Knock Knock Chapter 4, a batman begins/dark knight fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Batman or any of it's characters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter four

"You wanna know something else about chaos? It's fair."

Mother stirred the soup in the saucepan while speaking to father. "Well, I hope this will do. Beafs and minestrone soup." She put her hands on her hips glanced rather proud of what she had brought out. Mother never really cooked for us, we often made our own food because of the different times of day that we usually came home from work and school. I couldn't even remember the last day we had sat down together as a family and eaten supper.

Father was making the table and was checking that everything was in place. I was the only one without anything chores and was telling my parents frantically that they didn't have to make this effort. Everything didn't have to be perfect to the very smallest peace of dust on the wall.

"Mother, father, it's ok. Remember Joey? He was the little boy who always spilled on the cloth when we were eating pancakes, remember? He hasn't changed that much. It's ok!"

"Rubbish." Father replied and moved the newspaper from the table. "When a friend of yours is coming that you haven't meat in –what is it, ten years – you tend to have things in order."

I had to admit that it made sense and I felt a little bad that I hadn't thought things through clear like my father had. Was I really that ignorant?

I wanted to say something more, but when I felt that nothing would come out, I decided to go up to my room and clean the most of the mess. It was best to be on the good side, just in case he for some reason wanted to see my room.

As I was cleaning my bedside table I glanced up in the mirror right above it. Just on the topside was the add I had cut out of the newspaper. I always felt a hard ball in my stomach when I looked at that news add, it was like I really wanted it. It wasn't that important, it was only a… guy… with mental instability.

Perhaps I had wanted it more because my father was a guard in Arkham. Perhaps I had though that it would be easier that way. I sighed and sat down on the bed. It had already gone a month since I had sent that letter. Nothing had come back so far.

He couldn't sleep. He couldn't even relax. The pain in his gut was much too distracting. And everything was white. The walls where white, the suits where white, even the friggin food was white. White? Was that supposed to calm him down? How was the colour white going to help him?

Joker growled in frustration. He was lying in the bed, safety belts around his waist, his arms, his hands and around his feet. They were meant to keep him from moving out of bed all night. He tugged on the belt around his waist but regretted it the second the stinging pain came in his gut. He hissed and pressed his jaws together cursing Englehorn under his breath.

There had been a little incident that day when he had finished the letter.

Flash Back:

With a satisfied smirk Joker finished the letter and folded it. Then he put it in the envelope he had been given by Allman.

He smirked.

The thought that one week from now, someone was going to read the letter was amusing.

"Princess", Joker called to Englehorn.

The addressed guard looked at Joker with bloodthirsty eyes. He stepped up to the Joker and chewed his gum nonchalantly like always. "Done, Jingles?"

The patient chuckled as soon as he heard the nickname Englehorn had been calling him. Englehorn only wanted to show that he was more powerful than him and that it gave him the right to call him whatever he wanted. And in this case Englehorn choose to call him Jingles. The truth was that Englehorn felt threatened by the Joker. That was why he started acting like an ass when he was close. This only indicated that Englehorn had dominance issues and that he was weak.

"What are you laughing at psycho?" Englehorn forced the truncheon on the table again, but Joker didn't let himself react and remained indifferent to the truncheon.

"Stop right there Englehorn." A foreign voice interrupted. It was one of the other goons who decided to join the party. "It's against restriction to converse with the patients, you know that."

Englehorn scoffed at Wright, who had just spoken and nodded to the Joker. "He's not even human!"

The guard put his hand on each side of the table and bent closer to the patient. "Are you, Jingles?"

The only reply he got was a death glare.

"You know I'll have to report if something happens", Wright continued.

"Report me!" Englehorn shouted "Report him! Scum like him shouldn't even be allowed to exist."

The distressed guard lifted the truncheon close to the Jokers face, just one the side of his cheek. It didn't touch the Jokers skin, but it was close enough to annoy him. "What do you think, hugh?" Englehorn spat at him.

The patient unexpectedly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then his eyes flashed open. Englehorn suddenly felt discouraged, there was new energy in the Jokers eyes. Something had changed.

"I think you… should put that down, before somebody get's hurt." The voice was majestic, the command was filled so much authority that Englehorn had no other choice but to do as he said. But not without something to say. "Patient is equipped by an item that can be exercised as a weapon. Drop what your holding in your hand."

Joker glanced down at the pencil he was holding in his hand, he chuckled and firmed his grip. "And if I refuse?"

"Your playing with the devil, sociopath."

The Jokers cheek twitched. His eyes darkened and he felt how the darkness slowly floated through his veins, how it spread from his eyes to every corner of his mind. The anger started to bubble up inside of him. He was really pissed off, and had changed his mind. He didn't only wanto see Englehorn in pain; he wanted him to go through the worst kind of pain imaginable, something so painful not even the strongest man can endure. "I'm not… a sociopath…" he said with a low voice. There was no trace of amusement in his voice. "I'm not…" Joker didn't notice then that his other hand had been hugging the table leg. His knuckles where white. "Tell me, when did you start acting like a psychiatrist… Engle-horn."

There! He past the line!

Englehorn swung his truncheon back and thrust it forward aiming for Joker's shoulder. But what Englehorn hadn't counted on was that Joker would react quickly. Joker grabbed the arm that was swinging towards him, he managed to slow down the swing but the truncheon still managed to make an impact. This did though not stop Joker. He pulled the arm he was holding, closer to him so that Englehorn was forced stumbling closer, he swung his arm with the pencil and thrust the pencil into Englehorns shoulder. Then he forced his fist on the side of his jaw so that he fell on the ground.

Joker put his feet on each of the tables legs and pushed himself away. The chair hissed as it glided backwards. Joker was just about to step on Englehorns feet when Wright punched him on the back with his truncheon.

Joker hissed in pain and glared at Wright in wrath filled anger. Wright picked up his electric shocker and shot it at Joker. Meanwhile Englehorn had managed to pick himself up. Unable to use his right arm, he picked up his truncheon with his left arm and swung it with all the power he had left on to Jokers shoulder.

End of flashback

The arm wasn't broken. Joker moved the arm from under the belts and covers, it still hurt, but it was his chest and abs that had taken the worst beating. He had a hard time to breath the first hours to breath, but now it was only walking and sitting down that was the problem. Joker chuckled when he though of Englehorns face when he had made resistance. It was worth it.

"Totally worth it." Joker said with a hoarse voice before he closed his eyes to sleep.

Knock Knock

I stiffened by the mirror in the main all when I heard the knock on the door. He's here! I hurried to put the pearl earring in my ear.

Mother came out of the kitchen and stared intensively at the door, she nodded to it as if asking if she had heard right and I nodded to confirm. My whole brain stood still, and for a second both my mother and me didn't know what to do. It had been such a long time since we had a visitor over for dinner last, it was hard to come up with everything that was needed for it. Mother nodded to the door urging me to open. I shook my head.

Knock Knock

I ran into the kitchen and decided to glance through the kitchen window at the main door. Joey was standing there with no jacket on and at that moment he was looking at his watch as if he thought he had come too early.

"Ok" I told mom. "Go into the living room and wait in there."

"Where's you father?"

I pushed mother out of the kitchen through the main hall towards the living room. "Oh, he's obviously up stairs or something. We can't get him now. Go on, in with you."

Mother gave me a smile and disappeared into the living room.

I took a deep breath and gripped the handle. "Ok, get ready, Gloria."

I turned the handle and opened the door. Behind it revealed to be Joey, who was currently standing with his hand in his hair and the other one behind his back. As soon as he saw me, his face lit up. His whole face, his eyes were smiling. It warmed me inside to see a friendly face like that. "Hi", he said. When he spoke I noticed that he had dimple on the side of his mouth. Why hadn't I noticed that before?

"Hello" I greeted and let him embrace me. "How are you?"

"Great" he said and stepped into the house when I gestured him to do so. That was when my mother came out of the living room smiling like a goddess.

"Josef" she said using his whole name and gave him a kiss on the cheek. I rolled my eyes.

"Hello, Mrs Walkman" Josef said politely and held forth a bouquet of flowers for her. "I want to thank you for letting me come here today."

My eyes went wide, I hadn't expected him to do such a gentlemen action. Even my mother's eyes lit up more then they had when she came out of the living room. "But, Josef you didn't have to. We're so happy that you could make it."

We heard a creak behind us, someone was coming down the stairs. "Let me see the boy." Fathers voice and heavy australian accent rumbled.

Joey turned around. "Hey, ", he smiled and walked up the older man. They greeted in a firm handshake and father thumped Joey friendly on the back. "Hello, mate."

Then Joey sought to stand by my side, without noticing it he stepped on my toe.

"So, how's the family?" father asked. "I heard your father had begun as business partner for Mr. Arkham.

"Yeah." Joey nodded and looked down at the floor for a second. Was it possible that he was nervous? He hadn't seemed the slightest nervous when he had come in.

"Yeah, dad is trying to get used to the work now. Mom's fine, she's planning on starting her own brand in baby clothes."

"Oh, is that so.", mother stated. "Maybe I could visit her sometime."

Suddenly an embarrassing silence interrupted, no one said anything for at least a minute. "Well", father finally began. "Gloria, why don't you show the boy around the house."

I gripped Joey's arm and pulled with me while I mumbled. "Wonderful idea, father."

"Your parents seem to be themselves as well" Joey stated when we had reached the top of the stairs. "I like them."

I gave him a look that told him something like: "You have got to be kidding." When I opened the door to my room. "So, this is where I live." I said and gestured into the room.

Joey stepped inside and had a strange look on his face that was hard to translate. He moved to my bed and touched the pink cover with a chuckle. "Well, this definitely suits you." He turned around and blinked at me.

Then he started to admire my wall. Over the last three years I had looked in the newspaper and as soon as I had seen an add or a news add that looked peculiar I had cut it out and put it on my wall.

Joey sat down on my bad and still admired it. "You ever thought of becoming a journalist?"

I joined him. "No, not really. I just think it's interesting, that's all."

"What's that?" Joey stated surprised.

He pointed at one of the ads. It was about Batman. "The guys dressed in this weird suit!"

It wasn't until that point that I realised that Joey knew almost nothing about Gotham. He didn't know who The Joker was, and then I didn't doubt that he didn't know who Batman was.

"Oh dear", I said and felt a little uneasy. It wasn't going to be easy to tell Joey that we had our own little crime-fighting hero.

"Well", I started. "You know… Spiderman. He's a hero, but obviously a comic character."

Joey had a disordered look on his face that told me that he didn't have any idea of what I was talking about. "Well, Batman is kind of the guardian of Gotham."

He lifted his eyebrows. "You're telling me he's a superhero? That this guy actually exists today?"

I gave him a small nod.

Joey chuckled. "Yeah, whatever. Enough with the jokes."

I wanted to convince him that it was true, but I decided that it would be hard to do it, and concluded to leave it alone and let him experience it by his own self. One day some evil would lurk in Gotham, and Batman will be forced to show himself.

Joey lost interest of the wall and started to mirror himself on the bedside stand I had put up. Suddenly he saw something and removed a paper peace from the topside of the mirror. "What's this?"

It took me a second to realise what he was holding and wished that I had took that away when I had cleaned my bedroom. I sighed and snatched it from his hand.

"It's that ad about that psycho isn't it?"

I threw it into the rubbish bin. "Yes, but don't call him that. He's just mentally… unstable."

Joker raised his eyebrows. "Mentally unstable? You call that psycho mentally unstable?" He held up his hands in the height of his shoulders and started gesturing frantically. " Gloria, out of the stories I have heard from Jake and Jimmy he sounds like no mentally unstable guy. That bullshit is for people who hear voices. That's mentally unstable. That's just a complete psycho."

Then Joey realised something and stood in the way of my door. He put his arms to each side of the doorframe. He was both longer and heavier then me and I had no doubt he could take me down if I wanted to. "Gloria, you not thinking of writing to this guy are you?"

"I can't see why it has anything to do with you", I said firmly and put my hands on my hips. I backed up and sat down on my bed again.

He raised his arm and scratched his head, and put his other hand in his pocket and looked like he wanted to say something. I had seen him long enough to know that this indicated that he felt bad. "Yeah, I didn't think it like that. Sorry."

He took a step towards me. "But I'm only saying this because I care about what happens to you."

I gave him a smirk and lifted my left eyebrow. "Your starting to sound like my mother, that's not a good sign."

Joey grinned innocently and sat down beside me. "Well, I guess Jimmy's gut was telling him the truth. You really are up to something."

Suddenly I got an urge to tell him that I had already done the deed, but then I decided to tell that another time when it fitted. Well, that time would obviously never come.

I took my blue pillow and hugged it while Joey spoke. "Well, Gloria. Seriously. Have you already written to him?"

I guess the time to tell him was now after all. "Invisibility power, please work." I thought desperately. I bit my lip and looked pleadingly at Joey who's smile only widened. "Oh, no you didn't! When?"

"At least before I met you here." I mumbled and shrugged my shoulder once. "I honestly don't think I'll get an answer."

"What makes you so sure."

Suddenly I felt a little better now that Joey knew, I hadn't known that it would be good for me to share the burden. I fell backwards down the bed and hugged the pillow. "I just… know."

Joey chuckled. "You know you're lucky that Jimmy wasn't here."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he would have been in the I-told-you-so mode. I mean, he really did tell you so."

I chuckled and shook my head. "Jimmy's harmless."

He looked back at me and turned a little. "What was that Jimmy said? Oh, yeah." He cleared his throat and said with the most fake English accent I had ever heard in my whole life: "I know you're up to something Miss England."

I laughed and threw my pillow at him. "Your such a looser, Josef R Briggs."

"Then I'm a happy looser, Gloria Walkman."

Three days later

"Holy shit!" Jimmy said as soon as he came up to our table at lunch. He wasn't the kind of guy that was late and we all were a little worried, and when he came up to us upset our worry deepened for him.

"What's wrong, Joey?"

He put down his tray and sat down before he bent forward to us. Everyone bent forward and listened intently, well except for Jake.

"Well, you all know that I live just a couple of blocks from Arkham. I was out with some friends and we was on our way to the movies and the fastest way was past Arkham."

He swallowed and pulled in his chair. "We saw an ambulance car by the gates."

Jake scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Whoo scary story Jimmy."

He didn't care about Jake and continued. "That's not all. There were security standing by the gates trying to get some people out of the way, and we went to one of the old men standing close by. He told us it was something about a girl raped and murdered right inside of Arkham."

He took a fry and put it in his mouth. "Isn't that creepy?"

Tia frowned. "Maybe it was just a patient, Jimmy."

Jimmy chuckled. "Oh yeah, there was a truck inside the gates as well, it said GCPD on the truck. If they show up, it's something serious. "

This time Jake was listening. "Are you sure it was a girl raped? How did she get in there?"

"Maybe she was working in there… " I stated.

Joey nodded. " I haven't heard anything from dad."

I frowned and thought of the yesterday night. Dad had come home a little later than usual, but I decided to leave that out. It was dangerous to speak about it. "I haven't heard anything either."

"Your dad has the nightshifts, right?"

I nodded to Alma.

"Make him say something" Alma continued enthusiastically. "Force it out of him, take forth the journalist deep inside of you and use the talents you have."

I opened my mouth. "Yes, thank you for the advice Alma."

Later that day when we was going to get our things out of our lockers Joey came forth to me. "Gloria" he said and looked around himself unobtrusively. He leaned his hand on the locker right beside mine. "I didn't say this at lunch, but it's because I don't want the others to think ill of my dad but when he came home yesterday he seemed secretive. He didn't want mom to bring him food in his office, he didn't even say hi when he came in. He just took with him his suitcase and staid in that office. When I knocked on his door he told me to go away. I think he knows something."

I listened intensively. "It's almost the same thing with my dad a well. He came home later than usual and he had nothing to say."

I pulled out my bag and my coat. "Do you think something actually happened?", I asked and closed my locker.

"I don't know", Joey said as we started walking down the hall." But I was going to ask you to keep your ears open. Whatever the press says we need to be critical."

I nodded. There was actually something going on inside Arkham. It couldn't be a patient could it? Could a patient actually be loose? Had they caught the guy yet?

All kinds of questions bubbled up inside of us both, but the questions remained unanswered that day.

"I'm home" I called when I stepped into the house.

No answer of course. They were never at home at that time.

I stepped further into the house but heard how something cracked on the floor, almost like paper. I looked down and saw three letters on the floor.

"Bills, most probably", I thought as I looked through them. But something on the address made me stop on one of the bills. It was addressed to me. I never get letters.

My eyes widened when I saw who the sender was. It said Arkham Asylum.

I think I've got the next chapter in my head and I will try to write it as good as I can.

Now remember to read and review. It's very important for me, but thank you any way for giving me this chance.

Until next time

Chrisse11