Joker: I can't believe it...
CrazyA: What?
Joker: People are actually subscribing to this garbage! Plus the fact that I'm going on a shopping spree with you for the second time in one story.
CrazyA: That's another thing. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH YOU GUYS! You guys are seriously awesome, I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't for your gorgous replies and addings. Also, this is my longest chapter EVER. Seriously, it's about seven pages long...that's HEAPS for me. Well, as always, READ AND REVIEW!
10. Faith and Chaos
'I pick all my skirts to be a little too sexy. Just like all my thoughts, they always get a bit naughty. When I'm out with my girls, I always play a bit bitchy. Can't change the way I am: sexy, naughty, bitchy, me.' – Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy Me, Lene Alexandra
Jack had his head hung out of the car window, his limp brown hair getting lost in the wind. It looked so pleasant that I did the same...I hadn't done this since I was a kid...it was kinda fun...I smiled, feeling the wind in my own tangled locks of gold...
"BLAGH!" I suddenly screamed, falling back into the car. Jack and Kait looked over from their spots to me, wondering what the hell was wrong. And then, of course, they laughed like crazy. I had bug splatter right in the middle of my face, spread like jam across my forehead.
"Shut up," I retaliated, more to Jack since he was laughing the loudest. We had to cross through the main part of Gotham to find my corset, so there was more traffic out and around. Most of the people were uptight businessmen, so they stared at Jack in disbelief as Kait and co. drove past.
With music loud and heads outta windows, we seriously didn't fit in.
Kait laughed as she handed over a box of tissues, still keeping her eyes set straight on the road. I grabbed it off of her, still scowling at Jack, and wiped my face clean. Jack, of course, had to butt in with his remark:
"Kitten, you really did look better with it on..." I hit his shoulder again, getting sick of his remarks. He merely laughed it off, grinning at me. I couldn't help but smile back...
"They need some damn parking spots..." Kait said in the usual angry tone that drivers-who-are-trying-to-find-a-parking-spot usual have. I looked at our destination, it wasn't too bad I guess...But it definitely wasn't a professional place. It was a two-storey shop, 75A at the top and 75B at the bottom. The building was painted a bright red, with a set of rusty iron stairs that led to both up and downstairs. Outside 75A was a mannequin dressed in a classic Victorian corset and skirt, parasol neatly balanced by its side.
Outside 75B was a group of teens looking rather stoned.
The three of us hopped out of the car (once Kait parked after five minutes of searching and adjusting and swearing) and walked up the stairs. Well, Kait and I walked up, Jack went downstairs to the shifty-looking 75B. I stared after him as Kait waltzed inside the shop with a smile and glittering eyes.
"I'll catch up, kitten...I'm sure you can do without me for a few minutes..." he called, still smiling. I rolled my eyes and followed Kait indoors, who was already doing little dances for joy.
I couldn't help but dance with her.
It was gorgeous, all lace and ribbons and even some leather numbers. Buckles, buttons and bows. The three elements of a corset shop. They had some expensive dresses on mannequins, but most were hung up on clothing rails. They had a series of masks and other weird things up on display, which made me go mad over one thing in particular...
...a green and black jester's cap...
I picked it up and tried it on my head, ruffling up my hair to look more like my inner demon. Looking in the mirror, my smile was nearly as big as Jack's. I looked over to Kait for approval, but she was looking through the dresses with absolute interest.
"Yes!" she cried, picking out a dress labeled 'Tea Party Princess'. White puffy sleeves and a black corset, with a short red skirt with black ribbons around the edges, it was very gorgeous and very cute. "What do you think?" She held it up to her figure, pressing it to her stomach. "I'll ask someone how to try it on, but I always need the approval of a friend..."
"Sure, go nuts." She seemed happy with my answer as she flew off to the girl behind the counter, asking for assistance. I was left to myself. I looked over at the leather corsets, picking at them uncertainly with my fingertips. There were some simple leather things, but a lot of it was dominatrix gear and even 'uniforms'. I happened to be looking at a nurse costume just as Jack came in. Of course. God must really hate me.
"You can always go as that to the party, Jester..." he said, coming up behind me. "But I prefer my jester to be in her proper dress..."
"Wait, what do you mean 'my' Jester?" I asked. "And if you like the dress so much then you can wear it."
"Maybe I will."
"Fine, you do that."
"Fine."
"Fine."
He turned me around forcefully, so that he could see my face, and smiled. My shoulders hurt from where he had grabbed and pushed me, but I was mainly focused on his eyes...it was all I could focus on.
I know I've bored you to death about Jack's 'handsome brown eyes' and his 'mischievous glow'...but trust me; his eyes are the easiest way to tell what mood this bipolar monster is in.
This time they were dark as night, but slightly wider than usual as if he'd seen a legendary movie for the first time or the Sun explode on itself. Something about my smile, my eyes, my messed-up tangles from the ride here...my jester's hat. He had an epiphany, an idea, a spark of imagination...
...and boy was it a dark spark.
If I had a dip inside his mind (which would be so confusing I'd kill myself after five minutes of it) then this is what I'd see...
...Explosions, smoke and falling ash. Blood dripping from my mouth and hands, but my expression blissful and manic at the same time. Jester's outfit on me, giving me her tight dreamy figure. My hair in a mess, with soot and oil and other combinations wound through it all.
And big, dark circles around my chalk-white face...with a tiny upside-down spade sign on my left cheek and black lipstick.
"What is it?" I asked, poking my own face. "Do I still have a bit of bug-splat?" Of course at the time I was oblivious to his epiphany. So I just glared at him, thinking that a staring-contest was under way. I blinked and shrugged his grip off of me.
"I don't care if the hat looks stupid in your opinion..." I said, pulling it down tighter onto my noggin' as I made my way to another row of non-leather corsets. "I'm buying it anyway."
"No, no, no...the hat suits you..."
I paused in my tracks and turned around slowly on my heel, looking him in the eye. "Say what now?"
A gun in my hand, aimed at another shopper's head as I laughed a high-pitched choir of notes and thunder-claps.
"It suits you..." Blood flying everywhere, dripping down my arms...still smirking and laughing and crying all at ...
He came followed me over to the other side, examining corsets with me with the mysterious smirk that only meant his clockwork was ticking. (Don't say anything...you know I'm talking about his brain...) "So who is Jester?"
He was going to get it out of me one day, so I decided to tell him then and there. "She's everything vicious, gorgeous and overall bad that I desperately want to be..." I said, smiling at the thought. "It may sound pretty messed up, but it's true...now and then I want to be someone stronger, more fun...and not a passive little thing who types her stories all day." Jack nodded, taking it all in with the same smirk. "Since we're playing 'Questionaire' that makes it my turn. What's your last name?" The question had been bugging me for quite some time now...
"We aren't playing a game, kitten..." Jack said. "But maybe if I get a few more questions in, I'll tell you...deal?" I shrugged, not really caring as I was focusing on finding the right corset at the time. "Okay...where do I start...I know! Were you telling the truth when you said you didn't have a boyfriend?"
"Cross my heart, hope to spontaneously combust..." I said, smiling at my own joke.
"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"
"Three," I said, showing it on my three middle fingers. "Mike-" I flipped down my index finger- "Tristan-" left my middle finger standing proud as I poked him in the eye- "and Freddy."
Jack chuckled, not affected in anyway by his injured peeker. "Only three?"
"Yeah, I wasn't into guys that much during high-school, and they weren't that into me..." I explained, sighing at the memory of my wasted years. "Plus, it was an all-girls school and I wasn't social enough to get outta the house and see anyone. So I only really met guys in TAFE."
"So what happened? Were they not good enough for girl like you, hm?" He was slowly turning darker, his curiosity into my social life growing.
"You could say that..." I said. "I left Mike 'cause he was getting too...needy...when I told him that I was moving to Gotham, he demanded that he went with me. Tristan turned out to be gay...so we kinda dumped each other..."
"Did he turn gay before or after he went out with you?" Jack said, grinning at his own joke. I hit him in the shoulder for the third time in that hour, not answering.
"And Freddy dumped me because I was apparently a 'cock tease' and a 'frigid bitch'..." I sighed and pulled out a corset. "What do you think?"
"Too much..." he said at once, forcing me to push it back. I was asking his advice? Wow...even now it seems scary... "So let me get this straight, how old were you when you went out with Freddy? About...twenty-something...twenty-one?" He raised his eyebrows in both amazement and amusement when I nodded. "And you weren't fucking the guy at a reasonable age of twenty-one?" I nodded. "Are you still virgin?" I nodded, but scrunched up my eyebrows when he laughed madly.
"Look, as much as I hate to admit it..." I said, remaining calm about the whole thing. "Some of that catholic education rubbed off on me..." I went quiet, remembering the unspeakable. "I've done things in the past...things that I really think and know that will send me to hell when I die...and I reckon that if I don't shag anyone before I get married then...I don't know...that tiny, pure act might measure things up a bit..."
Jack was still laughing, but it was only a chuckle by the time I talked about hell. "You seriously think that you're going to hell? A person as...innocent...as you...will end up in a pit of tortures and flames?"
"Pretty much..." I said, worried at the thought of it. "But I can't be too careful...that's why I have to do this." Jack stared at me, with so many looks all at once that I didn't know where to start. Pity, concern...amusement...and more amusement...
"Okay, you've asked me thirteen questions now, so can I ask you one of my own?" I asked, getting agitated and wanting to move on from the subject. Jack thought for a second before nodding. "Cool, I'll start with something small...what are your favourite colours?" I wasn't as philosophical as he was when it came to questioning.
He gave it some thought before answering at long last, "Purple, green, black, white and most of all...red-dah." I stared at him, absolutely bug-eyed. "It's rude to stare, Jester..."
"No way! Those are my favourites! Well, purple especially...but still!" How small and bizarre our little planet is... "I never knew that..." I smiled to myself and picked out another corset, a simple black one with a few dozen strings. Jack shook his head at once and I thrust it back onto the rack.
"Okay, my turn!" Jack said, rubbing his hands together. I was about to protest, but he interrupted me. "You said 'can I ask you one of my own?'...you asked one, which means it's now my turn. Who knows, kitten? I might ease up on you and only ask five or seven questions before you get to ask another one..." I glared at him and turned back to browsing. He chuckled again, eye keeping their usual dark secrets... "Do you wish you could fuck someone?"
I paused in my place, not looking at him as I thought...I didn't really know, to be honest. Sure, I wanted to know what it felt like... The faith that I had for the safety of my soul was enough to keep me determined...but I wanted to feel that rush and ecstasy of being so close with someone you love so much... and if I stayed this determined then I might never end up feeling that.
"Yeah...I do..."
"So why don't you?"
"Because I don't."
"Because of your faith?" he asked mockingly. "Faith isn't going to help you in this world, kitten...a girl your age should know that by now...this world is so very full of chaos...In fact, most of the world's chaos comes right from here in Gotham..." I hated how he spoke, as if I was a child trying to convince a parent to buy me a 'wowwy pop'. Thank God that Kait called me over for another best-friend-approval thing.
"Jess! How do I look?" she called, smiling brightly. I smiled with her as she turned around in her circle. The attendant had helped pick out a matching black top-hat for her to match the corset, which was secured on a slight angle in her blonde hair.
"You look awesome!" I said, being as honest as the Pope. "Very Wonderland!"
"It's part of this new range that they're bringing in, with Alice dresses and Mad-Hatter corsets. You picked out anything yet?" She said, raising her eyebrows at the sight of my beloved hat.
"What, this old thing?" I asked as I shook my head to ring the tiny bells attached to the end of each point. "Apart from this, not much...I was mainly just talking to Jack."
"Be careful about him, okay?" Kait warned me, suddenly serious. "I don't want you and Thalia to go Springer-style and break out a fight." I nodded and she walked into the changing-room again, getting back into her normal clothes.
"Oh how I wish I could see you in something like this..." Jack said from across the room, pulling out another one of Kait's Wonderland series. It was a white rabbit costume, with ribbons dotting nearly every area. A short white skirt, made nearly entirely of frills, and a creamy corset decorated with a huge silk bow on the lower back. Oh Christ, it even had a tail. A tail for God sake! I'd look like something from Bridget Jones'!
I walked as quickly as I could over to Jack, smoke blazing out of my ears in my anger, and grabbed the dress off of him and replaced it with my hat. Without saying another word to him, I raced back over to the changing rooms and pulled off my normal clothes, replacing them with the outfit of Jack's choice instead. I was so angry and fed up with his questions and requests that Jester had taken complete control of me, impulsively shoving it on. I pulled the curtains back (with so much anger that I nearly tore them off the hook) and marched my way over to Jack. I stood before him, my legs spread wide in a powerful-bitch pose. He didn't say anything, merely stared at me with eyes nearly as big as saucers.
"Well?" I asked, my forehead pounding furiously with blood. "Here I am in all my glory and you just stand there?! This is what you wanted me in, you got it!" He didn't say anything, just watched me with big, dark eyes. Then finally he laughed, so much and so loud that I couldn't help but feel scared underneath all my rage.
"There she is..." he said with a wide smile. "There's the real Jester..." I took a step back, confused but yet understanding what the he was talking about. I walked back to the change rooms and got undressed again, gradually growing calmer and more at ease again.
I took a good look at myself in the mirror, dressed in the white frills and lace. It was kinda cute, but nothing compared to Jester's outfit. I sighed and emerged a few minutes later, still reasonably ticked off at Jack. He was still looking smug, and giggled when he saw my face.
"Shut up..." I muttered as I crossed to the rack of corsets beside him. "I still need to find a corset for the freakin' dress, help me look." In a sudden blur of actions and movement, Jack shoved some random objects in my arms and pushed me all the way back to the changing-room despite all my protests and questions.
"Just try them on, kitten..." he said before I could kick him in the shin as he shut the curtains. I heard Kait emerge at last from her undressing, probably looking around for me. Because I heard a few seconds later Jack said "Oh, she's just getting changed. She found some things she...took a shine to...and now she's playing dress-ups."
"'bout time," Kait replied. "I was worried that it was a wasted trip for her."
I groaned and looked at the items in my arms. One I recognized as my hat, which I wasn't that surprised about. But the others... He had given me a silky-soft black corset, decorated with three green pearls that ran evenly down the middle. It was edged with black netting, giving a punk-like elegance to the design. It was...perfect, exactly what I needed.
"Wow..." that was all I could say to it...I looked at the other items in my arms, both fishnet accessories: a pair of black fishnet stockings, matching fingerless gloves, and a glittering fake ring in a beautiful shade of purple.
I smiled and immediately pulled off my shirt, getting dressed in Jester's new wardrobe.
"Hey, you think she's okay?" Kait asked Jack, nearly in a whisper. "Should I check up on her?"
"Who, kitten? No, no, no...She's fine." There was silence between the two of them, before Kait suddenly shared her concern.
"Kitten?"
I came out, as if on cue (don't you love it when crap lines up like that?), as turned to the two of them. Kait blinked for a second, before laughing out loud. "Oh my God, Jess! You look heaps cool!"
I was just in my jeans, but even then the corset looked well on me...Jack had good taste when he was actually serious. I smiled shyly, but my heart was glowing with self-esteem and confidence. I stretched out my hand, showing off the ring and gloves. I hadn't put on the stockings, that would be a waste of time because I was wearing jeans over the top.
"Glad you like it!" I said, turning in circles. No wonder Kait was so happy, a corset can do things to a girl. Jack was smiling a devil's grin, the spark of dark mischief brighter than usual.
Bodies lying around my feet, some unconscious, some dead, but all bleeding with no signs of stopping. Smiling innocently and stepping over the corpses of the people of Gotham. Orange tongues flickered as they swallowed whole buildings as I carelessly swung a gasoline tank by my side. I smiled at my boss and linked arms with him, telling him how pretty he was turning the city into.
So innocent, so care-free...
So damn chaotic.
And not a bit of faith in site.