Thanks again to all my readers, especially reviewers! I do love reviews and appreciate constructive criticism and suggestions.
I own nothing but Kayla and the plot of the story :(
Kayla wandered over to the television set after a few minutes and turned up the volume a little on Gotham Cable News. She was not shocked when after some movie reviews and commercials she saw a repeat of Good Morning Gotham and the top story was about the investigation into the Jokers bank robbery and what the apparent mob connection was. Then the discussion turned to the debate over Batman, was he a priority right now?
They played a clip of the Gotham Tonight interview with Harvey Dent
Kayla watched as Dent was drilled by Mike Engel over Batman
Dent: "You don't just decide one day to put on a mask and fight crime, a dysfunctional society dictates that response; so if you want to get rid of the Batman, then curing what created him is the best way."
Engel: "I understand that but, if you sanction a vigilante to act as a guardian for society as someone who willfully breaks the law, they aren't we in fact sanctioning lawlessness and chaos in the city?"
Dent: "If Batman broke the law to achieve some personal gain you would have a much easier time getting people to agree with you Mike. Batman's actions aren't personal they benefit the city entirely."
Engel: "But how do we know what he's really after if we don't get a chance to ask him?"
Dent: "Let's just say there are other people I'm more interested in getting to know."
The clip ended and Kayla turned off the tv, standing up and throwing the remote into the couch in frustration. Harvey had dominated the interview, but she didn't expect anything less from him from the few times she had met him. He was an extremely intelligent, charismatic, and nice looking man; Kayla would be lying if she said she hadn't developed a slight crush on him when they first met, but what women wouldn't.
She just wish they knew she had been kidnapped; it was aggravating beyond belief to have the knowledge that she was stuck in the worst part of Gotham with a murdering psychopath, and no one was worried about her, no one cared.
"I probably brought some of that on myself." Kayla thought to herself, she was the reason why her friends and mother wouldn't worry when she didn't answer their calls, she hardly ever did.
She wondered what he was doing right now. She let out a small, rather sad laugh "Even here, I just can't…turn him off." What would he think of what she had done, killing a man in blind rage, and having next to no remorse for her actions. She was starting to scare herself.
The day went by faster than others, though that was just because she was out of the bedroom she now considered her prison. She searched through the kitchen, finding a little food, but quite a bit of alcohol
in the fridge. The closest thing to a weapon she could find was a butter knife and she figured she would almost be better off with her fists. It was obvious that this was an all man crew by the disregard for any sort of cleanliness, and out of boredom she cleaned the dishes in the sink, which led to scrubbing the countertop, which led to cleaning out the cupboards and fridge of empty bags and cans. When she finished she stood back, surprised at how well she cleaned when she wanted to; and she never wanted to, but after 5 days of lying around and suddenly being faced with a dirty kitchen…
And after scrubbing the dishes and countertop so thoroughly, all she wanted to do was take a shower and do the same to her skin and hair. Her hair was disgustingly matted and oily, and she knew she probably reeked. She made herself some microwavable soup she found for dinner and settled down on the couch watching some movie reviews and previews, some song in the trailer for Watchmen made her consider the possibility of working alongside the Joker willingly; she had nothing to lose really and it would be the easiest way out.
Kayla pushed the thought to the back of her mind, the Joker didn't have friends or even permanent thugs at any rate, what was she thinking? But the thought still lingered in the back of her head.
It was past 10 when the Joker returned, and she was sprawled out on her stomach on the floor half asleep when she heard him come in followed by several of his thugs.
"Well, I don't remember getting a new rug." He said with mock confusion as he crouched down next to her and she stared at him, he glanced at his thugs who were staring but quickly turned their attention back to each other and the search for food.
"But by the looks of it…." He surveyed her and made an obvious sign of disgust when be bent down closer to her hair and took a deep whiff "you could use a good ummm…vacuuming."
He got up and walked toward the kitchen area, taking a second glance at the sink before the rest of the countertop.
"None of you went all home ec on me overnight, hmmm?" He glanced around at his thugs, shaking their heads and mumbling "no's" before turning back to Kayla
"Well you just keep showing me more and more little talents of yours." His tongue quickly came out to lick his lower lip.
"Come with me." He said yanking painfully upward at her arm before walking out the door, not waiting for her as he moved swiftly up the stairs
Kayla glanced at the entrance as she moved towards the stair, but saw there were several of the Joker's men standing around talking.
She followed him up the stairs to the top floor again, but he took a different turn, pulling a key out of his jacket to open the room that had been on the opposite side of the hallway as her own. He walked in and opened the door for her with a bow and grin and she realized it must be his room.
It was dark and had a rather musty feel to it, and it was larger than hers. There was a window and what looked like an old glass sliding door to a balcony, but both had the shades pulled; a dark forest green comforter was sprawled across the bottom of an unmade queen size bed. Other than that the only furniture was an old dresser and nightstand, and there were two other doors: one she guessed was a closet and the other most likely a small bathroom.
"Probably one of the former owner's rooms." Kayla thought to herself as the Joker walked over to the bed, turning on a small lamp on the nightstand and digging through the drawer in it.
Before she could look around further, if there was anything to see, he roughly shoved some clothes and a towel in her arms and turned her around by the shoulders and pushing her towards the door he opened to reveal a small, grungy looking bathroom.
"You have a half an hour." He said to her bewildered face before shutting the door.
Kayla stood there only moments before going into jumping into cleaning mode, quickly finding the lock on the door and stripping down out of her dirty clothes.
She hopped in the shower finding bottles of soap and shampoo, she hadn't scrubbed at her skin and hair so hard since she had come home from playing a mud volleyball tournament in high school. She smiled at the memory, it had truly been fun. The lack of conditioner she would normally use cut down on the time the shower took, and she hopped out, suddenly curious as to what a mass murdering clown kept in his bathroom cabinet.
She opened it to find normal items such as a razor, shaving crème, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a bottle of lotion that had turned to runny liquid it hadn't been used in so long, sitting next to not so normal items such as white, black, and red greasepaint. Without hesitation or caring about the possible consequences, she grabbed his razor, washed it off, and furiously shaved her still wet underarms and (she checked her watch) legs; she laughed at how she normally didn't bother that often at her own home, but here kidnapped she was thrilled at the opportunity. She quickly rinsed off herself and the blade and dried it "He won't kill me for using his razor." She thought to herself as she put it back in the exact same position.
Kayla checked her watch again, after she dried off before grabbing the toothpaste and bottle of lotion, shaking it, and hastily applying it after she brushed her teeth with her finger. She picked up the clothes, realizing they were her pajamas "These are my, my pajamas." Kayla thought with horror at the metal picture of him going through her apartment. She despised people going through her things, despised it!
She took the bra and underwear…lacy purple bra and underwear…that he had undoubtedly picked out and put them on. Throwing the plain white beater tank top over it, wishing it wasn't so see through, and putting her green and blue striped pajama pants on. She shook her hair out and parted and combed it with her fingers, gathering up her told clothes and towel and opening the door just as it looked like he was walking over to knock.
He gave her a smile, which came off rather eerie as always, and she felt suddenly self conscious clutching her clothes to her chest and handing him the towel which he simply threw into a corner of some other most likely dirty laundry.
She noticed he had shed his long purple jacket, untucked his shirt and unbuttoned its top button, and loosened his tie.
It was awkward for her as there seemed nothing to say, but not for him of course, she had a feeling he was enjoying making her uncomfortable.
"Just when I thought you'd gotten lost in there….here." He said grabbing the pile of clothes she had been clutching and throwing them in the corner as well, giving her nothing to do with her hands but cross her arms and stare at his feet.
"You know" He said thoughtfully, licking his lips "when I saw your apartment it really made me think 'this place could use a woman's touch'." He said as he circled her and she matched his steps to keep across from him.
He walked over to his nightstand again and picked up a piece of paper "but you're not just any Mary Jane off the street are you?"
He read from the paper "Dear Mr. Austen, I know this has been a hard experience for you, but I promised you I would send my reasons for asking for a formal diagnosis…" Kayla felt her mouth go dry and stomach drop at the knowledge she know knew he possessed "… of Antisocial Personality Disorder for your daughter Kayla, yada yada yada, which is considered a form of sociopathy."
He looked up at her from the paper to see her staring at the window as though she could see through the shade.
The Joker walked towards her "You're really quite the special little thing, you know that right," He said in a almost singsong voice, higher than normal before falling back to a deadly serious tone "step up and admit it…or better yet…embrace it."
"I'm no sociopath." She denied, still unable to look at him
"They think otherwise." He said slyly
"I was never diagnosed." She said, finally meeting eyes with him, growing angrier by the second.
"And why was that hmm?" He leaned his face towards her "I wonder what daddy thought of all this…"
She gave him no answer, only looking away again, she didn't really have one.
"Did he cast you out huh?" He pried, moving his head around to try to meet her eyes.
"Answer me!" He yelled suddenly and grabbed her shoulders painfully.
"He let me stay until I turned 18 then said he didn't want to see me anymore." She said rather fast, startled by him, and he let go of her shoulder as she looked at his once again calm face.
He cocked his head at her "We're two of a kind you know, we're not like them, and we're ahead of the game."
"No, we're nothing alike; I actually have the ability to care about people." She said angrily
"I bet Max wouldn't believe that."
Kayla looked at the floor in thought, she could admit that to some degree they were right in their diagnosis; but she just couldn't bare the thought of him believing they were anything alike.
"Alright…" she muttered to the floor and he bent down to hear her "I only care about certain people who are close to me; most people don't really matter much." Kayla said quieted, mumbling the entire last part.
"What was that?" He said as low as she had been talking and she snapped.
"You're right! They're right, okay! I don't care about most people, I can't!" She yelled, eyes red with anger, before turning to walk out the door to her own room, but he swiftly caught her arm and threw her stumbling back into the middle of his room.
Kayla looked about ready to kill him, with her damp hair pressed against her face and fists balled. She lunged and literally tried to claw her way through him towards the door several times before he finally caught her and held her arms by her side, she eventually stopped struggling once she calmed herself down a bit, but now her heart raced because of his closeness.
"Now now now, remember you're in good company." He had his arms around her still to keep her from putting up another fight, and though she knew it was to make sure she didn't try anything it made her feel…strange. She tried to take deep breathes while he held her to keep from hyperventilating in the wake of her anger, miserably failed escape attempts from the room, and now the disturbingly calm rise and fall of the Joker's chest against her shoulder.
Kayla mentally whipped herself for her own stupidity at the bank, why did she have to suddenly come out and make it so obvious what she had thought of him right there. "I didn't know who he was at first." She reasoned with herself, but knew the minute he took the mask off she should have thrown her own grenade at him, not stare at him with some schoolgirl awe like she had probably done.
The Joker held her…no…bound her since her arms were forced down at her sides, for several more moments before letting her go.
"So as much as I'd like to carry on this ah, feisty little conversation we've got going, I'm sorry to say we'll have to pick it up tomorrow sometime." He told her as he walked towards his bed and began taking his shoes off "I've got a busy day ahead of me and it's gonna be filled with explosions and gunshots and screaming…" He said trailed off dreamily, looking up at her from his shoes "…and chaos." He had a wild expression on his face and though it should be and was to Kayla some extent frightening, she still couldn't shake a feeling of amazement.
He sat down on the bed with a plop and patted the empty space next to him with a grin.
All the small little feelings of amazement turned at once into disgust. "How could you not see this coming?" Kayla asked herself "The shower, the purple bra and panties."
"Do you actually expect me to even sit on the same bed as you?" She regretted the harsh words immediately, but was surprised when he didn't answer with a slap to her face.
"It's your choice." He said with an air of indifference and she turned to leave the room as fast as possible but stopped when he spoke again "But just so you know, Max had a few friends, and let's just say they haven't exactly welcomed you with arms wide open. I've been keeping them muzzled, but… you ahhh never know when I might decide to let them off the leash"
"So you're giving me the choice of either being raped and killed by them, or raped and probably killed by you? I appreciate it." She said sarcastically, slightly embolden by his non physical response to her previous comment.
"You think I would act in the same way as those mindless zombies downstairs?" He asked, obviously insulted and shook his head like a wet dog "Rape you…soon if I want you I won't have to." He said with a mischievous smirk.
She snorted and rolled her eyes at his arrogant comment but said nothing; his ego was obviously through the roof.
"But I suppose I could throw you a pretty little thing like you to the wolves out there…" He motioned towards the window "if you wanted me to." He grinned wildly "I'd get a good laugh watching you at least."
She thought it over, it was a bad part of Gotham and she knew it, there were all sorts of people you didn't want to meet in dark alleys at night living in the apartments nearby. But perhaps she could make it, take her chances until she got to a safer area.
"But I know you don't really want to be out there with, well, what I call freaks…there quite the dodgy dangerous little pack." He taunted
"Well excuse me if I don't faint" She said snapped, but gave in and lay down on the bed next to him as he took his tie off.
"I'm glad you're seeing it my way, Kay…la" He said her name slowly, knowing he was bothering her talking "Kay la la la la la" He let out a silent giggle before turning on his side towards her and going straight to sleep.
Kayla doubted he actually expected her to sleep, she was as far on her side of the bed as she could get; but with him facing her, even asleep…. She couldn't help but stare at him most of the night, afraid to move much for fear of waking him, she didn't know why she was staring; curiosity (watching a psycho who dressed as a clown blowing things up…sleep), a lot of it was fear (her mind wandered to horror movies, imagining him suddenly transforming into something awful and stabbing her dozens of times).
She shuddered slightly, but eventually around 3:30 in the morning, the last she looked at her watch, she fell asleep out of the mental exhaustion the end of the day had brought on.