Hey Everyone! Thank you so much for all of the favorites and alerts and for all of the wonderful reviews! I can't tell you how much it means to me as a writer! I appreciate all of your feedback and criticism and and support and encouragement. I'm certainly thrilled to update now!

I'd also like to know if you all have any thoughts about how I'm portraying the Joker or if anything seems unrealistic or far-fetched or if you have any ideas at all for the plot. Like I said, it's my first fan-fiction and I'm kind of making it up as I go, so I'd love to hear what you all think. Any and all feedback is welcomed. Thanks again, and I hope you like this new chapter!

Disclaimer: The Dark Knight and the Joker belong to Christopher Nolan and DC Comics. I don't own them at all, really. I own my OC and my victims. :D

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Tropical Torment Chapter 2

A Series of Unfortunate Events

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What happened next was a rushing blur of motion. The initial impact of the boat being disemboweled by the reef ripped it to a metallically groaning stop – and created a merciless hell of momentum-induced reactions. The Joker and I were tossed widely to my left and his right and sent tumbling down the hall. He laughed while I screamed. My world became a chaotic mass of hard surfaces, warped views, and total disorientation. My body was slammed with crushing force against the wall, making me gasp as the splitting agony shot through my aching limbs. The Joker was hurled against the wall beside me, the force no doubt knocking the wind from his lungs. None the less, breathless laughs shook his injured body. I was coherent enough to feel the disbelief that he could feel amusement at such excruciating pain.

The ship rocked, shifting the entire world of surfaces around us. I slid down the wall and fell to my hands and knees, gasping for my own stolen air. The Joker rolled to the floor, leaving a ragged imprint of his make-up coated face upon the wall, pulling himself awkwardly up onto his feet, his knife still clutched tightly in his purple-gloved fingers. I tasted the blood from my bleeding lip as I attempted to stand, bracing myself against the outwardly leaning wall.

The ship was tipping.

Horror flooded through me, washing my gasping mercilessly closer to hyperventilation. Screams began to echo from everywhere, from passengers thrown from the ship, trapped in their rooms, or experiencing any of the other numerous horrors of a shipwreck. The wood and metal groaned around me. I heard the distant rush of unforgiving ocean water, no doubt swallowing the bottom of the ship and working its steady way up. As I gasped, my body randomly exploded into motion - the desire to do anything, to run, to escape at all costs finally refusing to be ignored any longer. I stumbled forward, back toward the hall I had run down to encounter a crazed criminal mastermind to begin with. The Joker lurched after me, taking my hand in an unbreakable hold. His gloves were cold against my flesh.

"Time to abandon ship, beautiful," he informed me unnecessarily with another chilling smile, easily matching my panicked pace.

I didn't fight him off.

We ran.

And we weren't alone.

People, sobbing and shouting, struggled from their rooms, attempted to carry others, or simply let the hysteria devour them as they lie in plain sight and did nothing. The Joker and I soon blended with a panicked frightened flood of passengers. A woman recognized him in the fray, her face erupting into a mask of horror, a terrified scream ripping from her gaping mouth. Unfortunately, she stopped running and was soon overtaken violently by the people behind her. I didn't miss that the Joker smiled widely. I had no idea where in the ship I was, but my bearings returned when he suddenly yanked me sideways into the ship's control room. He dragged me to the intercom system and lifted the microphone to his ragged crimson lips.

"Would everyone who is…uh, able please evacuate the ship and swim to the nearest landmass to…await further instructions?" He glanced at me with a frightening gleam in his black eyes as I gaped at him in horror.

"Hurry now. This ship won't stay…afloat for long…" He let the microphone fall to the ground as he laughed loudly, making me tremble as he dragged me away.

As we entered the hallway once again, I almost tripped over the trampled body of a young boy. Hysteria overwhelmed me to the point where I completely ceased to move, crumpling slightly to the ground. The Joker paused and glanced back at me at the sudden increase in my weight.

"Let's go, beautiful," he murmured with a smile, lifting me up and tossing me easily over his shoulder, resuming our previous pace.

"You're a small thing, aren't you?" he teased, still finding time to joke. Tears welled within my eyes but didn't quite spill over as I gazed at the receding, fragile, broken form lying upon the floor. I whimpered once, closing my eyes and shivering against the monster who had ended the short life of that little boy and so many other people still unknown to me. My hands were clamped into such tight fists, I thought my fingernails would impale my palms. My jaw was so rigid, it ached. Suddenly, propelled by an unidentified, molten force, I began to kick and scream, beating my fists against the Joker's back. He made a small exclamation of seemingly impressed surprise, experiencing difficulty with trying to hold me in place as I death-rolled like a crocodile. I fell from his shoulder and hit the ground running, scrambling wildly up the stairs and out into the blinding sunlight.

The sight that my eyes processed next would haunt my dreams for years to come.

The island, in all of its tropical, natural glory, loomed a short distance ahead, with its pristine white sands, emerald vegetation, and cerulean blue waters. Heaven on Earth. Right on the edge of Hell. The reef was the barrier, a dark perimeter in the sea around the massive landmass, and behind it was the ship. The ship with its prow smashed to smithereens. The ship with its deck slowly being swallowed by greedy, unforgiving waves tinted red in places from the blood of injured people. The surrounding sea was filled with debris, belongings, and drowning and dead passengers.

It was…chaotic.

Just what he wanted.

My stomach heaved with fearful revulsion, my mouth gaping in horror. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, and couldn't scream even though I wanted desperately to. People fell, screamed, drowned, and died all around me, the sea heaving white with their struggles.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a disgustingly familiar voice murmured eagerly right into my ear, "like you…"

I whirled to see the Joker smiling mischievously at me. His hand latched like the jaws of a venomous snake onto my arm and he began to toiling process of hauling me down the stairs and across the deck of the ship, toward the prow and the bloodied sea beyond. He took nothing with him and I was forced to leave my belongings behind. I struggled wildly but his grip was harsh, malicious, unyielding iron. I couldn't escape.

When we reached the edge of the ship, the broken railing loomed gnarled and open before me. I looked over the edge of the ship and immediately wished I hadn't. Not only where they filled with torn and tattered human remains, but the blood-stained waters were being cruised by a large, lethal, hungry shark. Its movements were wild and jerking as it no doubt entered a feeding frenzy. More would come soon. As I watched the ancient ocean predator glide quickly and precisely through the ruby water, I realized that I was more afraid of the Joker than of him. And I got the wonderful opportunity to test those fears as the Joker casually pushed me over the edge of the ship and down into the churning waters below.

I was submerged with a splash, experiencing a moment of total disorientation as I righted myself in the bloody sea. My head broke the surface and a gasp burst from my lips as I struggled to calm myself and concentrate on swimming to shore. The Joker must've waited for me to surface before he jumped in because right then a large splash doused my already-soaking head and let a fresh wave of bloody, salty water wash into my eyes, nose, and mouth. I coughed and gagged, spitting disgustedly through my lips. I heard him swimming beside me.

"Shore's, uh, this way, beautiful," he announced as he no doubt moved in the unknown direction. I forced my stinging eyes to open, seeing the Joker moving away from me toward the island, his suit a deep, malicious purple, weighed down by the water and giving him the sickeningly billowing look of some bloated sea monstrosity. The nearby beaches had already begun to fill with panicked, frightened, injured people. I calculated my chances of swimming away or of getting the shark to devour me first, ruled them as minimum, and then began the tiresome and torturous swim to a location I never wished to be. Nonetheless, a few minutes later, I was crawling, bloody, water-logged, and choking upon the pure white sand and collapsing beside the sodden and grinning form of the Joker, his make-up running grotesquely down his smug and scarred face.

At that moment I hated no one more than him.

He licked his lips and soaked up the chaos around him, giggling psychotically as the shark snatched an unfortunate, screaming young man down into the crimson water, his bleeding leg simply too tempting to pass up. I rolled over and coughed, spitting a small but no less disgusting amount of bloodied sea water upon the pristine white sand. The Joker grinned wickedly at me, his black eyes glinting in an unsettling manner, before he rose awkwardly to his feet and trailed his tongue across his lips yet again, as if it was as natural to him as breathing.

"Well, let's…uh, welcome the passenger-suh…of the Ocean Angel 5 to a vacation they'll never forget, hm? What say you, beautiful?" he asked creepily of me, staring down at my sodden, blood-soaked form as I shuddered upon the sand. I glared up at him, making him chuckle deep in his throat, once again unable to restrain his near-constant amusement. There was something demented in his black eyes, as if he liked what he saw sniveling in agony on the ground at his feet, what was left of me…

"Not one chance…" I coughed, a few spots of blood flying from my trembling lips, "in…Hell," I snarled with as much hateful strength as I could muster, my hands digging like ravenous claws into the crimson-speckled sand.

A dangerous gleam flickered in the Joker's eyes, making my blood run cold as he dramatically wet his ragged, crimson lips again with his tongue. I shivered. He knelt down to my level and seized a handful of my long, ragged brown hair, roughly yanking my head back so that I had no choice but to look at him. He almost seemed to hum to himself as he drew the blood-streaked knife out of his pocket and pressed it with dangerous firmness to the trembling corner of my mouth. He now commanded my utmost attention as my heart raced in my chest. I was silent, my brown eyes wide and staring.

"Don't be that way, beautiful. I'd hate to…uh, have to kill. you. before my little game even gets started. I'm really, uh, interested to see how you'll do... So don't disappoint," he murmured darkly and yet somehow temptingly in my ear, his breath hot against my skin, making me tremble. I normally would've made some blatantly sarcastic comment, but the way he spoke the last sentence… it was such a potent and lethal warning that my snarky attitude dried up in my salt-parched throat. He watched as the stubborn fight left my eyes and smiled with frightening satisfaction as he straightened and hauled me to my feet by the collar of my shirt.

He then dragged me along behind him toward the crowd of loudly conversing and panicking people clustering upon the beach. I struggled feebly, but my body was so tired from the terrifying swim to shore that I lacked the energy necessary to free myself. I just couldn't go with him willingly… I straightened as he stopped and released me, raising an automatic into the air and letting loose a loud, cracking shot. I started with surprise, the crowd before us reacting in a similar way, jumping and gasping with startled fear before falling completely silent.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentle-men…" he started, extending his arms dramatically, the weapon he held glinting in his hand.

The crowd was horrifically silent, each and every one of them most likely recognizing the Clown Prince of Crime on sight. How could they not? His ghastly law-breaking deeds were known all over the world – and now we were all part of one. We'd all thought the same thing at one point or another while watching the news, safe in our homes or on our cruises: it won't happen to me. Not me. To dozens of others, but not me… Oh, how wrong we'd been. He smiled a twisted, sadistic smile, accentuating his wicked scars, before he continued.

"It seems you…are the most worthy of the Ocean Angel 5's passengers to partake in a little… competition that'll be held right here on this beach...hmm?" His purple-gloved fingers pointed downward at the blood-stained sand at his feet. He paused, saying his words slowly so that the message sunk in – burrowed deeply, viciously into each and every conscious mind to make itself painfully clear.

"Attempt to run or flee or whatever it is you think you can accomplish here, forget it now… because I'm afraid I've got an itchy trigger finger." His tongue trailed across his lips in an attempt to stifle his unsettling giggles. He waggled his painted eyebrows at the crowd, pointing the gun at a young man and then trailing the weapon across the gathered victims, making them flinch and whimper as he began to pace, pulling me along behind him.

"Now, the rules are simple…there are none…except," he stopped, holding up his finger in accentuation of the catch to this brilliant little game of his, "fight to the death…"

My blood ran cold. My legs felt incredibly heavy, but the Joker's strength didn't let me collapse like I wanted to. He dragged me, faltering and staggering, behind him as if he didn't notice the fact that I was almost a dead weight – or a soon-to-be-dead weight. He straightened, facing the crowd with his head slightly tilted, his gloved hand gesturing to his chest.

"I. won't. kill. the last remaining survivor. You can win your life by taking everyone else's..." His eyes widened in a mock effort to appear concerned, his already awkward posture becoming even more hunched, as if, by lowering himself to our level, he could somehow reach out panicked little minds more efficiently to make himself perfectly clear. "Now, don't worry... you won't, uh... have to kill. everyone else just. like. that... There will be, uh... a random order so that you can all participate and whittle your little group down to one," He straightened and clapped, releasing me and letting me sag as he basked in the devilish brilliance of his plan. The playful, childish gleam in his eyes slowly darkened, becoming menacing and predatory.

"And after that..." he smiled psychotically, "well, that's a bit of a surprise."

Every pair of eyes gawked at him with speechless horror, incomprehensible to such horrible thoughts.

My heart stopped beating for perhaps the tenth time that hellish day. And I was beginning to comprehend that this was just the beginning. I stared wide-eyed at the other people before me, some of them reminding me of panicked animals trapped in cold, twisted cages of fear, while others seemed concerned for the people around them, parents seeming to murmur to and attempt to comfort children, young couples clutching each other close, a person or two even looking at me with terrified pity in their eyes.

We all waited for the Joker to begin his sick little game. After all, he was the mass murderer with the gun. There was a pretty good chance that we would do what he asked. It was then that a man attempted to run, making a mad dash for the nearby cover of the dense, emerald forest. The crowd of surviving passengers gasped and screamed – and the Joker almost casually lifted his arm and fired his gun at a rather awkward angle, one that suited his overall ridiculously lop-sided personality but did next to nothing to hinder his aim.

A small crimson explosion of flesh and blood burst outward from the center of the man's back and, with a grunt, he dropped to the sand, lying still and silent in a moment. The Joker's black eyes scanned across the shuddering crowd once again, a challenge dwelling deep in their malicious depths.

"Anyone else got the balls to run?" he murmured darkly. I sensed he would prefer for his victims to play his game rather than making him kill them all with bullets, though I doubted that would stop him from killing each and every one of us. I shuddered at his side, my breathing uneven and weak. My head felt filled with nothing but air as well as with cold, hard lead at the same time. I thought I was swaying on my feet, but I wasn't entirely sure. I wasn't entirely sure of anything except for the fact that I felt like vomiting upon the pretty white sand.

Suddenly the Joker's cold, leather-clad hand took a tight grip upon my throat, his fingers digging in deep and making me choke as he turned me and tilted my head up to his so that I was facing him. My breath caught and bile rose in my throat, my brown eyes going wide with my immediate, seemingly perpetual terror. He smiled at me, his blood-red scars stretching with the ghastly movement.

"Let the game-suh...begin…" he murmured to me and only me, making my heart lurch sickeningly. His black eyes gleamed maliciously, and I shivered when a feeling of lethal knives caressing my clammy skin rippled all over my body. He turned away from me, addressing the crowd this time. He pointed his gun at two random people, a young man with short brown hair, probably in his twenties, and an older woman probably in her late forties or early fifties.

"You…and you….are our first two contestants… Front and…uh center, if you would be. so. kind."

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