Alice woke to the rhythmic sound of water dripping slowly on cement. Mildew hung thick in the air and the dank floor was cold against her almost bare legs. She was propped up against a wall, struggling to keep her head steady. She was still in her costume, her tights had rips and runs all over the knees, like she had been dragged. Her black eye liner was smeared and her red lips had been faded leaving behind dry chapped skin. She resembled a forgotten marionet doll left in a basement to rot.
She opened her eyes and looked around the dark room, a single light bulb hung from the ceiling flickering ever so slightly creating a dim atmosphere. She was in what seemed like a furnace room, except all the utilities were gone and they only things left behind were dripping pipes and rusty stains.
The back of her head felt as though someone smashed it with a brick, creating a throbbing sensation like her brain was banging against her skull begging to get out. She reached her hands up instinctively to rub the pain away but they were stopped short by the rope that bound them together. She noticed that nothing was tying her to the ground though, so she stood up uneasily trying to regain her sense of balance and feeling. To her surprise her body suffered no other damage then the scrapes on her knees and her pounding head. She wiggled her fingers and hands the best she could to see if she had broken anything, all was fine.
However, her mind was in a million pieces and her heart was racing, she knew very well what had happened. She had been kidnapped by the Joker. She blinked hard attempting to focus and gather her thoughts; she looked around the room scanning for a window or door. Her eyes locked with a door knob that was a couple feet away, stumbling towards it she reached out her bound hands and prayed for it to be unlocked. The cold metal met her sweaty palms as she started to turn it slowly, she closed her eyes hoping that it would turn completely and open, but her hopes had failed and the knob stopped turning, it was locked. She shook the knob violently and banged on the door with fury. Why was this happening to her, what did she do to deserve this? She sunk down to the cold floor and let the hot salty tears slide down her face.
When Alice was younger, before her parents passed, she would always imagine how she would die. She hoped that it would be dramatic and beautiful and tragic. She didn't want to die an old hag; she wanted to die with mystery. Little Alice was always so fascinated by death, murder in particular, it intrigued her that she or anyone else within a matter of seconds could be a memory. She would watch documentaries about serial killers and read books about what made people do the awful things they'd do. She had dreamed of working at Arkham and becoming a psychologist for the criminally insane, but often times she found it hard to differentiate between wanting to help 'cure' murderers or become one. Alice voiced these opinions hoping people would connect with her but all it got her was a psychiatrist and a prescription for anti-depressants. Even her own father, mobster of Gotham, found her morbid thoughts to be concerning. But that all changed when she saw what she had dreamed about for so many years happen right in front of her eyes, at the fault of her brother. After her parents murder she had decided to bury her dark thoughts forever, she pushed her hopes of becoming a psychologist so deep down she never thought of it again. She made a new personality for herself and ran as far as she could leaving the "old" Alice behind to rot in Gotham.
Alice pondered all of this while looking around the room and wondered if this was it, if this was going to be her "tragic and mysterious" death. Sure no one would find her for days, maybe even weeks but eventually they would. The old Alice would have been honored to be taken hostage by Gotham's most dangerous criminal and to die in this decrepit place, but this Alice was scared and terrified of her likely outcome.
All of a sudden Alice heard loud footsteps nearing the door; she scrambled to her feet and ran back to the spot she woke up in trying her best to fake unconsciousness. The large metal door swung open letting light bleed in the dark room and a tall figure stood there creating an ominous shadow on the cement floor. The door slammed shut and the footsteps neared Alice, the familiar clacking made her breathing halt. She could sense his presence as the figure stood in front her and crouched down to her level. He reached out his hand and lightly patted her face making Alice jump inside.
"C'mon wake up. Wake up wake up wake up." He said almost in a whisper.
Alice let her eyes gently open, the scarred clown was inches away from her face and she could feel his breathing on her lips. Her eyes widened in horror at the sight of him which sent the man into a manic state of laughter. Alice just looked at him dumbfounded, she was confused as to why her simple reaction made him laugh so hard. Why was she even here, what the hell did he want from her?
Alice struggled to think of any reason why the Joker took her, the only one that came to mind was William, after all he was making his way up the ladder in the police department and he had friends in high political places. 'Yes' Alice thought to herself William was the reason for her abduction.
The clown's laughter turned into a giggle and Alice kept her gaze on him hoping he would stop so she could speak.
"You look like you got something to say beautiful." He said making his laugh come to a halt, he raised his eyebrow and tilted his chin down waiting for an answer.
Alice cleared her dry throat, "Whatever you want from William he'll give it to you, just let me go. He'll do anything to have me back trust me. He's probably already put out a search team."
The Joker furrowed his brow in confusion.
"And who might this 'Will' fellow be." He said flatly.
"My boyfriend." Alice responded with pride. He looked her up and down and noticed the black eye she had hidden so well with stage makeup.
"And I'm just going to assume he did that to you mmm?" The Joker asked motioning to her eye. Her gaze fell to the floor and questioned if she should even try to lie,
"yeah." She said softly. He responded with a giggle,
"And you think he's going to save you? That's the best joke I've heard all day. No I don't want anything from your little eh boyfriend. No he can't help you." He stated.
Upon hearing this Alice got angry, "Then what the hell do you want from me?" she said with dagger like eyes. He equally met her furious gaze and withdrew his switch blade from his coat pocket. It opened with a 'click'. He pressed the sharp knife up to her throat daring himself to press harder and let her warm blood drip over his gloved hand like he had dreamed of for so long.
Alice froze when the metal made contact with her delicate skin, she could feel it pinching at her neck just waiting to be dragged across.
"What do I want from you?" He let out a harsh giggle and Alice squirmed under the knife, "You'll see soon enough."
He drew the knife away and Alice let out a sigh of relief, she then realized from this position she could easily kick him in the face, and she would might have a chance of escaping through the now unlocked door.
Before she could think twice she shot her leg up and kicked him as hard as she possibly could right in the face. He fell backwards and gripped his nose trying to subside the immediate bleeding while Alice was standing up making a dash for the door. She was so close to the knob when she felt him grab her ankle and pull her down to the ground. She landed on the cement hard causing her to groan in agony. She clearly underestimated his tolerance for pain.
The Joker stood up and spat the blood out from his mouth. He cracked his neck side to side and walked over to Alice who was still on the floor face down gripping her forehead in pain.
"You shouldn't have done that Alice." He hissed. He then kicked her hard in the ribs causing her to ball up in defense, he rolled her over to her back and he stood over her with a chilling grin. Alice closed her eyes tightly, too afraid to look at the man standing before her.
"You should keep your feet to yourself next time hmm?" He glared at her and slammed his foot down on her crushed ribs making her scream out. She started violently sobbing due to the pain and he pushed his foot down harder in attempt to silence her annoying screams.
When that didn't work he removed his foot and grabbed her by the neck making her stand up. Once on her feet he shoved her into a wall causing that back of her head to hit the cinder blocks hard. Alice whimpered as the grip around her neck tightened. She did the best she could to claw at his arm with her tied hands only making him respond by grabbing her tighter. She was starting to lose air and her eyes started bulging, the Joker just looked at her with a sadistic smile and tilted his head.
If he held her neck for 30 more seconds she would be dead, she would be a lifeless body in his arms. He craved to feel her life slip between his fingers, to see the light die in her eyes. But what would be the point? She would be dead and it wouldn't solve anything. If he killed her now his whole plan would fall to pieces.
He had to keep her alive a little longer, he had to break her, make her realize that that she had nothing. In a better sense bring her down to his level. But this was no Harvey Dent, no, he wasn't trying to prove anything to Gotham or to Batman, this was personal. He needed to show her that all it takes is one bad day. One bad day to reduce the sanest person alive to lunacy*, but the difference between him and her was that she already had her bad day, her past just needed to catch up with her. And he was going to do everything in his power to make that happen.
Realizing all of this the Joker released Alice from his deathly grip and let her fall to the ground, she held her throat and gasped for air. Once again he crouched down and met her gaze.
"Listen Alice when you stop your ah pathetic sobbing, why don't you get yourself cleaned up hm? You look like a mess. The bathroom is down the hall and to the right." He reached for her hands and she instinctively pulled them away unsure of what he was going to do.
"I was going to untie you but fine have it your way." He started to stand up and Alice tried to speak with all her might.
"Wait" she croaked. "Please…" She held up her hands and coughed violently.
"I'm sorry what was that, I couldn't hear you." The Joker laughed.
"Please…untie me." She rasped. He rolled his eyes and bent down taking her by the hands roughly. He pulled a box opener out of his pants pocket and sliced through the rope nicking her wrists slightly.
"Oops my bad HAHAHA" The Joker sauntered out the door leaving Alice on the floor with the cut rope in her lap. She blinked quickly finding it hard to believe that she was still alive, she was so confused, what did he mean she'll see soon enough. What did he want from her? She stayed seated on the floor and questioned whether to take the clown's advice and 'clean up'. She figured she wasn't going anywhere any time soon considering that the Joker had given her free range over the building, if she tried to escape she would surly get caught. She decided that she didn't want any more broken ribs and made the decision to follow his suggestion.
She slowly got up from the cold ground gripping her ribs tightly trying to reduce the pain. She could barely stand let alone walk without sharp pain piercing her ribs, the ten foot walk to alleged bathroom was going to be hard. She cautiously put one foot in front of the other trying to focus on not doubling over in agony, she reached the door frame and hugged it tightly looking into the bright hallway glancing left and right. It looked like an abandon office building of sorts. The hallway was carpet and cheap florescent lights flickered randomly.
She stepped out into the hallway and stayed close to the wall leaning against it for support. She hobbled past three doors on the left, one of which looked like a make shift living room. To her surprise about five men were gathered around a TV casually drinking beer and having conversation, none of them seemed to notice the limping ballerina.
She stopped at her first door on the right and pushed it open, she continued into the three stall bathroom noticing a small square shower at the end. She made her way over to the shower passing the stalls and the large mirror as she went. At the last stall she stopped and looked in the mirror. She looked like hell. All her makeup was smudged, her black eye was showing, her tights were bloody and ripped, and her eyes were blood shot. The pain made her feel a primal instinct to do as she was told, and ignore the fact of how strange her situation was. She sighed at her disgruntled reflection and turned to the small shower. She pulled back the grimy curtain and turned on the water to as hot as it could go.
She glanced in the direction of the door before slowly peeling off the ruined black tutu and tights, she breathed in the thick steam as she undid her tight bun letting her golden brown locks fall down just above her hips. She stepped into the shower and closed the curtain, the hot water hit her body and a sigh of relief left her chapped lips.
Alice turned in the shower letting the comforting water cascade down her back and hair; she noticed a dried out soap bar on the corner shelve. She examined it and then lathered it all over body paying close attention to her bruised ribs. After rinsing herself completely Alice shut the water off and stepped out of the shower, she noticed that a towel and a pile of what looked like to be folded clothes were sitting on the floor.
She glanced at the door with confusion and picked up the towel wrapping it around her body tightly. She crouched down to get a closer look at the clothing and noticed a folded yellow paper resting on top. Alice opened the note it read the sloppy writing,
'Put these on and meet me in the "living room" I have a surprise – J' She tossed the note to the side and picked up each article of clothing. She first held up a black bra that was oddly enough her size, then she held up a matching thong which made her cheeks blush with embarrassment. She unfolded a pair of black skinny jeans and a dark purple v-neck shirt, how fitting. She scoffed at the color and dried herself off with the towel that was provided, she then put each item of clothing on and looked at the completed outfit in the mirror.
Alice didn't look so bad for just being abducted, frankly the dark purple suited her and the jeans hugged her in all the right places. She reached under the sink to retrieve the green socks and black combat boots and put them on her feet with ease.
She walked out of the still steamy bathroom and made her way down the hallway to the make shift living room. She reached the now closed door and knocked on it figuring that it was the polite thing to do. Her mind was foggy and her body was fatigued, like she had just woke up from a fever dream.
"Comeeeee innnn!" the Joker sang. Alice opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks eyeing the terrifying sight before her. The Joker outstretched both arms and grinned wildly,
"TADAAA."