Leave Me Here To Swing
Chapter 11: City Limit
She had run the car until it ran out of gas which was on the other side of Jump City. She walked down the road in a blind haze; she was used to the drowsiness, the hunger, the emptiness… But not the freedom.
She was free. She wasn't waiting on her fathers' command; she wasn't under her brothers' watchful eye. Her face paint was faded and smeared, or completely gone. What was left felt almost heavy on her face.
After about a mile, it had started to rain. The water flattened and spread her curls; it cleaned her face of the intricate designs, leaving only dark smudges around her eyes that resembled her parents' makeup. She adjusted the duffel bag on her shoulders as lights began approaching behind her. She placed a hand inside it as she smoothly stepped into the road and into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
The tires screeched to a halt and the car swerved to avoid the pedestrian. Marion pulled her hand out of the bag and ran over to the driver's side door that was already beginning to open and yanked it open. She shoved the hand that she had withdrawn from the bag into his face and made sure the man was staring down the barrel of the gun in her hands, "Where ya headed?" she asked with a sick smile stretched across her face.
The man took a shaky breath and kept his eyes trained on the cement below her feet, "Where do you want to go?"
She smirked, "Next town?"
He nodded, "Then that's where I'm headed."
She withdrew the gun, but kept it trained on him, as she walked around the hood of the car and to the passenger's seat. The man unlocked the door and she climbed inside. He shut his own door and righted the direction of the car. They started down the road and quickly picked up the pace.
"You're from Gotham."
"I am… how did you know?"
"I just held a gun to your face and you didn't blink, seems oddly calm for someone in your predicament." Marion stated, a small smirk on her lips.
"This isn't the first time I've been held at gunpoint." He answered, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Who was it?"
"Harley Quinn." He answered, glancing that girl that sat in his passenger seat.
Her eyes narrowed, "Why?" she asked, her tone level and void of emotion.
"I'm a weapons smith, and I don't exactly work on the Stock Market. I used to make guns for the Joker, he was my best customer." He looked over at her, "I made the pistol you're holding, Charoite and Ivory handles, with pearl edges. I made the knife that matched it too." He smiled at her when she looked at him, "I made them for free."
"Why?" she asked, turning to look at her gun. Her index finger gently caressed the smooth Charoite, multiple shades of shined purple glinted underneath her finger tip. The gun had been well loved for three long years.
"The Joker would have had me killed in an instant if I had refused to make his little girl's birthday present. Besides, Harley had a gun to my head. What was I suppose to say?" She stared at the gun and remained silent, so he spoke again, "Why has he got you all the way out here?"
"He doesn't." she answered shortly, still staring at her gun, "I left."
"Why? I thought you were his baby, his little girl, his doll."
She looked up at the road, "Not anymore." She said, in a deadly, almost happy tone.
The man nodded, looking down the road as the city appeared on the horizon, "Good for you." He said after a moment, "So, where exactly are you headed?"
"Nowhere, Anywhere, Away? I don't know."
"I know someone that can take care of you, at least until you know where you're headed."
"I don't need someone to take care of me!" She snapped glaring at him.
"I didn't mean like that!" the man backtracked quickly, "I mean, he knows the market of the city. He can get you somewhere to stay, some work that suits your talents, and he can help you live under the radar so your father doesn't find you."
"He's not going to come looking for me."
"Yes he will, he always went looking for your mother when she disappeared, did he not?"
Marion thought for a minute and looked at him, lifting her gun to his temple at a sloppy, half hearted angle, "No funny business."
"My dear," the man said looking at her sideways, "That's your job."
Marion laughed her hysterical laughter as they roared past the city limit sign.