Carnival of Souls Chapter 4, a Batman + Fruits Basket Crossover fanfic

The woman's terrified gaze fell along the pale eyed predator as he himself began to smile.

A wide, frightening predatory smile promising pain as thin, perfect lips curled in pleasure to reveal his malicious intent.

And as he stalked forward to claim the woman for himself the more exotic man stepped almost defensively in front of her to stop his approach.

"Aa." The man held his hand in protest, projecting an air of authority to usurp the other's actions. "Not yet." He cautioned, his voice oddly deeper as he exuded dominance and control over the situation. "This one may still prove to be useful."

"I don't care." The blue eyed devil practically growled in warning, angry and frustrated at having been thwarted.

"You will..." The man responded coolly, his affect strangely calm in the face of his partner's overt hostility. "...if she happens to know the whereabouts of the man you're looking for and you decide to end her life prematurely." This came velvet smooth as the man stood firm against his enemy's wishes. "Allow me to find out what she knows..." He murmured softly in a quiet, almost soothing lull. "...then you may have your way with her, hm?" Depthless black orbs watched his partner consider this fact for a moment, that pale blue gaze drifting from the woman back up to him as he pushed a sigh through his slender nose.

"Fine." This concession came harshly snapped from thin lips as the man's personal space was almost violently invaded as his adversary closed what little space had been between them. "But don't you dare fucking kill her, you understand?" The man absorbed this whispered threat in his ear. "The bitch is mine."

"Very well." The man hummed as his partner backed away, the two exchanging a silent look before the man offered a cheeky smile towards his victory.

"Now then..." He trilled happily, his voice effortlessly dispelling the tension that had momentarily engulfed the moment as he spoke to the woman beneath him. "...where were we, my dear?"

The man dropped himself to her level, finally releasing the hold he'd had on her hair.

"Ah yes." That smile of his came sickeningly sweet and just a bit coy as he continued. "I have some questions for you." He held that terrified cerulean gaze as the woman feebly attempted to shrink away from him. "If you cooperate with me, I promise that your suffering will be minimal and this will end quickly, hm?"

A hand cupped slender fingers over the cigarette as the man's blue eyed cohort lit it, settling himself in to play spectator to this interrogation. He took a slow drag before exhaling a breath of smoke, holding the cigarette delicately poised between his fingers as he closely monitored the man's every action through a veil of smoke and scrutinizing eyes.

Feeling the eyes of his partner upon him, the man once again held out the Joker's calling card, his expression kindly and inviting despite his pale complexion being painted and grotesquely marred by the blood of their previous victims.

"Tell me, my dear..." The man cooed, his voice a gentle, soft lilt as it came a salve to her fear. "Do you know where this man is?"

The woman deliberated with herself, her blue eyes shifting quietly from the man's face to the card, and back to his face as she attempted to discern what answer would spare her pain. And she could see that the longer she remained silent, the more his friendly demeanor seemed to chip away and crumple. He was becoming impatient with her. She could feel it. And as time moved to an agonizingly slow crawl, she could sense the other's cold stare on the both of them.

Waiting.

Watching.

Anticipating what this man would do to her.

Suddenly, and without warning, the man's expression contorted as he drew a sharp breath into his nose and the back of his hand made violent contact with the woman's face, striking her to the ground. The sound of this brutality rang out and ricocheted off the walls as she let out a gasped sob of anguish. And the man seemed satisfied by the sound of her pain as he shook out the sting of his hand at having struck her so harshly.

"Now then..." The man smiled to himself as the woman attempted to stifle her whimpered cries. "Shall we try this again?" He asked with that same kindly smile as the woman now openly sobbed before he gave a moments pause.

"Believe me..." The man murmured empathetically, his well groomed brows furrowing towards her open distress. "...the mere thought of harming a woman gives me no pleasure, I assure you my darling child." The man offered lightly in the ensuing silence. "But you must understand this, my dear. I am not a man to shy away from what is necessary in order to be taken seriously, hm?" He murmured lightly through the woman's stifled sobs. "No matter how deplorable the means may have to be to achieve that end." A small sigh pushed itself through the man's nose as he mused to himself over his next course of unseemly action. "And believe me..." He uttered this, his voice dropping for effect as he leaned a little closer to the cowering woman. "...there are a great many unspeakably vile acts I can, and will force upon you if you insist on keeping this man from me."

"I don't know where he is!" The woman broke down, her body shaken and rocked with unintelligible sobs as she held her face where she had been painfully struck.

"I see..." The man gave himself over to a small, disappointed sigh as his dark gaze fell to the card lingering in his hand. "Then you leave me little choice, my dear." His voice came grim along the words that parted his lips. "It seems that I will have to resort to more...creative...methods of coaxing the truth from you."

And with these most fateful words, the woman's tortured screams of pain and anguish rent the air as the man systematically beat and abused her in the most imaginatively deplorable and painful ways possible. For the next hour, there was no breath or pause between his abuse and the sounds retched from her lips.

For an hour...he had his way with her.

For an hour, her body belonged to him.

And for that hour, the woman maintained her silence as to the whereabouts of the Joker despite the man's vigorous efforts in retrieving the answer from her.

As the woman lay still and breathless from having endured such torture...and lived...the more exotic man stood and raised himself from his handiwork. His once refined and attractive inky tresses were now smattered and sticky with her blood. Slowly walking towards his partner, dark orbs met pale blue as he held a somber expression.

"Well..?" His adversary murmured coldly. "Does she know where he is?"

"I'm afraid not, sadly." The man replied with a sigh of disappointed exasperation.

"Then it's my turn with her." This came low and ominous as the man gave himself over to a reluctant nod of concession.

"So it is." And the man turned back to the woman as his counterpart silently stalked behind.

"Well, my dear." His voice raised to the huddled, beaten mass along the floor that had once been a beautiful woman. "It has been a delight getting to know you so intimately, but I fear my associate has grown quite impatient." These words were cordial with an air of sophistication along the delicate lilt of his effeminate voice. "So I'm afraid I must now hand you over to him."

With this, the man took a step back as his partner approached his defenseless prey. The woman shrank back and coward as best she could to protect herself, but was once again roughly gripped by her hair as this new abuser pulled her closer to him to prevent her escape. The two held each others gaze. Blue violently collided with blue as he coldly regarded the woman's swollen and battered face. And the woman's body began to shudder and tremble underneath that pale blue gaze.

"Who are you..?" She feebly whimpered out through the tremble of her lip as the face before her held a strangely stoic countenance before her captor leaned in and brushed his lips against her ear.

And with each whispered word, more horrified tears streaked along her smudged cheeks.

"Please..." She whispered. "...no..."

"Say it."

"Please don't do this." She cried in grotesque, choked sobs.

"Say it." This demand came more emphatically hissed in her hear as the fingers in her hair tightened their grip and tugged, causing a pained moan to be maliciously pulled from her lips.

"Please..." She gasped against the breathless pants of growing hysteria. "...Kris..." And she felt the tremble of his lips against the flesh of her cheek before another cold whisper infiltrated her fear muddled mind.

"Now...scream it." The woman's breath hitched in her throat as her chest heaved in turmoil over this new demand.

"No..." She continued to desperately implore her new captor. "Please don't make me..."

These fragile pleas were ignored, however, as the woman felt her hair violently pulled again. Her head was tugged away as the demanding lips hovering next to her ear were replaced by something far more menacing pressed against her temple. Squeezing her eyes shut, the woman began to tremble along the heavy, frightened sobs rocking her beaten, violated body. And a deeper, more masculine scream perforated her ear as it drowned out her own desperate cries.

"SCREAM IT!"

This snarled shriek of a demand rent the air with such violent force and searing, hateful rage as the woman felt the gun held to her temple pressed more firmly against her head. Her voice bubbled up and manifested through her cries in an almost unintelligible rush of words as she began to comply.

"Kris!" She screamed his name as he had demanded before continuing to beg for her life. "Please! Don't do thi-"

The woman's final cry was swallowed up and engulfed by the resonating sound of a single gunshot as it rang out to herald her gruesome demise. And the silence that followed washed up and lapped over the moment in rippled waves. Like those of a pond that had been disturbed by a stone's throw as the water trembled before coming to still again.

And in this stillness...shuddered, ragged breaths pushed through a slender nose as the man's partner steadied himself against the cathartic rush that had just befallen him. As the man slowly approached his companion and the corpse of a woman next to him, the predatory blue eyed wolf's back stiffened to this intrusion. An arm came wordlessly extended in warning, the silence caressed with the soft click of a cocked hammer as the man found himself precariously held at gunpoint.

"Not. A fucking. Word." This came hissed in warning through shaky breaths as the man stilled in his approach, giving his nemesis silence through this bout of emotional vulnerability.

He had seen this side only once before. And he knew from personal experience that it would be dangerous and foolhardy to approach any closer until his adversary regained calm. As he allowed his enemy to ride out this turbulent storm in silence, the man sat in the aftermath of what they had just accomplished. Together.

And it was simply beautiful to behold.

Listening to his cohort's breath even as that lean form began to relax and the gun was safely lowered, the man gave an almost tender sigh to his enemy's back.

"Do you feel better?" He asked through that soft, quiet lilt of his as his adversary set his gun down next to him on the floor where he still knelt.

"No." This came a cold, breathless murmured response to his question.

"You know..." The man lulled through almost flawless English. "...you might want to consider seeking out someone to speak with about this little problem of yours." And this seemed to generate a thick snort of amusement from his arch nemesis as his head drooped somewhat.

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"Only a little." The man purred admittance through the simpler of a smile.

"Our work here is done." He spoke along the strange calm that had now enveloped and tenderly embraced this moment. "We should be readying ourselves to leave, hm?" And to this he watched his partner give the nod of his head before retrieving his firearm and drawing himself to a stand.

With the slow turn, the man gazed upon his partner's face that was now...like his...splattered in the war paint made of the blood of their victims. Yet that expression and countenance was the same he always held. Cold. Calm. At peace in the madness and chaos he had just created. Had begun and brought to an end.

Tucking his gun to the small of his back, the man's adversary fished through the pockets of his business slacks to retrieve his precious cigarettes. Taking one from the pack before slipping the rest back from where he'd claimed them, thin fingers curled around the cigarette as the man watched him light it. Lips met the end of the cigarette in a lovers kiss as the blue eyed wolf took a satisfied drag before tilting his head back to exhale a long curl of smoke from his slender nose.

"Will you be driving?" The man asked through this almost blissful moment of peace after the violent chaos of the storm.

"Mm." The man's partner gave a small hum of acknowledgment through another drag of his cigarette as the man's lips spread in the simpler of a smile.

"Wonderful." He lulled happily, tiptoeing over the myriad of corpses littering the floor beneath his feet as he saunter his lithe frame towards the demolished bar. "This calls for a drink, then."

The man helped himself to the other side of the counter once more, perusing the few intact bottles of liquor that had managed to survive the fray. Finding one he fancied, the man plucked it from its place along the shelf before helping himself to a gaudy crystal glass in one of the cabinets. Pouring a generous helping of the whiskey into his glass, the man then gracefully perched himself along the top of the counter. Draping his long slender legs off the edge as they came tantalizing crossed at the thigh, the man sat poised along the bar, savoring the sweet, spice and satisfying afterburn of the alcohol as it slid along his tongue and down his throat.

"You do realize what you've just done." The man drawled softly as he absentmindedly swirled the amber liquid in a dance. "You've just begun a war."

"I know." The man's companion murmured through a breath of smoke before continuing in a sardonic tone. "Don't tell me that worries you."

"Mm..." The man lightly shook his head, partaking in another sip of his drink. "On the contrary, I assure you." He mused through a wry smile. "I find it quite exhilarating." Lips met the rim of the glass a final time as the man consumed the rest of his drink before easing himself off the counter top.

Placing the empty glass along the bar, the man slowly approached his partner in crime as the two regarded each other. Both bathed in blood and a little worse for wear, the two held a silent stare as dark obsidian pools delved into an endless ocean of frigid ice. These mortal enemies turned precarious allies. Tightly bound to each other in an unholy union, who could...and would...just as quickly turn on each other if the upper hand ever presented itself in their favor.

"Let's get out of here." The blue eyed fiend murmured coolly from thin lips, the cigarette poised gracefully between his fingers as the man nodded agreement.

Moving as one towards the exit, the man's adversary casually flicked his spent cigarette to the floor. And as it kissed the ground beneath them embers ignited what had earlier been doused in fuel as they passed through the threshold and left, one trailing behind the other.

Stepping into the light of day and the sidewalk of a city just waiting to burst into life, the two gave one final glance over the shoulder to the establishment they had just laid waist to...the flames now visible from the glass windows of the front entrance they had just passed.

"It truly is a shame we were unable to discover where this man is hiding..." The man mused to himself almost listlessly as his dark obsidian gaze took in the growing flames from the inside of the building.

"Not really." This came cold and passive in response to the man's inner thoughts.

"Oh?" The man murmured lightly as his adversary partook in another of his vices. "But you seemed so intent on finding him..." He quipped as he watched thin, perfect lips lace around the cigarette before it came poised between his partner's fingers.

"I was." This came in response to the man's statement. "But now this fucker's going to come find me." And as he said this, his hand came slipped into the pocket of his slacks once more as fingertips withdrew a small calling card of his own.

And the man chuckled to himself as he watched his nemesis strategically place this card along the glass window of the entrance. A signature of sorts as the King of Spades came almost theatrically displayed along the window, marking the building in an almost egotistical manner with the first letter of his name.

"Fancy yourself a king, now, do you?" The man questioned with a wry smile.

"And what if I do?" The blue eyed wolf countered this question with a cold stare as the man continued to smile.

"If you mean to rule this city, Mr. Mitchell..." The man responded along the simper of a smile. "...then I shall remain the Ace up your sleeve."

The End

Let's watch it burn...

Let's watch this city burn the world

Let's watch this city burn
From the skylines on top of the world
'Til there's nothin' left of her
Let's watch this city burn the world

My body doused in ash

With two empty cans of gas

The only evidence they have

Is a police sketch of my mask

And it's hard at times to ask

If you can save my heart for last

And it's hard to face the facts

When the darkness fades to black

It's not just make believe

When they make me take a seat

And they put amphetamines

In the air and make me breathe

So come on and grab your children

Look out for burning buildin's

And villains

Who pillage

They killin' by the millions

And billions

Of people die, for a lost cause

So now I pray to my nation destroyed under God!

It's the end of the world...

All my battles have been won,

But the war has just begun!

Let's watch this city burn
From the skylines on top of the world
'Til there's nothin' left of her
Let's watch this city burn the world

The city looks so pretty

Do you wanna burn it with me?

'Til the skies bleeds ashes

And the fuckin' skyline crashes

They catch us with matches to ignite the flame

And all the hopes of a youth deemed fuckin' insane

They say

Take the pill!

In God we trust!

Go and kill!

God loves us!

As in life!

As in death!

Breathing 'til there is no breath!

I will not die in the night

But in the light

Of the sun

With the ashes of this world in my lungs

But who am I to say

Let's all just run away

Grab your saints, and pray

We're gonna burn this world today!

Say it's the end of the world...

As in heaven

As on earth

We've been dead since our birth!

Let's watch this city burn
From the skylines on top of the world
'Til there's nothin' left of her
Let's watch this city burn the world

Let's watch it burn...

The city looks so pretty!