The next morning, Wendy woke up and got dressed and decided to make some breakfast for her uncle before she had to go to work. She started the coffee pot and made some bacon and eggs.

Straightening his tie as he came in, Jack Napier walked into the kitchen to see what she was doing. The smell of food caught his attention, as he watched his niece acting like the woman of the house.

"What's all this?" Jack asked her.

"Morning, sleepy head", said Wendy. She turned around with a plate of food in one hand and walked over to the table. "I made you some breakfast. Hope you like it."

Jack sat down at the table just as she brought the plate over and set it down in front of him. Wendy motioned for him to start eating. Jack added some salt and pepper to his eggs and tasted them.

"Well?" Asked Wendy. "How is it? Any good?"

"Not bad", said Jack, his mouth full. "What does a guy have to do to get a cup of coffee around here?"

Wendy turned around and went over to retrieve the coffee pot. She walked back over to the table and poured him a cup. "You take your coffee with cream or sugar?"

"No, thanks", said Jack.

Wendy went over and set the coffee pot back on the stove. She picked up a piece of buttered toast and turned to lean back against the counter, taking a small bite.

"I didn't hear you come in last night", said Jack, dipping his bacon into the egg yolk. "Where were you?"

"I had to work late last night", said Wendy. She swallowed and said, "Besides, I went to the movies at the last minute. You don't mind, do you?"

"Whatever you do with your spare time is up to you", said Jack. "If you ever decided to move out, it wouldn't make any difference to me, one way or the other."

Wendy didn't expect him to answer her like that. "Well, I have to get ready. My shift starts in half an hour", she said. She took another bite of toast and walked out to let her uncle enjoy his breakfast.

Wendy went into her room and sat at the vanity to look at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a sky blue waitress dress with a white apron. Just as she was brushing her hair, Jack Napier appeared in the doorway. Wendy caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and turned her head to look at him. He was standing there looking at her, shuffled a deck of cards in his hand. He looked like a crime boss.

"You remember that story you told me about that guy you met?" Jack asked her.

"What guy?" Wendy asked him.

"The one that helped you out of that situation downtown with your asshole boyfriend", said Jack.

Wendy looked away from him and said, "Uncle Jack, he's not my boyfriend. Not anymore." She picked up a mascara brush and used it to give her eyelashes a more fuller look. "As for the new guy, his name is Arthur Fleck. He lives in the same building as Mark, but he's not like him. He's very sweet and so funny." Wendy chuckled to herself and said, "I guess he would have to, being that he's a clown."

"A clown?"

"Yeah, he works for a place called Ha-Ha's." Wendy swapped the mascara brush for a tube of bright pink lipstick and applied it onto her lips to give them some color.

"I've heard of it. That's the place that rents out magicians and male strippers."

"Uncle Jack, he's a party clown." Wendy set the lipstick down and adjusted the name tag on her sky blue uniform. She stood up and turned to face him. "Well, how do I look?"

"Like it matters?" Jack turned around and walked out of the bedroom.

Wendy walked out of the bedroom and went over to the front door to retrieve her coat off of the coat rack and put it on. As she buttoned up her coat, she turned to her uncle and asked him, "Uncle Jack, why don't you and me hang out tonight?"

Jack turned around to face the red-headed woman, giving her a disdainful look. "Now, why the hell would I do that?"

Wendy turned around to face him and shrugged her shoulders, saying, "I just thought you might like to do something together. I heard about this comedy club called Pogo's and was wondering if you wanted to go check it out. Arthur's taking me there this Saturday."

Jack pulled a card out from his deck and looked at it. He glanced over at her again and gave her a wicked smile as evil and menacing as a shark. "And? What do you want me to do about it?" He asked her in a sarcastic tone of voice.

Wendy detected that he was getting irritated with her. All she wanted to spend some time with him, and he hadn't taken one interest in her since she got there. "Uncle Jack, is there something wrong? You seem a little bit ticked."

Jack walked over to his niece and slipped the deck, minus the card he picked out, into his pocket. He placed a hand on the wall behind her, almost cornering her. Wendy leaned back against the wall, feeling uncomfortable by his sudden strange behavior. She was more than right about that creep factor about her Uncle Jack. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Let's get one thing straight here", said Jack. "I don't have time to babysit a woman who looks like she's twenty, but acts like she's six. I told you you could stay here as long as you didn't get in my way or ask questions. You live here for free because you're my sister's kid, but that doesn't mean I have to waste my time looking out for your ass. You may not have noticed, but I have a life. My schedule doesn't work around yours. You want to hang out? Then I suggest you go out and find a couple of girlfriends to screw around with. Or maybe you should ask your new boyfriend to fuck your brains out if he's not too busy. My boss is a tired old man who expects me to carry out his dirty work without doing a goddamn thing himself. I may not like it, but I know he can't run this city without me. You want to hang out with Uncle Jack, then I suggest you do it while I'm here. Now do I make myself clear?"

Wendy stared at him, almost too afraid to say anything. She thought about running out of the apartment and never coming back. Finally, she nodded and answered him, "Yes, sir."

"Good", said Jack. He removed his hand from off the wall and walked over to fetch his hat. He placed it on top of his head and then turned around and walked back over to Wendy. "Thanks for breakfast, kid", he said. "It's been fun, but I've gotta run. My boss doesn't like to be kept waiting. Stay out of trouble, will ya?" He handed her the playing card. With a trembling hand and a hint of reluctance, Wendy took it from him. "Have a night day."

Jack turned and walked over and opened the door and shut it behind him on the way out. Wendy stood there, not understanding what that was all about. She looked at the card her uncle gave her. It was a Joker card.

Meanwhile, at a hospital, Arthur was dressed up as his clown character, Carnival, entertaining a ward of sick children. He performed magic tricks and made balloon animals for them. It gave him so much joy to see the look on their smiling little faces. He wore a white lab coat over his costume while singing and dancing to the tune, "If Your Happy and You Know It". It was all going well until he stomped his foot during the song and the gun fell out of his pocket. Arthur looked down at the floor and let out a shriek of panic. He bent over and tried picking it up, but his giant clown shoes kicked it away from him. He finally managed to get a hold of it and hid it inside his coat. He looked around at the shocked faces of the children staring at him. Caught red-handed, he decided to improvise and go along like it was part of his act. Nobody, not even the doctors, nurses or parents were laughing.

"Hoyt, please. I love this job", Arthur begged. Once his routine at the hospital was finished, he called Hoyt from a payphone outside and tried to explain himself, but the hospital staff got to him first and complained.

"Arthur, I need to know why you brought a gun to a kid's hospital."

"It's a prop. It's part of my act now."

"That's fucking bullshit, Arthur! What kind of clown carries a fucking gun? Besides, Randall told me you tried to buy a .38 off of him last week. He was in here with me when the call came in."

Arthur was shocked to hear this. Why would Randall do such a thing? Why did his friend rat him out? Why didn't he say something to defend him? "Randall told you that?"

"You're a fuck-up, Arthur, and a liar! You're fired!"

The dial tone rang loud in his ear. The phone slipped from his hand. Arthur leaned his body forward, his forehead touching against the glass. He banged his head hard against the telephone booth. It cracked.

What am I going to do now? Arthur thought to himself. How am I going to support my mother and myself? Would she be mad, or maybe disappointed in him? What would she say? Arthur had no other qualifications or skills, and it would be very difficult for him to find another job. People in Gotham were already struggling to look for work. Why should it be any different for him?

At the moment, he was sitting down on the subway train. The lights flickered on and off several times. Most of his clown costume was stuff into the bag on the seat next to him, but he still kept his bright green clown wig and makeup on. With the sad look in his eyes and the perpetual frown hidden behind his painted smile, he looked like a tragic figure of comedy.

The subway came to a stop and opened the doors to let passengers on and off. Three men dressed in business suits stepped inside and took to the far end of the train. They were all drunk and talking to each other. Two of them stood while the third man sat down in a seat. He was holding a fast food bag. The doors closed and the train started to move again.

"I'm telling you, man. She wanted my number. We should have just stayed", said the first man.

"She wasn't interested in you", said the second man.

"Did you see how close we were dancing?" The first man asked his friend.

Arthur looked to his left and listened to them. The three business men were sitting some distance from him. There was a young woman sitting opposite from them. The third man sitting down offered her some food, but the young woman said she didn't want any. The man with the fast food bag took out a French fry and flung it at her. His two friends laughed and tried to get her to come over and be nice to them. The young woman looked uncomfortably at them and then glanced over at Arthur, her eyes pleading for help.

Arthur didn't know what to do. He knew it was rude of them to be harassing her, but what could he do? There was only one thing he could think of and that was to distract those three men with his laughter. Seeing how it was none of his business, but always wanting to help out, he began laughing.

The three men stopped their harassment of the young woman and glanced over at the laughing clown. "Is something funny, asshole?"

Arthur didn't answer them. He continued laughing, know it wouldn't stop until it wanted to. The young woman stood up and walked out of the subway car to move into the next one. She made a mental note to remember the clown later. The first man advanced toward Arthur, mocking him with a pathetic rendition of Send in the Clowns by Frank Sinatra. He danced around one of the poles, as the second man came over and sat down next to the laughing clown. He took off Arthur's clown wig and put it on himself, laughing in his face just as Arthur's laughter was starting to calm down. The third man came over and stood by the first man just as he concluded the song.

Arthur tried to pull out one of his condition cards, but the first man grabbed his bag and took it from him. Arthur stood up and tried to take it back from him, but the first man tossed the bag over to the third man. The second man grabbed Arthur and held him by his arms while his friend punched him in the face, knocking him down to the ground. He felt blood beginning to pour down from his left nostril.

"Stay down, freak!"

The three men started beating him up, kicking him as he lied there on the floor of the subway train. The pain was dull on his body, but he could still feel the blow from each of them. Right away, a spark of insanity began to flood his brain with a very dark thought, an unholy way of getting back at these three men. After all those years, Arthur finally had enough of taking abuse from people. Now it was the time to fight back. He pulled out the gun and fired.

BANG!

The first man was shot in the head, his blood splattered everywhere. The lights flickered again. The gun fired a second time and the second man was shot twice in the chest. A scream of terror. The third man ran over toward the door and was shot in the back of his leg. He yelled in pain and went into the next subway car to escape, calling for help but to no success.

Arthur stood up and pointed the gun around, holding it in his left hand. He started breathing very hard. He didn't know what came over him, nor did he care. Arthur gathered up his clown wig and stuffed it into his bag before pursuing the third man, who screamed for help and started banging on the doors to be let off the train. As though on command, the subway slowed down and came to another halt and opened the doors.

The third man got away and existed the train, still calling for help. His calf was bleeding.

Arthur existed out of the subway train just before the doors closed on him and continued to follow after the third man. He and his friends started it, now Arthur intended on finishing it.

The third man screamed as he hobbled over toward the stairs, Arthur fast-walking right behind him. He fired another shot, causing the third man to fall down on the bottom step. He whimpered in pain as he tried to crawl up the stairs, but Arthur wouldn't let him get away. He fired several more times into the guys back until the gun chamber clicked on empty.

For a moment, Arthur stood there panting, still holding the gun in his hand. His head was rushing, his heart racing from the adrenaline. There was a ringing in his ear. The warmth of blood still ran down from his left nostril.

Oh, my God, what have I done? Arthur thought to himself, snapping out of his delusional state. He had just committed a murder! He stuffed the gun into his bag and ran up the stairs out of the subway platform.

Arthur ran as far away as he could. He ran down the street and under the bridge. He ran passed a tall chain-link fence. He turned to his left and found an old building to hide in and took shelter in an empty bathroom. He dropped his bag and stood there with his hands on the door, taking a minute to catch his breath, while also thinking about the three men he just brutally murdered. He was only trying to help that poor woman, and all he got was a good beating out of it. Those three men should have minded their own business, but they didn't. Arthur had never killed anyone before in his life. Even thinking about it made him sick. He didn't feel so well, and yet, for some unknown reason, he felt no remorse over his actions. In a way, he felt something new he hadn't ever felt before: freedom. As though possessed by some dark spirit, Arthur felt an sudden urge to express himself through dancing. His left foot moved over across his right foot and he slowly twisted his body to the right. With the flick of his right wrist, his arms began to sway dramatically. A symbolic dance took control of him, as he raised his right arm over his head, graceful and swanlike, like a bird spreading its wings for the first time. Arthur continued the tranquil, swaying pattern of his solo performance with great ease and acceptance, moving his body to the invisible strings of cello music playing in his head. Once the ritual dance of purification was done, the clown turned to the mirror behind him, holding his arms out like a messiah. His painted Glasgow smile concealed the neutral feeling.

Arthur went back home and checked on his mother in her bedroom. She was sleeping. Arthur moved a strand of hair out of her face and kissed her forehead and caressed her cheek gently with his fingertips. He turned around and walked out and shut the door and then went into the bathroom. He turned on the sink and started to remove his clown makeup with lukewarm water and a washcloth. Once he was finished, Arthur looked at himself in the mirror and saw his face was slightly red from the scrubbing. His hair was a mess and he felt sweaty, his clown outfit would never be worn again. He turned off the tap on the sink and decided to strip out of his clothes and take a shower. He stepped in and closed the shower curtain and turned on the water, allowing the relieving fountain to wash away the sin of his action. Somebody would find those three bodies sooner or later, and there would definitely be a story on the news all about it throughout the rest of the week. Arthur ran his hands through his hair, feeling as though he should cry about those three men, but he didn't. The urge to laugh about it broke out of him and Arthur did not care how it affected him that time. It was not as painful as most occurrences. For once, he was happy to smile and laugh about something that was inappropriate.