**Hey guys! Thanks for reading so far and hope you enjoy Chapter 7. Still playing with the spacing so really, let me know what you think!**

A month later, back inside the city of Gotham, the Joker was pacing around Arella's apartment looking through the cell phone that he had snagged from her purse all those weeks ago while two of his goons looked on silently, awaiting his command. He was looking for something, anything that could help with his plan. While her will to fight him was steadily being broken down, to his utter amusement, he had quickly realized after her last outburst that, left unchecked, she would possibly become more and more destructive as she slowly realized that the only person she had to worry about was herself. And if he wanted to keep having fun, that was going to have to change. Her outbursts needed to be controlled, or one day he might slip.

The list of phone calls and messages revealed little about her personal life aside from the errands and appointments she had needed to do for work. There were no long standing college friends, no old boyfriends, no friends outside of the museum he had already blown up except for this Shawn fellow, and he already had men hunting him down. The relative solitude that she had already been living her life in before him was fascinating. She was like a ghost, and it was no wonder that she had seemed perfectly resistant to his forced solitude for the first week. It probably would have been longer if he had allowed her any form of entertainment. But still, he needed more. His goons had trashed the place pretty good their first run through, grabbing whatever they thought was important, but he never could trust them to do a thorough job. He was going to find more information. More material that he could use to twist her, to make her believe he had control over every aspect of her life. A feat that he planned on accomplishing very soon.

As he scrolled through the last of her text messages for the second time and turned up nothing, he gave an annoyed grunt, tossing the entire device into the garbage disposal and flicking on the switch, smiling as the phone clinked around for a few seconds before jamming the contraption. Immediately returning to his bored state as the sink whirred in protest behind him, he began to pace again. Pulling a knife out of his pocket idly, he scratched the back of his neck as he headed to the bedroom to look around, stepping over the empty drawers tossed on the floor and the mess of useless papers carelessly scattered about. The goons followed wordlessly, they had learned long ago not to speak unless spoken too, especially when the Joker was thinking.

Immediately he noticed the litter box near the corner and raised his brow curiously. He hadn't seen or heard a cat upon entering. He wasn't particularly fond of the creatures and would have noticed immediately. But maybe she was fond of the beast.

"Where's the cat?" He grumbled to the men behind him.

"Cat, boss?" The first one questioned, confused.

"Yes. The cat." He gestured to the litter box impatiently.

"There weren't no cat, boss. Not even last week." He said shakily.

The Joker was quiet, making a mental note to find it as well before continuing his search, turning up his nose at the expensive looking quilt thrown over the bed and the bright floral curtains fluttering over the vent. Everything had been meticulously decorated and coordinated to make a sort of oasis that reflected her desire to stay indoors. It was sickening. To his left, his eyes paused on a small painting hanging on the wall innocuously near the door. It wasn't the first one he had seen in the apartment, but as he squinted at the heavily applied brush strokes, he realized that this one, and probably most of the others were all done by hand. Her hand, according to the signature on the bottom.

A loud laugh escaped his lips as he stood back from it, startling the two behind him. He wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of this before considering he had found her in her museum studio. Of course she was an artist. And being a self-described artist himself, he immediately understood the kind of attachment she would have to her work. With a satisfied smirk, he turned to the goons.

"Looks like we found something good boys." He put his arms around the two of them.

"The paintings? Ya think they're worth somethin' boss?"

"Well that depends on who you ask, hmm? I want 'em all. Not a scratch, ya got that?" He ordered as his cell phone began to ring.

"Got it boss." The goons started off to begin the task at hand as the Joker pulled the cell phone from his pocket, placing it to his ear without a word.

"We got the address, boss." Came a voice on the other end.

With a smile, the Joker hung up, giving the men one last glance before spinning on his heels and leaving the apartment silently through the ally fire escape. It was still early in the evening, but the apartment was on a relatively nice side of town where no self-respecting person would be found in an ally reserved solely for garbage and delivery men. Ironically, it made it that much easier to get in and out of the buildings undetected. He might as well have been taking a stroll through Gotham City Park during lunch hour. Even still, the Joker kept his knife in his fingers at the ready. He wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who crossed his path and normally he would be excited about such a prospect, but he had other things to do today and didn't want to worry about staining his suit. Fortunately, he made it to the car without incident, starting the engine and peeling out of the ally with little regard for anyone else on the road.

The drive to the texted address took him far outside Gotham proper, to a neighborhood lined with manicured lawns and large mansions. Nothing that could hold a torch to Wayne manor, but impressive none the less. He let out a short whistle as he took it all in through the tinted windows. The view excited him. Rich guys were always so fun to play with. They had so much more to lose than most.

Finally, after almost 30 minutes of driving, the Joker pulled up to the house, turning off his headlights and parking in an area hidden by bushes. After turning off the car, he dialed the number to one of his favorite henchmen who picked up after the first ring. He had instructed them to scope out the house when he found the address and knew they wouldn't be sitting too far away.

"Yea boss?"

"Time to have a little fun." He said with a sneer, hanging up and stretching out in the seat with a content sigh. He placed his hands behind his head as he watched out of the window. It was only a minute before he saw 3 of his familiar clown masks surround the house, waiting. He loved these moments. Watching his men obey his every command. His body was almost shaking with excitement as the men kicked in the front door, rushing inside. Finally, when he was content that his men had been given enough time to secure the area, he climbed out of the car slipping through the shadows to the door. As he climbed the front stairs, he was greeted by two sets of screams that caused an elated grin to cross his face. The more the merrier.

Rounding the corner, he paused in the entrance of the living room, taking in the curious scene. Two of the men were holding guns over the heads of a red headed man that he assumed was Shawn, and a blond headed woman next to him as they both kneeled, their eyes widening in terror as the clown entered the room. The woman was desperately holding a tiny dress against her naked body in vain while Shawn made do with cupping his hands over his manhood. They looked like teenagers who had just been caught by their parents. Both simply stare at him as he stood there for a long moment without a word, deciding where he wanted to start.

"Interrupting anything?" He grinned finally.

"Take whatever you want." Shawn said quickly. "I mean it, anything."

The Joker narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man as if he had sprouted a third eye. "Always the money with you people. No," He smiled again, beginning to walk towards the man with slow, methodical steps. "I'm here because I thought you might want to know how our little Ella was doing." He sucked his scars, glancing over at the blond woman next to him. "Looks like you've been ah…coping well."

Shawn's face drained of color as he stare at the madman before him. "Arella's alive?"

"Yea." He answered in a slow nasally voice.

"Oh." He said, unsure of how he was supposed to react to that information.

The Joker let out a deep chuckle. "So he does care about her." He said sarcastically.

The blond tore her eyes away from the Joker to look over at Shawn, temporarily forgetting the dangerous situation that they were in. "Who's Arella?" She whispered harshly.

Shawn shushed her, not removing his eyes away from the Joker. "It's not like that. We're not even…I mean, we're just friends…kinda. And…" He tried to reason with the Joker who had since kneeled down, focusing more on the knife in his hand as Shawn's speech sped up nervously. "What do you want from me? It's not like there was anything I could do. I….I thought she was dead. I just wanted to move on."

"So soon?" He scrunched his nose judgementally at him. "That's cold."

Shawn pressed his lips together. "What do you want?"

"I just want the cat." He said simply, holding his arms up as he shrugged.

The red head looked at him, utterly shocked for a moment as if he couldn't believe what was coming from the Joker's mouth. It took him a moment before he finally came to his senses. "Well, Fuck! Take it. I don't want the damn thing anyway. I hate cats. He's…he's probably in the bedroom upstairs."

The Joker gestured to one of his men before turning back to the man in front of him.

"That fucking bitch." He breathed heavily, he looked up at the Joker angrily. "Did she tell you where I lived for a cat? Are you kidding me?"

The Joker laughed, "Oh, no no no. She would never tell me where you were. Trust me, kid, I tried." He gave a suggestive growl. "I…pushed and pulled and everything in between but the problem, was that she enjoyed it a little. Too. Much." He threw an arm around his shoulder as if they were old pals, giggling. "You know what I mean." He said with a squeezing the man's neck in the crook of his elbow even as he tried to pull away.

"You're disgusting." Shawn finally managed to pull away.

"Aren't we all?" He pressed his lips together with a tilt of the head, glancing over at the blond woman next to him who had since abandoned her anger with Shawn and had returned to her previously terrified state. "

Well hello, doll." He grinned moving away from Shawn and walking around to the girl, circling her.

The girl squeaked nervously and clutched the dress closer to herself as her eyes focused on the floor, afraid to look up at him.

He stopped in front of her, kneeling closer to her and studying her face causing her to lean back in fear. "Don't be nervous." He said finally, bending slightly to disrupt her eye line, forcing her to look at him. "You want to hear a story? Hmm? Want to hear how I got these scars?" He gestured to his face with the knife in hand.

The girl shook her head, slowly. "I didn't know he was with anyone." She said quickly. "We've only been messing around for a few months and he never said. He never-"

"Shh. Shh." He placed the knife against her lips in order to shush her. "It's okay, I believe you." He removed the knife, placing a hand on the back of her neck and forcing her to look at Shawn. "Guys are real jerks, huh?" He said jokingly.

Her breath began to shudder, unsure of what to say.

"Found it, Boss." Came a call from the doorway.

The Joker glanced behind him to see his man holding the overweight cat under his arm. Louie's legs stuck out awkwardly as he blanked slowly, uninterested in what was transpiring unlike the two kneeling on the floor.

The Joker grinned, imaging her face when she saw the beast. Just having the cat would cause her to fear for Shawn's life. Now he didn't actually even need the man alive, and that excited him. It had been days since he and his knives had a good night out. And he was going to enjoy this before heading back home. With a dark chuckle, he turned back to the girl in his grip.

"Why don't you run along, hmm? Shawn and I need to have a little man to man talk." He said with an excited grin, removing a hand from her neck.

The woman's head jerked up in shock as she stood there. She didn't move, not believing that the Joker was simply letting her go.

He frowned, holding the knife up closer to her, waving it. "You'd better go before I change my mind." He sang. "I can be so indecisive."

The girl didn't need another cue, without even bothering to put the dress in her hands over her body she ran as fast as she could prompting a loud laugh from the Joker.

"You can wait outside, boys. I won't be long." He smiled, grabbing a large handful of Shawn's hair and yanking slightly. The men left without a word leaving the predator alone with his prey.

Later, when the police would question the nearby neighbors, all anyone could describe were faint sounds of a dying animal filling the neighborhood for hours before quieting.

Arella awoke again in her childhood room to the sounds of screaming she had become so normal now whenever she was there. With her face still buried in the pillow, she reached a lazy hand to the nightstand to grab her iPod before freezing. Laying there a moment before jumping up and looking around the pink tinted room to see the familiar neon sign glowing against the dirty brick wall.

"No." She whispered to herself, not believing she was having this nightmare again. " .No." She whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut again as she tried desperately to wake herself up. It was useless though, it hadn't worked before and it wasn't working now.

Frantic eyes searched around the room as she took in her surroundings. The room was much dirtier than she remembered. School papers were fluttering around the room as if there was a gust of wind. Her eyes trailed one of them as it fell upon a basket of lemons, getting stuck for a moment before fluttering away with the others. It unnerved her for some reason, but she couldn't figure out why. Shivering from a sudden cold chill, she pulled the blankets back over her, lying down in the bed and wishing she could get out of the room. But she couldn't move. All she could do was hide. The screams were getting louder though, and as much as she tried to block them out, she was forced to lay there and listen, beginning to cry again with the pillow pressed against her ears. She was in her own personal version of hell. The hell that she had brought upon herself for doing nothing all those years. And now all of the people she had ignored where coming back to haunt her. To break her down until she felt all the pain that they did. She deserved this. She deserved to suffer. So with a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes, Simply listening as the black liquid began seeping through the corners of the ceiling again.

When Arella finally awoke from her dream, she did so drowsily, lying completely still as she tried to shake the mental images she was still having. It had taken her much longer to leave the nightmare this time and she hoped that wasn't beginning to become a pattern. With a groan, she rose from the bed, slipping an easy pair of shoes on and padding to the bathroom sink on stiff legs. For a long moment she simply stood there, staring into the empty with a dazed gaze as her mind sped off in every direction at once. Finally, with a shake of the head she reached forward heavily and turned the faucet on to splash water on her face in an attempt to wake herself up fully. As she went back for a third handful of water, her eyes drifted up to the mirror, jarring her with an image of all fading damage that she had been trying so hard to avoid seeing.

It had now been four days since their fight and she could still make out the imprint on her cheek from where he had smacked her. The pain had since subsided, but she hated being reminded. Though she had felt a sense of triumph briefly after the altercation, that feeling was quickly snuffed out in the proceeding days. Since that night, he hadn't come by. Not to bring her food, not to chat, not to watch her. No one had. On the first night, not an hour after the argument, a tall, broad chested man had come into the room to drop off an oversized box of old MREs and an entire case of water before disappearing again. She assumed the Joker had warned him about making contact with her, because he had made painful sure to not cast a single glance at her before he disappeared. Since then, she was on her own with nothing to keep her company and nothing to entertain her.

The wardrobe still lie face down on the floor where she had pushed it and held, trapped within it, nearly all of her clean and undestroyed clothes as a taunting reminder of her outburst. As a result, she had taken to throwing on the same dress after showering out of necessity; wearing dirty clothes was better than going naked again. She had thought that life was as bad as it could have gotten in those first three weeks, but without the short interactions, the freshly prepared food, or the luxury of clean clothing, the past four days were putting her on the fast track to mental insanity. The Joker had been right, there were some things worse than death and she wasn't sure how much longer she could last like this.

With a sigh, she turned to look at the door into her bedroom, wondering how hard it would be to pick the lock. She didn't have any tools, but maybe unwrapping the cheap, wire shower curtain hooks would be helpful-if there was no deadbolt or chain on the other side. She just wanted to get out of the room for a while. Needed room felt like it was getting smaller every day and she was starting to feel like it was haunted. There were times that she thought she could hear the screams from her dreams when she was awake. But whenever she perked up to listen, they were gone, as if they'd never been there at all. The lines were starting to blur and there was nothing she could do to stop it except try to get out. The Joker would never have to know as long as she was back in her room before he returned to his.

'It can't hurt to check.' She thought to herself before tip toing over to the door, placing her ear against the heavy wood. Silence met her on the other side. There were no voices, no footfalls, and no noises to indicate anyone was out in the hall. Shaky hands found their way to the door knob. Maybe if she gave it a good jiggle, she could hear whether or not a chain was in place on the other side. Pausing for another moment, she kept her ear on the door

and shook.

To her surprise, the door swung open easily. So easily that she almost fell backwards in shock. For a long moment, she simply stood there and stared into the hallway, unable to force her feet to take the step forward.. Part of her wanted to slam the door in fear and retreat back to her room, but the dangerous mixture of curiosity and boredom eventually overpowered and propelled her forward with a hesitant step into the hallway that she hadn't seen for weeks. Looking at the giant windows across from her, it only took a moment for the fear to give way to excitement as she began to quietly explore the top floor.

Though she had yet to see the outside of the building, it quickly became clear that the hospital was huge. It was dark, but the many windows cast sufficient glow along the many hallways and empty rooms that she could explore unimpeded, entering into any open door lit enough to peek and occasionally sorting through mounds of junk for anything interesting. It seemed as if the hospital had simply been left as it was the last time it was used. Many of the rooms that she found were empty and only boasted crumbling walls, dirt, and grime as their decorations. Another room she found filled with small elementary type desks as if someone had tossed them all in there, and in another was mounds of old phonebooks, medical records, file cabinets, and empty folders. She had spent the most time in this room, looking through the records, but they were pretty standard as these things go and she quickly bored with it before moving on.

So engrossed was she with the eerie beauty of the building that it took her nearly an hour to realize that the floor was strangely quiet considering it was the headquarters of the Joker's small army. Panic began to fill her mind as she walked along the hallways. Was it possible that the Joker had left her here? Leaving the door unlocked as a joke to see how long it would take her to figure it out? She hadn't seen or heard from him in days and she wouldn't put it past him. He did seem bored with her lately. Oddly enough, the idea of being left alone in the large building unnerved her. The rooms that she had first seen as beautiful were now causing her to shake in fear. Quickly, she made her way to the large staircase that led down to the fourth floor, standing there for a long while as she tried to peer down and catch a glimpse of any signs of life. But there was nothing.

While it had originally only been her intention to explore a bit of the top floor for a short while, that fear was beginning to get the best of her. So after five minutes of debating, she began down the staircase with hesitant steps, not sure if she wanted to call out for someone, or remain silent. She still didn't want to get caught if she was wrong, but she had to know. As she made her way through much of the fourth floor, it was equally quiet. Her brows knit together as she began to panic, if she had been left here, she had no idea how to get back to Gotham, or civilization for that matter. Surely there'd be a vehicle of some sort in the garage. Her mind wandered wildly as she thought of her options, wandering aimlessly through the building. It wasn't until she heard the sound of raucous laughter from a nearby room that she was brought back to the present with a jolt, rushing to the source of the sound. When she came to the door where she heard the voices, she stood at the edge, peeking in only slightly so as not to be seen

There were at least 4 men watching playing pool on a tattered table with a television playing softly in the background. A few clown masks were strewn across a table putting her shockingly at ease. She hadn't been left here. The building was just too large to hear across floors and wings. Leaning against the wall with a relieved sigh, she took a moment to relax again before turning back towards the direction she walked from to make her way back towards the stairs. Before she could take a couple of steps, however, she felt someone grab her arm roughly, spinning her around.

Letting out a loud gasp, she recoiled away instinctively as she looked up at a man who couldn't be more than twenty or so with long scraggly hair and dangerous green eyes glaring down at her with a smirk.

"Hel-lo." He eyed her up and down, not bothering to hide his gaze.

Her mouth set into a deep frown, trying to yank her arm away to no avail. "Let go of me." She growled in a hushed tone, not wanting to alert the other men in the room. Her fear began to rise again, but it wasn't because of the man grasping her now. No. She was afraid because now the Joker would know for sure that she was out of her room. That thought terrified her more than anything.

The man only smiled, turning and dragging her into the room that she had just been peering into even as she struggled to pull away and run.

"Hey guys, look what I found hanging outside the room." He shook her arm as if he had just come back from a hunt.

The other men looked up, confused for a moment.

"Is that the Joker's bitch?" One questioned, setting the pool stick on the floor and leaning on it.

Arella turned to glare at the man, surprised by his boldness. Before she could open her mouth, the man holding her arm spoke again.

"Yea." He laughed. "Pretty little thing, huh? What do you think we should do with her?"

"I think you should put her back upstairs before the boss catches you." One of the guys turned back to the pool table.

"Hold on." A second guy set the pool cue down. "Let's think about this. She was trying to escape. We could just say that…we were trying to stop her."

"I wasn't trying to escape!" She shrieked at them angrily, narrowing her eyes. Mentally, she scolded herself for not trying harder to get into the wardrobe so that she could have something to wear besides the dress. Her eyes scanned the room desperately for something she could use to get out of this predicament. She knew what was at stake right now, but she was still more afraid of the Joker's reaction to her putting herself in danger. Her eyes landed on a table almost 6 feet away with a knife on it. There were guns a little further away, but there was no chance of reaching one of them. Hopefully she could distract the guys away from them as well. The door was too far away and she would have to go by another man sitting near it.

"Fuck this." The guy at the pool table threw down his cue, walking towards the door. "Get caught if you guys want, but I'm out of it. Boss won't believe that shit." He muttered, leaving the room.

Arella watched him leave, angrily, wondering why he wouldn't simply stop the situation.

"Fine Rick, It's easier with three anyway." The guy holding her arm yelled before turning to Arella, burying his face in her neck even as she pulled away. "You smell good." He growled at her.

She shrieked, pulling away from him as far as she could, using her free hand to swing a fist at his face, landing a punch squarely in his jaw causing him to let go of her briefly. She wasted no time, sprinting to the table to grab the knife. The man chased her, tackling her onto the table with his arms around her waist as the other two cheered him on, laughing. She screamed, falling forward onto her ribs hard causing a shooting pain through her abdomen. She wanted to cringe, but could see that her hand was only inches away from the knife, so she reached while trying to squirm away from the man holding her down from behind his back to the other two men as she tried to kick him.

"She's a fighter, huh?" One of the guys called, she couldn't tell which one. "No wonder the boss likes her."

"What's wrong, Jonathan. Can't handle your women? Need a real man to show you how to do it?" Another called, breaking out into raucous laughter.

Jonathan gave an angry growl, egged on by the jeers of his friends. He reached forward to grab her hair, yanking it back and earning him another scream as he managed to maneuver his legs outside of hers, pinning them together to stop her kicking, ripping at her dress with his free hand.

Arella could hardly pay attention to any of it, though. She had tunnel vision and had already decided that no matter how far he got with her, he was going to die before she did. Between her experience at the museum, dealing with the Joker for the past week, and now this, her anger was reaching a boiling point and she didn't care which one of the three she unleashed it on. With a final grunt, she used her free hand to push her forward, finally able to wrap her hands around the hilt knife and swing it behind her with an angry shriek.

The man behind her stumbled back with a pained shout, clutching his left arm even as blood seeped through before turning and looking at her, surprised as she pushed herself from the table, turning around and glaring.

"Holy shit." One of the other guys said in shock.

She didn't wait for any of them to come to their senses as she gripped the knife tighter, lunging for her attacker with another scream, as she swung the knife indiscriminately, Most of them causing superficial slashes to his forearms and hands as he tried to dodge in pain. She didn't care about escaping at the moment; all she wanted was to inflict as much pain as possible. To let out all the anger she was feeling.

"Get this crazy fucking bitch!" Jonathan gave a panicked yell to the other two who were still standing at the other corner of the room, dumbfounded. Finally, Arella felt the knife sink deep into the man's shoulder, the first penetrating shot she had managed and the first to force an actual scream of pain from his lips. It was satisfying, but she didn't stop. Again she swung, landing another blow: once in the cheek and another in the shoulder. Going down for another strike, she was shocked when a strong hand on her wrist halted her blow, twisting her arm behind her back.

Arella shrieked in anger, spinning around to attack the person who had interrupted her. She'd kill them all if she had to. It wasn't until she heard that nasally voice that she froze.

"Ah, ta ta."

**Uh oh! What do you guys think is going to happen after days of isolation? Give me your predictions!

Just a couple of notes if you wanna see some of the locations mentioned in the story. The hospital is an amalgamation of a few different hospitals. I've broken it up by story location below and added links or names. Obviously I don't own any of these pics but they're great. Who doesn't love some old abandoned hospital pics amiright? :

Exterior:Denbigh Asylum

5th floor windowed hallway:

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The staircase:

photos/andregovia/5509374843/sizes/l/

Also, if you've ever wanted to know what Arella looks like in my head, check out some Isabel Correa images! She's absolutely gorgeous and I love picturing her likeness as part of the story.

Once again, thanks for reading. You guys are awesome! Don't forget to leave a review if you love it or hate it. I love to hear from you guys. :) ***