Hi everyone. This chapter irked me to no ends. bleah. Thanks a ton for all the reviews and welcome to the people who have just started reading this story! This chapter is pretty dark, it shows a bit of what Julia was like as a child. Please read and review.
Disclaimer: .........same as before.........
Julia
As the days went on, I began to realize the funny looks I was receiving. Whenever Marissa talked to me, she always tried to avoid my eyes, and whenever she happened to glance into them, she'd shiver and look away. Marissa acted normal around me, except when she looked into my eyes. It wasn't just her. When I spoke to Ms. Jones and we made eye-contact, she stiffened, and looked down. Even people I didn't even know, like the grocer a few doors down from my house, would look uncomfortable when he looked at my eyes.
The only person who seemed immune to this new behavior was William. He was always looking me straight in the face, grinning happily. It was really unsettling that he acted so differently then others. One day after Marissa actually recoiled from me when she looked at my eyes; I went into my bathroom and took a good look at myself. I never usually gave my face much time, especially since the Joker. I knew how much I looked like him. But when I raised my head and looked at my reflection, I was caught completely off guard. My face was the same, much thinner then usual, but my eyes frightened me.
They were darker, I swear they had changed colour. They didn't look brown anymore, they looked almost…..black. They were like deep holes, with a small tint of brown. They weren't my eyes, they were his. This was why people never looked at me in the face anymore. My eyes reminded them so much of something in their worst nightmare, a monster so horrible that they spent every waking day living in the shadow of his knife, wondering if they'd be next. I opened my drawers and rummaged through, trying to find something to change the way my eyes looked.
I grabbed mascara and desperate added it to my eyelashes, then leaned closer. They looked even worse now, like they really were surrounded by angrily applied black makeup. I pounded the wall in frustration. What was wrong with me? I glared at the mirror, and saw my eyes darken even more. It was all his fault. People were scared to look at me in the eye, because of him. I marched out of the room, and flung myself onto the couch. It wasn't like I could make him pay or anything; I'd not only endanger my life, but others. The idea came in a flash of creativity and I grinned at the ceiling. If the Joker was going to come into my apartment on a regular basis, I might as well show him what I really feel.
Joker
I swung open the door of the girls apartment, grinning manically.
"Huulllloooo!!!" I sang, waltzing into the room. I flicked on the lights, slamming the door behind me. There, hanging from a noose was a stuffed dummy, wearing purple and green clothes. As it swung, I saw the red smile painted on its face and bent over laughing. Oh god, this girl was a piece of work. I pulled off the piece of paper stuck to the clown dummy's chest, and let loose another couple of cackles at what it said. If thoughts could kill, you'd already be dead. I crinkled up the paper, tossing it lightly to the ground and made my way around the swinging dummy to almost step on the mouse traps covering the floor in front of me. She was surprising, sure, but also very refreshing.
I cleared a path of mouse traps and my way to the bedroom, where I could see the girl, fast asleep. She hadn't woken up when I'd come in. She definitely didn't get that from me. I giggled and walked towards the sleeping girl. She didn't look nearly as lethal when asleep, she looked….boring. I watched her toss and turn, amused. I turned around and went over to her closet, where the door stood ajar. I peeked in and grinned gleefully. Maybe the girl was more like me then I thought. Almost all of her clothes had some shade of purple or green on them, even if it was just a little stripe.
I dug farther into the tiny closet and found a couple of boxes, stacked neatly. One of them was already opened, and I peeked in excitedly. The box was full of black journals, different sizes and shapes. I snatched one of the older ones, and opened it. From the writing and pictures littering the pages, it looked like the girl hadn't been older then seven when she'd written this. The pictures were….interesting. A few of them had pictures of evil looking men with red crayon scribbled all over them, and I assumed they were her mothers many boyfriends. Some of the other pictures were equally colorful and it surprised me, the twisted imagination of the girl. It looked like this was where she spilled out all the lovely thoughts she was having, the ones that she didn't want others to see. The lines were jagged and the pictures changed quickly, she seemed to be thinking about more then one thing at a time.
I flipped through, giggling quietly at the furious writings of an eight year old. Suddenly, the pictures stopped being so graphic. Now there was a little child, most likely the girl, and a man with her. The man changed every picture, from being blonde haired to brown haired, from being tall to short. Sometimes a woman, most likely her mom, joined the picture, but usually it was just the child and the man. I glanced down at the captions, my knee bouncing, humming a made up tune.
Daddy and I go and get ice creem. Said one. Daddy tucks me in at nite. I flicked the pages rapidly looked through all the pictures, my laughter mounting at the girls imagination, at her dreams. I dropped this book to the floor and opened another one, and flicked through it, and another, stifling my laughs. Then I saw it. Daddy smiling, and burst out laughing. I heard the girl roll over in her sleep, I don't think an earthquake could have woken her.
I ripped it out of the book and stuffed it in my pocket then turned to the next box. This one had more recent journals, with new characters in it. Batman became the obsession of the pages, and my nails made indents in the book. I swiftly turned the pages and saw me. Most of the time, I was dead, but sometimes I was being blown up, with my bits and pieces flying everywhere. This was the best book I'd ever read! I turned to blank pages, the book was unfinished. It looked like the girl hadn't written in it for a few months. I went to grab another journal, but I heard stirring behind me.
I quickly shut all the boxes and placed them inside. The girl didn't need to know how I got my information. I walked swiftly over to her bed and starred down. The girl was so hopeful, so wishing for her fairytale life, it was pathetic. Didn't she know what kind of world it was? I glared down at the girl. No, she needed to know that I wasn't going to let her keep her life forever…no. It wasn't all fun and games…. At least for her. I smiled happily. It was about time I showed her, my flesh and blood how easy it is to take a person apart. Suddenly, her eyes flashed open and she leapt out of the bed, knife clutched in hand, I grabbed her roughly and slammed her against the wall, while she starred at me, eyes still bleary from sleep.
"Hey there sleeping beauty." I hissed gleefully. She focused her eyes in on me and gave me a smirk.
"Did you like my present?" She whispered. I slammed her against the wall.
"Hmm, well to be honest, I found it to be a little…..annoying." I replied giving her a grin. She looked back at me, defiance on her face. How naive. It angered me.
"You see dear, it seems you uh think that I'm not a threat……I am." I flung the girl across the room, where she hit her head against the door. I heard her whimper, and I felt the adrenaline course through my veins. I cracked my neck and continued." I'm not going to kill you dear, well not yet, but…" I moved forward, skipping slightly and bent down beside her. "There are a lot things worse then death, things….that can break you." She looked up at me, her smirk gone, replaced by fear. She was shocked, and her face was white, drained of blood. I so wanted her to hurt, to cry. It excited me, gave me energy. I slammed her against the door, feeling her gasp of pain, then let go.
I stood, staring down at the crumpled girl, her face full of pain, horror. She was wondering, wanting to know, know what I'd do to make her life worse then death. I gave her a smile and flicked open my knife and left the room. I dragged the blade along the wall, leaving indents as I walked, leaving her to wallow in shock, in despair. I knew what I was going to do, it would be soooo easy. The girl wasn't going to be hard to completely snap in two, but it would be a hell of a ride to see how far she fell.
Julia
I lay there on the ground, cradling my arm with the broken fingers. I wasn't crying, but I was shaking. It had come out of nowhere the rage, the anger. He hadn't even taken out his blade, and I was sitting here, in shock. My head rang from being slammed against the door, and the rest of my body throbbed painfully. I moved my hands and shakily got up. That's when I noticed the rip in my pajamas, and my bloody knife laying by the bed. I peeled away the pajama pants and saw the cut, right along the side of my knee. It wasn't deep, but the pain was starting increase. I got up shakily on one leg and made my way towards the bathroom.
After I'd bandaged up my knee, I gently crawled back into my bed, shaking uncontrollably. I wanted someone to hold me, to tell me it was going to be okay. But who could I tell? I shuddered and pulled the blankets up to my neck, shaking uncontrollably. Even though I tried so hard to say it wasn't so, I missed my mother.
I missed the reassurance of her, when she'd come home after a long night, when she broke up with a boyfriend and would let me stay up late with her, eating cartons of ice-cream and watching sappy chick flicks. I remembered her infrequent hugs, the warmth they always brought. I missed it all. I wanted to call her, to tell her that I forgave her, to make her stop worrying. I couldn't deny it, almost every day I got a message from her. They were becoming more and more disturbing. She would break down halfway through the message or get really angry. She would plead, asking me to answer, to pick up. But I never did. I couldn't. I wasn't the Julia she knew, not anymore. I pulled my uninjured knee up to my chest, and hugged it furiously. Everything hurt so much….
The next day was thankfully a Saturday, and I had the day off work. I didn't fall asleep until around 4:00 in the morning, and woke at 11:00 when the phone was ringing off the hook. I stumbled out of bed, and gasped with pain. My entire body killed, and my knee was throbbing. I made my way towards the phone, avoiding the mousetraps and joker dummy, which had been ripped down and stabbed repeatedly. I and answered it, with a bleary "hello?" And let my eyes wander around the living room, taking in the caked blood on the walls forming the words HAHA. Where had he even gotten blood to do that? I shivered, and focused in on the high pitched voice on phone.
"…..Oh my god I can't believe it still Julia!!! You're going to like the biggest party of the year!!! I am sooo jealous!!" I grimaced, clueing in. Marissa. From the screaming I assumed she had heard about my invite from William to the Gotham Time's 200th anniversary party.
"…..have to get you a dress and you'll need your hair done…" Marissa babbled on, while I tried desperately to focus.
"Hey Julia, are you still there?" Marissa's voice became worried.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm really excited too!!" I replied, raising my voice to sound interested. It wasn't hard, I really was looking forward to it.
"Oh…good." Marissa giggled. "I'm going out with this new guy I met next weekend, and I need a dress….do you want to come and get one with me?"
"Yes." I answered quickly. I wanted to have something to distract my attention, and this was perfect.
"Okay, we'll go shopping this afternoon, around three." Squealed Marissa. I hung up the phone and limped into the bathroom, to see how bad the damage was. When I looked into the mirror, I was surprised and grateful. There were not any bruises to be seen on my face, except for a tiny one on my temple, which was already green. I could cover it with makeup. My head felt tender all around, so I knew that it had quite a few bruises, though they were hidden beneath my tangled mess of hair. I checked my wrists and saw that they were purple and sore again, having already been bruised from the Joker's office visit. My other bruises were on my knees and back, where I'd slammed myself into the wall and hit the floor. I hurriedly took some Advil to calm my aching head, and limped back into the living room to wipe the blood off the wall.
At three-o-clock, I looked refreshed and ready to go. I'd cleaned up the questionable blood on the walls, and gotten rid of the dummy. I'd applied makeup to my face and wrists, trying to conceal the bruises, and I'd re-bandaged my knee, which was healing nicely. This all was a lot harder because of my broken fingers, and I was looking forward to getting the cast off. I was just grabbing a bite to eat when I heard the loud rap of knuckles on my door, and I left to let Marissa in. She grinned at me gleefully when she entered, her cheeks flushed and blonde hair flying about.
"Let's go shopping!" She shrieked.
The afternoon passed by surprisingly quickly and I actually got into the shopping, though Marissa asked a lot of questions about my knee. She also saw a couple of bruises I hadn't totally covered. The reporter in her tried to weasel the information out of me, but she soon recognized defeat. I had an extremely difficult time finding a dress, choosing many different ones. I wasn't even sure what I wanted, but Marissa was a big help. She quickly found her own dress, black, and tried to get me to wear a similar one, which I flat out refused. I never wore completely black, I always had some sort of colour on me. Since I refused blatantly to wear black, Marissa brought me a ton of more colourful designs to wear. I was trying on what seemed like my billionth dress when I glanced in the mirror, and grinned. It was perfect. I showed Marissa and she smiled at me gleefully.
"Julia, that colour looks amazing on you!" She shrieked, and I swear the mirrors cracked. I smiled at my reflection in the mirror, looking myself up and down. The dress was a dark, silvery kind of green, which was a halter around my neck and flowed out at my knees. It looked perfect. I spotted a pair of almost black purple high heels and grinned gleefully. I actually was looking forward to the party. After we bought our dresses, Marissa and I headed back to her apartment, where we ordered in a pizza and stuffed our faces, watching one of Marissa's favorite soaps.
The day was just what I needed to get my mind off last night, and when I got back to my apartment, my spirits were high, and I was ready to sleep. I went and hung up the dress in the closet, then stared at my clothes tiredly. I'd realized the resemblance of colours to the Joker, but I didn't care. I liked those colours, they were different, surprising. The clown wasn't going to control my life. I could choose what I wanted…. I angrily flung myself onto the bed. Why couldn't I get him out of my head. He was infecting me, changing me, showing me what I was like, underneath. I pressed my face into the pillow, scrunching my eyes tight. A perfectly fine day, ruined by purple and green.
It turned out that I really wasn't tired, especially after I started thinking about the Joker, so I went and laid down on the couch, hoping the TV would wear me out. My eyes began to drift as the colours flashed across the screen, and I slowly fell asleep.
I walked among the frightened people in the bank, their hands and feet bound together, eyes fixed on my every move. I starred back at them, shocked by their terrified faces. What were they scared of? I moved towards a young woman and she whimpered, pressing herself against the teller's desk to get away from me. Her action startled me, but also made me feel.... powerful. It felt good to be feared, to be looked at with terror. Warmth flooded through me and I glanced down at the gun, held neatly in my hands. Slightly confused, I looked around the bank, trying to figure out what was happening. When I turned around, I could see men with clown masks heaving bags of money into trucks, others tying up the remaining people. Wait, was this a bank heist? But, I wasn't tied up, I wasn't a hostage..... I moved towards the hostages and opened my mouth to ask what was happening, but nothing came out.
The hostages screamed as I came closer, and I saw one woman swoon as I neared. Two gun shots rang out among the screaming and I glanced down at my hand, the gun raised in front of the now dead woman in front of me, her blood slowly pooling over the large pieces of glass on the floor. I dropped the gun to the ground and looked at it, horrified. My eyes caught a flash of colour in the glass and I moved forward to take a look at my reflection. A painted white face, black holes for eyes, and two scars, pulling my lips into an evil smile. A face, so alike the Jokers grinned back at me. I was wearing completely purple, and my curly hair was dyed green. The scars, I fingered them tentively. They were there; I could feel them with my tongue. I tried to steady myself, tried to breathe. I had become my worst nightmare.
Behind my reflection in the pieces of glass, a face, the real face loomed behind me. The Joker swung me around and plunged a knife into my chest, dragging it along, creating a big J on my stomach. I screamed with pain, and my vision turned red, as he released me and I fell onto the ground. My crimson blood spilled out, and I tried to breathe, tried to stay alive.
"There are worse things then death." Came the Jokers voice through the static noise in my ears. I gurgled, tears and blood mixing together, the Jokers laugh ringing all around me.
I jolted awake, sweat pouring down my face, the Joker's laugh echoing. I'd had another dream, a new one. This time, he wasn't the one killing people, I was. I remembered their frightened faces, screaming for help. I remembered my face, his face, the same. I felt at my cheeks, searching for the scars that weren't there. Where was I heading, was this a warning, what I would become. I looked around the room shaking uncontrollably, the TV still casting an eerie glow. My eyes past over the window and that's when I saw it. A shadow crouched on the opposite building, the moonlight glow making the figure stand out. I rushed to the window, wincing when I banged my fingers against the wall. But the figure was gone. I peered into the knight, my heart pounding excitedly, looking for the figure, which had vanished so quickly. The figure in black, with a long black cape. Batman. I swear I'd seen him, watching from the rooftop, but why? What could make him want to keep tabs on me, her couldn't know....could he?
So please review, I need reviews for this one, it frustrated me a ton, and I'd love some feedback. The whole dress thing was to shed a bit of light on Julia's life, I need to give the poor girl a break! I'll update as soon as I can!!!
