Author's Note: OMG guys I am SO sorry about this long wait for an update. Been super busy lately so I made sure to throw an extra long chapter out there. I've already got a few pages done on the next one so…..see ya then…Enjoy…Ohh and PLEASE review. Reviews really do help me keep writing and it's super discouraging to see that over seventy people have already read a chapter that I posted (this one) and I got zero reviews on it. I just like to know what you guys thought so please let me know! Thanks
Jayde's eyes gazed unfocused through the foggy window as the Lincoln pulled away from the back of the barn, billowing dust and dirt up around it. Her ears continued to ring loudly from the sound of the gunshot and her eyes felt as though they were pounding slightly in her skull; she could not have blinked more than three times during the past hour. Her heart was still racing and as she closed her eyes to steady her breathing, images began replaying instantly like a horror movie with no previews.
She could very clearly see, through the blackness of her eyelids, Matthew's sobbing face as Joker hit him for what seemed like the hundredth time but when he moved to fall on his side, to hide his beaten body, Joker yanked on the rope, forcing him to stay on his knees in a submissive position…as if praying. His head had hung so low while blood dripped down his face, that his chin rested on the top of his white tank top he had been sleeping in. He had not given many answers up at which Jayde was not completely surprised. So Matthew Defalco was nearly beaten to death by the time Joker picked up a can of gasoline, uncapped it and poured it all over the bleeding man from head to toe.
His next questions, he forced answers from Matthew by clicking a lighter close to the line of his shirt or to his hair, cackling or even to the drips under his chin, laughing maniacally. Every time the lighter flicked, Jayde tried not to jump and look away, mimicking what Matthew was doing. Finally, Joker had stood up after a couple mumbled, weak answers from his victim and replaced the lighter in his hand with a razor sharp knife.
"You are a wealth of information, Matthew." Joker had chimed, now standing at his back, leaned down, using his knife to carve something into the man's hair, tossing small tufts of it to the ground as the man wept openly now in front of him. Joker had not seemed to notice as he hummed quietly until he stepped back from his head, holding out his hand toward it while his eyes slid to Jayde's.
She could remember the sinking feeling she experienced in her stomach when her eyes fell onto the sloppy but defined target Joker had just practically shaved into the back of the man's head. This was when her heart had started racing but she lifted the gun, forcing her mind into a blank static, before she pulled the trigger, ending Matthew Defalco's life.
At the present, Joker's voice pulled her through her reverie back into reality where she could still feel small flecks of now cold, wet blood on her forearms and neck.
"Jayde…" he crooed in that clowny, evil voice. "Do ya know how to find a needle in a haystack?" She shrugged half-heartedly, her eyes still glazed over and unfocused out the window. "Ya burn the haystack." He answered for her when she remained silent and Jayde's eyes slid shut again. She could still smell the scent of gasoline and what she assumed was the stench of burning flesh as she waited for Joker to place his cards all around Matthew's lifeless, flaming body.
Beside her, Joker could hardly sit still. An empowering sense of foolish, ridiculous, overwhelming pride flooded his veins like a poison when he looked back on what he had done that night and it made him want to laugh…hard.
Jayde jumped slightly when Joker suddenly burst into manic, loud laughter that doubled him over in the driver's seat, his eyes squeezed shut as he laughed whole-heartedly at both himself and Jayde. Every 'ha' in his laugh was separate and distinguishable and after a few long moments of this, he quieted down slowly until he sighed in content. He reached across to pat her leg a few times, before giving her pressure point a quick squeeze. "You did good, kiddo."
Again that night, just as they had the night before, Joker and Jayde returned the car to the same exact spot he had stolen it from, but Jayde had to argue her point when he pried open the gas tank. She had tried desperately to remind him that this car was really nice and that it was kind of unfair to blow it up when they had not done much damage to it. She had even tried standing in front of the gas tank to prevent him from dropping in whatever his home-made tiny bomb was but he scoffed as if offended by her feeble attempt to block him and simply shoved her aside. "Evidence, darling, evidence." He murmured as they walked off.
Jayde's brain was alive and crawling with thoughts when she plopped down into a stupefied trance at the end of the bed and yet she could not think of one thing to say. From the way Joker was moving around her, it seemed he was not looking for any dialogue so all the better that she sit there quietly.
Her eyes had just fallen onto an electrical socket across from her when Joker's face suddenly appeared in front of her and she jumped, gasping slightly. She sighed a moment later, rubbing her forehead as Joker stood to his full height, resting his hands on his hips inside the coat. He wasn't saying anything and when Jayde glanced up to see the expectant look on his face, she figured he was waiting for an explanation of sorts. However, Jayde was not ready to give one yet.
"I'm probably gonna go to sleep…" she murmured, letting her eyes fall onto his purple coat that he was still wearing. "..A-are you?"
"No," he replied before he wiggled his arms, shaking his head. "I'm too…" he never said what he was 'too' but he had a feeling Jayde would understand what he meant. She nodded a second later, rubbing her left eye with a balled fist, watching with her right one as Joker turned abruptly to walk to the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked before she could bite her tongue; that was none of her business. Joker turned slowly, that thought clearly evident through his expressions although he shrugged a second later, motioning through the now opened door at the chair outside.
"Probably just read for a while." He grinned at her, pointing his finger toward the bed. "You rest your pretty head. I'll kiss you goodnight before I go to sleep." He assured her with a charming smile and with this, he shut the door behind him, although Jayde noticed he did not have his book. Too tired and mentally exhausted to care, she stripped down to just her undies and the tank top she had worn under her sweater and climbed under the blankets.
Her eyes drifted through the dark, moonlit hotel room, over the silhouettes of Joker's large guns leaned against the wall under the window, over the heap of duffle bags piled in the corner, to the table where Joker's book and notebook sat until she finally found the window. A small, glowing red circle rose through the air outside, pausing to glow brighter momentarily before it fell again. It took several moments for Jayde to realize what it was but she finally noticed something past the red dot shift and she recognized it a moment later as the end of Joker's lit cigarette. He brought it to his mouth again after a minute.
Jayde could barely see the outline of his broad shoulders through the sheen drapes, a still, quiet shadow sitting in the chair. His painted face seemed ghostly, two dim, black rings above a red smile that remained completely still until that small red circle reappeared again. Jayde grinned into the pillow when she noticed him turn his head slightly, gazing out at the parking lot from those sunken, black eyes like her protector, her guard dog of sorts. It was, of course, Joker's trademark to be scary, threatening and ominous in a sense, but it was what Jayde was beginning to like about him most. She had always heard that cliché idea that women always loved a dangerous man and it was true; The Joker was as dangerous as they came and Jayde was drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
Her mind threw her back several hours to flash an image of Joker standing in front of Matthew, shouting. The harshness and bite to his voice was terrifying to say the least but something about it sent funny little shivers all the way from the top of her head to the tips of her toes and she could not help but be slightly enthralled watching her 'friend' do what he did best. Never before could Jayde consider the sight of a tall man who's hands dripped with blood, clutching a knife, slightly breathless, as attractive. Now, she found it downright sexy.
Jayde had watched him for as long as she could, her mind wandering aimlessly now, over the night, over the previous night, over the previous weeks but when the air conditioning flipped on, she frowned, half-asleep, into the pillow. It had to be at least forty degrees outside the hotel and as freezing cold air blew over her bare arms and back, she rose from the bed, groaning. She had thrown her sweater carelessly away from her when she had taken it off earlier so in her search of the dark room, when she found Joker's grey, zip-up hoodie sweatshirt over the back of the chair, her hands faltered while she fingered the material. Glancing through the window, she could still see him sitting there watching the parking lot but she shrugged a second later, pulling it from it's place to slide her arms into it.
The material was thinning and wearing away in areas but felt perfectly warm against her skin as though he had just been wearing it. Jayde's knee folded beneath her when she sat back down on the bed, bringing either side of the jacket to her nose, inhaling deeply – gasoline, cologne, a twinge of cigarettes and a vague scent that was uniquely Joker's. This forced a grin onto Jayde's face before she lay down, still taking deep breaths of the scent, allowing it to pull her away into sleep.
The scent of something warm, caressing and sweet tickled Jayde's nostrils the following morning, stirring her from a bizarre dream to reveal a brightly lit hotel room, aglow with early morning sun. Her eyes creaked open to fall onto the other half of the bed where it appeared to be in the same position it had been the night before when she fell asleep. She frowned a second later, squinting at the sunlight as she brought her hand up to shield her eyes.
Across from the bed, at the table near the window, sat the Joker, his legs stretched across and rested on the chair opposite him. He was writing something in that black notebook of his, chewing on his bottom lip with his eyebrows furrowed. Jayde watched him for a moment, noting his outfit change into jeans and a black, long-sleeved shirt he had pulled up to his forearms. His makeup had been removed and his socks changed to one neon green sock and one neon orange sock.. Jayde sighed audibly from the bed, tearing his attention from his scribbling. His eyebrows relaxed when he realized she was awake and he blinked a few times, grinning at her.
"Hi." He put simply, twirling the pen between his fingers as he leaned back.
"Hi." She mumbled in reply, burying herself down further into the blankets, hiding from Joker the fact that she was actually inhaling the scent from his sweatshirt like she was huffing glue. Joker's eyes slid past her to the nightstand on the other side of her. The end of the pen stopped twirling to point toward it as his eyebrows raised. When Jayde turned over to look, she gasped with a delighted squeal at the warm, toasty cup of coffee waiting for her, in front of a tissue pastry bag. Her hands slid around the cup as she sat up.
"Did you sleep at all?" she asked a second later, but Joker frowned, holding his hand up to cup his ear in her direction.
"Eh? I'm sorry? I could've sworn I just heard you say 'thank you' but I might be-…" he said and Jayde laughed before setting the cup down to crawl across the bed and climb onto his lap, sliding her arms around his neck.
"Thank you, Joker." She purred, grinning when he brushed her off to start writing again, although he did not push her off his lap. "So you didn't sleep?" she tried again a moment later, watching his left hand's fingers as he wrote small, indistinguishable words with that black pen. His head shook slowly from left to right several times as his eyes focused on the pad of paper.
"So you never came and kissed me then, huh?" she probed, still watching his hand but looked up when she felt his eyes slide up to her. A teasing grin stretched her stitches as Joker looked over toward the bathroom.
"Go look in the mirror." He said, nodding with his head in that direction until she stood up, walking over, only to laugh when she noticed that one side of her face was covered in red, puckered kiss prints. When she walked back over, Joker had settled into a different position that inhibited her from sitting on his lap, so she sat across from him on the bed, reunited with her coffee. Her head slowly cocked to the side when she finally noticed that just a second ago, he had been writing with his left hand and had now switched to his right, thus putting him in that new position. She frowned.
"Joker, are you left-handed or right-handed?" she asked out of nowhere but the randomness did not seem to throw him off too badly this time compared to her other off-handed comments. He clicked his tongue, shifting slightly.
"Ya know what am-bi-dex-trous means?" he answered, with a condescending question only to smirk to himself when she remained silent.
While Jayde sat against the head board of the bed, munching on the bagel he had brought her, she glanced at the coffee cup, frowning. "So, what exactly did you do all night?" she asked him after several long minutes of silence. Joker sighed, setting the pen down as though her question had finally pushed him into irritation. His fingers linked together over his stomach as he leaned back in the chair.
"Well…" he took another deep breath, rolling his eyes to the ceiling slightly. "If ya really wanna know, I killed Thomas Reicher's family." He had stated this as though he was telling her about an eventful night out on the town with a group of buddies. While Jayde's chewing faltered, Joker continued, not giving her a chance to butt in. "Then, I robbed some old guy for old time's sake." Joker gave a small chuckle here, his eyes glazing over wistfully as he then brought his hands up to link behind his head. "Theeen, I went and bought you breakfast." He paused, before leaning to the side, grinning cheekily. "Aren't I just the greatest?"
Jayde did not answer immediately, but instead looked down at the half-eaten bagel in her hand before she put it back in the bag, suddenly not so hungry anymore. Her stomach churned as she looked over at Joker who had gone back to writing. It made perfect sense for him to do all of that while she was asleep, thinking he was outside watching out for her. Matthew had given up Reicher's address the previous night and not long after it, a strained explanation that Thomas Reicher was in New York for the week and would be returning the following day. Jayde did not know how she didn't put two and two together when Joker said he wasn't going to sleep.
"Did he have kids?" she asked, surprised to even find that her parents' killer had a wife, much less any descendants. Part of her sincerely hoped he didn't, but the feeling she got when Joker's knowing eyes slid to hers, twinkling with malice, was nowhere near discomfort- more like a thrill of hardened vengeance.
"Three."
Jayde's eyes fell to her hands, laying over the sheets in her lap before she looked back over at him. His eyes were fixed on her as though studying her reaction although she tried hard not to give one.
"How did you…do it?"
Joker's lips slowly parted into a sinister grin before he rested his chin in his hand on the armrest of the chair. "I stabbed them all to death in their sleep."
Jayde exhaled loudly, her eyes again falling to her lap but a second later, a small grin worked it's way onto her face. That was why he had left her there. Joker knew that although Jayde was slowly hardening herself to the things of his bloody, chaotic world, watching him stab three children to death in their sleep might have pushed her over the top. Just the thought alone was enough to make her partially sick but Jayde's mind was slowly forming on the idea that when Thomas Reicher returned home, he would find his own family the way Jayde had found hers after he had left that night. Her grin expanded as she looked over at Joker.
"Thank you." She muttered, watching his face as he smiled slowly, nodding his head. A moment later, his finger flicked up in the air before he flexed it a couple times, beckoning her over.
"C'mere." He grunted in that clowny voice, his eyes falling onto his notebook. When Jayde reached him, having crawled across the bed, he reached out, forcing her to stand before he tugged her down onto his lap. His hand settled on her knees. "Do you think I'm crazy?" he asked, tilting his head to the side slowly as Jayde gazed at his eyes, hoping to see past his question to the real meaning he was so obviously hiding. Her lips cracked into a small grin a second later.
"No," she paused, shaking her head. "I don't." Jayde had been half-expecting some gentle brush of his hand or an affectionate action of some sort, but Joker instead slapped his hand on her legs, grinning wide.
"Good!" he exclaimed. "Me either." Jayde stared at him as if waiting for him to continue, although he did not, but continued to stare up at her. She blinked, licking her lips to turn and sit more fully on his lap, practically facing him.
"So…" Jayde began slowly, staring at his shirt for a moment. "You…don't feel any sort of guilt?…For all those people you've killed? You just don't have a-…a conscience?" Joker's eyes squinted slightly before his lips smacked.
"If that's what it's called, then no, I don't. And ya know," his hand reached behind his back before reappearing, holding a small, silver pistol. His thumb cocked the hammer before he brought it up quickly, pressing it under her chin, lifting her head so her eyes gazed at the ceiling. "I could blow your brains outta your head right now and not feel a thing." His voice lowered. "I would leave your lifeless body laying right here in Billings, Montana and go back to Gotham, unscathed.." Jayde's heart hammered frantically against her ribcage as he pushed the gun harder against her chin. She could feel hot, stinging tears gathering at the corners of her eyes at this thought and when she blinked in an attempt to wash them back to where they came from, one slipped down her cheek, onto Joker's wrist.
"But you…" he growled. "Oh, you…You've got me wrapped so tightly around your little finger, it's getting kinda hard to breathe, Jayde." He sat up slightly, his finger unarming the gun before he dropped it to the carpet. "But lately, I've been getting this…" his eyes rolled, searching for a word as Jayde finally looked down at him. "persistent urge to suffocate. And if I had to feel remorse for one thing, just one teensy little thing, it would be getting involved with you. 'Cuz now I can't hurt you." He paused, searching her eyes. "Even though I really want to sometimes." He added a second later.
Jayde paused, looking down at her hands rested on Joker's stomach and although his last words were highly unsettling, she grinned past it. "You can't?…or you wont…" she asked a second later and looked back up to surprisingly find a smile on Joker's face.
She was too damn smart for her own good and that was partly what Joker liked so much about her. Jayde noticed everything from blatantly obvious things to tiny, minute details that normally would have been overlooked and it seemed she looked at everything from a different perspective. He sighed, staring at her eyes.
"Wont."
That afternoon, even though Jayde kept telling him he looked exhausted and that he really should take a nap, it took a long time before Joker finally gave in, again insisting that it was because he wanted to and not because she told him to. Jayde just rolled her eyes at this behind his back, crawling up onto the bed where he had just lay down on his side. Her knees folded under her as she sat 'indian-style' next to his waist and Joker sighed heavily, closing his eyes.
"See? You're going to feel so much better tonight when we go out." she told him, grinning when he slid open one eye to look up at her. It closed again a moment later as he smirked smugly into the pillow.
"Say, you wouldn't want to be an angel and scratch my back, now would ya?" he asked after several seconds of silence and Jayde grinned goofily; it was about time. Her hand reached out as Joker rolled onto his stomach, groaning when her nails raked down the middle of his back, slowly. Jayde's eyes followed the gentle pattern her fingers were making until she decided she would rather feel his warm skin, so she slid her hand underneath his long-sleeved t-shirt to glide her hand along the curve of his spine. He groaned a bit more loudly at this into the pillow and Jayde grinned when she noticed his neon- socked toes curl slightly.
The room was silent for several minutes, no sound save for the low rumbling of the air conditioner and the occasional horn honking outside. Joker had not fallen asleep yet as Jayde did not hear his signature growling snore but she had practically stopped scratching his back and was now lightly fingering a two or three inch, raised scar on the left side of his spine. Her mind was roving aimlessly along and as a thought popped into her head, she blurted it right out.
"Joker, what happens when we get back to Gotham?" she had been wondering this for days now, since she didn't necessarily consider herself his 'captive' anymore. In one train of ideas, it seemed only logical that she go back to the mansion with him and they continue on from there, but at the same time, it also seemed only right that he let her go back to her life, even if she did not entirely want to. He took a deep breath, resting the side of his face on his arm to look up at her from his position on his stomach. From the way he hesitated, blinking up at her, Jayde could tell he had not even thought about it yet.
"Well, I guess you'd be free to go back to…whatever it was you were doing." He replied, frowning slightly. No…that didn't seem right at all. "After all, I did abduct you and frame you with murder. I'm surprised you're even still here, to be honest." He finished with a slight chuckle as his eyes slid shut. Jayde's hand stopped moving and she brought it out from under his shirt slowly.
"But.…What if-…" she paused, trying to calculate how stupid she was about to sound. "What if I wanted to stay?…with you…" her words fell out of her mouth one on top of the other and she fought hard to keep her cheeks from burning pink when Joker's eyes opened to gaze up at her. When he did not immediately reply, she carried on quickly, looking down at her hands in her lap. "It-It's just that…I know you're like…a criminal…and all that…" she paused, glancing at his face to find he had started smirking; she looked away again. "But I kinda feel like you're…" for lack of better words, she went on, hesitantly. "..that 'best guy friend' I've never had." The inflexion in her voice rose at the end of this statement as though it were a question and Jayde practically cringed in embarrassment when Joker smiled understandingly, reaching out his hand to slide onto her knee.
"Jayde-" he went to speak but she cut across him, shaking her head, feeling as though she had just told her crush in high school about her deepest feelings for him.
"I mean, if you don't feel the same way, we can forget about-"
"Jayde." Joker interrupted her a second later, his voice a bit more firm as he struggled to get her to focus. "I feel the same way." He assured her, nodding his head with his eyebrows raised. "Hell, I don't want you to go back and I'm fairly certain neither does Dotcom." He shrugged against the pillow, watching her face as Jayde began to grin. "Plus, since Grizz is gone, we'll be needing a new…uh, 'roommate' as it were." He grinned cheekily, biting down on his bottom lip, sliding his hand a bit further up her leg as his eyes followed it. "But I think we'll have to do some reevaluating on the sleeping arrangements." Jayde giggled, taking his hand in hers to lay down on her stomach next to him, sighing.
Joker's brown eyes blinked placidly back at her as Jayde traced the line of his tattoo around his wrist, following the movement of her finger with her eyes until she met his gaze and smiled. He licked his lips, lifting his head to readjust before he looked back to her.
"So, you wanna be best friends then?" he asked a few moments later, staring blankly at her as Jayde's fingers faltered on the back of his hand and she grinned, nodding her head. His finger lightly traced the curve of her nose as her eyes shut and like that, they fell asleep.
It was dark outside when Jayde woke, turning onto her back to look behind her where Joker had been several hours prior. Of course, he was not there and was instead, standing at the sink, brushing something from the lapel of his purple coat, having just pulled it on. The white makeup on his forehead had creased from the way he furrowed his eyebrows with that scowl and Jayde could not resist the smile that crept onto her face as she approached him from behind.
Being that Joker was so tall, he did not see Jayde walking up behind him and jumped when her hands slid around his waist where she hugged him, pressing her cheek to his back. He relaxed a second later, rubbing her arms. "You ready to go, miss lady?" he asked, grinning at her in the mirror as she stuck her face next to his arm. "Mr. Reicher should be getting home soon." Although, truthfully, Jayde was not ready, she nodded none the less, lifting her chin when Joker turned to place his fingers under it. His eyes searched hers silently before he grinned slowly. "Smile." He demanded quietly, grinning further when she obeyed. "Alright, now let's go."
This night had to be special, Jayde observed when Joker got into the Corvette, starting the engine with a loud roar. Normally, she would have asked, but Jayde could pretty much just assume that Joker was going all out on this particular occasion. His hand met her knee once she sat in the passenger seat although when she looked down, Jayde noticed he was holding 'her' small, black gun. She would have sighed when she took it, but resisted, figuring if things went according to plan, this night would be the last of their killing spree.
The car ride was silent except for the light splashing of water when they turned or sped up. Apparently, it had rained while they were napping, leaving the roads wet, slick, and reflective. Joker's eyes glistened as he gazed out through the windshield at the road before him. There was something so glossy and doll-like about his eyes at this moment and Jayde had to snort a laugh to herself when she imagined a Joker action figure.
Ten minutes later, when Joker stopped the Corvette on a side road in the middle of downtown Billings, Jayde took a deep breath as she stepped out, glancing around.
"Hopefully…" Joker began, striding over to her as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. "He wont be here yet. I think we should have the family ready to greet him, wouldn't you agree?" he asked in a rather proper sort of voice, taking her hand to place it under his arm in the crook of his elbow. "Let's have a stroll." Jayde gripped his arm as they began walking, slowly along a street lamp lit path.
They remained quiet, simply watching cars pass them on the slick streets, walking in sync until they reached the front door of a brownstone-type apartment, complete with planters under the window sills and steps leading to the front door. Joker paused here as if he suddenly recognized the address of a friend and he turned sharply, tugging Jayde along with him.
"Ah…Here it is." He murmured, grinning wildly as he stepped up to the front door which opened, unrestrained by a lock, when he turned the knob. Jayde figured he had left it unlocked the night before. As she stepped inside, Jayde could openly feel a heavy presence in the dark house that seemed to suffocate and hang through the house like a fog. Joker was mumbling beside her, in so quiet a voice, it seemed he was talking to himself.
"First…I went upstairs and stabbed the wife..." he murmured, now climbing the stairs gradually, gazing upward as he pulled Jayde along behind him by the hand. "Then…I went and stabbed the littlest girl." He led her past a closed door on the right toward the end of the dark hallway. "Then, the older brother." His hand raised, a finger pointed toward a closed door on the left. Jayde swallowed hard, trying not to imagine what lay on the other side. Joker was giggling quietly. "Then, his beautiful eldest daughter, Shayna." The closed double doors at the end of the hallway creaked open when Joker pushed them, sliding sideways through the crack. "Stay here." He murmured a bit more loudly to Jayde.
She stayed put, peering through the door's opening where she could vaguely make out Joker's looming shadow in the dark room, moving toward a bed. When he came back, Jayde could distinctly smell what she recognized to be stale blood and placed a hand to her stomach, looking away when Joker reappeared, carrying the dead Mrs. Reicher in his arms.
"Let's put her downstairs at the table to greet her husband."
Downstairs, Joker half-turned in the dining room, glancing to see if Jayde had followed but jerked his head toward the chair at the head of the table when he spotted her. Jayde instantly knew what he wanted so she pulled the chair away, holding onto the back of it as Joker slowly lowered the petite woman in his arms onto it. She had to shut her eyes when Mrs. Reicher's cold, blonde hair swung back off of her shoulders onto Jayde's wrists and she jerked them away, walking over to Joker.
Jayde knew in the very farthest reaches of her mind that she wanted to look and although every fiber in her body was telling her not to, that she would regret it, she turned anyway, only to falter, her eyes falling onto the corpse at the table. The blonde woman's face was cut into a smile much larger than Amy's or Matthew's had been, practically reaching her ears and the tank top she had been sleeping in was almost entirely stained with dark, red blood. Her eyes were open, gazing soullessly at the chandelier as the house fell completely silent; an eerie, dead silence.
Joker had just turned to go back upstairs, undoubtedly for the kids, but a yellow light flew across the dark wall, bouncing slightly through the window and Jayde gasped when she realized the car had just pulled into the small, luxury driveway outside. Her eyes flew to Joker who nodded his head in the opposite direction, down another dark hallway, away from the front door. Jayde slipped inside a bathroom before Joker who followed, pulling the door so he could hold it open a few inches to hear.
Through whatever obscure moonlight they had, Jayde's eyes found the glistening whites of Joker's and at her waist, she could feel his hand reach out and lightly touch her. She gazed at him through the blackness, reaching down to wrap her fingers around his forearm.
"Do exactly what I tell you, ok?" he whispered, raising his eyebrows. Jayde could see the black rings around his eyes the clearest of anything and they stretched as he nodded, slowly. Jayde copied him, pulling her gun from the back of her jeans. She was ready for this. It had been long enough and as Jayde sat there, waiting for Thomas Reicher to walk in and find his dead wife, a trembling, rabid sensation ripped through her. Her hearing was growing slightly fuzzy and her insides practically vibrated in anticipation.
Both seemed to stop breathing when the front door opened and a man with a very familiar voice to Jayde called out "Guys?! I'm home!" Joker bit his lip to keep from giggling and ruining the surprise as the hallway light flipped on, followed by one of the most panicked, horrified screams Jayde had ever heard in her life. He positively wailed and Joker and Jayde heard a soft, dull thud on the rug over the hardwood floor.
Joker emerged from the bathroom into the light, slowly, stealthily while the man sobbed on his knees down the hall from them. Jayde was following Joker as quietly as she could, holding her breath even to keep from breathing too loud. Her hand curled tightly around the gun as she grew close enough to Thomas' back to see the small tattoo she had noticed on his neck the night of the murder and it took a lot of strength not to just pull the trigger right then; he was mourning and she was enjoying it. Her eyes flew to Joker, who was reaching behind his back, under his coat, to pull from it that huge, silver Desert Eagle. When he touched it to the back of Thomas' nearly bald head, the man jumped but instantly quieted and froze.
"Hello there." Joker rasped, lowering the gun slightly. "We've been expecting you…along with Misses Reicher there." He knelt down slightly, lowering his voice as he pointed over Thomas' shoulder at her with the gun. "Doesn't she look happy to see you?" After licking his lips, he proceeded in a slightly winded voice that trembled with his words. "Oh, and your kids…they look thrilled.." He snickered as Thomas' sobbed before his voice tore from his lungs.
"What did you do to my family?!" he screamed, practically convulsing with anger as he cowered on the floor with his back to Joker.
Joker gasped as if offended by the question, then began scornfully. "Thomas, I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done." He replied, his lips stretched into that foul, awful grin as he reached forward, letting his hand slide almost caressingly into Thomas' hair before he snatched a handful. "I mean, am I right?" Joker's hand moved quickly to the side, yanking Thomas' head so he was looking toward Jayde who did nothing but stare back at him. Joker watched her gaze into the eyes of the man who ruined her life and in that gaze of hers, he could see little bits of himself. In the features of her face, her eyes held his wrath, his unstoppable fury and pure loathing while they glared at the man that killed her parents.
"You don't recognize her…do you, Thomas?" Joker crooned in that clowny voice walking over to step behind Jayde, resting his hand on her shoulders momentarily to pull her hair back away from her face gently. He took a deep breath, glancing from Jayde to Thomas, still cowered on the floor in front of them. "This is Jayde, Thomas. You killed her parents two years ago…in case you forgot." Joker laughed, stepping out from behind her again, tossing his hands slightly. "Oh, trust me, I know….They start to all look the same after a while, right?" he had moved toward Thomas again and was leaned down slightly, peering at him almost interestedly. Joker did not wait for Thomas to agree with him, but squinted slightly, licking his lips as he loomed in a bit closer.
"So, tell me…" he began in that higher pitched voice, but it dropped with his next question. "Why did you kill them?" Joker stood up, tucking his gun away into his pocket for the time being as Thomas remained on his knees. "…Oh, it was probably because you had so much to lose…Your company, your business alliances…" he had stopped walking and was now standing in front of the knelt man, grinning. "Or…Was it because of your cowardice, your lack of common sense…" his head cocked to the side slightly, that grin expanding. Thomas jumped from his position on the floor a second later, shouting in some war-like growl of a yell as he made to swing at Joker or tackle him. He easily avoided this, swinging one leg out hard to kick Thomas back several feet, to give himself just a second to pull that metal baseball bat out of his coat. Jayde's mouth fell open slightly but tried hard not to gasp when Joker swung as hard as he could at Reicher's legs, shattering both of his knees. He screamed in pain, falling onto his side to tenderly clutch himself from the pain.
A second later, with Thomas mildly subdued, Joker brought back out that massive silver gun, but used the barrel to pistol whip the man so hard, his head swayed above the floor and Jayde was not sure he would stay conscious. However, when Thomas rolled onto his stomach groaning, Joker kicked him again, in the ribs.
"It's really impolite to keep interrupting me, Mister Reicher!" Joker shouted and as Jayde watched him from across the room, she shivered, staring at his eyes as they slid to hers. As she stared back, in his gaze, she could tell he was ready for this to be over. His eyes were narrowed, focused solely on hers with a hardened expression in the cold depths that plainly said he was tired, maybe even a little bored with the whole situation, since Thomas was proving to be a rather unentertaining victim. It seemed after finding his wife dead and learning that his family was too, Thomas Reicher had given up caring what happened to him. Joker glanced down at the sobbing man before he stepped away towards Jayde, sliding a hand into his pocket, when several things happened at once.
With Joker blocking her vision of Thomas, Jayde failed to see Thomas Reicher roll over, unlock his briefcase and pull out a tiny handgun until she heard the click of a gun's hammer from the other side of Joker, who now stood right in front of her. Joker must have heard the click as well, as he turned, but jumped only slightly when the gun in Thomas Reicher's hand fired and seemingly in slow motion, Jayde saw the bullet skid past Joker's elbow and pierce his side. He gave no reaction whatsoever besides a soft hiss through his teeth, rocked backward into Jayde a little and raised his arm a split second later, firing his own fifty caliber gun. One of the massive bullets shot from the end of it and practically tore apart one of Thomas' thighs, causing him to cry out and land on the floor, the gun he had pulled from the briefcase sliding across the carpet away from him. He sobbed, but through his tears, came a loud, slightly deranged- sounding laugh.
"FUCK, had I known you were gonna hire a freak to come kill me, I would've made sure to kill you too." He panted, laughing breathlessly as his eyes glistened up at his hunters. "Probably should've just finished it all anyway." He added a moment later, and a great and terrible sensation that Jayde had never experienced before tore through her from her brain, all the way down. Her hearing went fuzzy for a few moments, leaving nothing but the sound of her own breathing and her rather frantic heartbeat. Her eyes only had to glance slightly down where she saw Joker's hand outstretched to her, a long, sharp, silver dagger resting on the soft glove as if he known exactly what she needed. And with that, Jayde did not even think twice before she snatched the knife and tore across from the room, positioning it upside down in her grip so that when her knees landed on either side of Thomas' waist, it was the easiest possible grip for plunging the knife straight down into his chest. Warm blood immediately met her fingers at this first stab wound, but Jayde's mind was a blank static.
Her arm came back only to fall again, driving that knife in again, this time over his ribs…and again in the middle of his stomach…and again in his neck. She stabbed and stabbed until she felt her eyes watering and finally a loud sob escaped her when her eyes finally fell onto her completely red, blood-covered hands. Yanking them back, she pulled them to her chest, trembling with what she had done as she gazed over Thomas Reicher's now dead, mangled body. His face was untouched, not a fleck of blood on it and as Jayde stared at his dead eyes now, she felt like he should be smiling; she did not know why.
With the left over pulses of adrenaline still left in her body, Jayde's foggy mind allowed her to lean forward, stick the knife in Thomas' opened mouth and drag it sideways, splitting open his cheek, before she copied on the other side. When she finished, Jayde rose off the body, trying not to fall back down again. Her knees trembled hard so she made quick work of dragging Thomas' body to the table where the last of that adrenaline helped her push his body up to sit in the seat across from his wife at the dinner table. Jayde had just stepped back to admire her work and take a deep breath when she looked up to find Joker walking toward her, his eyes focused on hers, narrowed in a glare. At first, to Jayde, he appeared angry but when he stepped over the blood pool to slide his hand behind her neck and kiss her roughly, Jayde gasped against his lips, leaning into him.
His tongue was immediately in her mouth and Jayde moaned against his lips in response, however, when she reached out to grip his arm, her fingers found a warm, wet spot. She gasped, pulling back from his kiss only to find her fingertips coated in his fresh, red blood; he had been shot and she completely forgot about it in her haste to slaughter Thomas Reicher.
"Oh my god, Joker! C'mon, we gotta go-…" she began frantically, tugging on his arm toward the door only to pause when he laughed loudly.
"Oh, so where are you gonna take me, the hospital?…The…emergency room?" he reached to his side, only to wince when he stuck his finger through the hole in his shirt to the wound underneath. "It's not that deep. I'll be fine, but you gotta get the round out." Jayde was so busy trying to get him out the front door that after a few long seconds, she finally realized what he had said and frowned.
"Wait, what do you mean 'you'." She asked, trotting after him down the dark steps. Joker simply laughed from ahead of her.
"I mean you get to play doctor on me. Now step lively, tutz. I can only bleed so much." He replied, grinning to himself when Jayde groaned. "You gotta drive." Joker added a few seconds later, at the car. He tossed the keys over the roof to her. "I can't move my arm much or the bullet will slip further."
When Jayde pulled out of the alley, she sighed, looking over to Joker who was now sliding his finger calmly through the fresh bullet hole in the side of his purple coat as it lay off and across his lap . She frowned, bouncing slightly in the seat as she sped away.
"Joker, you're too calm about this!" she exclaimed, looking over at him. "You just got shot!" Joker shrugged, smirking.
"To panic makes your heart race. Making your heart race makes you lose blood faster." He replied, blinking slowly, wisely. "Stay calm, stay alive longer." A few seconds silence followed his words before Jayde whimpered, turning full in the driver's seat to glance nervously behind them.
"Uh…I don't like this…" she murmured nervously. "I really don't like this…" her eyes kept glancing around for cop cars although there was absolutely nobody following them. Joker groaned from beside her, rolling his eyes. "I mean, I really don't wanna-…" she began but jumped when Joker voice rose from that groan to practically a shout.
"Jayde!" he barked. "Calm. Down! When I start freaking out, that's when you should start freaking out." he explained but winced again when a splitting pain tore through his side, seemingly rattling his ribs as he took a deep breath. As little pain as he was in that this point, Joker knew it was only a few minutes back to the hotel where the real, fun pain began…he couldn't wait…
….To be continued soon…