Just so everyone knows, the joker was based on the Dark Night Joker, so not the original acid burned one, the crazy killer one that doesn't suffocate people, the one that makes pencils disappear xD and puts smiles on their faces because they are too serious. FOR A LATER PART IN MY STORY… I do not own the Black Blood, that was from an Anime/ Manga series created by Atsushi Okubo, Crona also belongs to him.
JK CHPTR 4
RICHARD'S POV
"Catherine Ivanov, will you marry me?" I sighed as I spotted myself in the mirror; I didn't even think this was the right time, maybe a few more months. I want to marry her, I love her and I know she loves me, but is now really a good time? We've been dating for two years; we are very serious even to the point where I just want to tell her everything, how much I need her and how much I wanted her to be with me for the rest of my life.
I love her, I enjoy her personality and she's very beautiful. She has a light brown shade of hair that reminds me of coffee. Her eyes they remind me of… well, there isn't anything I can use to describe those striking green eyes that see everyone with friendly expressions, they have love in them, and you can see it. They are like rolling hills of green grass. Her pale skin reminds me of a china doll even though she is French (from her biological father and her mother) not Russian.
She's always nice to someone, she tries to be nice to everyone all the time, and she hates it when she hurts someone's feelings. She tends to worry about me *cough* I'm Nightwing not peewee. She worries about everyone. She's smart but tries not to show off, she thinks it's rude. I love how she thinks of the most logical reason before anyone else can. She tries to cheer everyone up, she's a good person, she's friendly, and she is extremely family oriented. She's a bookworm, not very athletic but she does enjoy sports. She always knows good art and writing and sees everything people do as a work of art. She believes in having fun, she believes that anyone can inspire you. Catherine is my inspiration, she's inspired me to do things and think in a way I usually would not. Oh look, I'm in my own world, babbling again.
I looked down at my ridiculous plaid pajama pants. I decided I should wait a while before asking her to marry me. I got myself dressed for work; I worked at a museum, as a museum curator (sounds boring? DEAL WITH IT, I'm in a mother fudging comic book and you aren't). Okay so I don't have such an awesome way with words so it sounds like I don't really love her that much but I do. I would kill myself if it meant that she would still live. I would give up everything I had on this earth just so I could be with her. I think I'd even give up Nightwing, but she'd never let me do that, she knows how important protecting people is to me.
I put on a dress shirt and some nice pants. Slipping on my tie, I hurried down stairs of my apartment building in New York City. I stepped outside into the parking lot, I found my car and I got in. I can't say the rest of my work day was as interesting but I can tell you I got a nasty surprise during the night, He was atop a building, beating a poor man to death with a golf club.
"Mr. Fun, you better stop right there!" I called; the middle aged man looked up at me and smiled.
"But I'm having so much fun, can't you respect that? I know you like to have fun too." I ran towards him and he casually put the head of the club to the ground as if he was going to hit a gold ball. When I got closer he tried to hit me with it. I jumped over him and landed behind him. He shook his head as if ashamed of me and he lifted the club, he was doing something with it. It was only until I moved to grab him did I realize I made a mistake.
Okay, why is it always that when I get in a fight with a villain, whether it is a man or a woman I also end up getting whacked by someone or something right where it hurts the most? I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not able to have kids when I get married, seriously this is getting ridiculous, I need to wear something or make sure that I don't get hit there, or even better, do both. I doubled over in pain, gripping the assaulted area with both hands, giving it a little more protection if he hit there again.
"So," he said in a cruel joke voice, "you are a male." He laughed to himself and lifted the club. Seriously, I didn't even care; all I could think about was how much pain was pulsing through that certain part of my body that allows me to have kids. I was so concentrated on this one part that it didn't even register in my mind that Mr. Fun had been knocked sideways by something really fast.
"Nightwing! What are you doing cupping your—." Flash was cut off by my middle finger. "Fine," He had Mr. Fun over his shoulder and he threw him into a dumpster, leaving him there, closing the top over him and then chaining the thing shut with some chain he had sped away to get. I tried to stand up, slouching over a bit because it hurt to stand up all the way. "Dude," Flash was laughing at me, "You need to go home now, I'm afraid you might be a woman."
"Asshole," I muttered the word through gritted teeth and he helped me off of the building, in the direction of my apartment.
OOOO
Emily Grauss' POV
Surprisingly, there wasn't that much traffic on my street so I could drive a little faster. This was late at night and I had just gotten through with one of the worst dates ever so all I was thinking about was my nice, warm, cozy comfy bed at home. Of course, they always have the streetlights on and I have my, I headlights to my green Dodge Neon (I friggin' love this car), but those didn't help one bit when this guy jumped right out in front of me and he rolled up on my car when I hit him, he scratched the windshield and he fell off after I slammed the breaks. I got out of my car and went around to the other side to see him. He was still breathing, the poor guy, he'll have to be taken to the hospital in those embarrassing clothes. A green base with purple question marks all over and that embarrassing but surprisingly cute hat, I would kind of be embarrassed if I died in those. I got a look at the poor man's face and he was quite handsome, a little older than I was maybe, in his thirties or forties, but I liked what I saw. Damn, you drive near Gotham city and all the freaks just are liked magnetized to your car, it's like they all want to die. I shook him awake and he came to for a few seconds, called me a nasty name and he passed out again. I stopped and listened. It was kind of quiet on this street except for my car engine, the man's breathing, the wind and a low mischievous and dark laughter coming from one of the alleyways.
I was still crouched beside the man I had hit when another man's voice spoke, "Maybe I could use her friends to get close to my little girl?" I didn't know who he was talking about but I then came aware of the man beside me moving. I hadn't noticed a cane he had, it had a question mark on the head and it was green and gold. He used it to club me in the head, one of the sensitive spots where you can get knocked out easily if you get hit there, like in the back; he hit me in the back of the head. I was only aware of the two men talking before I passed out. I never knew I would never see the light of day again… or my bed.
OOOOOOOO
Catherine Ivanov's POV
"Papa!" I cried on my Stepfather's shoulder once I got the news from Emily's mother. Emily had been missing for four days now and the police have investigated everywhere. They found her car, still running on the first day she was missing, in the middle of the street after someone had called the police to tell them that a car was running with nobody inside. Inside her car they found her ID, her credit cards and her wallet, and everything. She was last seen leaving a small restaurant in New York, near Gotham but nobody had seen her after that. They suspected her date for the murderer but somebody had proved him innocent- his mother. They have presumed her dead but still continue to look for her so they can find the murderer if she was murdered.
OOOO
I couldn't believe my own best friend, who I had spent nearly all my school years, from first grade until graduation was gone. They found her body, she had been suffocated. They had found her in an old apartment building that they were about to tear down. Nobody lived there anymore; they were going to clean it out. She was found in a half-open refrigerator that wasn't running, wrapped in plastic but the investigators found she wasn't suffocated by the plastic, it was something else and they were going to find out. They assumed it was the leaking gas tank they found, it was broken but they found no fingerprints other than Emily's, she didn't commit suicide, the autopsies and the crime-scene photos show she was struggling. A few, long, long weeks later we were able to have her funeral. The police had stopped searching for the killer. During her funeral, I cried the whole time, silently, tears spilled down my cheeks.
"This is wrong," her mother said, "Mothers shouldn't have to bury their children, this is wrong!" she sobbed and I hugged her, she was like a mother to me whenever I had visited when we were young. It was closed casket, so nobody had to look at her bruised and beaten face or that creepy grin that was frozen on it forever. It seemed like it lasted forever until the Pallbearers carried her casket. Emily was a completely free person, it was difficult for me to think hat she was closed up in that box and would stay there forever. It took an eternity to place the coffin in the ground.
OOOO
FOUR MONTHS AFTER…
Of course, since I am a school secretary, I know the school environment, it's like a small neighborhood except with a LOT more children and less adults and no pets except for in the science rooms. Being in this environment allows some people to make friends, sometimes unwanted friends such as the single, middle-aged math teacher or the creepy new science teacher who you are pretty sure wants to rape and dissect you, especially if you are a single school secretary that wears a size five in bottoms and C's in her shirt with hair that smells like coconuts. But I do have new friends like the seventh grade social studies teacher Miss Harl, she was from New York, she had a queen's accent. We both are extremely freaked out by Mr. Rekoj who just recently became a teacher. He supposedly got into an accident when he was a young boy so we can't blame him for the scars on his face but we can for the way he acts. Science teachers are a little less boring than most of the teachers in the school but Mr. Rekoj takes it to a whole new level. I've had reports of the children being terrified of him because of his acts of rage in school. What bothers me most is the fact children come out nearly bursting with tears but when I talk to him he is almost as sweet as honey. Personally though, he looks strangely familiar as if from an old dream I don't dream of anymore. He has green eyes and the color is like mine and that haunts me. He's also been acting inappropriately, talking about poisons and different ways to use them to get revenge. That isn't something the kids should hear and I've walked by his classroom while he was talking about it. I'm afraid I'll have to report him.
However freaky he might be, it's not as disgusting as Mr. Hilmar who sexually harasses every young female staff member, along with a few students. He has been reported several times by several teachers but the principal just won't fire him. Near the end of the school day when the kids had already left and now the teachers were I felt someone watching me but I hadn't heard them come into the office. I turned around to find Mr. Rekoj there, his brown/gray hair still messy and his tie still crooked with his shirt and pants wrinkled and stained.
I smiled, "Can I do anything for you?" Just being in this man's presence sent unpleasant chills down my spine and made my stomach churn, I wished I had brought sneakers so I could run home but I wear uncomfortable heels to work every day, they are only made for walking.
"I just wanted to say goodbye." His eyes were soft as if he were sad. They were too familiar and I tried to remember if I had seen them somewhere else. I couldn't think.
"Goodbye, Mr. Rekoj, have a good night." He turned and left a few seconds later, that sorrowful look still in his eye.
"Hey you want to go somewhere tonight?" Miss Harl, or as everyone but students called her, Quintin (unusual name for a girl but it's a nice one), walked in the office waiting for me as I logged off of the computer and finished putting student files back in a cabinet.
"That sounds good, where do you want to go to?"
"Well, I was thinking, you haven't really been able to have that much fun lately; do you want to go to a bar?"
I tipped my head back and smiled, "I don't drink, and you know that."
"Yeah," She laughed, "You should though you look like you need to have a little fun, you've been so tired, and maybe Richard would want to go."
"Richard works at night, but I'll go with you." Quintin laughed and her frizzy blonde hair shook. She reminded me of Emily except her hair was darker and she was less reckless, plus, she had totally different eye color, she had hazel instead. I missed Emily.
After we finished from that bar she wanted to go to I decided to visit Emily's grave, it was her birthday today too, and I visited at night like she would have visited mine if it were me in the casket. Quintin went home and I went to the graveyard. To my chagrin, I found someone who I'm sure doesn't like me too much digging up her grave.
"Batman! Respect for the dead you bastard!" Tears were streaming down my face and I must have caught him off guard because he jerked his head up.
"I'm doing you a favor, Catherine; I'm finding who her killer was." My jaw dropped, he said it with no emotion whatsoever.
"Drop the shovel, Batman." He didn't do as I asked, (okay told) and the fact that he ignored me over something like this, he was digging up my best friend, how could I let him? "I said drop the damn shovel! The police couldn't find her killer; I doubt you would be able to either!" Tears were flooding down my face and dropping down, dripping off my chin and getting on my clothes and making my hair stick to my cheeks.
"The killer was no ordinary man; did you see the smile on her face?" He glanced at me, "Sure, he grew out of doing that and started just plain manslaughter with knives, putting smiles on their faces with knives and killing them with bloody murder, making them suffer in pain and not in suffocation but it's the same man. We're dealing with the Joker here."
My voice turned sour, "Why the hell didn't you figure that out four months ago? Why? Are you going to tell me? Don't you think her parents deserve to know? Don't you think I and all the people who love her deserve to know? You're a stupid son-of-a-bitch!" He climbed out of the hole he was digging and grabbed me, pulling me behind a large gravestone and placing a hand over my mouth.
"Be silent, be still, someone is coming." I stopped trying to elbow him in the gut because it was hurting me more than him. A muffled sob escaped my lips as I tried to calm myself. "Sssh," it was as if he was trying to soothe and calm me down. He rubbed my arm as if he cared. Someone was coming. Batman and I were knelt down with his cape over us so they wouldn't see us, we watched over the headstone as three people engaged in a slightly crazy and angry but also funny conversation. There were two men walking and a woman doing cartwheels.
"You said she was here, Harley, you didn't lie to me did you?" That voice and the one that replied to him were all too familiar.
"No I wasn't Lyin' Mista J! Promise, she told me she was comin' here, maybe she left already, but I doubt it, if she did she would have been here for only a few minutes."
Batman whispered to me, "The Joker, Harley Quinn, and I'm guessing the Riddler by the way he's walking with the cane."
I almost threw up, Mr. Rekoj, and my own friend Quintin were villains. "T-they work at the school I work at." How coul I have been so stupid? They had such easy names to figure out!
"What?" Batman was surprised, "They work there? They must have been planning to kill you, they came looking for you tonight." We stopped as the Joker started to speak. I watched him, he had white face paint with red on his lips and black on his eyes, it was like it was smeared carelessly over his face. He was crazy, I could tell by his low, haunting voice that seemed almost too familiar to me now, different than in school, the lowness that was almost calm was familiar but I hadn't ever heard the twinge of insanity before.
"What's this?" He picked something up, "Is this a shovel? Hmm, Batsy must have been here." He twirled it and played with it while he called out into the night, "Come out Bats, I know you're here. Come on, I just want to say hello and show you a trick, have you ever seen me make a pencil disappear? I'll find you and when I do you better be smiling… or I'll make you smile." He pulled a pocket knife out of his green vest; it was a kind of dirty and wrinkled vest as were his purple shirt and pants. He had a crazy look in his bright green eyes as he watched the rusty blade reveal itself. I then saw how familiar the eyes were, they were familiar but I hadn't seen the insanity in them on me or anyone I knew, I just knew that they were exactly the color of mine, and it scared me half to death. The Joker started to sing a nursery rhyme from Mother Goose's rhymes, "Bat, bat, come under my hat and I'll give you a slice of bacon; and when I bake, I'll give you a cake if I am not mistaken." He then laughed sadistically and I shivered. Batman noticed my discomfort and held me tight.
"We are going to leave, don't worry," he whispered and we started to move but unfortunately we were noticed by Harley Quinn who has sat upon the tallest Headstone.
"Hey! Mista J, I found 'em!" She jumped off and landed in front of us and started to kick Batman in the face. He dodged and told me to run, I obeyed but I tripped on a flat headstone and fell on my face, getting a mouth full of mud.
"Dammit!" I yelled, getting up, thankfully someone else was here, so freakin' glad he loved me as much as I love him, Richard pulled me up onto my feet and called to someone.
"Flash! Get her out of here!"
In a blur, he appeared dressed in red and yellow, "Sure thing!" I was picked up off of my feet totally and I almost passed out from the speed we were going. "Stay here, alright Catherine?" He left me, overwhelmed and dizzy from sudden cease and start of mass acceleration, on the sidewalk, unable to stand. My legs felt like jelly and I felt lightheaded and woozy. I sat, hunched over, trying to breathe. I changed speeds too quickly to feel comfortable. I'm sure I was about to throw up.
After a few seconds I started to feel better and decided to stand. I had a little trouble but I managed. I stumbled over a bit, almost falling off the sidewalk, and in return; the bat car nearly ran over me.
"Asshole! Watch where you drive this damn death trap!" Okay so when I'm mad I tend to cuss, it's a bad habit, I hope Richard doesn't think less of me. Batman came out from behind me and was about to go into his car, "Wait a second! Where the hell do you think you're going without an explanation?"
He lifted his gaze from the sleek black vehicle to my green eyes, "What type of explanation do you need?"
"I mean why were you digging up my grave and why was the Joker looking for me? The Joker, Batman! Why was the most dangerous sociopath you have ever fought looking for me of all people? What have I done to lure that creep to me? Does it have something to do with you? Maybe I hang around you too much; yeah I think that's it—."
"Catie," Richard came to the side of me and looked at Batman, "They got away but Catherine is safe for now," He placed a hand on my shoulder and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. My best friend's grave, dug up by some tight wearing bastard!
"I dug up her grave," The Bat's voice was deep and there were no traces of emotion, "Because I needed to see something, I needed to see the grin on her face."
"You could have asked for the autopsy photos," my own voice was barely a whisper, "But instead you just dug up her grave, you are a sick, sick man." A hot stream of frustrated tears burned my cheeks.
"I'll take her home, Batman," Richard led me down the street, someone in red and yellow right in front of us. "Hey Flash, what are you still doing here, you don't have to stay you know."
"What?" Flash answered, "Your buddy Flash can't come to visit? I think I should, I saved your balls from falling off four months ago, you owe me because you got a girlfriend and she looks like the child-loving type, she works in a school right?"
He was talking about me like I wasn't there? Richard was about to say something and I answered, "Yes she works in a school and she's right here so you can ask me yourself."
"Snappy," Flash was walking backwards now, facing us, "She's a keeper, you know I might marry her myself if you don't."
"Shut up!" Richard flipped him off and Flash spun around, walking normally. He turned his head toward me, "Catie, are you alright? Can I do anything for you?"
My boyfriend was so sweet, I nodded, "Yes you can take me to a bar, I want to get mad drunk, or no, don't take me to a bar, I have a few Vodka bottles in my house that I took from my dad, let's go." The walk took forever but I didn't care, we got to my house I went inside, Flash and Richard left to go get changed into civilian clothing. They came back around fifteen minutes later and I have four Vodka bottles on the counter, a fifth in my hand with its alcoholic contents running down my throat.
"Woah," Flash, looked kind of cute when I saw his face but I'm an easy drunk since I haven't had a glass of wine since I was… okay I've never had any even though I'm twenty-two and Richard is twenty-four, over the drinking age so I wouldn't be surprised if he held up longer than me. Wally West, Flash's real name, he had flaming red hair and brown eyes. He was grinning.
Wally leaned over to Richard, "Keeper," he whispered and then excused himself, leaving my apartment.
"I want to get mad drunk," I told my boyfriend and then lifted the bottle to my lips but before I started drinking, "And I want you to get drunk with me so you can feel the pain with me in the morning, my friend Emily always told me hangovers suck ass and I need to feel what that feel like."
He didn't refuse; he took another bottle and started chugging it. After a while we got loopy but we were still aware of things. We kept drinking and laughing until we didn't know what was going on anymore.
OOOO
Richard's POV
I woke up in the morning in the bedroom with a raging headache. This was awkward, the blankets were all in random places. I have a feeling we did bad things last night… Damnit why does every chapter when I go to her house in this fanfiction have to end with me waking up in the morning realizing I just did it the night before? Gosh I'm such a perv.
OOOO
Catherine's POV
I really shouldn't have gotten drunk last night… Emily was wrong this doesn't suck ass it sucks Rhino Balls.
My cell phone rang, the loud ring making my head throb more. I picked it up, "What?"
"Catherine, Joker knows where you live if Riddler does, you have to find another place to live."
"Fuck off I have a hangover."
"Babe, who is it?" Richard's voice was tired.
I handed the phone to him, "It's Batman."
I rolled over and let Richard talk to him, I ignored them I was too crappy feeling to listen. He closed my cell phone and turned over, his hand rubbing my arm. "Move in with me."
"What?"
"You're too far away all the time and I love you, please, it's for you protection and I was going to ask you to move in sometime so I might as well now, please, move in with me, I love you and I think this would be a better way for us to be together and see each other all the time.
"I'll start packing after I make coffee, and then we need to go to my dad's house to tell him I'm leaving Gotham."
"Okay, Love you."
I don't usually drink coffee black but I did this morning.
AND NOW FOR A RANDOM SONG FROM THE AUTHOR
The bass, the rock
The mic, the treble
I like my coffee black
Just like my metalThe bass, the rock
The mic, the treble
I like my coffee black
Just like my metalI can't wait for you to knock me up
In a minute, minute
In a fuckin' minuteI can't wait for you to knock me up
In a minute, minute
In a secondI can't wait for you to shut me up
And make me feel like bad ass
I can't wait for you to shut me up
Shut it up
LYRICS BY MIND SELF INDULGENCE
SONG: SHUT ME UP