The next nine hours with Abi passed slowly…more slowly than I ever imagined.

I shared the rest of my lunch with Abi, as she had not eaten hers, and I tried reading with her, looking for hollow spot in the walls and potential weapons (five I could imagine) and then watching TV. I was too scared to go to the bathroom or even knock on the door to get the guard's attention; hearing the Joker's description of him made me prefer the Joker to whatever was outside the door. Better the devil you know, right? Abi went a couple of times and came back unscathed, but I was still a scaredy-cat.

Abi fell asleep on me after a while of lying down on the couch, watching TV together. I was thankful she had gone to sleep before the news came on. I watched as the news anchor-woman spoke about what happened the other night, and now the Joker also orchestrated the killing a judge and the police commissioner. I had enough switched off the TV and was silent while I thought. The only thought that went through my mind was that the Joker was serious danger for me and Abi. Dropping the remote to the floor, I put a hand over my mouth, scared witless.

There was a noise and the door to the room clicked open, the Joker's footsteps making the loudest noise of all. I didn't know whether to get up or keep sitting, but I didn't have to decide; he came around to face me in an instant.

"Good e-ven-ing, Beth. Time for her to go now, as per our deal," he said and I gently shook Abi awake.

"You gotta go now, honey," I told her and, though she was sleepy, she looked at me with a pathetic despair. "They won't hurt you and I'll see you again soon."

The Joker reached and pulled her up to put a blindfold on then took her out of the room.

The first thing he said when he came back into the room was: "Jeffy out there informs me that ya haven't been to the bathroom since I left. I guess you were too afraid to ask him to take you so…how would ya like it if I took you now?"

I only nodded and when he came over to me, I stood up and held out my left wrist for him to cuff. He cuffed me to him, put the eye mask on and we headed out to the bathroom. I had five minutes to get myself in order, so I used the toilet and then for the remainder of my time, I sat on the edge of the bathtub, thinking about my situation.

"Knock, knock…"I heard him say through the door and then he came through and saw me still sitting on the bathtub. "What are ya doing?"

I closed my eyes, sighing and then I looked back at him. "Just thinking."

The Joker copied my sigh and pushed the door closed. "Yeah…you need to block it all out and think, don't you?"

I frowned at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

He opened his mouth to say something but closed it and reopened it with something different to say. "I'll tell ya later. Let's go."

When we were walking back to my room, I noticed that he held onto my hand a little tighter and I could feel him on my back, which was an unusual contact from him. I cleared it from my mind and didn't think about it anymore…until, when we did get back to my room, he didn't un-cuff me straight away, instead surprising me with a quick peck on the lips while I still had my eye-mask on.

With my free right hand, I tore the eye-mask off. "What was that for?"

"You make it sound like I just hit you," he said and, though his mouth wasn't smiling, his eyes were. "That was nothing, Beth, nothing at all."

"Well, I really wish you would stop doing 'nothing'," I counted back at him and then I pointed to my left hand. "Can you please un-cuff me now?"

"Why not?" He chuckled, getting out the key from the back pocket of his trousers and unlocked us.

I was so upset with the Joker that I didn't even notice the new table in the room. The table was small, just big enough for two people, and had two plates with steak, potato and vegetables on it. There was also a bottle of my red wine and some wine glasses.

"What is this?" I asked, looking at the table.

He placed his hands on either side of my waist and guided me to a seat. "This is our dinner."

I sat down hesitantly. "Together?"

"That was the idea, Beth. Now, the steaks aren't cold; they were brought in while we were walking here," he explained, sitting down and pushing his chair in loudly.

"Wait, who made this?"

"Definitely not me," he smirked and then he saw me and rolled his eyes. "Relax; I got one of my guys to get it from a res-tau-rant downtown. I'll even show you the receipt, if you want. D'ya mind pouring us some wine?"

I shook my head and reached for the wine bottle, twisting open the cap and then breathing in its scent. "This is my good wine, you know?" I told him, pouring two glasses for us.

"I'd expect you to keep nothing but good wine, Beth," he said, cutting his steak.

I started cutting up my steak and then, throwing caution to the wind, I took a bite and…it was pretty good.

We ate our meals in silence, only pausing to sip our wine and sometimes look over at each other to see where we were at with our dinner. He finished only a few seconds before me and we both finished our glasses of wine at the end, but I stopped him when he tried to pour me another.

"No, no more wine for me. Thank-you for the meal."

He raised his eyebrows and put the bottle down. "You're most welcome. I thought you liked wine, Beth?"

"I do, but I don't like to drink much with company," I told him, taking off my jacket and then crossing my arms.

A flash of realisation came into the Joker's eyes. "Oh, I get it; you don't want to drink anymore around me. You're afraid I'll take advantage of you in your intoxicated state."

I nodded and re-crossed my arms, feeling suddenly nervous.

"Beth…you don't have to be intoxicated for me to take advantage of you," he said, seeming serious and then breaking out into laughter.

"Don't joke about something as horrible as sexual assault," I told him sternly.

His seriousness was back and he frowned at me. "Just because it's a joke doesn't mean it's not true."

I felt my cheeks go red. "Stop it; you're making me feel uncomfortable."

He leant over the table and whispered to me. "You know ya really turn me on when words like 'sexual' and 'uncomfortable' come out of your cute mouth."

I pretended to laugh. "You know you really turn me off when words like 'turn me on' come out of your mouth."

"Oh, you secretly like it," he winked.

I couldn't take it light-heartedly anymore. "No, I don't so don't talk to me like I'm some bimbo, because I'm not."

He smiled slyly at me. "Oh, so you are still a virgin, then?"

I gasped. "That's none of your business! And what do you mean 'still', huh? You've been saying stuff like that all day! Why?"

I watched him pull out a leather-bound notebook from his jacket, open it and hand it over to me. "Read aloud from the top of this page until I say 'stop'."

"Okay," I said and began. "'September 15th–It was unusual to have someone that wasn't Janet, Darius or the Boy in the house, and the usual silence was broken upstairs. We have always been quiet, since I did what I did. I heard a girl's voice; it was refreshing in some way because it wasn't their voices. I moved my position and went to my usual spot to listen. Her name was Bethany, she and her family had just moved next door, and she had wanted to reclaim the soccer ball her sister had already kicked over our fence (but was too scared to get it herself, it seemed). The Boy, who was upstairs with her, had an immediate pitch change in his voice when he replied to her. She giggled and they went to get the ball. I had no interest to see where it would lead so I went back to my business—'"

"Stop," he interrupted and took the book off me, turned to another page and passed it back to me before I could say a thing. "Read again."

I frowned and read. "'October 19th—The Boy is infatuated with Beth. All I hear around the house is him talking about her. I hate when he talks about her, not that I don't like her, but it annoys me. I like her, I like hearing her speak… it's nice. She's almost at the house everyday now because of the Boy. I had a good look at her when she came over last night; she's brunette, tall and very pretty. Her sister is completely different to her, so I hate her. Janet and Darius are getting worried, I can tell. They just hope she doesn't find me, or I find her, but I just pretend I can't escape their prison—'"

"Stop," he said again and turned to a different page for me to read. "Read."

"'January 11th—Every night I break out of the house to see if I can watch her in her room. I can only do it if, for some reason, there are small gaps between her curtains…so most nights. I like it when she dances to music she puts on, when she whips her hair around and pretends she's on stage, but I enjoy hearing her sing much better. Watching her lying on top of her bed, reading a book in her underwear, is the greatest moment I can hope to see. So much concentration in her eyes, so much determination to finish the chapter before she goes to sleep, even if it's sixty pages long. I want her, I need her so badly. It's getting to the point where breaking into her house just to kiss her seems to appeal to me…but then again, if I go to the effort of breaking into her house, would just a kiss really be worth all the trouble? I have to find some way of controlling myself because if I can't...this feeling will get the best of me.'"

"Stop," he said once again and put the book back into his jacket.

"Explain to me exactly what that was," I said, not even wanting to guess at it.

"When I was nineteen, I did something absolutely terrible. My folks, Janet and Darius, instead of institutionalising me kept me locked in the basement. Don't worry; there was plenty of room for me. I actually liked it down there, but I had nowhere else to go anyway. They locked me in there so I couldn't do what I did ever again—like murder them and the Boy. I learnt tricks though; I could get out whenever I wanted, just by picking the lock they had on the door. I had been in that basement for four years when you moved next door. At first, I didn't even care you were in my house, but when I got bored I listened to you talk with him. For a fourteen year old, you were so… different; you liked the same books as I did, you were opinionated, a little wild, but most of all you were unusual," he paused and shifted his position. "If I remember correctly, it was just before a full year had passed that you became his girlfriend. I felt enraged about it but I didn't know why. Later I realised that it was because he had you. The years passed and…you were all I could think about; truth be told, Beth-uh, it drove me a little mad."

For the first time I was here, I cried and let the tears roll down my cheeks. "Stop it. Your story is disturbing and cruel!"

I wanted to get away from him, but this room wouldn't let me do that and I hated it. I stood up and walked over to the locked door while he got up from the table.

"Beth, come here," he said, coming up to me and trying to put his arms around me, but I moved away, facing him. "Aw, don't be like that! Also, that door is locked."

"I know! Also, how many times do I have to tell you not to do that? The fact that you think it's okay to touch me..." I paused, trying to get my staggering breath back to normal.

He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into his arms. "I've waited years to, so why shouldn't I?"

I looked up at him and held onto his shoulders, his visage blurred by my tears, but I still managed to answer him. "Because I don't want you to…you scare me and…it's hard to hear that you…watched me..."

He let go of me, looked me over for a second, then drew his hand back and struck me across the cheek. I wasn't frightened because of it, I was enraged. I scowled at him and barred my teeth, then ran up to him and slapped him back with all my might. When I drew my hand back, he grabbed it and pulled me into him then he kissed me, hard. I bit his lip, hard, and he let me go.

He broke down in laughter. "That's why I love ya, Beth! The fight! You'd never let me get away with hittin' you!"

My staggering breath came back to me, and my legs collapsed from under me, making me gasp and cry on the cold floor. I couldn't talk even if I wanted to, I just kept trying to keep my breath at a steady rate. My chest kept heaving like it was saying 'haha-ha, haha-ha, haha-ha' over and over. I felt humiliated and exposed in front of him.

He kneeled down in front of me and moved his hand to touch my sternum, feeling me struggle for breath. "Take it easy, Beth," he told me and got back up. "Time for you to sleep," he said as he walked over to the drawers in the corner of the room.

I could hear him shuffling and moving stuff around in there, but I didn't know what he was doing. There was a flash of white as he pulled out some clothing, though I couldn't really see what it was but I didn't care.

He turned back to me and stood me up, taking the handcuff and eye-mask out and I showed no resistance as he put them on me. We walked to the bathroom, the routine becoming easier and easier, and on the way my breathing reduced it's 'ha's dramatically. In the bathroom he passed me a white, cotton nightgown that I always wore in summer, and a white pair of underwear.

Before he left, I tapped him on the shoulder, completely confused. "But it's the middle of winter…"

"So…?" He narrowed his eyes.

"So, it's the middle of winter. What is this?" I held the nightgown up, but he lowered it down.

"Would you rather be naked? Because I can arrange that," he grinned and I was beaten. "Five minutes."

He left me and I sighed. I did all the usual stuff before going to bed; brush teeth and hair, wash my face and use the toilet, but when I put on that nightgown there was a big problem. It was very see-through, especially up top.

I tried the bra I had on, but wouldn't fit with the nightgown, so I couldn't wear it with it. I didn't want him leering at me, but what to do? Dammit!

"I hope you're ready, Beth," I heard him say through the door and I panicked and grabbed a light brown bath towel and held it to my chest.

He opened the door and looked at me curiously for a moment. My face went red and he realised what I was doing and started walking over to me, smiling.

With one hand now holding the towel around my back, I used the other to put my arm out to stop him. "No, don't come any closer—"

At that moment, he grabbed my wrist (twisting it a bit) and kissed me all the way up the inside of my arm to my shoulder. I tried pulling my arm away from him, but his grip was so tight and I couldn't use my other arm as it would drop the towel.

"Stop it!" I cried, now using my legs to try and walk away from him. "Stop! Let me go!"

There was a moment when he looked into my eyes and then the kissing seized and he freed me from his grip. I turned away from him and wiped my arm on the towel, taking off the red paint and his saliva.

I heard a loud bang in the room and I turned, just seeing the stool flying to the other side of the room and the Joker retracting his leg.

"Argh!" He yelled and looked at me, sighing. "Come on, drop that towel and let's get out of here, Beth."

"I'm not dropping the towel, you prick!" I told him and turned my back on him to change the position of the towel and wrap it around my front, like I'd just come out of a shower. I turned back and walked over to him, my hands free and my chest covered. "You even try and take this towel off me, I will go full force on you and fuck up the rest of your face."

He didn't respond, but we went through our routine as if nothing happened. We didn't even speak to each other as I hopped into bed and he walked out of the room, there was nothing to say anyway. He knew I was pissed off at him and I knew that he was pissed off at me for stopping him kissing me. The lights went off in the room and I was alone in the darkness, not even thinking about Abi. I took off the towel when I was safely under the covers and dropped it on the floor…

I had no idea how long I'd been asleep for, but I woke up when I felt the covers lift and someone who was half naked get into bed with me. I gasped when I felt hands coming around my body and settling on my stomach. It was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing, so I had to rely on my other four senses.

"Shh, Beth, it's me," the Joker whispered in my ear, his body now spooning mine.

I tried pulling his hands off me, but nothing. "Get off me!"

He grunted and rolled me over so I was face-to-face with him, so I struggled and pushed his face away from me. As soon as I touched him, I knew something was missing. The moist, caked surface of his face was gone and I actually felt his skin.

He wasn't wearing his paint.

I felt around his cheeks and forehead, checking if I was wrong, but I wasn't. "You're not wearing paint…" I breathed.

"Yeah, well, it's not the best thing to wear at night-uh," he replied and I felt him smile.

"Oh, my God," I said, still feeling his face and then I felt his scars. "Do they hurt?"

He grabbed my hands and held them together. "Not anymore."

"What happened?"

I felt him shrug. "I'll tell you for a kiss."

"No."

He tsked and then renegotiated. "Come on, you…don't have to kiss me back."

"You've kissed me plenty of times today," I reminded him.

"So, what's one more kiss then?" He asked, pulling me right up against him.

"Tell me," I said, purposely putting my hand upon his cheek, my fingertips lightly tracing the scars.

My tactics won and he relented. "Well, I used to work for a mob when I was about twenty—before I met you—and so one day, I go out delivering and—"

I stopped him. "Wait, delivering what?"

"Just delivering. Then guys from my mob's biggest rival see me. Apparently, I was in their territory. So, ya know, one guy on five isn't really fair and when they've finished kicking the crap out of me, they cut my face up. I manage to pick myself up and go back to my boss' office. He gets guys to stitch me up, but he kicks me out of his mob because of the 'insult' and 'embarrassment' on my face. With me walking down the street and everyone knowing who I'm working for, my mob would be a joke. Pride was why I was forced out."

There was a long silence on my behalf, but then I decided to at least say something. "That's horrible. I'm so sorry for you, I really am, but don't you dare think you'll get any more pity from me."

"I know, Beth," he said and there was almost a ten minute silence between us.

In the silence I had turned over again and was on the edge of falling asleep, when it started getting colder in the room. I tried to ignore it, but not even the doona could keep out the cold. That's when I instinctively moved closer against him and he started kissing my shoulder blade.

"Stop it, I wanna sleep," I murmured, too tired to fight back.

He paused to speak to me. "Then just close your eyes and ignore me."

"I can't, so turn the heat up in this room, and then go to your own bed."

"But then I can't sleep there."

I was fed up with him now. "Then move to the other side of the bed, where you don't touch me."

"You came over to me. We'll be warmer together like this anyway, Beth," he said in a very final tone and started kissing my back again.

I closed my eyes, keeping my hands on his arms around me. "Why didn't you say 'hello' to me just once?"

"What are you talking about?" He answered, rubbing my shoulder.

"It's just a bit ridiculous that you kidnapped me," I laughed mirthlessly, thinking about it.

"I don't think it is…I think it's necessary. Why would I take you, Beth, huh? Imagine something for me, alright? Imagine there is this toy car, and then you watch as your worst enemy played with that toy car, which was really meant for you because, let's face it, you appreciate the car more than them. Let's say, then, that whatever you did, you couldn't get that car out of your mind, but you couldn't act on stealing it because you wouldn't be able to explain to it—without it driving off—that you lived beneath the house of its owner and you had been watching it. Do you get it, Beth?"

"Of course; you had to eliminate the 'driving off' factor by keeping it locked in your toy garage."

"Then you understand why I had to keep you here," he said, his fingers sliding underneath my shoulder strap.

"I do, but what did you expect? Me to just forgive you for abducting me and then fall in love with you?"

"Yeah."

"Then why wait all this time? If you thought I was meant for you, why did you wait until now?" I asked, shaking his hand off me.

"When I was ready to take you, you left Gotham. You disappeared for two years, Beth!" He whispered harshly at me. "I put everything about you in my mind aside, thinking that you were never coming back. Do you even know how hard that was? But when you told me your name the other night, all the memories of you came back and nothing-uh could stop me from getting to you."

"There's your problem; I would think what you just said was so romantic, but you don't give me a choice, so I can't."

"Forget that I am then, and find me…romantic," he smirked, burying his scarred face in my hair and moving his hands to my breasts.

I reached up and tried getting him off me. "Get your hands off me!"

He ignored what I just said and continued fondling my breasts through my nightgown. "I bet Justin never got the chance to touch you like this!" He whispered into my ear. "No one has, have they, Beth? No, no, stop struggling; the sooner you stop, the less danger you put Abi in."

At that I stopped, images going through my mind of her screaming and covered in blood.

"You forget I have the power to make her pay for your mistakes," he laughed and kept groping me. "You didn't answer my question; has anyone ever touched you like this before? Answer me."

I rolled my eyes; I was so angry at him. "No."

"Good," he said and quickly turned me over to face him.

"Why can't you leave me alone? I don't want to have sex with you!"

"I never said anything about sex, Beth," he smirked. "I just need to get some sleep. You see, when I'm in bed alone, all I can do is think. I think about sleeping next to you. I think about breathing in your scent, kissing your de-licious body; just feeling you against me. It's not sex, Beth."

"Oh, my God. You're…" I whispered, not knowing what to say and still trying to get away from him.

"Sick? Yes, sick with longing," he told me and slid the straps of the nightgown off my shoulders. "Don't be scared, Beth, I just want to feel you against me. I'm not going inside ya."

I grabbed his wrists and pushed them to his chest. "No!"

He huffed and pushed back against my hands, moving them above my head and forcing them together. "Beth, stop. Just—just slide up against me, that's all I want. I'm a man of my word-uh, Beth."

The grip he had on my wrists loosened and he slowly released my hands entirely. I thought I could use this opportunity to try and scramble off the bed, but the second I sat up, he immediately pushed me back down again. He held my shoulders down while he calmly spoke to me again.

"Really, Beth? You wanna be childish about this? We're both adults, so let's handle in a mature way. If you don't want to do that, then I'll try it a different way, one which I guarantee you will not like," he warned me, still keeping me down.

The anger spiked in my voice and I answered him like an angst-y teenager. "Fine! But don't you dare take my gown off."

"Good," he whispered and then pulled me into his embrace. I reluctantly embraced him as well, but the underarm version.

He made a strange noise when he pressed himself up against me, almost like a sigh of relief. He held me as close as I could be to him, but it wasn't the tight, constricting hold I thought it would be. My lips were at his collarbone, so I did have room to breathe above his shoulder, and his head was basically in the same position of mine and I could hear him breathing, too. He moved my hair to the other shoulder so he could sniff at my skin where he was, which absolutely disgusted me and gave me goosebumps, but I kept my mouth shut because of Abi.

The harmless smelling turned into small, light kisses going down my neckline, kissing every part of my breasts that the gown exposed. Not only was his mouth busy, but his hands were all over my body, circling my stomach, rubbing my back and fondling my breasts again over the thin material.

I could handle this, but after a while his show of affection became worse; his kisses became stronger and wilder. Suddenly, something started digging into the inside of my thigh and it took me a moment to realise that he was erect. I tried to say something to get him to stop, but my voice didn't cooperate. I pulled one of my arms from around his body and tapped lightly and quickly on his shoulder, trying to get his attention.

"Ignore it, Beth," he snapped.

"Stop," I managed to whisper, finally finding my voice. I waited a second for him to get off me, but he didn't and that's when I started getting agitated. "No, I mean it!"

I heard him sigh angrily and it came to an abrupt end with him releasing me from his arms. Quickly, I turned away from him, crossing my arms, and then I just lay there, staring at what I imagined to be the wall next to my bed. I felt him prop himself up on his elbow and put his hand on my shoulder, which I immediately shook off.

"You use something on your skin? It's soft."

I cleared my throat. "Can you go now? I want you to leave."

"Go? But, why would I go back to bed alone, when I can sleep here with you beside me?" He laughed.

I sat up and wriggled back to the corner of the bed, holding my knees to my chest.

"Be-th…" he whispered and I felt his hand on my leg, moving slowly up.

"Stop it," I said, shaking his hand off me.

He sighed and stroked my forearm. "Come on, it's not like I did anything bad to ya."

"You came in the middle of the night… while I was sleeping…and forced me to be compliant as you assaulted me! You knew you could abuse your power over me!"

"I'm going to be honest with you, Beth. If I didn't just do what I did, then these… feelings would have built up and I would have done something much worse later."

I paused. "'These feelings'…? You don't have feelings! What empathy do you have?"

He scoffed. "Oh, but I do. They want me to make you mine. I tried staying away from you once they started again—being in a separate bed, going off and trying to destroy Gotham, just trying to push you from my mind, but I can't. I go cra-zy when I'm not around you—can't sleep, obviously, and all I do is think about you. If I let it build up, then I won't be able to take 'no' for an answer. So, if it means coming into bed with you and doing stuff like this to keep me in check, then be thankful."

"Why don't you let me leave, then? You don't want to hurt me. So if you don't want to hurt me, then let me leave," I whispered, shivering.

"I'd only track you down and bring you back," he sighed, pulling my legs down so I was lying on my back again.

It was my turn to scoff. "Don't be so sure about that. The second you let me go, you wouldn't know where to look for me."

"Then I won't ever let you go. Try and get some sleep, Beth. Goodnight," he said, settling on the bed to sleep.

I didn't say anything else, just went to sleep, facing away from him the entire time. I woke up in the morning with a start, as I just had a dream, and he wasn't there in bed with me anymore. The dream was of me and him in bed together. He was underneath me, inside me, and I was on top, moving my hips back and forth on him. He had a blurred out face, but I knew it was him because I could hear his voice, whispering to me.

The thing was…I was enjoying it.