Later that afternoon, Arthur Fleck stepped out of his apartment for the last time. He walked down the hall and pushed the button for the elevator. The doors opened and he stepped inside, turning around all dressed up from head to toe in a fancy red suit and clown makeup, his emerald green hair slicked back. He smiled just as the doors closed. He found his way out of the building, dancing along to the rock and roll music playing in his head. He headed on down the perilous flight of stairs he used to dread every single day of his life, still dancing to the rhythm of his own tune. Embracing his new persona, Arthur no longer felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. Now he was dancing happily and fluidly, turning his body and thrusting his hips. He tap-danced on the stairs, jumping down a step or two and kicking up his leg. He jumped again and spun in the air, landing on the next step down. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit up, tilting his head back as he blew smoke out of both his nostrils.
From now on, there was to be a new king in town, one who would no longer hold regard for the rules or regulations of society. This new identity of his was wild and untamed, his elegant frame draped in arrogance and insanity.
Detectives Garrity and Burke were watching from the top of the stairs, sharing a confused look at the sight of the man they had been trying to question over the last few days. "Arthur, we need to talk!" Burke called down to him.
Arthur turned around and looked up at the top of the stairs, seeing the two detectives. He removed the cigarette from his mouth and quickly deposed of it, then started running down the rest of the stairs. The two detectives ran after him, shouting for him top stop. Turning a corner, Arthur ran down the sidewalk of 174th Street, bumping into another person wearing a clown mask. He bolted across the street to escape and ran right into the front of an oncoming taxi cab. He crashed onto the windshield, shattering it in the process. His body rolled over the hood and he fell down into the street.
"Stop, Arthur!" Burke called out.
Arthur recovered quickly and got back up. He started running again, stopping monetarily to turn around and flip off the two detectives. He turned around and took off running down 18th Avenue and went up a flight of stairs that led to the elevated train station. He got on the train just before the doors closed. Arthur stood in the middle of the train car, which was packed shoulder to shoulder with protesters. Most of them were wearing clown masks, but some of them had their faces painted similar to Arthur's. Half of them were holding signs. They were all heading down to City Hall for the rally.
"Stop the fucking train!" Garrity shouted, as he and Burke ran up onto the platform and started banging on the door. The door opened and the two detectives got on the train just before it started moving.
Arthur made his way through the crowd and moved out of the train car and went into the next one, which was also filled with clown protesters. The lights flickered once.
Garrity and Burke started searching for Arthur, ordering the crowd to remove their masks. The crowd just ignored them, screaming and shouting obscenities at the two detectives.
Arthur moved through the crowd and went into the next train car. The two detectives were hot on his trail. He knew he couldn't avoid them forever and he was running out of room. He needed a new plan. Looking to his left, Arthur removed a clown mask from off the face of a random protester, only to discover that it was Mark Leto. He didn't recognized him, but Mark still pushed Arthur back, causing him to bump into another protester, who lunged at Mark and started hitting him in the face. Soon, a fight broke out among the clowns. Arthur put the clown mask on, blending in with the rest of the crowd.
Garrity and Burke came into the train car and pushed their way through the crowd, trying to get everybody to calm down while they searched for their quarry.
"Gotham PD! Stand down!" Garrity shouted over the crowd.
Arthur looked to his left, trying to find a way out and not get caught. The best he could do was to stay hidden toward the very back of the train and wait for the next stop to get off.
The two detectives continued to shove their way through the crowd, shouting and yelling for everybody to get down, but the clowns ignored them and continued fighting with each other.
When the clown protesters still refused to cooperate, Detective Burke pulled out his gun as a warning and shouted over the chaotic outbreak, "Gotham PD! Get down! Get the fuck down!"
The two detectives went over to try and break up the fight. Mark grabbed Detective Burke by his arm and tried to take the gun from him. They both struggled. The lights flickered, sending everything into total darkness. The gun fired by accident. The lights came back on. Mark Leto had been shot. He fell down to the floor and died instantly from the gunshot wound inflicted on him. The clown protesters then started to gang up on Garrity and Burke.
The train came to a stop at Bedford Park Boulevard. The doors opened and the violent crowd spilled out onto the platform, along with the two detectives. They took turns in beating them up, stomping on them. Arthur stepped off the train and took a moment to enjoy the sight and took off his mask. His left eye makeup had smeared down over his cheek. He laughed at their pain and performed a dance of joy, then turned around and disposed the clown mask into a trashcan. A team of policemen came running pass him as he walked away from the crowded platform. His disguise was perfect. Nobody recognized him. He could get away with anything.
Arthur strolled down the sidewalk on the skid row side of Gotham. He usually avoided that side of town due to the homeless gatherings and drug houses, but now that he was living a dangerous new lifestyle, he didn't care who he came across. A daytime hooker stood in the doorway of a brothel, smoking a cigarette. Arthur ignored her as he walked by, but she still seemed entranced by him. He walked pass a homeless man sitting on the ground, who was injecting some kind of drug into his veins. He was too doped up to even notice the strange clown.
Stopping in front of a run-down, two-story tenement building, Arthur looked to his right and spotted a small figure sitting on the front step. It was a little girl, about six-years-old. She was pretty, with sparkling blue eyes and her blonde hair in pigtails. She was wearing a pink shirt and a short, dark blue denim skirt. There was a faint purple bruise on her left cheek, something Arthur remembered as a sign of child abuse. Still having plenty of time before he had to go on the air, Arthur decided to stop for a minute and talk to her, seeing no harm in doing so. He walked over and knelt in front of the little girl, who looked up at the tall, handsome clown with sad eyes.
"Hi", said Arthur, his voice soft and gentle. "What's your name?"
The little girl didn't answer him.
Arthur frowned at her and covered his face with both his hands, revealing to her a surprised expression. The little girl didn't laugh. Not even a smile. She blinked and looked away from the clown.
Arthur hadn't counted on that. He looked perplexed. No child had ever not laughed at him before. He stood up and placed a hand on his hip, wondering what to do. He turned and tapped his chin with his finger. The little girl looked at him again. Arthur turned back to face her and held up his finger in a eureka moment. He reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a white handkerchief. He presented it to the little girl and waved a hand over it, pulling the handkerchief away and revealing to her a single red flower. The little girl gasped in amazement, showing him a small smile. Arthur smiled back in return, happy that he was finally able to make her smile. He gave the flower over to the little girl, who took it from the clown and smelled the flower even though it was fake. Arthur knelt down to her level again, giving her a slight caress of her chin in an affectionate manner.
"Thank you", said the little girl. "What's your name?"
"Well, my real name is Carnival, but there are some people who call me..." Arthur paused and thought over what other name to call himself. He quickly thought up a different name and answered the little girl, "Mister J."
"Mister J", The little girl annunciated, letting the name roll off of her tongue. She loved the way it sounded, like music to her ears. Her smile grew bigger and she told him, "I love it."
"What's your name?"
Just at that moment, a booming voice shouted from up above, "Harleen!"
Arthur and the little girl both looked up. There was a man in a wife beaters shirt poking his head out the window of the two-story tenement building. "Get your ass back up here, girl! You got homework to do!"
Arthur stared up at the little girl's father, giving him a threatening death glare. The man suddenly lost his tough guy attitude at the sight of the clown talking to his daughter and disappeared back into the apartment.
The little girl, Harleen, looked at the clown again and said to him sadly, "Well, I have to go now. Bye." She stood up and went to the door, looking back one last time and waving to the handsome clown before going inside.
Arthur stood up and took a moment to consider the little girl, feeling sorry for her and thinking about the abuse she had to put up with. In a way, she reminded him of himself. He hoped that whoever she was, she would grow up to become somebody really important one day. He didn't know her personally, but she seemed like a good kid. Now that that was out of the way, Arthur had just enough time left to pay a visit to another special little lady.
Arthur turned and walked out into the street, turning to his left and sticking his hand out for the oncoming taxi cab to stop. The tires screeched and came to a halt, stopping just barely an inch away from running him over.
The door of the taxi cab opened and Travis Bickle stepped out, shouting, "You stupid fuck!"
Arthur lowered his arm down to his side and flashed him an evil smile. "Hey, Travis. What's up?"
"What's up?" Travis questioned the clown, who walked up to him. "I'll tell you what's up: my foot right up your-"
Arthur didn't let him finish his sentence, as he pulled out his gun and pointed it at Travis, who kept a calm face and raised his hands to the same level as his head. "Hey, just take it easy, all right? I don't want any trouble."
Arthur motioned with his gun for Travis to get back inside the cab. Travis complied and got back into the driver's seat, shutting the door. Arthur opened the back door and got into the backseat, slamming the door shut.
When Travis tried to turn his head and get a good look at his passenger, Arthur cocked his gun and told him in a dark, sinister voice, "Just drive, Travis."
Travis looked away and placed his hands back on the wheel. He stepped on the peddle and drove on down the road. His eyes shifted to the rearview mirror, focusing on the crazy clown man sitting in the backseat.
"What do you want from me, huh?" Travis asked him. His eyes shifted back to the road ahead of him. "I ain't never done anything wrong to you. What do you got against me?"
"I don't have anything against you, Travis", said Arthur. "Except maybe a gun to your head." He chuckled a bit, then let out a high-pitched laugh.
"Aw, shit", Travis muttered in disbelief, recognizing the sound of his voice. "Is that you underneath all that hair and makeup, Arthur?"
Arthur shrugged and told him, "Maybe, maybe not. In all honesty, I don't know who I am anymore."
"Listen, I don't know what kind of issues you got going on with yourself, but maybe we could try and talk it over, just you and me."
"There's only one person I want to talk to right now, Travis. And you're not it."
Sticking his free hand into his pocket, Arthur pulled out an envelope and tossed it over the seat. Travis looked down at the envelope that landed on the front passenger seat. It was obviously full of money.
Travis looked forward again and said to Arthur, "You're out of your fucking mind, you know that?"
"Just take me to the Upper West Side", Arthur ordered him.
Travis felt his heart racing with fear, thinking Arthur was going to kill Wendy. "Look, I don't want Wendy's blood on my hands. Whatever it is you two got goin' on, you know, that's between you and her. Just don't hurt her, okay?"
"Don't be so serious, Travis. Besides, do I look like the kind of clown who would hurt a woman?" Arthur pressed the gun against Travis' head and let out a maniacal laugh.