This chapter is a bit more mature than the previous chapters, so beware if you don't like blood or sadism :O

10

The Sadism

"You live in an apartment?" The Joker grimaced, licking his lips, "Ew."

"Oh, shut up," Queen retorted, "Forgive me for not being able to steal a fancy place from the mob." The Joker laughed at that. He glanced down at the nurse outfit he was sporting and put his hand up in the air, almost hitting Queen in the face.

"Wait!" He exclaimed dramatically, "I can't wear this!" Queen looked at him as she pulled to the side of the road.

"Why not?" She asked, "It looks good on you, right?" She grinned at his look of disgust.

"Now, why would a nurse break into an apartment complex?" He asked, "I have to look presentable!" He undid the buttons on his shirt, causing Queen to jump.

"Woah, woah, woah!" She said, putting her hands in front of her to stop him. He looked at her. "Changing in front of a lady? Where are your manners?" Really, she just didn't want him taking of his shirt or pants, skirt in this case, while she's in the general vicinity. Not that she didn't find him attractive; she certainly did, in an odd way. But she didn't want him undressing in front of her!

The Joker tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Why the fuss? I've seen you mostly naked already; think of it as me returning the favor."

"That wasn't naked! It was my back!" Queen retorted.

"What's the difference?" The Joker grinned obliviously. Queen pinched the bridge of her nose as he began to unbutton his shirt again. She faced forward, ignoring the movement out of the corner of her eye, and removed his jacket from her shoulders. The clothing she'd held beneath it fell gently to her lap.

"Plus, I don't know why I had to carry your clothes," She muttered, "They smell…like gunpowder. And gasoline and smoke." The Joker laughed.

"I'm around that stuff a lot, my dear," He said, grabbing the blue button-up shirt from Queen. She glanced over at him despite herself, catching a look at his nicely built frame with a few burns, scars, or bullet wounds here and there. He grinned, catching her eyes. "Like what you see?"

Queen quickly averted her eyes. "Shut up…" She muttered, tossing the vest over to him.

"I can take off the skirt too if you want a look—"

"No thank you!" The Joker laughed at her again, and Queen faced the window as he slipped on the upper portion of his clothing. That man had no shame.

Queen pushed open the doors to her former apartment complex easily, ignoring the cries and gasps that the people inside gave. The Joker followed behind her, dragging the news reporter with him. They had cut all the communication lines, except the ones for Queen's room, so they didn't bother with subtlety.

"No screaming, we're just dropping by," He said, waving his gun at the woman at the counter.

"I don't think your gun is helping," Queen said as she went up the stairs. The Joker laughed and followed her.

"Yes, but it's fun to scare them!" Queen laughed.

"True, it really is."

She grabbed the knob to the door of her former apartment and pulled, expecting it not to open. It did just that. She sighed.

"Move, move, move," The Joker said, waving Queen out of the way and shoving the reporter towards her. He collided with her and groaned unhappily.

"Should I, like, tie him up or something?" She asked, grabbing the man's hair. The Joker nodded.

"Sure, sure," He said, shooting the lock of the door and kicking it in. It swung open, hitting the wall with a bang. He grinned at Queen. "Tada!" Queen laughed and dragged the reporter in to the apartment, throwing him to the ground and grabbing some rope she had in her closet. She forgot why she had it, but that didn't matter. Despite the lack of furniture, Queen had a lot of would-be unneeded things in her apartment.

She picked up the camera from the closet floor and handed it to The Joker. "Camera," She said, and went to tie up the reporter's feet. He scooted away in fear, but she grabbed his ankle before he could get far. The joker examined the camera.

"Aaah," He said, "So this is how you made that bomb threat!" Queen chuckled.

"Yep. That, and hacking into the news system to get the video to play," She said.

"Hacking?"

Queen looked at The Joker, who looked at her curiously. "You know, that thing people do with computers where they break into and take control over a website or something?" He blinked his black make-up veiled eyes. "Never mind." He nodded and fiddled with the camera as Queen finished tying the reporter's feet together. The Joker grinned suddenly, and grabbed Queen's wrist to stop her from tying the reporter's hands.

"Stop," He said, licking his scars for a second, "I have an idea!" Queen quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Kay." He pointed to the ceiling fan.

"Hang him upside down!" He giggled. Queen let out a laugh-snort at the idea.

"Why?" She asked.

"'Cause!" Queen sighed humorously and pulled the rope up to the ceiling fan as The Joker picked up the reporter and waved his knife/potato peeler in his face mockingly.

Once the reporter was hung upside down, The Joker grinned and fiddled with the camera again.

"Wait a sec," He said. He looked to the reporter and leaned toward his face. "What's your name? I never asked."

"M-Mike…I-Ing-gle…" He muttered fearfully.

"Good! Queen, make some card things!" Queen looked at him.

"Card things?"

"You know! Those things that news people use that tell the reporters what to say!" Queen rolled her eyes, but grabbed some paper and a marker from a nearby drawer anyway. She scribbled down 'I am Mike Ingle for Gotham Tonight' on the top and paused.

"What should I write?" She asked Joker, who was rooting through her apartment in boredom. He picked up a can of paint and a paint brush curiously.

"What's this?" He ignored her question.

"…Red paint," Queen replied. "What should I write?" She repeated the question. The Joker walked to the wall behind Mike and began trying to pull open the paint cans top.

"Hmnnnn…" He pried the top of the can off with his knife to get it to open, which worked well. He grinned and began to paint the words 'Breaking News' on the wall. "What will it take for you people to join in?" Queen scribbled the words down as The Joker continued to splatter paint on the wall.

"You failed to kill the lawyer…" He paused as more paint splattered. "And I have to get you off the bench and into the game! Come nightfall, this city is mine." Queen stopped for a moment.

"What happened to ours?" She asked, grinning. The Joker laughed.

"I won't let you have the whole city, darling!" He giggled, "But fine, come nightfall this city is ours!" Queen laughed too and wrote the words down.

"And anyone left will play by my rules!" Queen pouted, and the Joker looked at her. "Now, my lovely, you can't really think you make he rules here, do you?" Queen made a 'you have a point' gesture and prodded him to continue.

"If you don't want to be in the game, get out now," He threw the paint can to the side, ignoring it as the paint splattered all over the floor. "But the bridge and tunnel crowd are sure in for a surprise!" He laughed in amusement as his plan folded out in his head, and Queen, deciding to be a smartass, wrote down the 'ha's as well.

"That's good!" He said, snatching the papers from her before she was even able to finish writing the last 'ha'. He shoved the papers into Mike's hands and picked up the camera.

"Aaaaaaand," The Joker paused, "Go!" He clicked on the camera, and Mike began reciting the lines with very little emotion.

Ignoring the cries of Mike as The Joker continued to torture him via slowly slicing his skin with the numerous knives he had on hand, Queen typed away on the computer, once again hacking into the Gotham News mainframe. You'd think they upped security from the last breach, but no.

"Ugh," She groaned in agitation, "Joker, would you cut out that guys tongue or something? His screaming is giving me a headache."

"Oooh, but I love hearing people scream, darling!" He sang, slowly sliding his knife through Mike's cheek as he screamed again.

"Yes, as do I, believe it or not," She replied, "But I'm trying to concen—Oh, it got through." The Joker looked at her as she successfully hacked the news mainframe. She typed a bit more, and grabbed a microphone that was hooked up to the computer and spoke to it.

"We're going to air footage we've just received," She said, loading the video into the news screen, and on the television—that Queen had turned on—the reporter paused.

"I'm being told we're cutting to a video GCN has just received…" The reporter was replaced onscreen by Mike, holding the cards in his hands as he began to recite the lines he spoke only a half an hour before. The Joker giggled maniacally.

"It worked!" He hopped up and yanked Queen from her chair happily. "You must be a genius!" He tightly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned to face the television. Queen laughed.

"Nah, I just learned the right things," She didn't bother to pull away as The Joker squeezed her shoulders tighter in admiration.

"You may serve much more use that I thought!" He grinned at her, and she grinned back. "I might not end up killing you after all!" Queen laughed, covering her mouth to try to restrain it.

"Gee, I'm honored," She giggled. Over near the television, Mike shouted in pain, ruining the moment.

The Joker rolled his eyes and released Queen, strolling over to Mike and retrieving his gun from his jacket.

"You're annoying, ya know that?" He said, not expecting an answer as he pulled the trigger and blew Mike's brains all over the carpet.

"Geez, I feel bad for the poor schmuck who either has to clean this up or moves in here next," Queen stated, eyeing the blood on the ground as her heart skipped a beat. Damn sadism. The Joker looked at her.

"You seem a bit…odd, darling," He examined, noting the ever-so-slight hitch in her breath. Queen tried to push her sadistic side back down, but it refused to listen. She took a deep breath and brushed some hair out of her face.

"Nothing," She breathed, "I'm sadistic, ya know? And…the sight or thought of blood tends to set that off every so often…" The Joker licked his lips and smirked.

"Aah," He said, putting a finger beneath her chin and lifting her face to look at him, "So…aroused, then?" She looked away from his smirking face.

"You could say that," She muttered, feeling more than just slightly awkward. The joker removed his finger from her chin and raised a knife to her vision. Queen frowned slightly, having a feeling that she knew what he had in mind.

He rolled up his sleeves and ran the knife down his skin slowly, slitting open his skin and allowing his blood to flow freely. Queen shuddered and looked away.

"Stop that…" She muttered, biting her lip. She glanced over to see if he listened, and he certainly didn't. "Really…Joker, come on…" His eyes twinkled in pleasure, and Queen then realized that he was a masochist. Possibly a sadomasochist, either way, it worked well for her.

"Come now," He breathed, moving closer to her, "No need to hold back." She shook her head rapidly.

"No. No, no," She tried, backing away as he moved into her line of vision and drew another cut along his opposite arm. "I don't like my sadistic side…I…" The Joker chuckled and ran a blood covered finger down her cheek.

"There are many things that you may not like, Queen," He cooed as Queen gave way to her sadistic urge and dug her nails into his arm, raking through the skin and drawing more blood. He groaned slightly. "That doesn't change a thing!"

"Damn you…" She muttered as she watched his blood flow passed her fingers. He just had to go and pull out her sadistic side. Now she couldn't keep herself from ripping open his skin!

Queen closed her eyes, trying to calm down, at least slightly. She felt The Joker poke her cheek with his still blood covered finger, and in a random violent reflex, she bit it. He quirked an eyebrow at her in confusion.

"Resorting to biting?" He asked, though the tone in his voice suggested that he didn't quite mind. Queen realized what she was doing and quickly released his finger. She backed away and covered her face.

"Oh my god," She groaned. The Joker laughed, and, assuming her fit of sadism was done with, lowered his sleeves. He didn't bother to wrap the wounds, and instead allowed the blood to seep into his shirt.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about," He said, wiping his blood off his knife and replacing it in his pocket.

"Easy for you to say…" Queen muttered, lowering her hands to allow her eyes visibility. "Masochist."

He grinned at her and walked to the door. "That I am, darling," He said, pulling the door open and skipping toward the steps. Queen followed him, wiping the blood on her hands onto her shirt.

"Maybe I should call you the Blood Countess from now on?" The Joker cackled as they neared the door. No one was in the complex anymore.

"I'm a Queen, not a Countess…" She spoke quietly.

"Yes, but Countess sounds so much nicer!"

"I don't think anything with 'Blood' preceding it can sound much better than anything else."

"Maybe not to you," He giggled and hopped back into the car they had drove in on. Queen settled for allowing him to drive, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the road now anyway.

Not with what just happened replaying in her mind.