"Hi guys, I'm back... From Sickville no less hehe. Gotta say a week away from writing is sadder than I thought.
Was gonna start this sooner, but I got hung up in eating my fill of food. Hehe
Anyway, with 1K reads, thanks to all by the way ^_^, let us continue
5. 5 Thorns Don't Mean Nothing
He's not in their meeting room. Not sat on a chair across a table from his psychiatrist, immersed in a conversation that was inconsequential to his daily evaluation.
Instead he was in his room, lying on his bed, immersed in the nothingness of the ceiling wall.
It's not very often that the Joker finds himself in such boredom. But then again what would be expected of him if he was contained like this in an asylum.
But even so, he's always found a way to amuse himself, ranging from a memory of a crime he once committed and the thought of devising a new one. Fact he could do more now, given his arms were finally free from their bonds.
Of course, he was only allowed out of the straitjacket inside his cell. Still, this shouldn't have been enough to limit his self-entertainment. But it does, and he blames his psychiatrist for putting him in such a predicament.
"We won't be meeting for the next few days."
The tone had been disappointed, crest-fallen, and clearly displeased at the thought of having to say it.
At first, he tries to think of possible reasons why such a thing would even happen. Then he contemplates for just how long 'the next few days' would even be, and he becomes too distracted with thoughts he shouldn't be having to respond to his doctor.
"I asked the board to give me a few days off." Harleen says to fill in for a question he didn't want to ask.
This admission irked something beneath the spot of the tattoo on his forehead, and there was no hiding the irritation from his face when he looked at her.
"Why?"
He asks this with only a slight hint of a growl. He asks this without noticing the paleness of her face and dark lines under her eyes that would've otherwise disregarded his question.
She's distant, reluctant, and it bothers him to an irritable extent. An extent that reaches far too deep somewhere in his mind and he suddenly can't bear to look at her.
He can't say for sure if she had answered then or not, or if he had simply just purposefully unheard her out of annoyance. But he knows that his current anger (was it even anger?) was because of little MISS HARLEY.
The Joker sat up with a rake through his hair. This wasn't something he should bother himself with. Shouldn't he be mulling over the fact that Harley had finally gotten him out of his jacket? And not this over-thinking regarding her taking a few days off because why else would she disappear?
"She did look quite unpleasant in our last meeting." He was whispering to himself, staring at invisible dust and wondering how long it would take for it to gather.
But if she was in that state, then wouldn't that be her fault? Her fault... for focusing on nothing but him? That would be a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but the Joker has enough evidence to prove this point.
He may not have any other people to converse with, but that didn't mean he didn't have ears. And from what he's heard, Dr. Quinzel was assigned only to him.
Only to him.
So why? Why had she made him think like this and suddenly turned the tables with his own thoughts? He was convinced beyond reason that she had nothing else in her life- other than him. And now she's racked his already-damaged mind with the possibility that she had something else to give her attention to, enough to gain him her absence?!
It was all ludicrous..Ludicrous, and he had been foolish enough to fall for it.
"Point for Miss Harley.." He admitted, drawing an imaginary line in the air.
Yes. Even in his anger (yes, he was certain it was anger now) he would not fail to acknowledge his psychiatrist's impressive tactics. He had deduced her talent for such since day one, and she hasn't failed him once yet.
"What?"
This question, he asks up to the ceiling, at the far corner in front of him.
"Why are you here again?" He asks in the dead silence.
Nothing, or rather no one answers. The Joker knows how far along the cells are from one another, still, he seemed quite disappointed that no reply came.
"I am not being paranoid... I'm not.."
The 'T' cracked against his teeth and he felt the metal chip at some parts. Surely, if anyone saw him now, they would say he was paranoid. Not that he would care, though.
"She came on with that all the sudden.. How did you think I reacted."
Still, nothing spoke for him, but the Joker laughed, and he thumped the back of his head against the wall over a thought that was sure to horrify a human being.
"She made a fool out of me, though." He admits, face going blank as dead faster than a hummingbird could beat its wing.
"It's like she's playing with me..."
He was now pacing around the room, stopping at certain points on the wall whenever the silence seemed to give an answer only he heard.
"She makes me feel like I'm her top priority.. and then she disappears on a whim... And then the straitjacket.."
A rattle came from his throat and he whipped his head as if he were swatting an insect out of his ear.
"It's like I can't win with her..."
His tone changed into realisation, something that rarely came and would've delighted his dear Harley had she seen it.
"She deserves a gift..." He said with a grin to himself. "Yes...a gift for all this trouble she's causing me."
"Little miss Harley deserves it."
Several days later, when Harleen returns after her very much-deserved vacation, she finds a wrapped package on her office desk.
Taking the note in her hand, she unwrapped the gift excitedly. This however, did not equal to her disappointment at the content.
It was a rose stem. A thin green-black stem, with 5 pointing thorns and no red petals.
When Harleen reads the note over, she felt the coldness of the stem seep into her fingers, along with message that the sender wanted to relay.
"Five thorns for you. Because five thorns could mean anything... Or nothing at all..."
-Sincerely, your Mista J
Yay"! New chapter for my return! Really sorry for those who've been waiting for this. Hope you loved it anyway.
Who's willing to bet that Mista J got that stem from Poison Ivy? Eh? Eh?
Not much to say about this, really. But the next one is gonna be fun. Thanks for reading!