AN: YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm not really Kuro ^^; I'm actually Horror's bride, her friend! I forced her to right this chapter :3 and I edited it since I DID force her to work when she was sleepy...

We went to fright fest today...

We had fun...

BYE!

Chapter 3

I sat as far away from the Joker in the van as possible, my arms crossed tightly across my chest. He was the plague and I didn't want to catch it. What would he even want with me? My mind kept searching for any reasonable answer, but I kept drawing a blank. I realized that though I knew much about Joker's reputation, I knew nothing about the man as a person. As I thought about it more, I noticed that no one knew anything about him.

"Is there, ah, anything interesting about my face?" I jumped at the sound of his voice, not realizing that I had been staring at him for the past few minutes. I adverted my gaze, frowning and shifting my weight uncomfortably as we hit a seemingly large pothole.

"Of course not." I said, twisting my mouth to match the frown on my brows, "I was thinking."

"Hm…" I heard him shuffling around when I suddenly felt an arm pull me closer to a certain mad clown's chest. "And, ah, what would that be about?" he inquired softly in my ear.

I cringed at the warm air tickling my ear and leaned away. "It's nothing important." I snapped, trying to escape his grasp. Why was he so strong with one hand?

I could feel him vibrate with a deep growl before I was pulled back in, tighter this time. "Look, Jade, I've been, ah, letting this little attitude of yours go, but I am not a man of patience."

He flicked something in front of my face, and from its glint in the moonlight, it was a knife. "I suggest you loosen up, sweetheart."

He traced the sharpened metal along my cheek, not enough pressure to break skin, just enough to get the warning across. I would have nodded but the idea of the knife digging any further into my skin wasn't very attractive. Before I could reply verbally, though, the van screeched to an abrupt stop, and I pulled my head back to not be jerked into the cold metal.

"Well," Joker pulled away, suddenly cheerful, "We're here!"

My finger grazed over my cheek, double checking there was no damage. Then I was pulled to my feet, and a blindfold banished light from my eyes. I opened my mouth to protest, but a gag was stuffed in it before a word was even formulated. I inwardly huffed in annoyance. As if sensing my annoyance, Joker shoved me in the back, and I almost fell trying to get out of the van. Jerk. I gritted my teeth and followed the crappy directions Joker gave me, so I could avoid any painful collisions.

Once I could no long feel the cross breeze, I knew we were inside whatever building Joker had taken us to; I was pulled to a rough stop by the back of my t-shirt, nearly chocking me in the process. "Have a seat." Joker said as he ripped the blindfold off of me. I looked around the room we were in: there was a maroon couch along the far wall and a small mahogany coffee table in front it. Both were worn out from over usage and time, and the once white and detailed wallpaper was turning yellow and peeling, very little remained untarnished. Patched over some blemishes were newspaper articles, the topics seemingly random, one being about some boy's death, another about some missing dog… I looked back to crazed clown; I was surprised to see that I had wandered closer to the only pieces of furniture in the room and was even more surprised to see him staring at me. It was creepy. I cleared my throat awkwardly, glancing around before my gaze settled back on the man. "Why did you bring me here?" I said, my voice more steady than I felt.

A slow grin spread across Joker's face, displaying all his yellow teeth as he got to his feet and started towards me. I was tempted to back up, but something told me it wouldn't do me any good. I stared evenly back at him, trying not to hint any emotions, but as he approached me, the feeling of unease perched upon the pit of my stomach. "You see, Jade, I saw your little.. escape." He started, giggling suddenly, "And I thought you were… interesting. I, ah, had a feeling I would like you." He reached to touch my face, but I leaned out of the way, the frown returning to my face. Joker giggled again, this time more wildly.

He gave my cheek a rough pat, and stalked away from me, leaving me feeling a bit confused. "You've got a bit of, ah, fight in ya." He stopped suddenly and turned to glance at me, grinning at me before going back to pacing. "You'll be working for me now." My mouth parted in protest, "And, ah, no, you don't have a choice in this." My eyebrows furrowed, I don't like to be interrupted, but still he continued, "There are a few things I want you find out for me. " he bent over to grab some papers from the coffee table and gave them to me.

I looked through them, frowning at their content. "What do you want with Wayne Enterprises' blueprints?" I asked.

"That's for me to worry about, sweetheart." He grinned again.

"I have a right to know if you want me to do illegal things—"

Joker's hand wrapped around my throat, squeezing hard enough to stop me from talking. "You already do illegal things, Jade." He said, his breath fanning over my face. "So it, ah, won't be a problem for you to add one more thing, will it?"

I shook my head, gasping when he let go of my throat. "Consider it a favor." He continued, walking away from me again.

I rubbed my sore throat, glaring at his turned back. "So if I do this, you'll leave James alone?"

"James?" he feigned ignorance, turning to look back at me. "Oh, your little boyfriend? Suuure, he'll be fine." He waved his hand dismissively, turning again.

After a few more moments of his shuffling around, he checked his watch. "Weeellllll, sweetheart, it's been a nice chat, but it's, ah, time for you to go." He turned again, walking towards me.

I inwardly sighed, dread building in my gut. The blindfold went on again, and I was lead out of the building again.