I've got nothing really to say about this chapter, except to read it! Oh, and come on people! Get those reviews in. Compared to the amount of hits this story is getting, the reviews are scarce. Even if it's just a smiley face, or pointing out a small error, I appreciate them! I take into account everything you guys say, so as to write the next chapter accordingly. Please?
Commissioner Gordon was working late again. Sat at his desk, he reviewed the gas station security footage once more. He winced as he watched how carelessly the Joker shot that innocent boy. They had been unable to identify him, he was burnt that badly. That poor boy, what could he say to his parents? Then, he watched, confused as the Joker and a mysterious woman in black and red returned to the shop, and embraced each other. Gordon picked up his pen and wrote down a small note, Joker with wife/girlfriend? He sighed, and switched off the footage. By the time they had noticed the burning van in the parking lot, it was burning so wildly it took the fire team a good hour to put it out. But, the horror of watching that boy on top, crucified, as he burnt with the vehicle. Gordon was at a loss, he had no idea what the Joker was planning.
Harley sat on the couch, watching the TV. She flipped the channel to the news stations, and immediately noticed every single one was talking about their little "message" earlier. She turned the volume up, hoping the Joker could hear in the master bedroom.
"Gotham police officials believe the burning van and victim may be the result of the Joker, who escaped from Arkham Asylum less than two days ago. Security footage from the gas station where the victim was shot revealed that the Joker has a new accomplice, a female," The news reporter spoke, as still shots of her and The Joker embracing where shown on screen, "Police believe the woman may be romantically linked to the Joker, yet have no clues to her identity, but have come to the conclusion that she must have helped the Joker escape as the van was also the same van shown on Arkham security footage."
Harley smiled to herself. If only they knew! The Joker walked into the front room, and switched off the TV. He moved towards the kitchen, his back towards and leant over the counter. He took off his gloves and placed them on the counter. Harley looked over at him, and to his hands, which were red and sore.
"You're not wearing your ring." She told him, sadness clearly in her voice.
"I didn't think I'd see you ever again." The Joker sighed. "I never thought you'd track me down here."
"You sound disappointed that I came." Harley looked at him, her eyes slanted with sadness. Her hand moved to her left, twirling the ring on her finger. "I never took mine off." She raised her hand to show him, the ring shining in the sunlight.
The Joker snorted. "Figures. I bet you spent every night crying, just waiting for me to come back." He lips his lips, and raised his eyebrows, looking up to her.
"I thought you were dead!" She raised her voice slightly, "Two whole months, I never left the house! I was a mess, Puddin'." She had to breathe slowly, to stop herself from spilling over again. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
The Joker sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Did you ever think, that maybe I wanted you to think that? Hm? That maybe, I wanted to find another man, and be with him instead? I left you for a reason, only your stupid, childish mind can't seem to figure that out!"
"It's very cruel to leave someone who loves you so much, that they become a killer just to be with you. Do you know how strong I had to be, to put bullets through innocent peoples heads? I did it for you." Harley's voice was calm, but inside she was fuming. She just wanted to stand up, scream and shout and tear things down. All the anger from the past eighteen months weld up inside her. "You made me like this."
"I made you like that? Made you like what? You think you're so strong, just because you put a few bullets into a few heads, robbed a bank or two. But I know that deep down; you just wished it would all go away. I know that you would cry for hours afterwards, begging for forgiveness. I now that you would visit the gravestones of your victims with flowers! Begging them for forgiveness! And I know that you're not as smart as you like to think." The Joker paused, letting what he just said sink into Harley.
"I didn't have a choice. It was either join you, or let one of your enemies hunt me down to get at you." Harley told him, her hands were shaking with emotion.
"The thing about you, Harley, is that no matter how many times I make you see the truth, you'll always bury your head in the sand. All those times you would tell yourself that you were strong, you were lying to yourself. You were just wishing you could go back to being that sweet high school girl without any worries in the world. All those times you'd shut your eyes as you fucked your professor to get a better grade, you'd tell yourself it would all be over soon." The Joker looked at her, hard, noticing her eyes widen at the realisation that he knew what she'd done. "Well, guess what? You're not strong. You know what you are? You're a sheep. Capable of nothing but following others, doing as you're told. You became a killer to follow me, and you followed me here, in the hopes of some romantic reunion. But that isn't gonna happen, Harley."
"How did you know that?" Harley spoke quietly, defeat in her voice.
"How could I not know? You were never capable of getting more than a C grade, and for your grades to suddenly leap up to A grades overnight, well, something was going on." The Joker smiled at her, "At first I thought you were cheating, but then I saw the way those professors would look at you. Leering." He laughed at her, as she bowed her head in shame.
Harley could take no more. She threw herself at the Joker, scratching at his face as hard as she could. "Fuck you!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She slapped and hit as hard as she could. She was thrown of her feet and landed a few meters away from the Joker. She looked up at him, her vision filled with hate. A blinding force struck her across her head, once twice and a third time. She raised her arm up to defeat herself.
"You think you're so big, beating up someone smaller than you, huh?" Harley told the Joker as he looked down at her. "You may think you know so much about me, but you're forgetting I know about you also. What's stopping me from going to the press…or the police and telling them everything about you? Because I can…Heath." Harley spat his name out.
The Joker looked down at her. He knelt beside her and cupped her head in his hand. "Now you and I both know you won't do that." He spoke quietly.
Harley began to cry softly, nursing her wounds from her beating before. "Why do you hate me?" She asked.
"I don't hate you, Harley. You rarely enter my thoughts. But can't you see. I want to make you strong. But you won't allow me to." The Joker spoke. Harley struggled to make sense of this. She didn't understand, but didn't say anything.
The Joker pulled her back onto her feet, hugging her softly as she wept. He pushed her back and looked at her, holding her shoulders. "Would you like me to make you strong? To help you break free of your sheepish existence?" He asked her, looking in her eyes, a serious expression on his make up streaked face. Harley nodded.
"Which one of the mob wanted to kill me?" He asked her. "We'll pay him a visit."
"I don't know his name, I can't remember. He was tall, in his thirties and spoke with a foreign accent. British, maybe. Light brown hair, brown eyes, slightly tanned." Harley told him, as he began to pull weapons from the box. Harley placed a hand over her mouth and looked worried. The Joker did not notice.
"Puddin'? How will we get there? We have no transportation." Harley asked as they walked down into the streets.
"Watch and learn." The Joker told her. He took out his gun and walked into the middle of the road. A car screeched to a halt, the driver began to curse. He came out the car and froze. The Joker smiled, raised his gun and shot. He jumped into the drivers' seat. Harley stepped over the body and sat in the passengers' seat. The Joker looked at her, "See?" He said, as they drove off.
"It was a club called the Velvet Room. It was near a metro station." Harley told him. The Joker nodded in acknowledgement, seeming to know where he was going. Harley watched him as he drove, observing the flickering of his eyes, the occasional lip licking. She wished she knew what he was thinking. There was silence as they drove. Harley started to tap her hand on her knee, beating out a little tune. She was so distracted by this; she didn't notice they had stopped.
"This the place?" Joker asked her, nodding towards the club on the other side of the road.
"Yeah, this is it." Harley replied.
"Wait here; I'll go find a way in." The Joker told her, before he got out and shut the door. As he disappeared behind the building, Harley took out her phone. She checked for messages, before sighing. Quickly, she typed a new message, sending it to her contact known as "Amanda" once again. She put her phone away and slumped down in her seat. She closed her eyes for a few minutes. She heard a knocking on the car window and opened her eyes to see the Joker beckoning her to come. She got out quickly and followed the Joker round the back of the club.
The Joker took a small knife out of his pocket, and began picking at a lock on a back door. Harley stood, fascinated. A few moments later, and the door swung open slightly. The Joker grinned at Harley who was amazed at how quickly he had done it. He opened the door and walked in silently, Harley following him, her eyes wide with curiosity. It was dark; they were probably in a storage room. It was too dark for Harley to see, so she grabbed the Jokers hand, who led her until they found another door. They went through, and found themselves in a corridor of the club, where it was no longer dark.
"Which way now, Puddin'?" Harley asked quietly, looking around. She noted the pictures hung on the wall, mainly of people dressed in suits stood outside the club. The opening?
"Hmm, this way." The Joker told her, and walked down away from the storage room they had come out of. They walked quietly, until they heard a voice coming from a room. The voice was talking, but there was no reply. Harley assumed the voice was speaking on a phone. The Joker and Harley crept up to the slightly ajar door, listening to the man in the room. He had a British accent.
The man was silent on the phone, listening to the other end, when the Joker burst into the room. The man behind the desk on the phone froze from fear. Harley ran into the room also, avoiding the mans stare. The Joker walked up to the man and smiled.
"I believe you wanted me dead," The Joker spoke, leaning into the mans face. The man gulped. The Joker took the phone from the man, listening to the other person on the end, he placed the pone to his ear and spoke, "I'm sorry, your friend is in trouble at the moment. He'll have to call you back." The Joker hung up.
Harley walked over to the Joker, who know had his hand over the mans mouth. He reached into his pocket, taking out a gun and several knives. He placed the knives on the desk. He then took hold of the gun, and put it into the mans hand and pointed it to his forehead.
"Go on then, kill me." The Joker told him. The man didn't move.
"I – I'm sorry, please, please let me go…I have a wife!" The man stuttered, his hand shaking.
"Ah, ah, ah! Not before me and Harley here teach you a lesson first." The Joker smiled. "But don't worry, I won't kill you. Promise."
The man smiled nervously back, while the Joker took the gun back. He then grabbed a knife and slammed it into the man leg. The man hollered in pain, clutching at the knife, trying desperately to pull it out. The Joker grabbed another knife and stuck it straight through the mans hand, who screamed in pain once more. Tears began to course over his face, which was flushed with pain.
The Joker began to laugh hysterically as the man screamed and tried to pull out the knives. Harley laughed also, as she sat on the desk which her legs folded.
"Please, please…you said you wouldn't hurt me." The man begged to the Joker.
"I didn't say that. I said, I wouldn't kill you." The Joker laughed, pointing another knife at the man, who eyed it, his eyes frozen with fear.
"Why…why are you doing this?" The man spoke again, his voice coarse from his screams. Sweat began to trickle down his face.
The Joker didn't answer; instead he picked up the phone and dialled the number for Gotham police station. When it was answered, he placed the phone to the mans ear, signalling at him to speak.
"Please, please help me!!" The man yelled down the phone. The woman at the other end asked endless questions. The man then screamed as the Joker snapped two of his fingers. "The Joker! The Joker! Please, help me!!" The man yelled, just before the Joker put the phone down. The Joker looked at the man.
"I want you…to tell all your little buddies…that I am back. And then I have something else I want you to do for me when the police find you here. You can do that for me?" The Joker looked up through his greasy hair at the man. The man nodded.
The Joker smiled and threw another knife at the man, piercing his stomach. The mans screams echoed through the club. The Joker laughed once more.
"Now, for my grand finale. Now, I haven't done this before, so you get to be the lucky bastard and become the first person to be part of my next trick." The Joker explained coyly. He smiled at the man, showing his rotten teeth. The man looked at him, pleading with eyes. "Oh, and do me a favour. Don't scream." The Joker told the man, and then he lunged forward, his hand over the mans mouth, muffling his tortured screams. Harley watched in horror.
They left the club in silence. Harley was still shocked at what she saw. She avoided looking at the Joker, who was covered in blood. They went back to the apartment, where they spent the last few hours of the day in silence. Harley stood in the balcony, looking at the rest of Gotham while the Joker cleaned up in the bathroom. She reached into her handbag on the floor, pulling out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. She lit a cigarette, inhaling deeply. She needed that. The Joker appeared from behind and plucked the cigarette from her lips, tossing it down below.
"Nicotine is bad for you." He told her.
Harley snorted. "Since when did you know what was good and what was bad?"
He moved into the apartment and sat on the couch. Harley arrived and switched the TV on. She looked at the clock. Six hours ago, she witnessed the most brutal act she could ever imagine her Puddn' was capable of. The news channel flickered on.
"When the police arrived minutes later, they were horrified to find that the mans eyes had been pulled out and placed on a dish on the desk. Their horror was escalated when they saw the words 'I can see you, Batman' painted in the mans blood next to the plate holding his eyes. Police Commissioner James Gordon was reluctant to comment, however they are stating this is yet another attack from the escaped psychopath, The Joker. Officials found another one of his trademark Joker cards placed on the plate." Harley watched the TV in front of her, sat next to her Puddin'. "While it is yet unknown as to why the Joker kept the man alive, it has been confirmed that he is not alone. The victim described a female accomplice similar to that involved in the murder committed yesterday."
The Joker smiled at the TV. Though they didn't know it yet, he was only getting warmed up.
Please, please tell me what you think! Please? Also, I was a little unsure as to have Harley call the Joker by his real name. I didn't want it to be Jack Napier, as that seems too "Batman 1989", and I didn't want to come up with a name, so I just used Heath Ledger's instead. Tell me what you think of that, hm?
Also, I'm not sure how often I update. As I've already completed this whole story, I was thinking about adding chapters every three of four days? Because every day seems a bit too quick, dontcha think? So, let me know how often you all would like this to be updated!
Thank you! X.