a booth in the far corner of the diner, with his back against the rest of the diner. He grabbed a menu and opened it in front of his face, then removed his hood. Only the top haft of his head was visible from the menu, revealing him to be a man. His hair was a greasy blonde, and his eyes were brown. A waitress came to the table.

"Merry Christmas." the waitress greets, "My name's Mandy, and I'll be your waitress tonight."

"Hello, Mandy." the man greets, in a soft voice, "That's a nice name."

"Thank you." Mandy replies, "Is there anything I can get you to drink."

"I'll take a Coke." the man replies.

"Coming right up." Mandy replies. She strolls away from the table. The man slowly removes his cloak from his body, and lays it down. He wore a blue, patterned, dress shirt, a green vest over it, and under that was a green tie. His pants were purple, and had a chain hanging down from the right leg. He focuses on the menu.

"What do I want?" the man questions, "Maybe the fish. Maybe the chicken. A steak sounds nice right now." Mandy returns to the table and sits a red cup with Coke in it on the table, and a straw laid next to it.

"Have you decided on what you want yet?" Mandy questions. The man looks for a second.

"You know, it's the night before Christmas, so I'll have the Christmas special." the man answers.

"Very good choice." Mandy replies, writing the order down, "I'll be back with that shortly." She strolls away from table again. The man's eyes dart around, making sure no one was looking. He quickly shuts the menu, revealing scarred cheeks. He picks up the newspaper he had gotten before and opened it, covering most of his face.

"Let's see what the other clowns of this city are doing." the man says to himself. He reads for awhile. "Looks like Joker's out." the man says to himself, then giggles a little. A few minutes pass and Mandy returns to the table with the man's food. She sets the plates on the table.

"There you go." Mandy says, "Is there anything else you need?"

"No, this is fine." the man answers, not moving the paper from his face, "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Mandy says, then leaves the table. The man slowly moves the paper from his face and looks at the plates full of food. He moves them in front of him and places the paper back around him. He grabs the fork and knife from beside him and brought them to his plate. He studied the plate, looking at the two large strips of ham, the big pile of mashed potatoes and gravy, the green beans, and a smaller plate that had a slice of pumpkin pie on it, with a dab of whipcream on the top. The man quickly cut a piece of ham off and placed it in his mouth.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" the man whispers to himself, "They never serve you this in Arkham." He then takes a bite of his beans and mashed potatoes. After enjoying the first few bites, he dove right in and quickly ate. After the food from the first plate was finished, he turned his attention to the smaller plate with the pumpkin pie on it. He took his fork and scooped up a bite size piece, and brought it to his mouth. The man moaned a little at the sweet, rich taste. "Enjoy it while you can." the figure says to himself, "It'll be a long time till you'll have something this good." The man ate the pie, every bite was simply wonderful to him. Soon, the piece of pie was gone, and the plates were no longer behind his newspaper with him. He took a final sip of his Coke and placed it back on the table. Mandy returns to the table.

"I hope you enjoyed everything." Mandy says.

"Oh, I did." the figure replies. Mandy sets the check on the table, and takes the plates.

"Well, I'm glad you did." Mandy replies, then walks away. The man's hand met the check and pulled it towards him. He lifts it up to see that it says '10.63' on it. The man grabs his cloak and reaches into its pocket. The man grabs hold of a handgun. He then pushes it aside and pulls out a bundle of money, and to ink pens. A few minutes later, the man stands up, places his cloak over his body, and walks towards the door. "Excuse me, sir!" Mandy calls out, "You forgot to pay the bill!"

"Money's on the table." the man informs, then walks out the door. Mandy shrugges and walks over to the table. She found fifteen dollars laying on the check. She then picks it up and heads back to the counter. She notices something on the check and looks at it. There was a note that read, "Hope to see you next year, Mandy. Merry Christmas.". Under it was a big red smile and two big black eyes above it.

The man continues to walk through the city, a little happy after his wonderful meal. He walks for a while, until he reaches a large church. He smiles and enters. It was dim inside. The front haft was completey full of people. He strolls over to a far back pew and takes a seat. It was almost completely dark in the back, so he removed his cloak. Even if it meant live or death, nobody could see him if they turned around. He sits and listens as the quire sings joyful songs of Christmas. His smile was ever so big. A few minutes later, a little boy starts to go around with a basket, collecting money from the people. Soon, the little boy wanders down the path and somehow sees the man. He extends the basket towards. The man reaches into his pocket and places ten dollars in the basket.

"Merry Christmas, and God bless you." the little boy says. then walks back to the front of the church. The man smiled really big, and felt warm inside.

"How about you take a seat, Bats." the man says, "You don't have to stand there forever." A black figure is revealed to be standing behind the man.

"Why are you here?" Batman questions, "Trying to cause chaos in a peaceful place?"

"No." the man replies, "I think that even the most heartless of people can be good on Christmas." The man pulls out the gun and holds it up. "Here, I'll go peacefully." he informs, "Just let them finish this last song." Batman takes the gun from him.

"I hope you enjoyed your trip out, Joker." Batman states, "Because it will be your last."

"We'll see about that." the Joker replies, still smiling. "Let me tell you a story, Bats." he says, "And this is a true story. When I was a young boy, my family didn't have much money. So, when Christmas came around, we didn't have a lot of gifts. I sometimes got a cheap little action figure, but I liked it. And there were some years I didn't get anything from my parents at all. But the gifts weren't the things that made me happy. It was when we went to the chiuch, and we ate the Christmas dinner they had prepared. It was the story of Christmas. You know, Jesus and all that. And it was the wonderful sound of the quire singing. Those songs touched my heart. They made the other 364 days worth living. And I just had to get out of that Hell. Just so I could hear these songs again."

Later, we find Batman and Joker riding in the Tumbler. Joker was put in a straight-jacket.

"Was this really called for?" the Joker questions. Batman didn't answer. A few minutes passed, and the two were now parked in front of Arkham Ayslum. He drags Joker out of the Tumbler and hooks him to the gate. Batman presses a button on a speaker.

"Dropping off the Joker." Batman informs, "Leaving him by the gate."

"We'll be right out." replies a voice from the speaker. Batman walks back to the Tumbler and hopes in.

"Merry Christmas, Batman!" Joker yells, "See ya next year! HAA, HA, HA, HOOO, HEE, HA, HA!" Batman drives away.

The End

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