A/N: Thank you everyone that has been reading, as well as Suki. Fictionist, jamcneill680, arthedain-x, linnie kinda spinnie, Cow-Lover2214, Wild-hime, Blue Wolf29, Kosongbird, kaylayingling, nachobeats823, nightxxxlover, Cosue, GeorgiaaGirl, hilal. melek. 50, and prunesquallor for reviewing, adding this story to their story alerts and/or adding it to their favourite stories list! You're all amazing! (Btw, I'm sorry if I've separated your name if there's a full-stop in the middle, the site won't let me write them otherwise for some reason). We get a little more intense in this chapter, but it had to be done, haha. I hope you enjoy, please review to tell me what you think! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Dark Knight trilogy. All I own is Cora and any other original characters.
The drive back to the hideout couldn't have taken more than twenty minutes: but in my mind, it took a lot longer. The Joker sat next to me throughout the journey, after roughly pulling me out of that building and into the van, the other three hastily joining us. We couldn't hang around here for long, I realized; things were getting busier by the minute as it neared noon. Plus it wouldn't be too long before someone noticed the zip wire that ended on the roof of City Hall.
I could feel the Joker's eyes on me as we drove, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end and my heart to slam against my chest at what this "fun" he had mentioned could possibly involve, unable to turn my mind onto anything else. From what I'd experienced so far, it couldn't be good, and this thought alone caused me more fear than I had ever felt before at the knowledge that the Joker could inflict whatever he wanted once we made it back.
This only worsened when I felt the Joker's arm slide around the top of my shoulders, chafing my arm with the backs of his fingers, causing goosebumps to form where he made contact with my skin. What was he going to do to me?
I was now being pulled through the hallway of the derelict store building we had left just an hour and a half ago, the Joker's fingers forming bruises on my wrist with the force he was pulling me along with. As soon as we'd parked up, the Joker had dragged me out of the van, leaving his goons with knowing expressions on their faces as they carried out the instructions they had been given during the drive. Kimberly watched us disappear into the building with a blank expression on her face as she unloaded the van, our eyes meeting for a moment before I couldn't see her or the others anymore. There was a part of me that silently begged them to help me, but what could they do? Plus there was no way I was worth them putting themselves in danger for.
I was shaking as the Joker opened the door to the room he had left me in last night, leaving me to stand near the bed so that he could close it behind him. I quickly glanced at the small window opposite the door, my heart slamming against my ribcage at the knowledge that there was no escaping this room. I gulped, feeling angry and fearful tears blur my vision for a moment before blinking them away, not wanting to break down in front of him. The Joker turned to face me, his menacing figure closing the meter's distance between us as he took out his pocketknife.
"I hope you enjoyed that … little trip," he said through a dark grin as he stepped closer to me, pointing the tip of his knife at me for a moment. "I told you today was gonna be exciting, and that was just the be-gin-ning. Tonight's gonna be even more fun," he told me, grabbing the side of my face and bringing his knife up to my cheek, much like he had done just twenty minutes ago in the office building. "We're going to a little party. And you, my dear," he continued, "are going to be my date."
I gulped at this prospect. A party? He grinned ominously, and my skin crawled as different scenarios of what could happen tonight entered my head, the thought that I would be alive to see it only bringing me a faint sense of relief. The look of unease that I was sure I was sporting as I mulled over this must have increased, because a look of mock-concern crossed his face.
"Oh, you don't need to be nervous!" he said, as if this would genuinely calm me down. He brought his face a little closer. "It's gonna be a blast," he said gutturally, causing an involuntary shiver to run down my back, wincing as the blade of his knife suddenly nicked my cheek with the movement. I felt a drop of blood ooze from the cut, and the Joker's eyes broke away from mine to flicker down to it, licking his lips as he watched it form.
"What kind of party?" I asked shakily, anxious to take his attention away from the cut for fear that this would suddenly inspire some kind of bloodthirsty reaction in him. The last thing I needed was him debating whether to injure me further. His eyes immediately snapped up to mine at my question, and I had to stifle a gasp at the darkness that was exuding from them.
"A fundraiser, doll," he explained, "where all of Gotham's high-society peop-le come together to support a good cause-ah," he said sarcastically, grinning darkly, "when really it's just to show everyone how much cash they're prepared to throw away!"
He nodded gleefully and smacked his lips, his grip tightening on my face. "And you know who the man of the hour is gonna be? Harvey Dent," he told me lowly, his lips tugging up at the corners to form a sickening grin as a sense of hopelessness filled my body. Though I didn't know Harvey that well, only really knowing as much about him as was revealed through the city's media, it still brought me great despair to hear that he was now one of the Joker's targets, and so were Judge Surillo and Commissioner Loeb, I realized dismally.
"You see," said the Joker, giving my face a little shake as his tongue darted out to lick his lips again, "I've given Batman a choice. He either turns himself in, or, he lets more and more people die," he said in a reasonable tone of voice, sucking on his lips as his dark eyes bored into my own. "Chaos will overcome us all eventually, Cora. I'm just speeding up the process-ah. Who knows, maybe Batman'll turn up to this fundraiser tonight! I'm just dying to get to know the man behind the mask," he said huskily, before suddenly breaking out into one of those chilling laughs of his that caused my blood to go cold at the sound. It was almost a conditioned response now.
I hurriedly turned my mind to Batman in an attempt to keep my sanity, my heart leaping a little at the prospect that he could appear tonight. The thought of him perhaps finally putting an end to the Joker's scheme that I still couldn't figure out for myself, and taking me from this madman's clutches after a day and a half of captivity brought me a small beacon of hope. Could I really have a chance to escape tonight?
"He won't let you hurt Harvey," I said once the Joker had settled down a little, deciding to take a risk. "He'll stop you."
"It's always a possibility, sweetheart!" the Joker replied gleefully, and I stared up at him in confusion. His knife was still resting warningly against my cheek, and I had to battle against every instinct in my body that was telling me to simply get away from this man.
"That's what's so exciting, doll," he explained, gesturing with his free hand, "the not knowing what will happen. The Batman could show up tonight and put me behind bars. There's no fun in living … safely," he said, as if this word was unappealing. "You've got to embrace what comes with living life dangerously," he ended, grinning.
I couldn't help but quickly mull over this for a second, trying not to let him see by giving him a steely look. Didn't he care what happened to him at all? Was he that far removed from any sense of humanity that he had no ounce of self-preservation instinct at all, the very thing that I near-constantly seemed to be basing every decision off of this past day?
But before I had the chance to think more into this, any thought that was in my head disappeared when I suddenly felt a pair of scarred lips connect roughly with my own, my body completely incapacitated for a second with shock at what was currently unfolding. Revolted, feeling him exhale roughly through his nose as he kept us forcefully attached, I began to push fiercely against him in an attempt to remove him from my body, but much to my alarm, I could barely get him to move a fraction of an inch. My heart slamming against my ribs, my lungs depleting of air, I quickly chose the alternative, more forceful path of action to take that had filled my mind, bringing up my knee and jamming it with as much force as I could into his crotch.
The Joker's lips immediately detached as he let out a grunt, backing away a step as he doubled over in what I could only assume was pain. I watched him as I tried to regain my breath, feeling more indignation bubble up in my chest at the sight of the grin on his face as he straightened up and stared back at me in amusement.
"I love that," he growled, stepping closer again. I backed away, trying not to look as frightened as I felt, feeling my back hit the wall behind me. "Y'know what I noticed? Everybody has something that brings out that fight in them," he explained whilst gesturing animatedly, his grin lessening a little as he took the step that brought him just inches away from me again. I glared back up at him, hoping that he wasn't going to attempt the same thing again.
"That drives them absolutely cra-a-azy," he said huskily as he lowered his head again.
Exhaling shakily, I immediately ducked my head away from him, and, without fully weighing up what I was about to do, I kicked him in the shin, willing my legs to run as fast as they could to the door behind him. My efforts were short-lived however as I was suddenly grabbed around the waist and yanked backwards onto the ground so that I landed with a harsh thud, a jolt of pain registering in my head and the side of my body. Before I could crawl away, the Joker immediately climbed on top of me so that he was now sitting on my stomach, stopping me from going anywhere. Breathing heavily, he let out an exhilarated giggle, grinning down at me.
"Oh, you're just too entertaining, Cora!" he cried, smiling for a moment before a darker look crossed his features, causing my already racing heart to pound even more intensely against my ribcage as he leant forward, bringing his knife so that it was in clear view.
"Now for the real fun," he said, taking hold of my right arm and pinning it painfully under his knee just as he suddenly grabbed my left. I froze as he pushed up the sleeve of my t-shirt so that all of my arm was exposed. I wriggled fiercely again just as I both heard and felt him growl a little, my breath hitching as I realized what it was he was about to do.
"Perfect," he said under his breath. I started shaking at the hungry look in his eyes.
But before I could try and say or do anything that I already knew wouldn't stop him, I suddenly felt the knife dig into my skin and a scream ripped itself through my throat as my body started to twist in agony. My eyes scrunched shut, tears escaping down my cheeks as the blade dragged itself down, slicing through my skin.
I couldn't focus on anything else but the metal in my flesh. I lost all sense of time, the torture seeming like it was never-ending, until finally I felt the knife leave my skin. I could feel something wet seeping down my elbow, and I realized that it was blood.
Nausea gripping hold of my useless body, feeling the Joker's gaze boring into me but not having the energy nor the will to interpret the expression on his face, I glanced over at the wound. Sobs still shook my body faintly as I took in the three-inch-long cut that now adorned my arm, the blood glistening in my blurred vision.
I vaguely sensed the Joker lean down then, his face becoming less and less distinct as everything that had happened these last twenty-four hours or so caught up with me, the pain in my arm becoming more and more easy to ignore as a new kind of unconsciousness I had only ever felt once before surrounded me, the kind that didn't come with sleep.
"Something to always remember me by," I heard him say, just as my vision faded to black.
In his office, Mayor Garcia was sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair in disbelief at the three men that had joined him: Harvey Dent, Lieutenant Gordon, and Commissioner Loeb. The Mob trials had just come to a close, and though on first glance the outcome could be considered an amazing triumph against the injustice that had been allowed to thrive in Gotham city, there was a swarm of feelings and emotions that were running high in the room.
The night that had just passed for him had been a sleepless one, spent worrying relentlessly about the current whereabouts and the safety of his daughter, who had rarely left his mind even for a moment. He was her father; it was his job to protect her, and he'd failed to do that. The incident that had landed her in hospital shouldn't even have happened, and now seemed part of another existence entirely in the shadow of what had occurred. The hatred that he felt towards the man that had done this, whose picture from the surveillance footage taken during the robbery at Gotham National Bank was scorched into the forefront of his mind, never seemed to fade.
Focusing his attention back onto the men in his office, he reluctantly let his mind fill with details of the trial that had just concluded.
"Five hundred and forty-nine criminals at once – how did you convince Surillo to hear this farce?" he asked them, still unable to believe that the woman would accept something like this, despite her moral standing.
"She shares my enthusiasm for justice," said Harvey with that calm, confidence-inspiring demeanour of his. "After all, she is a judge," he added.
"Well even if you blow enough smoke to get convictions out of Surillo, you're gonna set a new record at appeals for quickest kick-in-the-ass," he replied.
"It won't matter," began Harvey, "the head guys make bail, sure, but the mid-level guys, they can't. They can't afford to be off the streets long enough for trial and appeal, they'll cut deals that include some jail time. Think of all you could do with eighteen months of clean streets," Harvey said, looking him straight in the eye as his head filled with this very image. Not clean enough, he thought bitterly for a moment, but the sound of Loeb's voice from next to him brought him back to the situation at hand.
"Mr. Mayor," the Police Commissioner began, "you can't –"
"Get out," he said as evenly as he could, cutting him off, "both of you."
There was a pause as he sensed Loeb and Gordon both reluctantly begin to leave his office, keeping his gaze on Harvey in front of him as he deliberated how he was going to put what he was about to say. Loeb, when he passed the desk, suddenly turned back to him.
"Oh … there's no news yet, sir, of your daughter," he said ruefully, causing him to nod in response and a pained look to cross his face, lowering his gaze as the two men quietly exited the room. On doing this, he caught sight of the picture of his daughter he kept to the right of his desk. He allowed himself to briefly glance at her smiling, dark eyes, full of light, before he returned his attention to Harvey, who was watching him sympathetically.
"Sit down," he said, gesturing at the seat in front of his desk. He got to his feet as Harvey sat down. "The public likes you," he told him, "that's the only reason why this might fly. But that means it's on you. They're all gonna come after you now," he explained, "and not just the Mob. Politicians, journalists, cops," he said, grinning a little at the man before him. "Anyone whose wallet's about to get lighter. Are you up to it?" he asked. He could see the glint of goodness that was in Harvey's eyes, the very thing that set him apart as one of the most good and just men he had ever come across.
"You'd better be," he said as he turned away from the blond-haired man in front of him, going over to the window behind him that overlooked the street. "Because they get anything on you, and those criminals are back on the streets, followed swiftly by you and me."
It was then that he sustained what was probably one of the worst shocks of his life, causing him to hiss "Jesus!" and stumble away just as the body of a man in Batman garb collided with a bang with his window, his face, he saw in the split second before he was forced backwards, was daubed with the white and red face paint that resembled his daughter's abductor.