The Games That Daughters Play
Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews :) Special thanks to Jojo1812, SwordSitcher, and for your consistent reviewing. It's always nice to have some insight! :D
-Chapter Ten: Troubled-
Allegra walked alongside Joker back to the van. It was still at least twenty minutes away, considering the actual distance and the natural stroll they made back to the road. While Joker seemingly strolled as though he was taking a nice walk through the country side, he glanced slightly over his shoulder to see that Allegra's mind was clearly not on the beautiful leaves that were falling to the ground from massive trees, or the breeze that would push her locks from one shoulder to her back and from her back to her other shoulder.
Her feet stepped over upturned roots as though she knew each of them, but her eyes remained ever unblinking to the soil. Her hands fidgeted as the index and thumb of her right hand turned the silver band on her left hand with a consistent quirk. Joker smiled faintly at this habit of hers; it was only one of the few signs he recognized that Allegra's reverie troubled her.
So he stopped in front of her, and she collided into him, immediately startled by the abrupt halt.
"God!" Allegra snapped, looking at Joker with a pained annoyance. "Why'd you stop right in front of me?"
"You're troubled," Joker stated the obvious, gesturing to her.
"I am not 'troubled'," Allegra said coolly; her cheeks burned at the idea of being so. Allegra was a worry-free girl, or she'd like to think herself as one, but the instance her face became a pink with an overtone of flushed red from embarrassment, Joker's lips turned upwards knowingly.
"You're lying to me." Joker pointed out—he wasn't angry, but just stating the obvious. A year ago, he couldn't pin down Allegra's pathological lies, deciphering them as cover-ups for truth or being made of complete bullshit. Now, he could practically tell when Allegra was unintentionally trying to deceive him—or maybe Allegra didn't try to hide it from him anymore. After all they'd been through, she knew she didn't have to be so defensive towards him. As he stated before, Joker liked her just the way she was.
"I'm not lying." Allegra uttered.
Joker shrugged, and began to walk away. If she didn't want to confide in him, it was more her loss than his gain. He could care very little for her emotional warfare, that is, unless it began to affect him physiologically. Allegra touched his wrist, her grip becoming tight and only slackened when Joker stopped, and turned his being towards her completely.
"Still thinking about Hannah's best interests?" Joker assumed.
Allegra frowned, releasing him.
"Why do you assume I'm thinking about her?"
"What else would you have to think about?" asked Joker.
"The cosmos," Allegra answered sarcastically when she realized he was right.
Joker sighed, leaning his back against a tree and crossing his arms.
"And you say you're not attached," Joker claimed.
"I'm not."
"It's funny how I can tell when you're lying to me...just as you're doing right now."
"I'm not lying."
"Aaaand it continues," Joker drawled sardonically.
Allegra walked towards him, her eyes narrowing in obvious irritation. She only stopped when her face was an inch from his, and those eyes glared at him like he was being nailed to the tree for her own sadistic pleasure. The bitter smile on her lips captivated the emotion, one being of self-assurance but she was lacking in conviction; she couldn't come up with a response to deny his assumption.
"You know what," said Allegra, "I've decided to not talk about this."
She began to walk away, but Joker said, "Worried about what I'll do to her?"
This stopped Allegra in place. She looked at the floor of the woods, staring at the leaves for seconds of resentment before raising her eyes to meet his.
"You're attached to her," Joker stated. "There's no denying it. And as I've said before, I expected this to happen. But never have I ever seen you so troubled for another person's welfare. Not even mine." He placed a hand on his chest to indicate himself. "I just wonder what you'd do if I decided to kill her tonight."
Allegra frowned, but said nothing. Joker grinned broadly.
"Tell me, Allegra. What would you do to me if I decided to off the little broad, hm?" asked Joker. His hypothetical tone was a light voice, as though he enjoyed watching Allegra's inner turmoil at the thought of her protege, lying dead—probably a carved smile on her face.
"I would do nothing." Allegra said softly, looking at him.
"Nothing." Joker repeated, smirking at her. "No vengeful killing? No mourning of any kind?"
"There's nothing over which to mourn," Allegra pointed out. Even with her soulful conviction, her eyes betrayed everything to be completely opposite. Her fingers clenched and released as though she wanted to strangle something, and the harsh way she glared at him made Joker understand she was only saying what Joker wanted to hear.
"You're lyinnng." Joker sang, lowering his hands. "It's pathetic how obvious it is."
Allegra sighed, rolling her eyes.
"What do you want from me?" Allegra asked unhappily. "Do you want a signed doctrine of my weaknesses? Do you want a sealed document of them all in a pretty fucking folder?"
"Laminated, if that's possible." Joker replied to her bitter sarcasm.
Allegra stared at him coldly. Then without warning, she held back her hand and then gave him a harsh slap. The sound alone echoed in the hallow air of the woods, and Joker slowly looked at her, smiling, despite the small stinging. Allegra didn't back off or wince when she met in his eyes a similar cold glare.
"You're right." Allegra said angrily—the anger bubbling to the surface like boiled water. "I'm attached to her. I think of her as my kid. She has the same past as I do, and I intend to make her feel grateful for her past, not hate it. I want to teach her, raise her as my own. Is that so bad?"
"No," said Joker, grinning now that he heard her say he was right. "But the pay-off may not be quite so satisfying."
"Not if you kill her," snarled Allegra. "Not if you don't give me a chance to teach her what I know."
"You have me all wrong," said Joker, raising his hands in lazy surrender. "I'm happy to watch you tutor her."
"So why the death threat?" Allegra questioned.
"Hypothetical."
"You don't do hypothetical."
Joker grinned proudly at her, saying, "You read me like an open book."
"I'm about to tear a few pages out." Allegra hissed.
He smiled at her anger. There was nothing hotter than seeing Allegra all hot and bothered. Her neck turned red, her cheeks flushed pink, and her eyes held a constant dislike. They'd brighten the slightest hue of brown, and her breathing would become shallow, and deep.
Joker found her inner beast coming to the surface, and the fact that he brought it out, made him feel a little frisky himself.
"Better I kill her than some half-wit she tries to save." Joker stated pointedly.
"She didn't know any better."
"And you're starting to defend her," Joker observed, pointing at Allegra. "Tell-tale signs of emotional attachment."
"Will you shut up?" asked Allegra irritably. "I have enough problems without you pointing all of them out."
"Emotional attachment with a fifteen-year-old kid is a problem?" asked Joker. "You know how to get rid of it."
"I'm not killing her," said Allegra.
Joker let out a sigh of irritation, "Oh, for the love of god."
He snatched Allegra by her shoulders and whirled around so she was pinned against the tree he'd been leaning against earlier. The trunk was large and could allow both of them to lie against it, if that had been his true intentions, but this wasn't about meditation. It was business. And a misunderstanding.
"If I knew I was going to have this conversation with you, Allegra, I'd have offed the kid the moment she came out of her cell," Joker growled, shaking Allegra, who lifted her arms and brought them down so he lost his grip on her.
"Why do you hate her so much!" Allegra snapped.
"Oh, I don't hate her," Joker replied. "It's the fondness you have for her that annoys me."
"It's how I'm getting to her," Allegra snarled. "You don't like it, then you can jump off that cliff!"
Joker gave her a calm look before he punched her in the face. She fell on the ground, but that didn't stop her from Allegra getting to her feet and lunging after him. The fight that ensued was one to be admired. They were punching each other in the face, in the shoulder; when one gained the upper hand, they'd get to their feet and kick the one that was down. At one point, it was Allegra, then when mistook his grin as surrender, he had kicked her at the ankles so she plummeted to the rocky soil and got a proper beating. When Allegra found her inner beast of anger and vengeance, she started into biting and scratching.
Allegra and Joker found themselves teetering at the cliff, and when Allegra gave him a harsh right hook to his jaw, he fell forward off the cliff—taking Allegra with him.
The two fell down the hill, rolling, tumbling, and the rocks that met them down below greeted them with sharp corners and rugged textures. Allegra landed on her back, groaning from bleeding injuries on her legs, stomach, back, and shoulders; her face was scratched from the rocks below; she glanced to see Joker on his front, only for him to turn on his back. He was in the same state as her.
Allegra looked up at the sky, noticing it was a lot higher than the ground above.
"Ow." Allegra muttered. She looked underneath to see what had softened her fall—the three corpses had. Allegra frowned at them, for the fact that she was lying on top of three dead men and their smell was starting to affect the place.
Joker got to his feet, brushing himself off. He walked over to where Allegra lain, offering a hand. Allegra glanced at it, then with bitterness, she took it and he helped her up. She winced; for the most part, they were only scratches that decorated her body, but blood peeked from her shirt and jeans. She wiped her face and saw that blood marked her cheeks and forehead; Joker was, as before, in the same state.
"Here's what I'm thinking," said Joker calmly as he rubbed his face with exhaustion.
"I know what you're thinking," Allegra groaned as she sat on the dead manager's body. She glanced at the dead, saying, "Sorry." She moved her butt to its stomach rather than sitting on its groin. She looked up at Joker, who waited for her assumptions.
"While you were gone," said Allegra softly, "and it was morning, I went back to check on Hannah after I locked her in the room. During the time when I was trying to get her to trust me, Hannah threatened me with a letter opener."
Joker looked at Allegra with a deeper sense of surprise—she hadn't told him Hannah's violent behavior towards her upon the attempt of winning back her trust. Joker sat beside her, on the victim's chest.
"She put up one hell of a fight," said Allegra. "She has passion."
"Passion is a good attribute," Joker agreed.
"She's resourceful," Allegra added.
"That's good too."
"That alone makes me believe she can be a beautiful asset. She's pretty—she can seduce clients. She's agile. She's young."
Joker nodded, saying, "Well, I know you're not as spry as you used to be."
Allegra gave him a look.
"Hey," said Joker, raising his hands, "We're not getting any younger."
"I know. So it's nice to have young blood." Allegra replied. She looked away from him, glancing at the dead manager, the two dead coke addicts. She was silent for a few seconds, then she looked at him pointedly.
"Just..." Allegra uttered; she had a great amount of restraint in her voice, as though she was attempting to conceal her obvious fondness for the teenager. "Just...don't kill her. At least not for another month or so."
"It's funny," said Joker. "You killed your parents with very little remorse, and you're willing to put your life and efforts down for a kid who tried to kill you."
Allegra grinned, finding humor in his joke. "Ha-ha, funny."
Joker sighed, getting to his feet.
"So why did you come out here in the first place?" asked Joker; he and Allegra started up the cliff.
"Lunch was ready." Allegra said softly.
Joker grinned at her, saying, "Well, aren't you sweet."
"Shut the fuck up." Allegra uttered, walking past him. Joker chortled, following her directly after.