How long had it been since he'd beaten her? How long had it been since she passed out praying she wouldn't slip into a coma? Her stomach growled, how long has it been since I've eaten? Chloe had woken up in the same bare room and waited. And waited. And waited. But nothing ever happened. Joker never came back. One of the henchmen, a man who liked to mumble to himself and had shaved off half of his hair, would bring her a small glass of water every so often, but no food. There was never any food. Food is for good girls. Oh, shut up you. Great I'm arguing with myself again. Maybe that's what he wants, to drive me insane. Did you forget what happened?! You are insane. Chloe sighed trying to quiet her wandering mind and going back to trying to figure out how long she'd been there. She'd finally gotten to the point where she could stand without getting massively dizzy, but still wanted to sleep more than anything. The pain she could handle, the hunger she could deal with, it was the boredom that was killing her. Shouldn't he be in here torturing me, or annoying me or something? So now you WANT to see him? No, I'm just bored. Am I not allowed to be bored? Crazy. Go away. Chloe slammed her head back to emphasize her point which only caused a blinding pain and little sparks to dance in her vision. "Okay that was stupid."

"You seem to do a lot of stupid things." Chloe looked to see Joker standing in the door way.

"Gee and here I thought you were going to make me die of boredom."

"There's no fun in that for me. Besides, who ever said I wanted you to die?"

"What do you want from me, Joker?" Chloe sat against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest. She buried her face in her arms in an attempt to fight the growing headache hitting the wall was giving her.

"Oh, many things. But for now I'll settle for your participation."



"In?" Joker snapped his fingers and the henchman with the bad hairdo came in with a video camera and a few sheets of paper. "Great, who are threatening? The whole city or just my family?"

"Why the whole city of course. It's more fun that way."

"And if I refuse?"

"Well I have no problem with not feeding you for another four days; I don't know how you'll be able to handle it-"

"Fine I'll do the damn video!" The henchman handed her the papers and Joker the camera before scurrying out of the room as fast as he could.

"And action."

Chloe bit her lip to keep from saying something that would definitely leave her with more bruises and no food. She picked up the first page and started reading, not daring to look into the camera. "It seems that despite the sacrifice of the lovely Miss. Gordon, my message still hasn't gotten across to you people. If you think the suffering of one little girl will state me you're severely wrong. To prove my point I've set up another one of my games that I know you all love. I've place bombs in various buildings all over the city, if the mayor isn't dead by midnight tonight…"

"Read it…read it, read it….READ IT!"

"Then each and every one of these buildings will be blown to smithereens. You've chased away your Great Protector, Gotham, who will save you now." Joker shut off the camera and the 

henchman returned to take the stud. After he left, Joker pulled a green apple out of his coat pocket and tossed it to Chloe. She turned it over in her hands, inspecting it.

"What are you looking for, poison?'

"Knowing you there's a razor blade inside it." She took a small bite staring at him. "You really don't care if he dies or not do you?"

"If I didn't want him dead, why would I go through all of this?"

"Well for one, you think its fun to watch them panic."

"Oh, always."

"And regardless of whether he dies or you blow up half of Gotham, you've proven your point. They will try to kill him, they will prove that this whole city is under your control more than it is the mayor's, the cops', or even the mobs. It's not about who lives or dies, it's just about throwing us into chaos and you getting your kicks out of it in the process."

Joker grinned at her and leaned back against the door. "You've got me all figured out don't you?"

"Hell-fucking-no. If I did, I wouldn't be wondering why I'm still alive."

"Do you want me to kill you Chloe?"

"No! I just want you to stop hurting my family."

"Oh, Chloe. You see even if you were dead. Even if you had never decided to come back to Gotham, I would still be playing my little games with your family. Remember, daddy dearest is the police commissioner and one of Batman's little friends."



"So I'm here so you can get at my dad and Batman?"

"No, you're here because you're fun. Bye!" He slammed the door behind him and Chloe heard the locks click into place. She finished up the apple, eating every part of it the core and all, and lay back down on the cold cement floor. She'd left the office in only jeans and a tee shirt, not even grabbing her jacket before racing off to meet Joker. The room was freezing and her thin clothing held little warmth for her. The one light she had was switched off, the switch was probably on the wall outside the room, and Chloe was left to her thoughts in the darkness, eventually slipping into another fitful bout of sleep.

She woke some time later still in darkness, nothing uncommon. Chloe figured she spent most of the day in darkness, the light only switched on when Mumbles came to give her a drink or when Joker came to visit. I wonder how the mayoral hunt is going. Oh my God, did you actually just say that? You want to know whether or not innocent people are trying to kill and innocent man? Well if their trying to kill him they can't be all that innocent can they?The sudden return of light interrupted her inner turmoil and forced her to cover her eyes in pain. She heard the door slam open and something hit her shins. Blinking rapidly, she looked down at her feet to see the disembodied head of Gotham's mayor starring back up at her, his mouth stuck in a twisted scream. She backed away on her hands and knees screaming, hearing Joker's insane laughter matching her screams. Chloe saw him standing in the doorway, holding a blood stained sack. He walked over, grabbing the head, and bent down in front of her, shoving the dead face into hers.

"What's wrong? Don't you like your present?" His voice was full of mock concern and Chloe could hear the giggles being held back. She squeezed her eyes shut turning her head away and 

whimpering. "Look what they did just so more wouldn't have to suffer like you. You should be so proud."

"I hate you!" Chloe screamed in his face, shoving Joker back and standing up on shaky legs. "I hate you, you pathetic excuse for a human being."

"Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?" Joker regained his balance and even with the slight hunch he always had seemed to tower above her.

"Just shut up you stupid clown! You stupid freak! Bruce said you told Rachel you gave yourself those scars to cheer up some wife, bull shit. You gave them to yourself because you wanted your outside to match how ugly, twisted, and depraved you were on the inside. What, does giving people some sob story make you feel better about knowing how much of a freak you are?"

Joker pinned her up against the wall by her neck, not choking her but keeping a tight hold. "I thought," His voice was a low, deadly growl, "you learned your lesson the last time that mouth of yours got you into trouble."

"You won't kill me. You can't."

"Just because I haven't yet doesn't mean I won't."

"So do it then! I'm not afraid of death."

"You really do want to die don't you?"

"What does it matter to you if I die or not? I'm just another pawn, just another wasted life in this game of yours. I'm not dumb enough to even begin to think I'm special to you, that I matter. Eventually you'll get bored and kill me. It's the fucking waiting that's the torture!"



"And here you say we're nothing alike. But you're right, you don't matter. You're not special, you're just entertaining. See like right now, right now most people would be trying to do anything to get me to let them leave. And you, you try to goad me into killing you! You really are just too much fun!"

"Then you'll love this!" Chloe kicked him in the groin and was dropped to the ground. Even masochists hate getting kicked in the balls. She darted for the door and shoved past the ineffective Mumbles. Powered by adrenaline she took off the darkened hall and headed up a staircase only to find herself in an equally dark hallway with the sounds of a beyond pissed off Joker closing in on her. She groped along the hall till she found a door way; praying it was empty, she flung open the door and darted in, shutting it silently behind her. Oh, of course! Chloe had managed to trap herself in the last place she wanted to be, Joker's bedroom. No one else could live in so much madness. Hearing footsteps in the hall she headed for a second door that led to a small walk-in closet. Random bits of clothing hung from the hangers and were piled on the floor. Chloe went in and crawled to the darkest corner of the closet, hiding herself behind the clothes. Why the fuck is there a female nurse uniform in here?! The mental image of Joker in the white dress brought a fit of hysterical giggles bubbling up her throat. Nurse Joker! Chloe covered her mouth with her hands as she heard the door to the bedroom open and close. The giggles died and she couldn't decide what was louder, her heart beat in her ears or the footsteps in the room. The closet door slowly opened and Chloe held her breath, trying so desperately not to make a sound. The clothes blocking her were pushed aside and Joker was standing there, starring down at her. She made an attempt for the open door, diving past Joker, but he dove after her and managed to get a hold of her ankle, stopping her halfway out of the closet. Chloe kicked back with her other foot, landing a solid blow on his chest, and just barely wiggled free of his grasp. She crawled the 

rest of the way out of the closet before getting up and making a mad dash for the door. Her fingertips just brushed the doorknob when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and threw her back towards the middle of the room screaming. She landed on his bed, bouncing slightly before rolling off the mattress and onto the floor. Chloe tried to scramble under the bed but Joker got to her first, flipping her onto her back and pinning her to the floor. He straddled her waist and reached for her arms as Chloe tried to claw at his face and neck. He pinned her arms above her head, both her wrists in one hand, and started undoing his belt with the other. "Get off me you sick fuck!"

Joker growled and slapped her across the face before removing his belt and using it to tie her wrists to the bottom of the nearest bedpost. He sat back, panting slightly, enjoying the feel of her struggles beneath him. "Now, now Chloe. As much as I'd love for us to take the next step in our relationship, this," he pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket and released the spring loaded blade, "is about punishment."

The blade sliced through the front of her shirt, the skin beneath surprising Joker. He'd expected smooth unblemished skin the same creamy shade her legs had been when she wore that skirt to the club, but Chloe's torso was an odd collection of scars. Some were obviously years and years old, faded little marks on her skin, while others were relatively new. He traced a thick ropey scar that trailed along her sternum and under the pinstriped bra, before moving to a bite mark on her left side just below her ribs. His eyes skittered up to her face to find she wasn't ashamed, scared, or even angry, just bored. "Make your mark like everyone else and I'll cry about it later. Just hurry it up will you, my hands are going numb."



Joker giggled before moving lower on her body so he was sitting atop her thighs and unbuttoned her jeans, yanking them roughly till they were off her hips. The skin just above the top of her panties was smooth, unmarked, perfect. He looked up at her one more time, finding her staring right back at him, before slicing into the creamy skin. Chloe hissed and whimpered through the pain, but never screamed out while he carved. He finished and tore off a piece of her ruined shirt, wiping some of the blood off her skin to admire his work. "There I think that will do nicely."

Chloe looked down to see the word 'Joker's' carved into her skin. "You're an ass you know that." She mumbled sleepily as the adrenalin in her system drained from her body and the lack of food and water started catching up with her. She passed out with that obnoxious, annoying, and horrible laugh of his ringing in her ears.

When Chloe woke, she was still in his room, now on the bed instead of the floor. Joker was nowhere to be seen. Probably back out tormenting Gotham. The room really was as chaotic as he was. Newspaper clippings, pictures cut out from magazines, and random photographs of people and populated areas of Gotham littered the floor, some of the people in the pictures had Joker's trademark grin drawn on their faces with red marker. The dark grey plaster walls were riddled with gouges and slashes, victims of Joker's frustrations or boredom. A rickety desk was against one wall, its surface riddled with gouges as well, building blueprints scattered along its top and poking out of drawers. There was another door on the same wall as the closet, presumably a bathroom. The bed was in the middle of the room, nothing more than a filthy mattress atop an old iron frame with a few blankets but no pillows. Directly in front of the bed was an old TV. He probably just loves watching his videos air on the news. Chloe curled up on her side, wincing at the sharp pain in her lower abdomen, and closed her eyes, wanting so badly to just go back to sleep. Or fall in a coma. Coma definitely works! She pulled the blanket up over her head, 

noticing that Joker's bed smelt, oddly, of chalk dust. Chloe reached down to scratch an itch on her leg when she realized her jeans were gone. She was in the room of a deranged serial killer in only her bra and panties. Wonderful, can I kill myself now. Chloe groaned and wondered if she could fall into a coma just by thinking about it. Her vain attempts were cut off by the door opening and someone, most likely the Clown Prince himself, walking over and sitting down on the bed. He poked her in the stomach, "Wakey, wakey Chloe-kitty!"

Chloe rolled over mumbling, "Piss off Pennywise."

"Now don't be rude. First off, I don't eat children. And secondly, I was nice enough to give you a nice warm bed, my nice warm bed. I could have just dumped you back in your little room and you would have frozen to death without your clothes."

"You could have just given me another shirt. And what the hell was wrong with my pants?!"

"They were dirty."

"You made them dirty. I want my clothes back! Or at least my pants and an new shirt"

"You can't have your clothes back, I burned them." Joker stated simply.

"You what!?" Chloe sat up, the blanket pooling around her waist. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Joker just shrugged, staring intently at the scars covering her torso. Chloe realized what he was staring at and moved to cover herself up but Joker snatched the blanket from her grasp and threw it to the floor. She tried to get it back, but found herself pulled into Joker's lap as he leaned against the headboard of the bed. Chloe lay more than sat in his lap as he traced her scars with his fingers again. "Tell me how you got these scars."



"Each one has a different story and there too many for me to tell. Pick one and I'll tell you." Joker's finger stopped on the one on her sternum. Chloe hissed out between clenched teeth, "Pick another one!" He giggled softly before moving to the bite mark below her ribs. "About two years ago I had class with this guy, Frankie; you're typical loner goth dude who hated about ninety-nine percent of the student population at school. We were taking a European History class together and we had this huge project to do with a partner for like most of semester grade and me being the nice girl that I am, I asked him to be my partner. To make a very long story slightly less long, by the time we turned the project in he thought we were dating and I had a stalker. So, really, you are nothing new to me. Anyway, back to the bite mark. So now it's the beginning of the spring semester and Frankie's showing up everywhere, home work, outside my classes, my bedroom late at night. Well I finally get it through to him that I'm not interested and suddenly my life becomes Fatal Attraction without the hot elevator sex. I mean I call the cops and everything but still this guy keeps sending me his lovely little presents, which were nowhere near as nice as your roses but just as annoying. So one deliciously dark and stormy night he sneaks into my apartment, cuts off the power and phone lines to the whole fucking building and everything. And we go through the whole chasing and stuff till he's got me trapped in my bedroom and proceeds with the attempted rape, giving me this lovely little love-bite in the process."

"Attempted?" Joker snorted, he'd been giggling through most of the story while still unconsciously tracing her scars.

"He got damn close to the actual thing, but friend Johnny was coming over to sit with me and showed up just in time to be my hero. And I annoyed him for a month afterwards by refusing to 

refer to him as anything but 'My Hero.' So Frankie gets carted off by the police and is now getting the help he needs."

"You are just always getting yourself into trouble, aren't you Chloe-kitty?"

"Call me that again and I'll strangle you with your own intestines."

Joker threw his head back and laughed. Chloe snorted in disgust before lying completely across his lap and just staring up at the watermark stained ceiling. Joker's fingers moved from the scars to the now beginning to fade bruises left on her body from the day he kidnapped her. She had bruises on her sides and stomach from his kicks and punches, there were handprints on her shoulders from him grabbing her and fingerprints on her neck from being strangled. His hand drifted up to her cheek where a dark bruise was forming. Chloe closed her eyes and tried her best not to flinch away from his touch. "Now, now my little Chloe-kitty, I'm not going to hurt you. You're being such a good little girl."

"Does that mean I can have new clothes?" Chloe asked sweetly, "Please?"

Joker laughed at her, "Rage and hatred suit you more than innocence, but I suppose so. Can't have those lunatics out there getting ideas about my little kitten." He waved his arm in the direction of the closet. "Pick out something you like that fits."

"Yeah because they're the lunatics I have to worry about." Chloe mumbled getting off his lap and the bed and going to the closet. She searched for the cleanest, smallest clothes she could find, completely ignoring the nurse uniform that threatened to send her into a fit of giggles again. She found a pair of grey, or were they a faded black, slacks that wouldn't be too baggy. Slipping them on, she called out the door, "Hey, can I ask you a few things?"



"Is it about my scars?" Joker sounded slightly hopeful.

"I really hate to break it to you, but I really don't want to know how you got your scars. Can I ask you something else?" Chloe started digging for a shirt.

"Oh fine. What is it?"

"Why do you have a woman's nurse uniform in here?"

"Kinky sex."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

"Fine, but I'm still going to think of you as Nurse Joker."

"Why don't you wear that? We can role play!"

"No such luck clown." Chloe walked out buttoning up a light blue dress shirt. "And why do you keep calling me kitty and kitten? It's annoying; I'm not a pet you know."

"You make little cat noises when you sleep."

"I do not!" Chloe sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall next to the closet. Joker smirked at her and patted the mattress next to him; Chloe just shook her head and stayed where she was. "I've had my daily dose of Joker closeness, anymore and I'll get my own padded room in Arkham."

Joker got up and walked over to her, grabbing her arm roughly and dragging her up. "I thought we were past this Chloe, you were being such a good pet."



"I'm not your pet."

Joker slammed her back into the wall, but his expression was almost bored. "You are what I want you to be Chloe. You are mine. I don't enjoy punishing you; I don't enjoy causing you pain." Chloe gave him a skeptical look. "Well not completely anyway. But as pretty as you are all black and blue, you're even prettier without your lovely bruises. If you want to be stubborn and disobedient, I'll just take my clothes back and lock you in your little room again." His voice grew more into a growl with each word, his anger coming to the surface. "And you can see how much longer you can go without food until you're clawing at that door begging me for forgiveness."

"I-I want to stay." Chloe stuttered, her survival instinct beating out her hatred towards Joker. "I'll behave."

"Good!" Joker Stepped back and started going towards the door. "Now let's see what we can do about getting you some food." Chloe started to follow but Joker closed and locked the door behind him, leaving her trapped in a new cell.