Eye Candy Chapter 21: Preparing For The Game, a batman begins/dark knight fanfic

Joker: (rubs head) Why must everyone hit me over the head.

Meg: Cause you are a meanie!

Joker: (points to Meg) YOU! (charges at her and slams her into the wall) I have had enough of your little wise cracks! Sneak Attacks! And all around annoying personality! I am going to give you a smile!

Kait: (flys in with a cape with corny background superhero music)DUN DA DA DUN DUN DUN DAAAAAA! NEVER FEAR SUPER KAIT IS HERE! (pulls the Joker off of Meg with her superhuman strength)

Joker: Holy shit.

Chapter 21

Nichole walked a couple blocks till she was in downtown Gotham; the shop windows were lit up with 'Open' signs and a welcoming air conditioner.

The instense urge to run to a police station was eating her insides up.

Here I am yet again....Walking around in daylight with the public....and I can not even cry for help! She thought hopelessly. She walked by average people, trying her best to not look like a frightened lost puppy.

Though no one was honestly paying attention to her or even making eye contact.

The people of the world were too caught up in their own silly lives to notice anything.

Now where to first? She thought looking in the shop windows as she passed them searching for something of interest; trying to take her mind off the urge to run away. She wanted to go the Gotham City Mall, but that was too far a distance to walk. And she had to keep in mind whatever she bought she had to carry around with her.

I can't run away...He knows where Tom is! She had to remind herself. Her eyes were looking in shop windows, but they were not focused on anything. Her mind was taking over her eyes. She could only think about Tom.

Buying things require money; she had none. And honestly she didn't want to steal anything. She didn't even know how to steal properly without drawing attention to herself.

She passed by the Gotham City Dump Yard. The foul smell coming from it made her scrunch her nose. She peered into the dump yard as she started to walk by its' front gate. It was rather large and surrounded by a huge chain link fence, with barbed wire on the top, but there was a tiny gate with no lock on it to the side of the entire structure.

An idea sparked into her head.

She wouldn't have to steal if she had money.

To get money she could recycle cans and bottles at the grocery store.

To get cans and bottles and could search through the dump for them.

Brilliant! Disgusting plan, but hey if it stopped me from having to steal, I'm okay with that.

Her mind would not allow her to steal without feeling very guilty. She carried guilt throughout her life. It was just the way she worked. And the nerves she already had inside of her, would show on her face even before her small hands would try to take and hide an item under her clothing and walk out of a store. They would watch her like a hawk the moment she set foot into a shop.

She walked over to the gate and pushed on it. It was all rusty and wouldn't open as she pushed harder. Growing frustrated by the pushing that did absolutely nothing, she backed up and ran straight towards the gate; full speed and arms extended outwards. This gate was going to open, even if it hurt her.

When she came crashing into the gate, it flew open and Nichole fell on to the ground, landing on her wrist. She bit the inside of her mouth to stop her from yelping in pain. If she made too much noise someone might hear and the cops would be at her within a seonds notice. It was illegal to be in the dump, but she had seen many times in her life when she passed by the place homeless people searching for food or clothes in the trash. She lifted her wrist, to check if it was broken, but thank god it wasn't, just in a lot of pain and slightly red.

She stood up and searched around the dump. She found a fairly nice trash bag that had no rips or tears in it and emptied it out. She would use this to put all the cans and bottles in it.

Thus her disgusting search for recyclables. She couldn't find any loose cans or bottles, so she had to do the grossest thing she has ever done, besides getting raped of course by the Joker. She had to dig through the trash piles. The things she dug through were gross, and smelled horrible. She just tried not to think about it. She tried to make her mind think she was just digging through sand, and not other people's left over food, and dirty messes.

She came across her first can. She nearly cheered as she placed it into her trash bag. One can equaled five cents. So she had to find a lot of cans. That thought made her loose hope. By the time she found enough cans and recycled them all it be six o'clock, but she could not just give up now. She had to try, and have the will power to do this task. It could save her pain later tonight.

He's not going to get me again. He's not going to take my body again! It's not his temple to do whatever he pleases to! I can win this stupid game of his! She motivated herself.

She dug and dug for hours. Three hours of enduring the foul smell, sweating like a pig and getting goopy, gooey, and disgusting stuff on her, but she was successful.

She was able to fill to the top four trash bags with cans and bottles, and thought that was plenty. She carried the bags out of the dump, hoping no one would notice and walked a little farther down the street to the grocery store.

People kept giving her weird looks as she was walking, and as well they should. She had trash and mud and dump yard gunk on her and she smelled horrible. Worse than the Joker's scent, which was now stuck in her mind. Funny how you can remember scents and even sometimes smell them even when the thing that gives off that scent is no where near you. Anyways, everyone figured Nichole was just another homeless woman roaming around the streets of Gotham.

Nothing out of the ordinary for this city. She rolled her eyes, as someone passed her and placed their hand over their nose to block her scent; making perfectly sure Nichole saw them do it.

When she arrived at the grocery store, she was pretty happy the recycling center there wasn't in the actual grocery store itself. It was a room to the left of the entrance to the store. She walked inside the small room and began to put the bottles and cans in the machines. It took her a good fifteen minutes to get all the cans and bottles into the machine, by herself. A few people were in there as well. They looked and smelled as bad as Nichole.

Real homless people. Nichole glanced down at herself again. She fit in perfectly. A good thing or a shameful thing? She couldn't think of the answer to that at the moment.

She pressed the 'Receit Now' button and her two receits came out. She didn't bother to look at them as she made her way in the store. She went to the costumer service desk and handed the man her receits. He gave her a glare and crinkled his nose at her scent, as he opened his register. She blushed embarrassed, but he couldn't see her cheeks stained red. The dirt covered her face.

He handed her twenty five dollars. She took the money shaking a bit. This was gold to her right now. Not enough to get really anything fancy but enough to get a dinner.

I will win this game! She told herself. I am going to get this done!

The money boosted her confidence to the point, some of the nerves inside of her were draining.

She was going to head around the store to find some food to get, but instead made a detour to the bathroom. She took a hand full of the cheap brown paper towels running them under the sink and the soap dispenser and began to rub the paper towels on her arms and face. She was going to shower when she returned to the Joker's pad, but for now she wanted to try her best to get rid of the foul smell. It was even making her sick.

Another woman just left her bathroom stall and was at the sink next to Nichole's washing her hands. She looked at Nichole basically 'bathing' her arms and face in the bathroom and frowned.

"Rough day huh?" The woman asked, keeping her eyes on her hands as she washed them.

Nichole sighed. "Oh...you have no idea."

The woman reached over and grabbed herself a paper towel and dried her hands. She then reached into her purse pulling out a five dollar bill. She extended her hand with the money in it out towards Nichole.

Nichole looked at it and froze. This woman thought Nichole was homeless. "Oh...Oh no I can't accept that."

Even though she wanted to take the money, Nichole could not bring herself too. She did not want this woman's pity, for it would make her feel even lower than she already did.

"Nawh go on take it. You need it more than I do, thats for sure." The lady protested, giving Nichole a smile.

Nichole frowned and started to continue wiping her arms with the soap and water. "No I can't. Thats really nice of you, but-"

"Alrighty then.....I guess I'll just be going." She headed to the bathroom door. The lady then dropped the five dollar bill on to the ground on purpose and let out a fake gasp. "Oooops!" Then she walked out of the bathroom.

Nichole let out a small laugh walking over and picking the five dollar bill up.

At least some people in Gotham are nice. This will insure that I have enough to keep him entertained tonight. She smiled. With this five dollar bill she now had thirty bucks. Quite enough to get the things she had in mind.

Nichole went back over to the mirror and fixed her hair before walking back out of the bathroom and began to roam the aisles of the grocery store looking for something she could make for the Joker.

She tried to think of things she had made in the past that were good and looked fancy. The Joker was a man, and men eat a lot. They like more then one course meals. She got a shopping cart and filled it with vegetables, some bred sticks, beef, a steak, and an ice cream cake. She knew she would have a lot of preparing to do when she got back to the house. She was going to barely make his time frame.

She headed to check out, and waited in line for a couple minutes, glancing at the clock nearby. It was two o'clock. She had four hours, and the only thing she had done was buying the food for the night.

She got the same feeling again in her stomach.

The feeling of lost hope.

The confidence she had gained from having actual money in her hands was fading once again at the thought of how much time was left before the man in the face paint would walk through the doorway of the kitchen and demand to know what she prepared.

I bet he thinks I have nothing done! She tried to humor herself.

She reached the front of the line and emptied her contents of the cart onto the counter. The guy at the register scanned all her items. "Ma'am that will be $32.55."

Shit!

She only had thirty bucks.

Food prices these days are rediculous. What do I do now!?

"Oh....um.....I...I kind of only have thirty dollars...." She blushed red again with embarrassment. "I guess we could do without the um-" She looked over the food. "The um....." The guy waiting in line behind her began to tap his foot irritated.

The man at the register sighed, "Look don't worry about it kay?"

"Oh..why...Thank you....thank you so much." Nichole stammered.

"Don't worry 'bout it." he said bagging her food up. He finish within seconds and handed Nichole to two shopping bags. "Come again." He smiled at her flashing his semi yellow teeth. A sudden image of the Joker and his smile with his pure yellow teeth came into her head. She froze in her spot, as she reached for the bags, shaking in fear at just the simple image of the Joker in her head. The way her flashbacks could now take over her body; making her freeze in her place just thinking of the very look of the Joker. It was truly terrifying.

The register man blinked waving the bag in her face now. "Uh Ma'am?"

Nichole snapped out of her fear. "Wha-? Oh...sorry. Just spaced out is all." She said without thinking as she grabbed the bags. "Sorry."

Nichole heard the man mutter. "Loonies of Arkam just keep escaping."

If she wasn't in this type of situation she would turn around and yell at him, but then again if she wasn't in this type of situation she wouldn't be acting this strangely around people.

Outside again it dawned on her. She had no money again, and all she had was food.

No entertainment! She gasped. All that trash digging for nothing!

She was going to fail. She only had four hours and not enough time to go back to the dump and look for cans.

She was in the parking lot of the grocery store. All she needed was five bucks.

FIVE BUCKS!

That was how much it was to rent a movie in Gotham at the video store. She couldn't steal a movie there, because the alarms would go off. She had to steal money itself.

But where?

She walked by the cars parked and got an idea. She could break into the cars and find the money. It was such a horrible thing to do.

But its only five bucks right? No one would miss it. No one would act like it was a total loss. She tried to convince herself.

By the time she had set her mind that she was going to do this she was in between two cars. She tried to open the car's doors, but it was locked.

Of course everyones cars would be locked. She mentally facepalmed. This is freaking Gotham City. Highest crime rate in the world, who wouldn't lock there door?

Still she tried and tried to open every car's door she saw, until....

Click.

The car door was unlocked. A rush of excitement filled her stomach as she slowly opened the door. She began searching around the seats and floor for money, trying to make it look like it was her car. She opened the glove compartment and there sitting inside was ten, five dolled bills. Just her luck! She only took one five dollar bill though. She didn't want to steal more then she needed and besides one five dollar bill misplaced wouldn't seem suspicious.

She shut the car door and took her bags and jogged to the movie rental place.

Crap! She panicked. What movie to rent?

Sure she had the money, but now she had no idea what to get.

What genera of movie does the Joker like? He really doesn't strike me as a movie person though. She thought it would be very hard for him to sit still and watch and get into the movie.

She entered the store and scanned aisle after aisle, looking at the movie titles and then thinking of how bad of a choice it be to pick

"The Notebook"

HA! the Joker and love stories? No way.

"Steven King's IT"

I think that be an insult to him to watch another clown kill people. He might kill me for 'mocking' him.

"Friday the 13th"

Jason Voorhees? I think the Joker would stab the television with his knife once he saw the horrible 1980s graphics and special effects.

"The Atomic Bomb and YOU!"

....I don't wanna give him ideas...

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street"

Hmmm....that might actually be a good choice. Its based on a play, and the Joker likes theatrical things. It has knives and a freaking song about them, and he has made it quite clear he likes knives. She rubbed the scar on the back of her neck. And sure it has songs, but it really is a depressing movie. I...think...I'll take my chances.

She grabbed Sweeney Todd and headed to check out handing the clerk a five dollar bill, glancing at the clock. She now only had three hours to get back to the house cook the food, shower, set up the plates, look presentable and calm herself down so she doesn't start crying as soon as she sees the Joker.

It took her fifteen minutes to get back to the Joker's place. No vans were outside suggesting the Joker had taken all his men with him to wherever they were going. Nichole wondered, did all the Joker's men live at the house? She never really noticed, but then again she was always cooped up in the Joker's room and not exposed to the rest of the house except on rare occasions like these. And if they didn't live with the Joker, did they have families? Did they have children? How on earth did they end up working for the Joker, how desperate were they?

Nichole had to stop thinking and start getting ready. She took the bag of groceries and made her way to the kitchen, grabbing a pot and a pan out of the cupboards. They were all dusty and dirty so she had to wash them in the sink before using them.

She filled the pot with water and chopped up the vegetables she bought. Onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots. She threw them in the pot and turned the gas on. She then put the beef on the frying pan and took a wooden spoon trying to cut up the beef into small pieced. This took about five minutes. When the beef where in small enough pieces she dumped it into the soup mixture, and then put some beef broth in it to follow.

She turned the timer on to an hour, taking a moment to catch her breath before putting the steak on the frying pan now and turning the heat onto that one too. She set the timer this time on the microwave for an hour. She looked at the steak cooking and the beef vegetable soup cooking and smiled.

Nichole dashed up the stairs to the Joker's room and into the private bathroom. She peeled off her disgusting clothes and put them into the sink and let the water run on them. She turned the shower water on and hopped in. The dirt on her washed off and went down the drain as she scrubbed her shampoo in her hair roughly making sure not to miss a single spot. The scent of her shampoo went into her nostrials and she felt like she could breath again. No more dump smell, just a lovely strawberry scent.

Standing there, with the warm water running all over her body, she couldn't help but relax. A calm energy flowed over her and overtook her. She shut her eyes enjoying the shower, keeping all her thoughts away from the Joker, and her situation, and trying to focus on good things, like the sun, and summer time, and this intoxication warmth in the shower.

Intoxicating....the same word the Joker used before he raped her last night.

All calm thoughts left and she broke out into a sob, at first a quiet one, but then she got louder, knowing perfectly well that no one was in the house with her to hear. She began screaming at the top of her lungs just to make herself feel better. To release the anger within her.

Her eyes were shut to keep the water out of her eyes, and that was a big mistake.

The Joker popped into her head. He was laughing holding a glass picture frame with a picture of Tom and Nichole's dog in it.

"Ooooh Nichole!" He wiggled the picture in his hands and then dropped the picture onto the ground. It shattered into a hundred different pieces, and blood began to spill out of the picture. She heard screaming. Screams of pain and agony, from Tom. And then squeeling from her dead dog, followed by a low buzz of talking. She registered who was talking. Her dead students. They were yelling at her.

"NICHOLE! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US?"

"Why did you go against the Joker and tell us the story!? If you didn't we would all be alive! It's all your fault!"

Tom sitting in the chair, knife in his stomach groaned in pain. "Nichole.....you're not worth all this pain I'm going through. This is all your fault!"

Her dog raced towards her. She sniffled looking at him. "ATTICUS!" She screamed running to him. She hugged him tightly. "Atticus! You're alive!" The dog suddenly became charred and curnt up. He became ashes in her hands.

The Joker walked over to her picking her up by the neck. "Why so serious?"

Nichole screamed, opening her eyes. She had fallen asleep standing up. She felt tears in her eyes and she welcomed them. A visual of the Joker still stayed in her mind. She screamed loudly again to let her anger out.

"I HATE YOU!" She screamed loudly. "I HATE YOU SO MUCH!" It felt better to vent her anger out loud, even though the Joker wasn't there to hear it.

"I HOPE YOU DIE AND GET SENT TO THE DEEPEST PART OF HELL YOU SICK MOTHER FUCKER!" It wasn't like her to use such words, but due to the circumstances she thought they were appropriate. "ONE DAY I WILL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU BASTARD!"

She sunk to the shower floor not caring how dirty or gross it was, she curled into fetal position on the ground crying. She hated the Joker. She hated him with an ever loving passion. Never in her life has she hated something more then him.

Nichole sat there trying to stop her sobbing for another five minutes. She got out of the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel, and went into the Joker's room throwing on some new clothes.

She went downstairs just in time for the timer to go off on the steak and soup. She went to the steak first and flipped it over on the pan and then set the timer for another hour, then mixed the wooden spoon and set it to heat for thirty minutes.

The little table with four chairs surrounding it would be the place Nichole and The Joker would eat at she supposed. She searched the kitchen till she found plates and silver ware. She set down two plates, two bowels for the soup, two forks and two spoons, and napkins on the seats. Satisfied with the look she placed the bread sticks on a plate and put them in the center of the table so the Joker and her could eat as many as they choose, but she intended on letting the Joker have more, for obvious reasons.

She then got out a new frying pan and put some string beans on them and let them simmer.

"Just something nice to go with the steak." She muttered to herself, feeling as if her talking herself through this would help calm her down.

She also had two left over potatoes and decided to make mashed potatoes with them.

This meal would be excellent for the Joker. A big variety of food. Why wouldn't he love it? Nichole was even loving it, and actually looking forward to eating it, but was still in fear tonight would be a disaster.

She bet that as soon as he came home, all thoughts of eating would leave her mind and with the food placed in front of her...she may end up feeling as if she was going to throw up.

She placed the movie in the living room by the television. She had an hour before the Joker would return home. Plenty of time to relax for a few minutes. Nichole walked upstairs retrieved her music player from under his bed, where she had placed it eariler and then walked back downstairs to sit on the couch. Placing the headphones in her ears, she turned the music on, leaning back in the chair and shutting her eyes.

She honestly didn't care if she wore the battery out.

She knew if she lost his 'game' tonight and another session like yesterday's happened...she would be dead by morning.

Music. Life's gift and wonder. The only thing on this earth that could take Nichole to a calm place. Somewhere far, far away from the old beat up building, that caged her. Somewhere far away from that stupid stupid clown. She started to doze off, today's work catching up to her. The music became a distance buzz in her ears. It felt like a few seconds.....Then she jerked herself awake. She undid her headphones and heard a strange beeping noise.

THE FOOD!

She dashed to the kitchen, checking the clock. She in fact had fallen asleep, for a good forty five minutes! Music, a gift and a calm state of mind, but Nichole thought she got a little 'too calm'. She took the frying pan with the steak in it off the stove and onto the counter, along with the pot carrying her soup.

Panic hit her as she had almost no time left. She checked her reflection in the mirror image she saw of herself in the window and ran her fingers through her blonde hair. "I can do this.....You can do this." She told herself firmly.

She jumped up in the air as she heard a loud door slam open, and the unmistakable eerie sounding voice of the Joker. "Oh, honey! I'm Hooooooome-mah!"

ker: (rubs head) Why must everyone hit me over the head.