Kuklinski

When he first headed toward the car, Marcus, his bodyguard and closest friend had grabbed his arm. His expression was grave, angry that Kuklinskihad refused to let anyone come with him to the house.

"It's a trap, Richard. You know it is."

He pulled away, loaded a new clip into his gun, clicked on the safety, and holstered it.

"Damnit, you son of a bitch, think!" Marcus raged. He could only look at him and whatever was on his face made the man pause.

"It's Angie." he said softly, imploringly. And that had been it.

He parked the car at the front gate, shooting the two clown-masked goons that he found there. Not because they'd seen him, terrible watchdogs that they were, but he was boiling now. Rage whispered harshly that they'd been part of this. They'd helped kill his little girl and now they would do the same to his wife.

On the way toward the dark house, he'd kicked the bodies.

Gun at the ready, Kuklinskiopened the door, trying to remain quite. The house was silent, all the lights out, but he knew this place and had no trouble moving from the small entrance hall into the living room.

Then he heard her.

At first, he couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Angela, he found at the center of the room tied to a chair and making the most terrifying sounds of pain he'd ever heard. All his air escaped him and he fell to his knees, hands going up to touch her, to prove she was still alive, still withhim. When his fingers slipped across warm dampness that could only be blood, he made his own animal groan of pain and terror.

"Mio bella?" he whispered. Her head was lolling back around the chair and he reached to lift it. The gun he placed in her lap and cursed when she flinched. Idly, he noted that her shirt was open.

"Richard?" Christ, her voice was so weak. Hardly a murmur, and croaking from her throat as if she'd swallowed sand. She drew a trembling breath and whimpered.

"Yes, baby. I'm here." he raised up to kiss her cheek, her hair. That too was slick with blood and he spit it out on the ground.

"It hurts." she cried falling against his arms in the chair. God, she was trembling like she'd been locked in a freezer.

"What did he do?" the question was soft, but insistent as he held his wife. Her big brown eyes lifted, blinking away tears and she shook her head.

"Cut me...and..my eye. I can't see, Richard." Her voice grew frantic and he hushed her, smoothing a hand over her hair. He didn't want to ask. Didn't want to understand what she was saying. Not Angie, he thought, his chest so tight it was hard to breathe, Not his angel.

"I think," she drew a wet, ragged breath, "I th-think I'm blind..." but she trailed off, her breathing turning into coughs. "T-told me it was a message. Said you'd get this one. I...I think he's ruined my hand."

The last bit was said in a frightening calm that made Kuklinski pause. Was she in shock now? It would be a small favor as long as she remained lucid. He tried to see through the darkness at her hands, but couldn't make out anything more then her silhouette from the shadows. Bracing himself, he ran his fingers down her arm, pausing at her wrist. There was so much blood here. Bile rose in his throat when his fingers grazed something flat and cold.

"Is that...madre di dio," his voice broke a second, leaving on an exhale, and he sagged. It took him a moment to calm enough to speak to her. "Is that a nail?"

She nodded, very slow against his palm, tears slipping down his wrist.

"Did he..." he cleared his throat, "did he nail this one too?"

"No." she shook her head in the dark. Kuklinski moved his hand to the other side and cursed when his fingers slipped across her blood-slicked skin and sank into her hand. He jerked back when she winced and shook his head.

"Bastardo crudele." He spat, gritting passed his tears of rage and fear. Angela didn't need to know he was frightened. She had to believe he would get her through this. That he would save her, as he'd always promised he would.

"You have to...go, Richard. Have to..you can't..." she couldn't finish, coughing more and choking on it a moment before she sagged.

"I'll kill him." he vowed. "I swear to you Angie, I'll make sure he dies for all he's done to us." When she didn't respond he shook her. "Stay with me, Angie. Ho bisogno di te. I need you."

A girlish giggle rang out in the silence, edging on manic, and somewhere close in the room. Kuklinskitensed standing with his gun out and blocking his wife. The child-like laughter faded slowly and he heard someone moving to his right.

"You hear that, Puddin'? Ain't he just the sweetest thang?"

Without pause, Kuklinski swung his gun toward the crazy bitch's voice and fired twice. In the brief flashes of his fire, he saw that 1. He'd missed the whore. and 2. they were completely surrounded by the Joker's men.

Harley was breathing heavily in the darkness, and gave an indignant cry. "He shot at me! Did you see that? He just-"

"Shut your mouth." A light flickered on at the sound of the Joker's voice, bathing the room in dim, ghoulish light. Kuklinski blinked a few times, but kept his gun raised, finding the clown by the living room door. His little slut stood against the wall, a bullet hole inches to her left. She was wearing one of his wife's dresses. One he'd bought to prove she still looked fantastic even after having Teresa. To prove he still wanted her and always would. That little bitch, he'd fucking kill her. Kill all of them. He trained the gun back on her and began to squeeze the trigger.

"Richard?" Angela's eyes rolled to the side, searching the room, but not seeing it. In the dim light of the cracked lamp, he could see the blood that bubbled at the corner of her mouth as she spoke. She was so pale and..oh god. He felt more bile when he saw everything that had been done to her body. Her hand was peeled open, nearly all the skin simply gone, exposeing bone. She was bruised, burned, and her eye...He hated himself for in, but he had to look away.

"I..wanna go home." she pleaded.

"You are home, Angie." he said, unable to move. To do much of anything. She was dying now. He knew it, her brain misfiring. She didn't even know where she was anymore. Angie shook her head, or tried, really the movement rolled her head to the side and she blinked slowly.

"No." she insisted. "Home, Richard. S..school's out by...nn..now." She gave a weak smile, tinged with blood, "Teresa will be...scared if she's alone f..for long."

It felt like someone had punched him in the gut. Kuklinskifell back a step, head hanging a moment, he drew a trembling breath. "Baby..." he reached up to lift her head, forcing her to meet his eyes. "Baby, Teresa's gone...she's..."

For a moment, her feint smile remained, and she looked at him as if she didn't understand, then the light in her eyes dimmed, just a bit, and she made the softest sound of agony. "Richard?" she whispered.

"Better act fast, Dick. She doesn't look like she'll make it."

Rage blinded him when the clown spoke and he spun to face him, gun trembling. "NOT ANOTHER WORD!" he bellowed. With a dark laugh, the Joker raised his hands in surrender, miming a zipper. He should have shot him then. Over and over until the bastard's disgusting face was nothing but a wet chunky mass on the floor. But then he looked at Angie.

Would this be the last time he spoke to her? The last time he saw her? The thought made his head spin and he braced himself on the back of her chair, gun falling slightly. He couldn't do this, he couldn't loose Angie.

"Hetook her." She was saying, starring off into nothing gravely. Her voice was a soft, broken groan. "Killed my baby girl."

"Tech-nically it was the blood filling her right lung that killed her." The Joker interjected. Angela looked his way, brow furrowed as if she couldn't believe what she'd heard.

"What?"

He rolled his eyes, "You know, when a lung gets...ruptured...All that blood...well," he shrugged, "Makes it kinda hard to breathe. So it wasn't really me at all." He nodded holding up and hand, "It was drowning." he glanced to the side, "In her..blood."

Angie's eyes filled with fresh tears and Kuklinski fought not to shoot the man right there. "Stop...just shut up."

"I'm just saying." The clown said huffily. "Giving credit where it's due."

"I said shut the fuck up to crazy son of a bitch!"

The Joker's attention snapped back to Kuklinski and he could almost see the freaks hackles raising.

"You know, I don't think you're in any po-sition to tell me much of anything, Dick. In fact..." He glanced at a big blond thug by the front door and nodded. The guy lumbered over along with a few others. Kuklinski went rigid as he felt the cold metal of a gun pressing into the back of his head. To his left Angie was getting the same treatment. With panic filling him, he held up the gun in surrender.

The Joker moved forward then, fixing his gloves and straitening the lapels of his purple coat. When he got to the center of the room, his impossibly black eyes flicked up to meet Kuklinski's, then drifted to his wife. Smiling ever so slightly, he reached out and stroked his hand over her hair. Kuklinski came unglued and lunged but the huge thug was there to hold him back.

The guy hadn't even flinched. Instead, he gave a heavy frown and motioned toward the gun in Kuklinski's hand. "I don't think it's sch a good idea that you're playing with that. I mean," he licked his lips and slipped it out of Kuklinski's fingers, "Guns are dangerous toys, Dicky. Didn't you're mommy ever tell you that?" He shook his head and tsked. "If you're not careful they could just go off."

To punctuate this, he waved the firearm and pulled the trigger. Across the room, a thug cried out and fell to his knees. He'd been shot in the arm. Mouthing sorry, the Joker turned back to Kuklinski. "See?" He handed it to a thug beside him. "Besides, I don't much like guns."

"Can we just..."Kuklinski closed his eyes a moment, taking a deep breath to steady himself. The Joker leaned in, nodding incurigingly and asked as if he was listening hard, "Just do whatever you're going to do. Cut the bullshit."

"Well," he shrugged, "Since you asked so nicely." Suddenly everyone was moving. Angie's chair was dragged away out of his sight and a few thugs had moved to lift what looked like projector equipment. "Harley, dear." The little blond bitch came skipping across the room, smiling huge and bright. Again Kuklinski noted her dress, and again he wanted to rip out her heart for wearing it.

"Yes, Puddin'?"

"Can you keep our guest com-fortable while I get our little present?"

She nodded. As the clown passed, his hand slid across her stomach, and just that tiny contact made her swoon. Biting her lip, she giggled and clapped once.

"Alec, wanna help me get him settled?"

The huge thug smirked and forced Kuklinski forward toward a chair beside their display table. Everything had been thrown to the floor, and the floor was covered in broken bits of glass and plaster. He was forced into the chair while another thug pulled out a roll of duck tape to secure him to it. Harley jumped up onto the table beside him, kicking her legs like a little girl.

"I love your house, by the way." she smiled. There was something different in that grin, that he couldn't place. Something off. "Especially your shower." Behind him, the thug called Alec was chuckling. "Anyway, after Mr. J and I tried it out we had to borrow some clothes. I hope you don't mind."

She was trying to rile him, but he wouldn't let her. He'd been in business with terrible people for far too long to fall for these tricks. Instead he wondered where they'd taken Angie, he could hear her, but with his back to the room, he prayed they weren't hurting her more. He had to get her out of here, but how? He was not so naive to think that begging or offering a trade would satisfy the Joker.

"You really shouldn't have left her here, you know."

At that he froze, turning his glare on the bitch. She was looking down at a picture. The glass was cracked, but he knew it was the glamour shot of Angie they'd had taken last year. And just to the right of her smile was a bloody kiss print. The girl traced it with her finger, her expression slightly dazed.

"You know this game, should have known enough not to leave her. Not alone."

"She wasn't alone." he grit out. The girl blinked and looked up at him, then gave him a look that said Pah-lease.

"Those idiots patrolling the doors? Yeah." she rolled her eyes, "Thatwas a challenge." He bristled at the sarcasm in her voice. "Shame on you." here she actually glared at him, "You should have known better."

The way she said that. So insistent, almost urgent. For a moment, he thought she was actually upset by this, though that would make no sense. And her eyes; frigid and blue. When had they began to look so cold? So unsettling?

One of the thugs curse as he dropped something and her attention, thankfully moved to him. She set down the picture with a loud smack, letting him know how it had been cracked before, and suddenly she was smiling again. Alec finished binding Kuklinski and turned his chair to face the room again.

"You want me to tape his mouth?" he asked with a accent. British? Harley shook her head and hopped off the table. Across the room, Angie was still in her chair, her eyes half-lidded. Before he could begin worrying again how long she had left, the crazy little bitch straddled his lap with a grin.

"It's a pity, you know, that he's going to hurt you." she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, fingers playing in the short hairs there. "I like you, just the way you are. All suave and charming, even if you did try to bury me alive." She crinkled her nose and he gave a tight smile.

"Good times."

Her smile fell a bit for a second, and that strange chill was back in her eyes, but with a breath it sank away again. She glanced at the projector that was being set up, while thugs cleared off the biggest wall in the living room.

"You really shouldn't have pushed him the way you did. I'm sure you wish you hadn't. It was stupid." her attention was back on him, her brow furrowed, "All of this, your wife, your daughter, it's your fault."

Rage took over yet again that night, and Kuklinski smashed his head into her face. The girl stumbled onto the floor, witha cry, clutching her mouth, then scrambled into a sitting position.

"One of these days you're going to start boring him Harleen." he spoke very softly so that only she and the thug beside them could hear. "Just like everyone else. And he's going to make you suffer, just like everyone else. So pay real close attention tonight. This will be you soon enough."

She only stared at him until the thug helped her back to her feet. And then her gaze was moving to the purple that flashed at the door. She smiled big and bright again, but he saw the way her eyes flicked to the knife glinting just out of his pocket. She knew, like everyone knew, that despite their relationship thus far, the clown wouldn't keep her around forever.

The Joker glanced between the two of them with a wide grin, and tossed a jewel case at the Brit thug. "Get this ready." he said distractedly and rubbed his hands together.

"Now, to the real fun."

It occurred to me just before posting this that I'd left out a piece in the earlier chapter. The comment Kuklinski makes about Angie sounding as if she'd gulped sand was because in one version the Joker did, in fact force her to swallow some claiming it was vitamins or something of the like. It was brought from Teresa's sandbox in the back yard. I don't really know why it got edited out, but oh well. Can't change it now.

I originally wanted to write this in Harley's perspective, but then I realized that it didn't have any of the emotion that it does as through Mr. K. Harley isn't capable of processing this level of...well, emotionanymore, so it was left to Dick to show us what happened. What'd ya think?

And now for something I think you guys might REALLY like:

I have to tell you all about something I found recently. If you already know about the Joker blogs, then my only question is why the HELL didn't you tell ME?! -cough- Anyway, seeing as you're all fans of Mr. J, you'll cream your pants for this guy...I know I did.

The site is thejokerblogs. com and he makes videos. His impersonation is flawless (with the exception of his bellow. Only Mr. J can makes shivers race up my spine so far) And he looks...god...just the way Heath's Joker looked, it blew my mind. He even licks his lips and has those little hand and expression quirks down. And his eyes... -groans-

ANYWAY, if any of you have been down because you think you'll never see that Joker again, you HAVE to check this guy out. And BONUS, it's even got Harley. In fact, the story seems to be motivated by the fact that Harley's gettin' hitched and Mr. J doesn't like it. Not. One. Bit. (sorry, had to) Even Crane makes an appearance. (hilarious, btw, with the sandwich and the mask. omfg)

But, for all the ladies out there, this guy's spoken for. Really, don't even try it, my friend and I have already gotten my mother's garage ready for when we kidnap him and make him our slave. He's even got the costume perfect. Seriously, I had to take a moment to myself, if ya know what I mean. -wink, wink- Nah, I'm kidding....maybe...Holy shit I'm gunna have FANTASTIC dreams for the rest of the month. Anyway, I plan to coerce him with wedding cake, since he loves it so much. ^_^

Go to his Youtube link watch the videos (in order) and try not to have a tiny orgasm at your computer....trust me, this will be difficult.