A Laugh In The Dark Ch2
Stepping into the office I quietly shut the door behind me just in case someone happened to still be here. Ever since my encounter with Joker the other night I've been a bit overly cautious, checking behind me every so often to make sure no one was there. Glancing around the small, and surprisingly clean, office I caught site of a filing cabinet against the far wall. Walking over to it I reach out a hand and pulled a random drawer open half expecting it to be empty. But to my surprise it wasn't. It was full of files, one for every inmate here at the asylum.
Flipping through I began to read the names aloud, "Harvey Dent aka Two-Face, The Ventriloquist, Roman Sionis aka Black Mask, Pamela Isley aka Poison Ivy…", stopping dead in my tracks I stared at the name on the next file, the name tag had been scribbled over and in bright red lipstick written on the front of the folder in all caps was one word, 'Joker'. The folder was startlingly bigger than the others. Flipping through it I stood in shock at the sheer number of crimes and murders pulled by this one man. Placing the file back where I found it I stepped back from the drawer as if it would try to bite me.
Quickly shutting off the light I exited Dr. Crane's office and stared further into the asylum. "So this is where they used to be keep?", I whispered aloud to myself. Absentmindedly I wander down the hall toward the holding cells. Reading off the names of the inmates who's names were still etched into the doors silently in my head "Two-Face, Ventriloquist, Black Mas…", freezing dead in my tracks as I realized that the names I was reading off the doors matched the names of the files I found…and if I was correct the cell next to Black Mask's would be Ivy's, and the one after that…a shiver creped up my spine as I stared two doors down. The door was standing open, scrawled across it in red lipstick were the words 'HOME SWEET HOME', on the inside of it.
I creped forward toward the cell, moving silently. I was only three feet from the cell belonging to Joker when all of a sudden I heard it. A low giggling fallowed by "Beee it eeever so humble there's nooo place like hooome". I flinched as images of last night ran through my mind and anger flashed on my face but only for a second. Without a sound I pressed my back against the wall. Suddenly the singing stops and a slight shuffling is heard. The next thing I knew a paper white hand with black nails shoots out and around the door's opening and with frightening accuracy latched onto my throat pinning me to the wall.
The next few seconds seemed to stretch into minutes. Slowly the owner of that hand backed out into the hall to join it. I couldn't move, couldn't speak, only watch as a grinning Joker came into full view. But his grin was quickly replaced by a look of confusion as he got a good look at me and saw that I was the unlucky onlooker from last night that he believed he had strangled to death. Tilting his head to one side he spoke in a low humorless voice.
"What the…didn't I Kill you already?," quickly he lifts his other hand to join its partner on my throat and tightens his grip "Lets try this again. Shall we?" As I feel the same darkness creeping in on me as last night I will my fear back. I manage to tilt my head down, and baring my fangs, sank them into his hand gaining a satisfying scream of pain from him. I felt as he's blood flowed into my mouth. His grip loosens and I manage to kick him away absentmindedly swallowing the blood. I manage to get a good 20 feet down the hall before Joker could recover. Running full speed for the entrance I was half way there when something was thrown from one of the rooms into my path. I had no time to dodge. I tripped over the object and tumbled a few feet before coming to rest on my stomach.
Groaning I try to sit up but find I am unable to. Looking back over my shoulder I see the reason why. There sitting firmly on my back was a woman dressed like a jester and holding an unusually large handgun. "Sup?", she said enthusiastically, "Enjoy your trip?", than she shouted down the hall, "HEY PUDDIN! I GOT EM! YA WANT ME TA OFF HIM FOR YA?", she asks as she digs the muzzle of the gun into the back of my head. I turn my head a little more to look past her…and there walking down the hall straight toward us was Joker. That wicked grin once again spread across his face.
I stare at him as he says in a high voice, "No." then he glanced down at his now bleeding wrist. "I'll deal with him myself. Be a dear and get off of him so we can 'talk'," he says doing quotations in the air as his tone drops menacingly low, "man to clown." Being left alone with The Joker is the last thing I wanted. He probably has some plan to kill me as painful as possible up his sleeve. Calling all the strength I could I managed to rise to my hands and knees, the woman on my back gave a startled cry and lost balance tumbling off backwards.
Standing I face Joker, having let my vampire nature take control and eliminate all fear I had of him. I glance down at the woman who glared up at me, but upon seeing the emotionless look in my eyes she twitches, climbed to her feet and backed away toward Joker. I smirked inwardly "She is afraid of me, good, being feared is better than being afraid. Sometimes anyway." I thought.
Joker tilts his head slightly to one side intrigued by my sudden shift in attitude. His grin widens and he tilts his head back laughing manically. I flinch slightly inward, the down side of letting my vampire nature take control to rid myself of my fear is it also heightens my senses, including my sense of hearing. His laugh was being amplified and it hurt like hell.
The woman finally makes it to Joker's side, gun leveled at me the whole time. He stops laughing and just stands there grinning at me. The woman looks back and forth between him and me. Then asks Joker confusedly "Ya know this guy puddin?" Joker, never taking his eyes off me says to her, "Heh, more or less. We met last night, after I bashed the brains out a three jackasses that got in my way. He was on a rooftop spying on me. But when I looked up revealing I knew he was there he freaked! So I snuck up there, we have a little stand off. I lung at him with my bat raised thinking to bash his skull in, only thing is he dodges. He is a quick little bugger this one. Anyway the bat bites into the ledge instead of him. Before he has time think about runnin I drop the bat and jump at him wrapin my hands around his scrawny neck." The whole time he is telling the story he is making wild hand gestures to emphasize the it. "Eventually the kid stops breathin, so I leave him layin on the roof for dead."
The woman looks at me puzzled then at him. "But he ain't dead puddin. He's standin right here." Joker rolls his eyes at her. "Well duh! I can see that. The question is." He takes a step forward and again tilts his head. "Why ain't he?" At this I raise my eyebrow and let a grin slip through as I speak in a flat monotone voice. "Because, Joker, you cant kill what's already dead. Or rather undead."
At the mention of the word undead the woman flinches. She stares at me and speaks in a high voice laced with fear. "U-undead? W-what are you talkin bout? W-whats dat suppose ta mean?" Then to Joker, "Puddin what's he talkin bout?" Joker's grin fades as he rubs his chin and wrinkles his brow thinking as he mumbles, "How the hell am I suppose ta know? Undead hmm…" then his gaze fell to his wrist, which had stopped bleeding. All at once a light flashes on in his eyes as the wide grin returns, "You're a VAMPIRE! Aren't you?!" he laughs again louder then before nearly blowing my eardrums as he shrieks in a mirth filled voice "Looks like ol Batsy finally has some competition in the bat theme department!"
Joker seemed entirely amused at the thought that I was vampire. I had though, or rather hoped, he might be taken aback by the fact but he wasn't. In fact he had this gleam in his eyes like a kid whose parents just gave him a shinny new bike. I don't know what weirded me out more the grin or this look he had now. Even in my vampire state I began to get a little fidgety and flexed my wings. This I found was a big mistake, the moment Joker caught sight of them he gave a rather loud squeal. "Oh look! He has wing! Actual bat wings!" with this he made a mad dash forward.
Caught completely off guard by the sudden motion I was barely able to put up my arms in defense as he leaped into the air lashing out with a rather powerful kick knocking me back, and thanks to that thing the woman threw on the ground when I stepped backwards my foot once again caught on it and I fell flat on my ass. As I start to get up I realize Joker is no longer in front of me but behind me. Alarmed I start to turn but before I got the change something hard and metallic connects with the back of my head and I was once again flat on my stomach. Pain shot through me like white hot fire, starting from my head and spreading. But I didn't loose consciousness, I refused to, not twice in one week damn it!
I could feel it then. His weight as he sat on my back, between my wings. He was playing with them, twisting them this way and that to see how far they could bend before snapping. There pretty flexible, but damn it that hurts! I growled low and deep looking back at him over my shoulder speaking between gritting teeth. "If that's all you wanted to do you could have just asked." "True," he says releasing his grasp on one of the wings, "But where would be the fun in that?" he grinned smugly down at me. I jerk my wing from his loosened grasp and fold them, aimed them directly at his chest then quickly and forcefully spring them back open. He doesn't have time to react as both wings hid dead on sending him flying smack into a wall.
The woman then lets out a startled scream then moves forward a step and angrily aims her gun once again at my head. I manage to climb to my feet before the trigger is pulled and dash forward to fast for her to track. Within seconds I'm standing beside her, the gun in one hand and my fist planted firmly in her stomach. She lets out a startled cry, doubles over in pain, and blacks out. Crushing the gun I throw the pieces of it to the floor, then gently pick up her unconscious body and place her on one of the cots in a random cell shutting the door.
Stepping back after the door was shut I glance over half expecting Joker to be on his feet ready to attack. But instead he is still slumped against the wall I had flung him at. His eyes were closed, his arms and legs limp. "Perhaps I hit him just a little to hard?" I mused to myself. Walking cautiously over I knelt down beside the now unconscious Joker. For several seconds I just sat there staring at him, blinking at how almost peaceful he looked with his eyes shut and not trying to bash my head in. Sighing silently I picked him up bridal style and carried him back to the cell he had marked as his own and laid him gently down on the cot inside.
For several minutes I stayed there, leaned against the far wall, watching him sleep. For some strange reason I couldn't take my eyes off him. Pain suddenly shot throughout my body, but quickly subsided so I ignored it. My mind wandered back to the other night, to Joker strangling me, but in the process having accidentally rubbed his partial erection against me as he leaned closer to get a better grip…Why the hell was I remembering that? Why the hell did that one thought keep popping up forcing its way to the front of my brain? "I know why," I said silently in my head as I gazed at him "It's because I'm obsessed. Obsessed with a laugh, obsessed with a man, obsessed with…the Joker."