Chapter Three

Escape

Three hours ago…

"See you soon Miss. Dawes!" The Joker laughed. He watched her walk away to the outside world of Gotham. The Joker could feel heat and anxiety burning up inside of him; anxiety to get back out there again and do what he does best. Gordon shoved him into the cell and shut the iron bar door.

"Y'know…how many times do I have to tell you how to treat your guests?" The Joker laughed.

"As many times as you want." Gordon said expressionlessly while turning to walk away.

"Things have changed," The Joker spoke up, stopping Gordon in his tracks, but still having his back to him, "They're never going back to the way things…were."

"Excuse me?" Gordon turned around and the Joker smiled.

"When I was a booyy," The Joker cleared his throat, "I once prayed to God for a uh… a bike because my parents could never afford one. I was naïve then. I quickly found out that things didn't work. That. Way. So instead, I stole one," The Joker gave out an outlandish laugh. "Father didn't like that very much, but I prayed for god's forgiveness and y'know what I got?"

Gordon shook his head.

"I got these," The Joker points out his scars with his tongue. "Y'see, my dad was an abusive drinker and so he didn't take this little incident very well. He went off a little more insane then u-su-al. My mother gets out the kitchen knife, but he looks to me and grabs my face asking 'Why so serious?' At this point he snatches the knife from my mother's hands," The Joker yells out the word "snatches" and licks his lips, "And takes it to the corners of my mouth and says 'let's put a smile on that face!'"

The Joker enacted the invisible knife being cut across his mouth so well that it made Gordon startle in shock.

"I don't pray to God anymore," The Joker finally said after a moment of silence.

"Well…I…" Gordon didn't know what to say, but the Joker continued talking as if the story he just told wasn't a big deal.

"What I'm getting at is, like my scars, Gotham will never go back to the way things were. There is no God to pray to, and everyone has to make their own luck. I believe that if you look for something, you'll never find it. I don't depend on it, so I'm always lucky."

"And how are you lucky right now?" Gordon asked.

"That's a uh, very good question. I guess we're just going to have to wait and see what happens…hmmm?" The Joker sneered and laughed.

Unsure if there was some hidden message into what the Joker said, Gordon asked if it would be a good idea if there was a guard watching him all night, in which case they agreed to it.

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An hour later the Joker still sat in the same spot he resided after Gordon had shoved him back into the cell. The guard looked anxious and glanced back at the Joker from time to time. The Joker snarled under his breath every now and again, and the cop was not sure if it was meant to daunt him or just because it was a habit of the clown to do so. The Joker could sense his feebleness and smiled whenever the cop was startled by any sudden noises of the quiet room. He tried to hide this, but the Joker caught every act.

"You look, uh, anxious officer," The Joker finally spoke, "Yet you're the one with the gun."

"I'm fine, thanks," The cop said angrily, making sure not to give him direct eye contact.

"We've got a fibber ladies and gentlemen!" The Joker lifted up his arms to an invisible crowd.

"I'm not a fibber!" The cop yelled.

"No, I'm sorry. You're not a fibber; you just lie through your teeth." The Joker grinned.

"I'm not a liar, either," The cop said blankly and getting frustrated.

"Y'see! You just lied again. Everyone lies sometimes; even I know tha-t." The Joker smacked his lips.

The cop was about to speak, but suddenly the building started to shake, causing the fluorescent lights to flicker for a few moments. A few people in the other rooms could be heard screaming. The Joker laughed in excitement.

"What the fuck was that!?" The cop screamed, almost falling over.

"That?" The Joker smirked, "That would be my ticket out of here."

Unexpectedly the brick wall exploded into pieces, and the cop flew against the iron bars. Quickly, the Joker wrapped his arms around the guard's neck, suffocating him until he finally collapsed. A few clowns came into the room, and one of them took the keys from the pocket of the cop's suit and unlocked the cell door.

"Pass me that!" The Joker yelled to one of the clowns, and he threw him a machine gun.

Cops hurriedly dashed into the room with their guns, but the Joker and his crew were too quick for them; already shooting them down one by one like target practice. The last officer put down his gun and kneeled on the floor with his hands up in the air; pleading them to stop.

"Hmmm," The Joker slowly walked towards the cowered man on the floor, "Where's all my things?"

"In…in the evidence r-room," The cop stuttered, "Down the hallway…it's the second door to the left."

The Joker nodded to Grumpy, who quickly left to look for them.

"Please, I have a wife and kids." The cop cried.

The Joker crouched to his level and draped his hand over his mouth.

"Look at me." Joker asked calmly, but the cop kept looking down and giving him a hard time. "LOOK. AT. ME!" He yelled this time. When they're eyes finally met, Grumpy came back with a bag load of knives and grenades. The Joker snatched a knife and put if to the panicked man's lips.

"Do you wanna know how I got these scares?"

He cop never answered, but instead kept his horrified eyes on the Joker.

"I was ten years old, and there was this…bully…at school…who picked on kids like me. One day as I was walking home, I was jumped by this bully. He wanted me to plead for mercy but…I wouldn't do it. So he took out his pocket knife and put it to my face, like I'm doing to you now," The Joker licked his lips, "He asked me one more time but I still didn't speak, so…he took the blade right to the corner of my mouth, laughing as he did it," The Joker placed the blade so close to the corner of the cop's lip that it drew blood, "And…well, I assume you know what happens next."

The cop squeezed his eyes shut, mouthing the word 'please' over and over again.

"Boss, we've got to go," One of the clowns yelled as sirens were heard in the distance.

The Joker froze for a moment, then snapped the knife away from the cop; cutting his lip.

"I never got to finish the best part of my sttorrryyy. Too bad, you would've liked it." The Joker patted the officer's head as he sat up from the floor; jumping over the broken bricks and ran outside into the darkness.

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It was the next morning, and Rachel woke up early as usual to get ready for work. However, this day was a little different. She had an unsure feeling that something was wrong, and a wanting to figure it out. Suddenly her phone rang. It rung five times until she finally found it sitting between the cousins of the couch. She sat down and answered it. It was Gordon.

"Good morning Rachel. Well, it's not actually good."

"What? What's wrong?"

"Put on your TV to the news channel, are you sitting down for this?" Gordon's voice was of worry and aggravation.

"Actually, yes." Rachel confirmed, turning on the TV. She scoffed at the fact that she found the remote sitting nicely on the arm of the couch yet she couldn't find the phone.

The thought left her mind as she rapidly froze in her spot as soon as she turned on the news.

"Yes, the Joker is at large once again…" The reporter spoke.

"This can't be happening," Rachel said in surprise.

"I thought the same thing until they showed video where the security camera caught all the action on film. I think they're putting it on again."

Rachel kept her eyes glued on the TV, never leaving it once until finally they put it on.

"I must warn you," The reporter said just before the video was put one, "The scenes are very graphic and dreadfully disturbing."

They played it right at the start of the explosion to the part where the Joker and his crew left the building. The video had no sound however, which frustrated Rachel excessively. She kept thinking about the part where the Joker just let the cop go, and she replayed it in her head over and over again.

"I don't understand. Why would he just let the cop go?" Rachel asked Gordon, realizing that he was still on the phone.

"I don't know, maybe he didn't have enough time?"

"Oh come on! You know as well as I do that if he were to actually have done that to the cop's mouth it would have been as fast as striking a match."

Rachel tried her best to make herself believe that the Joker had a good side to him; that he wasn't all bad. But maybe he did still have some good in him, and Rachel wanted to hold on to that.

"You have a point," Gordon agreed, "Well I'll see you soon."

"Alright." Rachel hung up the phone.

'If only I could get into his head.' She thought. However, she'd have to find him first, and then know what to actually say to him. That is if he doesn't kill her first. She had a feeling of trust for him though, and the thought came back to her head of what The Joker had said to her yesterday: "See you soon Miss. Dawes."

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Rachel's day went by slowly as thoughts kept running through her mind about the Joker and what he was up to. Possibly thinking of the next scheme against Gotham? Probably. She also thought about Harvey as well, and even visited his grave during her lunch break. She left some flowers for him. All she could do for him now was hope and pray that he was in a better place.

When Rachel came home in the evening and walked into her apartment, she could feel a small draft that made the hairs on her arms stand on end. She found that her window was slightly ajar, but didn't recall leaving it open, or even opening it before she got to work. Worried, she quickly checked every square inch around her home to only find nothing. She sighed in relief. Right after her search she decided to make a late dinner; spaghetti. As Rachel was cooking the tomato sauce, an unexpected knock on the door startled her. She glanced at her door for a few seconds, until she finally walked over to open it. There was nobody there, not that she could see, anyway. Rachel was a bit suspicious but shrugged as she walked back to continue stirring the tomato sauce.

After she had finally finished eating, Rachel decided to watch some TV before she went off to bed. She wasn't tired just yet. As she was watching her favourite TV show F.R.I.E.N.D.S, yes Friends, she heard a faint knock once again on the door. Rachel quickly turned off the TV and walked in- front of it.

"Who's there?" Her hoarse voice surprised her, so she cleared her throat and asked again after no answer. Thinking of the silly horror movies where the girl is always stupid enough to check, Rachel decided to leave it, no matter how curious she was. Instead, she went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, just in case.

It had been another hour since the second knock on the door had occurred and Rachel was getting tired. She would slowly close her eyes but then spring her head back up to stop herself from falling asleep. Rachel finally decided that this was insane, so she got ready for bed. She had thought of phoning Bruce from time to time, but she didn't want to call and worry him if it was all because of some prank a kid was doing. The idea of the kid actually being the Joker was just too absurd. 'How could he know where I live?' Rachel thought. Sure, he could look her up in the phone book and find her address in there, but why would he go through all that trouble for her? Maybe he had some list of people to kill and she was on his top five. Rachel shivered at the thought and told herself not to think of it anymore because she was just freaking herself out. Instead she went into her warm bed and tried to forget about it until the morning.

Not having work so early the next day, Rachel had a chance to sleep in. She didn't wake up until around 9:30. She made herself coffee and read the newspaper. Rachel then thought about what happened last night. She put the paper down and looked at her front door across her apartment. She shook her head and continued reading the news. The next thing she had on her schedule was to pick up some milk. Grabbing the keys of her car and her coat, she unlocked her front door. Rachel put her hand on the door knob, almost hesitant to open it. When she finally did, her eyes trailed down to the ground where there was a white, long, rectangular shaped box just sitting there in front of her door.

So this was chapter 3 and I hope you guys enjoyed it! I have so many ideas for this story and I can't wait to put them down in the chapters to come! Please review on what you think of it, and if you have any ideas I'll make sure to use them! Also, happy holiday's everyone!