The Road To Insanity
Summary: A Batman The Dark Knight Fanatic seems to find herself in the dark and dangerous world of Gotham City and soon in the leather purple gloves of The Joker. Her journey down the road to insanity will be dark and terrifying as she is led by the owner of a twisted smile.
Warnings: This story will contain swearing, some possible graphic killing/murder scenes and maybe a future sex scene. This story is rated M for a reason if you are uncomfortable reading such things you can ether skip through them or not read this, so please do not send me messages if you dislike some thing you have read. It was your choice to read it.
A/N: As always, I give thanks to those who have reviewed and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. To my readers, I wish to inform you that I will be having some of the more unrealistic aspects of the Batman universe in this story. An example of this is that at some point other Batman villains will make an appearance such as Poison Ivy.
Recap
With my attention turning back to the screen, I studied the picture once more. It had been downsized and placed into the corner of the television screen as the reporter continued to talk about the situation. Even with it shrunken down, I was still able to identify him.
It was highly unlikely that we would ever cross paths, but the thought was still interesting none the less. As the reporter continued to list the Joker's recent acts against the city, my eye lids began heavy and my body numbed. I leaned back into the couch and curled up with a pillow, allowing sleep to slowly take over. Before I was completely out, the image of the Joker was burned into my mind, allowing nothing else to be present in my thoughts while I slept.
The lyrics of Emilie Autumn's Shalott played in the background as I made my breakfast, a yolkless egg and toast. It has been about a month since I found myself in Gotham. In that time, I have saved the money I was paid from working at Cold Blooded and bought myself an apartment. The apartment wasn't overly big, but it suited me fine. The living room was a nice size and held a black sofa that could comfortably seat three people. In front of the sofa was an oriental style coffee table and just ahead was a moderately sized T.V that sat up against the wall.
The walls were painted a dark red while the carpet was a raven blue. The living room was connected to the small kitchen and was separated only by a kitchen counter, making the room appear larger. The walls of the kitchen were a typical cream colour, but the floor was black laminate. The kitchen's counters were also black but were lined with silver.
To the left of the kitchen was a door leading to my bedroom. The colour scheme of the living room was also used in the bed room. My wardrobe was black with silver handles, the bed frame was black metal and the sheets were different shades of purple as were the curtains covering the window. On the right wall was a door leading to the bathroom, which had a blue color scheme. The bathroom had a bath/shower with a midnight blue shower curtain. The sink was a typical white with mirror above it just next to it was a just as white toilette.
Apart from buying a place to live, I had also bought myself a phone, IPod and speakers, a purse and a bag. All in all, I feel quite comfortable in my new home.
I took my egg on toast meal into the living room and made my way to the couch. I sat down at the end so I would be able to rest my plate on the sofa's arm. After a few bites, I glanced over to the silver clock, which hanged up on the wall, only to realize that if I didn't hurry it up a bit, I would be late.
I finished up my breakfast before placing the dish into the sink and grabbing everything I would need for the day. Before I rushed towards the front door, I grabbed my purse and made a dash to my IPod and phone. I dropped the electronics into the purse just before I reached up to take hold of my appartment keys, which sat on a dividing counter.
I made my way to the front door and pulled on my trainers before exiting my apartment and locking it up. Leaving the apartment building, I joined the hundred of others that were making their way to work. The area was hidden away by a thick river of people that flowed down the street in a sloppy manner. There were individuals that would snake by, attempting to get ahead or people who would just stop. Those people held up a line and were usually shoved aside. It was most crowded in the mornings, I had noted after living in the area for only a few days.
My apartment wasn't to far from Cold Blooded, one of the reasons as to why I choose the building. The walk to work was the same as any other morning. I tried my best at avoiding the impatient beings, but wasn't always successful. At this point, I was certain the person behind me was purposely stepping on my heals.
Once Cold Blooded came into view, I almost had to fight my way out of the busy crowd just to get to the door. As I entered the reptile shop, I said, "Hello," to Darren, who was behind the counter, and then I began to make my way to the staff room. After put my bag in a safe place, I returned to the shop and started cleaning the reptiles' enclosures.
I began with the ones that were closest to the front of the shop due to the fact that these reptiles were for sale. Not all the reptiles that sat in the shop were for sale, however. The ones that were used in the demonstration area were owned by Darren, which is why they all have names.
After I finished cleaning, I returned to the staff room and scanned the white board, which hanged loosely on the wall. As I was scanning over the notes, all of which were written in Darren's semi sloppy cursive, I realized that there were some snakes that were in need of feeding.
The staffroom door began to open and almost immediately did my head snap back to get a look at who was stepping into the room. It was the teen Sam, the newer employee. We said our good mornings to one another before I informed him which of the non-serpent reptiles needed to be fed.
It had been decided by Darren that, after Sam had been employed, I would be the one to look after the snakes. Every time Sam made an attempt at feeding or handling the snakes they would lash out. So, for safety reasons, I was in charge of the snakes.
Some of the snakes that needed to be fed were several of the poisonous snakes and Tiny. I decided to feed Tiny first as I made my way to the freezer. I opened it up searched through the bagged animals before I grabbed a frozen rabbit. As I defrosted the small creature, I took hold of the largest sized tongs, which were kept in a drawer by the freezer. Rabbit and tongs in hand, I marched over to Tiny's enclosure, fishing through my pockets for the key along the way.
"Good morning Tiny," I said to the anaconda, who was curled up in a corner behind some plants. Unlocking the sliding glass door, I gripped the rabbit with the tongs and pushed opened the door just enough so I could dangle the rabbit inside. Using the tongs, I made the rabbit sway side to side to simulate it being still alive.
I waited quietly and patiently for Tiny to strike at it. After some time, Tiny's head shot out from under his coiled body and latched onto the rabbit, his fangs sinking deeply into the rabbit's flesh. Releasing the rabbit, I retracted the tongs and quickly closed the glass door and locked it. I watch for a couple of seconds as Tiny coiled his large body around the rabbit before I left to go care to the other deadly snakes.
Strangely enough, even the deadly snakes didn't mind my presence and very rarely did they ever try to strike out at me. I had noticed that every time they did it was when someone else was with me, or if either Sam or Darren popped their heads through the black curtain. The curtain was placed there so the snakes didn't feel overly threatened with having people stare down at them. Despite the cobras, rattlers and other dangerous snakes feeling comfortable in my presence, I still wore thick gloves, just in case.
The rest of the morning was relatively normal, which included the few idiots who almost got bitten, but aside from that, nothing of interest happened. After my lunch break with Darren and Sam, I was setting up the demonstration area like normal when I heard Darren speaking to someone whose voice I vaguely recognized.
"Here she is!" Darren stepped over to me, a smile playing on his lips. "This is Miss Lilith Nights, our demonstrator and snake whisperer." he said with a small chuckle when he added the title both he and Sam had given me. Darren walked over into the demonstration area, followed by a person I had never expected to see.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Nights. I'm Bruce Wayne." said the man whom had confirmed he was, in fact, who I thought he was and that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. He held out his hand and I, in return, numbly gave him a handshake. My thought process had stopped almost completely and I didn't know what to do or how to act. Shit.WhatdoIdo?I thought, still to shocked to speak. I hadn't even noticed that he let my hand go until I felt it drop to my side.
"Uh…" I hesitated for a moment. "Nice to meet you to Mr. Wayne," I said once I found my voice. For now, I decided to act as professional as I could and try my best not to stare at him. I glanced over to Darren with a questioning look in my mismatched eyes before returning my gaze to Bruce.
"Mr. Wayne would like to hire you for charity fundraiser," Darren said, answering my unasked question before leaving to the front of the store so Bruce could talk to me a bit more privately about the fundraiser.
"You might have already figured this out, but the fundraiser is for endanger species. Hopefully, it will help in preventing more animals from falling onto the endangered list." Bruce said after motioning me to continue with my work.
I knew that this fundraiser could be one of two things. One reason was that he was doing this to up hold his 'Billionaire Playboy' persona, or it was something he was hoping the Joker wouldn't be able to resist crashing. I thought about all the pros and cons of agreeing to being a form of entertainment for the fundraiser as I pulled Allsorts, a rat/corn snake mix, from his tank.
"Alright, Mr. Wayne, I will agree to being apart of this fundraiser." I said, turning to face him. The oddly affectionate snake coiling around my arms and hands, giving me a light squeeze.
"Great! Do you think you could bring some of the more dangerous snakes as well?" he asked with a smile. That soon disappeared when Allsorts moved his head a bit to close to Bruce's face before I could regain control of the little snake. Moving to the centre of the demonstration area, I sat on a stool that had been placed there earlier.
"That depends. Will I be on a stage or will it be like how I do demonstrations here?" I asked. If I was on a stage, then yes I could bring some of the more dangerous snakes. There would be no chance of someone getting bitten that way. It would be me and not some poor fool who got to close. Instead of giving verbal confirmation, he just nodded and in returned I told him I would be able to brig the more dangerous snakes.
After that, I expected him to leave, but instead he stayed and watched my demonstration for himself. He, unfortunately, was a little distracting as I still wasn't to sure on how I should act around him. All my movements were slightly robotic and I began to worry that Bruce would pick up on my behaviour. The fact that he didn't know that I knew he was Batman made it much worse. Thankfully, it seemed the snakes picked up on my inner battle and seemed to just go through the motions of the demonstration with me, making the situation much simpler.
Once the demonstration was over, I was all to pleased to watch Bruce Wayne leave. A smile nearly formed on my lips as I let out a small sigh of relief. I could now put the problem of how-to-act-around-Bruce to the back of my mind and focus on my work. It was still a few hours before I could leave and return home, but I passed the time by re-filling some of the enclosures' water bowls and gave a hand to customers when they needed assistance.
The walk home was defiantly different than the walk to work. The main difference, I noted. was that the streets were practically empty. However, unlike normal women who had just pepper spray, I had convinced Darren to let me milk the spitting cobra he owned. Once I had the poison, I emptied a pepper spray container and replaced it with said poison. I thought it would be more effective and, as long as the poison isn't introduced to the blood stream, no one will die. Getting it into someone's eye will cause high irritation and possible blindness. Rubbing the eyes will only make it worse.
Thankfully, I didn't have to use my poison spray and made it to my apartment without incident. After I finished preparing my dinner, I sat and watched Phantom of the Opera. As the movie progressed, I could feel my lids become heavy. I decided that it was time to head down to my bedroom, once I cleaned up my dinner mess, and change into my pyjamas. Tonight, I slipped into my silky blue pyjama set before settling under my bed sheets.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait but we had a power surge not to long ago and it turned my computer off before I could save. I hope every one enjoyed this chapter and I can promise that Joker will be in the next chapter. As always I give my thanks to my BETA and as you can see she will be putting her own messages at the bottom as well. I hope you will review.
E/N:I will be writing messages here from now on. . . If you ever spot a grammar mistake, please don't hesitate to send me a message or write it in a review (^_^)
