(Author's Note: Thanks all for the feedback and the love. I am feeling that this is going in a good direction, so I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do).
Chapter 4
Her instincts took over her instantly. She struggled with all of her strength, her tiny body toiling against The Joker's deceptively strong grasp. He wrapped both of his arms around her and made her already ridiculous attempt to break free look completely pathetic.
"Ah, sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh. There, there now." He cooed in a stern and falsely gentle manner. "It's always the pretty ones who try to…flutter away from you, isn't it? I mean I have no luck with women really, none at all. I think it's because of the scars. …It's because of the scars isn't?" He paused to allow her to take in the grisly designs carved across his face that had become so famous on the news. "You wanna know how I got em?"
"No!" she blurted out in desperation as she made another strong push against him to escape. This only seemed to amuse him further and she thought she heard him laugh a little when he pulled her back, her face coming dangerously close to his. In the corner of her eye, she spotted something that flashed in the dying evening light and realized with panic that it was a knife aimed squarely at her the corner of her lips. The Joker suddenly grew very serious, licked his lips in anticipation and forced her face even closer to his.
"My mother…got very sick one day. My brother and I put all our money into a savings jar at home so that we could keep her in the hospital. You see, our father left us with nothing and that put us in a very bad position when they couldn't find out what was wrong with her and she started getting worse. Mom said…that I was taking things way too seriously, that I had to keep my chin up, that I had to smile more. I didn't smile…got into drinking. Drank all the time, spent all the money I made on liquor at the end of the day so I didn't have to face the fact that my mother was going to die. I came home one day…and my brother was sitting at the kitchen table, an empty jar beside him, a knife in his hand. He said that the savings were all gone and that I took it to buy booze. I would never steal that money. He asked where it was, but I would never take it. She was my mommy, I loved her. I would never take the money from her. He said I stole it and that I was a liar and a thief, that I wanted to take mom away from him but I told him I would never so he took the knife and he held me down on the kitchen floor. I never stole that money. Turns out his girlfriend had used it to buy them a new car as a surprise for his birthday and now I SEE the irony. Now I can't stop smiling."
She could feel the knife pressing against her cheek and that it would be useless to try to move away from it. She closed her eyes and mumbled the word, "No."
The Joker laughed suddenly. "No…oh they always say no, but I am the one who always says yes. You should get into yes; it's a very liberating word."
She choked from the strength of his grip on her face. She could feel that he was about to kill her like he killed the others, that there was no way to turn, but a strength that she had never known began to rise from the pit of her stomach and up into her throat. "No, that...isn't…how…it…happened…"
The pressure on her face was suddenly released. She felt The Joker's grip relax and she opened her eyes very slightly to see the look of confusion and intrigue play upon his fearfully disfigured face. He leaned into her so that his eyes were bearing deeply into hers, prying out every fear and every anxiety that was feeding on her weakening resolve. He licked his lips tentatively and pulled the knife from her cheek.
"Now why do you say that?" he said with a touch of curiosity in his voice. "I certainly hope you're not calling me a liar here because I really HATE being called a liar…"
She tensed in his glare and returned his gaze steadily, but fearfully. "I think you did them yourself."
No sooner had she spoken the words than she heard the sirens that had been resounding in the distance move to encircle the building. She could not tell whether or not The Joker was laughing at her response or the approaching officers, but in his moment of distraction, Annie summoned all of her strength, pulled from his grip, and started to sprint to the door and out into the hallway. She could still hear The Joker laughing when she spotted a SWAT team burst through the doors that led from the stairwell. She gasped with relief and flung into the arms of one of the charging leaders, crying and shaking with absolute gratitude.
The laughing seemed to cease. They were taking her out of the building.