Chapter 11- Trade off
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Ready. Set. Go.
My eyes fluttered awake and I sat up, rubbing my eyes and face. I yawned but quickly closed my mouth when something was thrown at me. What was this?
The Joker threw some clothes at me.
"Get ready."
I didn't challenge him. I wonder what was going to happen. I speedily trekked to the bathroom and got dressed.
As I made my way out of the bathroom, I looked around for the Joker but I couldn't find him. What was happening? I inched out of the bathroom entrance and felt something tight around my wrists. I turned as much as I could to find the Joker binding my wrists with some type of rope.
" What the hell is this?" I asked in confusion.
" A-ta-ta-ta, the sur-prise is ye-t to come."
He then pushed me forward, and I almost lost my balance and tipped over. I caught myself with my foot though and propelled myself forward.
We moved through the warehouse; the Joker was always behind me, guiding me where to go.
I thought he had loosened up a bit, but something wasn't right.
We moved outside and as I took that first step out of the warehouse, my eyes were blinded by the sunlight I had not seen in so long. It took me a while to readjust and I lost sight of where I was going. The Joker saw my current predicament and grabbed a hold of my arm and guided me to where I was going. As I regained my vision, I saw that we were headed towards a white van. Was I going somewhere? Was he letting me go?
No, no that couldn't be it.
He shoved me into the van and I shrieked in pain as my knee hit the van's bumper. The Joker just looked at me, got in from the other door, and dragged me in.
The Joker clapped his hands, and his henchmen moved toward the driver's side and started up the van.
We started moving. It was just the Joker and I in the back and I looked up at him. He was sitting against the van's wall with one leg out and one leg in. He stared off into some distant world occupied in his own thoughts. His tongue grazed over his lips and his make-up looked freshly applied.
I was knocked out of my trance when the van took a sudden turn and my head banged against the side of the van.
"Ouch" I involuntary exclaimed.
The Joker looked in my direction, but said nothing. He just looked at me and I wondered what he was thinking.
We were on the road for about half an hour before we stopped. We were in front of some broken down warehouse in a desolate part of Gotham. What were we doing here?
The Joker dragged me out and pulled me in by my bounded wrists.
Inside, I saw two men, and a bunch of their crew standing with guns in the background. The two men stood in front of the others; one was tall and slim while the other was fat and pudgy. The slim one was smoking a cigar.
" Mr. Joker, so glad you could make it."
The Joker let go of me, and readjusted his violet coat.
I glanced at the other men in the room; their hair was slicked back, and they looked of Italian ancestry. They almost reminded me of the mafia.. wait.. mafi..was this the mob?!
My thoughts were interrupted when the Joker spoke again.
" Punctua-lity is one of my bet-ter trait-s."
The slim one laughed shortly before he pulled out his cigar. It was a nervous kind of laugh. To be honest, none of these men looked the slightest bit comfortable with the Joker in the room. They kept up their tough demeanor but were cowering on the inside.
" Listen Joker, Batman has been on our asses ever since you kidnapped that doctor," He pointed his cigar to where I was. Yeah, like we needed to clarify who the hostage was in this situation. " It's kinda hard to get business done when you have the damn son of a bitch on your tail."
" He thinks that we may have some connection to you or links to the girl, which we obviously don't… until now."
A clever smirk spread across his lean face and the pudgy one began talking.
" You give us the girl so we can negotiate with Batman to stay out of our business." His voice echoed off the walls of the warehouse. Apparently, he could really use his belly to project his voice.
" Yea-h, yea-h Maron-i, what's in it for me?"
Wait, was I being traded off? WHAT?! That asshole; he couldn't turn me over to these freaks! No pun intended.
" Joker man, we'll give you control of our part of the city."
That was over half the city. Was I really that valuable of a commodity? That's what I had become—a commodity.
The Joker moved his head around as he contemplated this offer.
" Ya know, the Ba-t is not going to stop until he has the girl. He has to re-deem himself after what I di-d to him."
" Even the more inclination for us to get the girl." The slim thug remarked through his cigar-filled mouth. The smoke began making its way to where the Joker and I were. I looked away in attempt to prevent myself from inhaling the toxic fumes.
" Wha-t makes you think the Ba-t will stop hunt-ing you down if you ge-t the girl? Hmmm?"
Both men became silent for a while as they thought about this.
It was a while before the scrawny man spoke up.
"Batman is desperate for that girl. The whole city has lost their belief in him; if he gets the girl now, he can refuel that belief everyone has in him. We need a little time to make our recent uh, plan go through. The girl will buy us time. Batman will be preoccupied with saving her that we'll have enough time to finish our business. You of all people, Joker man, should know how we business types go about. You know how important it is to finish business on your terms."
I took all this in and it hit me. The Joker had made his point. He tarnished Batman's reputation with only one thing –me.
In my awe, I didn't hear the Joker agree. One of the Joker's henchmen came up to me and pulled me up to my feet. He pushed me to the other side and handed me over to the mob.
Tears started to form in my eyes. How could he do this to me? Well, what did I expect? He was, after all, a murderous clown. Well, I expected something; I don't know what, but something at least. I looked over at him, hoping that he could feel the anger radiating through me. He just looked me dead in the eyes; I didn't see any flicker of emotion or betrayal. I can't believe that asshole traded me off.
" Oh, she's a pretty thing Joker man. You do pick fine hostages." The scrawny one said. He pulled me up and I got a good look at him. His slicked black hair complimented his rough skin and pointy features. He oozed of deceit, but it wasn't stronger than his pungent cologne.
He pushed me towards the men in the back, and I fell to my knees once again. I cried out in pain but this time, it was more so for the separation that had occurred.
A couple of his men laughed at my predicament, but I looked down. Tears were forming in my eyes, and I didn't want to give these men any more to laugh at.
With all the courage I had, I turned my head to the Joker again. His expression was stoic, and he had that analytical look on his face. His tongue grazed over his lips, as it had so many times before, and his black eyes portrayed no emotion whatsoever.
He just looked into my red, swollen eyes for what seemed like forever. I expected some kind of reaction or something, but all I got was a long, hard stare.
The lean man was growing irritated with the Joker's presence and he started to fidget.
" Well, Mr. Joker, this about ends our meeting."
The Joker stared at me a little longer, and then broke his gaze and turned his head to the left a little to look at the lean man.
The Joker's face went from a stoic glare to a half smile that showed all his teeth.
" It was grea-t doing busi-ness with you."
