The next chapter of The Tapes.


"Bruce... please respond..." Batman hears the muffled pleas if Oracle in his ear, as he slowly regains consciousness, "...Are you alright..." He slowly rises to his feet, rain still pouring down from the sky above. He looks down to see that he's still bleeding from the gunshot wound.

"Hrrggh." he grunts from the pain, as he clutches tightly to try and clot the wound. The pain is so intense, it brings him to a knee, staring downwards at the ground beneath him. He stares down at the pool of blood and water that had accumulated while he was unconscious. He narrows his eyes as a playing card suddenly surfaces facedown in the pool.

"...Bruce... I'm calling Tim..." the still muffled voice of Oracle says, sounding concerned, "...Just hold on..." Batman reaches down and picks up the card and slowly flips it over, revealing an all too family jester face of a joker card on the other side. Suddenly, the wind blows more joker playing cards past him, as he looks around to find the ground was littered cards. He slowly stood back to his feet, trying to make sense of things. He looked down the alley, finding more cards leading out of it. Still disorientated by the concussion he had suffered and weakened by the blood loss, he slowly stumbles through the alley, following the trail of cards. He could hear faint maniacal laughter coming from around him, slowly growing in volume. The louder the laughter grew, the more disorientated Batman becomes, as he stumbles to a wall to hold himself up. Suddenly, the laughter stops.

"You don't look too good, Batsy." an all too familiar voice comments. Batman looks up, seeing a menacing red smile plastered across a pale white face. "Had a few one too manys tonight?" Joker questions, with a sinister chuckle, "I know you must be miserable, but hittin' the bottle won't do you any good. If you really wanna drown your sorrows away... you should jump off a bridge, heh, heh, heh, heh!" Batman doesn't respond. "What, nothing to say to that?" Joker says, acting surprised, "You're usually the first with a comeback of sorts!" Batman still remains silent. Suddenly, Joker's face lights up with realization. "Oh, I get it!" he informs, snapping his fingers, "You won't respond because you think I don't exist, right? Afraid you've gone a little batty?" Batman just glares at him, as Joker looks him up and down. "On second thought, scratch that, you've already had that problem, ha, ha, haaa! Well. maybe I'm here, and maybe I'm not. Either way, you're seeing something pretty screwed up right in front of you. Maybe... I'm a ghoooooosssttt, here to haunt you Baaaaatmaaannn, ooOOOoo! ...Or maybe, maybe I'm a zombie, back from the dead to eat your flesh." Batman was still silent. "...Not buying it, huh?" Joker sighs, "Seems ironic how the man who dresses in a spandex bat suit has no sense of imagination. Guess you have to be at the right party for that. Well, let's stop dealing in fictions and get right down to the facts, shall we?"

"Bruce, I've contacted Tim, he's on his-" Oracle tries to explain, only for Batman to shut off his communicator.

"First, let's look at the facts." Joker says, "For instance, how many times you've watched me die... well, supposedly. Let's see, once in the Mill, once in the theater, and once in the pit. Third times the charm, I suppose? Hell, I think they had an easier time offin' Rasputin. But consider the following: through cunning wit, and a little help from some old friends, I pulled the wool right over your eyes three times in a row. Who would've thought that pointy nose of yours wouldn't be able to pick up a fishy smell. So, what could have stopped me from making it an even four? Think about it, isn't it a little ironic that I would die right next to a pool of magical juices? Not to mention you we unconscious for a brief period, who's to say I didn't sneak a sip of that 'oh, so sweet' miracle elixir? And maybe Basil managed to pull off one final performance before paving the streets."

"You're not real." Batman murmurs to himself.

"Not real?" Joker scoffs, "If I weren't real, would I be able to do this?" He pulls out a pistol and fires it at Batman, but there was no sign of bullet entry. "...Okay, so maybe I'm not real." Joker sighs, "Physically, at least. But, there's no denying that there's something going on in that bat invested head! Not much, I mind you, but still something serious regardless. Admit it, Dark Knight, you just can't get me off the brain, can you? And now, your sick little obsession has manifested into a hallucinatory apparition. In other words, you've gone looney tunes , HA, HA, HA, HAAAA!"

"You're wrong." Batman grunts, clutching his side.

"Am I?" Joker questions, "Just think of all the hell you've been through leading up to this one moment! Captured by Strange, poisoned by me, you watched your one true love die in front of you, not to mention the Ghul girl died in your arms, ha, haaa, months to sulk and grieve, and now, Boy Blunder Dos is back from the dead... with a vengeance. Who wouldn't be driven to madness? I mean, it'd be crazy if you weren't." Batman tries to make his way out of the alley, trying to get away from the Joker. "So, that's how it's gonna be." Joker chuckles, "You're just going to ignore it, pretend like nothing is wrong. You have to keep telling yourself that there's nothing wrong with you, because if there was, then your precious little city would burn to ashes. But deep down, you know I'm right; that's why you cut the feed to our little radio show. Don't want them to know that their mighty savoir of the night has lost his marbles, ...Well, at least what's left of them, anyways."

It grew silent between the two, Joker's smile slowly fading.

"...I just wished that you'd accept it already." Joker informs, "That you'd stop living in denial and just embrace the fact that we are the same, that we were made to coincide. We are who we are because of one bad day. One bad day that neither of us will ever know the other has been through, because if we did, then the game would be ruined."

"What are you talking about?" Batman growls.

"It feels like it was just yesterday." Joker explains.


I hope you enjoyed this chapter. What will happen next? Please Review. Thanks.