Chapter 8 "Have I gone mad?"
Hello my dear readers! Enjoy this update, I really loved writing this chapter so I hope you love reading it! Please review, please, reviews are better then the Joker with his gloves off! (i have a thing for hands) xoxo
Alice's eyes fluttered open to the sound of honking horns and faint police sirens, she sat up from her laying position and glanced around at her new surroundings. She found that she was no longer in the dark furnace room she had grown accustomed to within the past 48 hours, she was in an ally way of sorts, and it appeared to be evening. She slowly stood to her feet and looked around further trying to figure out where she was, that's when it dawned on her, she was free.
Her face lit up with excitement upon realizing her liberation but her smile fell to a frown when a pang of suspicion hit her, 'why would he just let me go? This can't be right, this is a trap.' This thought entered her mind and she wearily made her way to the entrance of the familiar looking ally, she glanced left and right, no one was there. No henchmen and no Joker. She stepped fully onto the sidewalk with hesitation and looked again left and right trying to gauge her location. Expensive cars lined the street and men and women in formal attire were sprinkled on the adjacent sidewalk, 'where the hell am I' she thought.
Confused and slightly frustrated she made her way across the street and over to the small crowd of Gotham snobs with intentions of finding out where the hell she was. She walked up to a pair of women in shimmering gowns, hoping to God that her black eye and disgruntled clothing were enough to disguise herself. As she approached them the two stopped talking and looked her up and down, ignoring their snotty body language Alice smiled and lifted a hand as a gesture of hello.
"Hi, um, so sorry to bother you but where am I?, silly me I took a wrong turn a couple of blocks back and I can't seem to find my way home, and as you can see its getting dark out." Alice spoke lightheartedly and to her surprise she sounded pretty believable and not like someone who was just held captive by the Joker. The two glanced at each other briefly and the one on the right broke the silence,
"You're a block away from Gotham Theater, there is a ballet going on tonight, hence the attire." The bottle blonde gestured to her clothing and smiled sweetly at Alice, the other one chimed in, "I'm pretty sure it's Swan Lake, but rumor has it that the lead was kidnapped by the Joker! And apparently she was amazingggg." The blond nodded in agreement and Alice looked at them as if a light bulb went off in her head,
"Wow, um that's awful, but thank you so much I can navigate from here." She smiled and turned on her heel walking in the opposite direction. She silently thanked God that they didn't recognize her, the last thing she needed right now was to be interrogated by the police for hours on end.
As she walked down the dimming street towards her brownstone apartment Alice tried to put her thoughts about the last couple of days in order. To begin, it had only been a week since she moved back to Gotham and she managed to land on the radar of the Joker, that being said she knew this whole fee thing wasn't going to last long. On top of that she also managed to get the attention of her psycho uncle who was apparently hunting her down. But with all of this in mind Alice didn't seem to care, she didn't get the normal reaction of fear and panic, she instead felt as if she was out of her body, like she was detached from reality, almost like she was floating in some kind of a dream.
Despite her lucid state, she found comfort in the fact the Joker had dropped her in the ally they first met in, which happened to be fairly close to her home and her work. She also found comfort in the fact that she was free, she was no longer in the choke hold of the Joker, she was no longer a hostage or whatever she was. She inhaled deeply breathing in the sweet musk of the city and continued to make her way down the cracked gum covered sidewalk.
She arrived at her apartment in a decent amount of time, the sky was beginning to darken and the cracked yolk of the sun vanished behind Gotham's skyline. Alice jogged up the cement steps and hesitated at the door not sure to knock or just let herself in, considering this was her home she bent down and retrieved the spare key from under the mat and unlocked the door. She crossed the threshold and walked into the dim hallway where she was greeted by the familiar scent of pine and coffee, this made her nerves calm instantly. The thick black combat boots that were provided by the Joker clacked against the creaky floor as Alice made her way up the dark mahogany stairs. Once at the top, she got to her bedroom and noticed the door slightly open, light was bleeding through and shinning into the hallway.
She reached for the door and pushed it, it made a slight wimper like all old doors do and opened fully to the master suite, she was greeted by the sight of William sleeping peacefully, he had left the nightstand light on and the TV was playing back what looked like to be recorded sessions of therapy. She glanced around the room further and saw that a pile of thick folders and tapes were spread across the vacant side of the bed and an abundance of empty paper coffee cups littered the floor. His badge and gun laid on the nightstand along with various pocket knives he carried. Things always got messy when she wasn't around. She shook her head in disapproval and turned her attention back to the television. It seemed to spaz and then the screen went black for a moment, it flickered back on and revealed a new set of people. In the top left hand corner of the TV was the patient's name, Jervis Tetch, and under it was the date, time and location, Arkham Asylum. The mouth on the screen moved silently but Alice didn't need to hear the voice to know who it was. She immediately recognized the name and chilling face.
Her brow furrowed and a frown of confusion graced her, ' Why does he have my uncles tapes? Did William know about my uncle and never tell me? Has he known this whole time and been hiding it from me?' These questions filled Alice's mind and she moved to Will's side, she bent over him and brushed her fingers through his hair, "Hey baby wake up."
He stirred and opened his eyes slowly; upon recognizing the face in front of him he sat up and sprang off the bed almost knocking over Alice in the process. Once he was on his feet he blinked a few times and looked at the girl before him with confusion.
"Alice? " He spoke in a raspy tone taking a small step towards her, "Where…what…how are…he let you go?" his words came out in broken fragments and he shook his head trying to gather his thoughts, but Alice understood him perfectly and took a step towards him closing the small space between them. She smiled reassuringly and just wrapped her arms around his muscular frame. She didn't seem to care that she was hugging the man that abused her just two days ago, she was just happy to have real human contact. The embrace didn't last long when she noticed he hadn't moved, he only tensed up at her touch. She withdrew her arms and took a step back bewildered at his lack of reciprocation,
"William, what's wrong babe, I'm home! I'm free!" Will just looked back at her blankly, Alice misread his blank stare and took a step toward him, he took one back and Alice tilted her head to the side and a look of question was on her face. She was getting a little frustrated now, she had expected him to hug her and kiss her and for him to be thanking God that she was alive, but he just stood there blank faced. Finally after a few seconds of just staring one another down William opened his mouth,
"Alice, you need to come down to the station with me for questioning. If he's still out there I need to catch him and I need you to cooperate with me. Do you think you can do that?" His voice was militant and demeaning, addressing her as if she was a little girl who got sent down to the principal's office. In response Alice stared at him with a look of 'what the fuck', she was just released by the Joker and her boyfriend's only concern was to catch him, it didn't even cross his mind to ask if she was okay. This made Alice a little pissed off.
"Are you kidding me? You don't even ask if I'm okay or if I'm hurt you just care about catching him? This has to be some kind of joke right?"
"This is not a joke", he hissed "this is my career, if I catch him then I will get the promotion I've been wanting. So I need you to be a good girl and answer all the questions the cops down at the station will ask you, can you do that for me?" again his demeaning tone made Alice boil with anger,
"So this is about you now?! I was just held captive by the Joker and all you can think about is your stupid promotion?!" She slightly raised her voice but managed to keep it somewhat under control.
"Of course this about me! You're alive and breathing so you're fine. Now get out of those disgusting clothes and try to make you're self look good for god's sake." He started to walk to the other side of the room and began to collect the pile of folders and papers on the bed.
Alice closed her eyes, she was so taken back by his reaction that she was completely speechless. It was clear that he didn't care about her well being and that all he wanted from her was to answer questions so he could eventually catch the Joker and get his beloved promotion. Once again the only reason Will wanted Alice back from the Joker was so he could easily feed his narcissistic personality and over all use her for his own selfish reasons. The realization of this made Alice nearly burst out laughing at her own stupidity, she was blinded this whole time and it took her getting kidnapped to realize it. Even when they met back in Italy she knew that there had to be something wrong with him, but back then Alice only chose to see the good in people. Finally finding the courage to speak her mind she took in a deep breath and prepared herself for the conversation that was to come.
"Will, how long have you know about my uncle." She suddenly asked motioning to the TV, "Will please tell me you didn't know that my uncle killed my parents and Peter. Please tell me that you haven't known the whole time, please." He turned his attention to Alice who was now getting quite worked up, he was astonished that he heard her just say 'my uncle killed my parents and Peter' she wasn't supposed to know.
"Alice how do you know that." He spoke in a deep voice that sounded almost parental, for a moment Alice contemplated on telling him the truth about how she knew but something told her not to.
"Because I saw it happen with my own eyes. I was there. I saw him kill Peter…" She trailed off and met Will's burning gaze, he was clearly getting angry and Alice really didn't understand why. Why did he care if she knew about her tragic past, it was her past not his.
"Well well well, the big bad secret is out. Congrats Alice you remembered, it only took you like what 10 years? Come on you think that I didn't know? I was protecting you from yourself, you'll be lucky if you don't go crazy now. But you know what Alice, I knew about your entire past before I even met you face to face. I had my sights set on you the moment me and boys landed in Italy, it only took me a short amount of time to have you wrapped around my finger. I wanted the Mad Hatter in Arkham and you were the last step in making that happen, you see now that I found the only living victim of the Mad Hatter, which is you, it was enough to get the judge to send him straight to Arkham, without a messy trial. All I had to do was get you back to Gotham. And all the better you didn't even know, all you knew was that uncle Jervis was a nutso! Alice, my dear, you're so stupid."
Alice just stood there opened mouth, she couldn't believe that Will was openly telling her all of this, admitting to openly using her.
"But, but why didn't you tell me? How could you keep something like that from me?" Alice responded now raising her own voice to match Will's. "You bastard. I deserved to know." All of a sudden Alice felt something come over her and before she could stop herself she was marching over to Will and her hand collided with his face harshly and the sound of her palm hitting his cheek echoed in the bare room. She continued to talk despite Will's reaction of pushing her away roughly,
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" she screamed "I had a right to know about my own family, why would you ever not tell me something like that! For all these years I knew you, and before that too, I believed my own brother killed my parents in cold blood. Do you know how awful that is?! Not that knowing you're uncle is the one who made who made it happen is any better but still, my own flesh and blood. You make me sick. You're a narcissistic selfish pig, I can't believe I ever loved you." Her words dripped with hatred, she was completely repulsed by the man in front of her.
Will on the other hand was getting rather annoyed, in his mind Alice had no right to talk to him like that, in his mind she needed to be punished. In a split second Will's fist met Alice's stomach in a hard punch. The blow to her already bruised ribs rendered her breathless and she fell to the floor. Tears started too well in her eyes but something in her snapped, she could almost feel it, it was like a stick being bent to its limits and with that one hard punch it just snapped.
She quickly recovered and got up from the floor replacing the tears in her eyes with rage. She charged at Will full force and managed to kick him hard in the groin. Years of fight training with her mobster father was finally paying off. Once he was buckled over she kneed him hard in the face, the crack from his nose was audible and blood started to pour out. She took some steps back to give him room, after all it was no fun to beat a dead horse. Adrenalin coursed through her veins at a rapid rate and her breath was quick and short as she stared at William who was now recovering from the hit. He stood up tall despite the blood dripping from his nose and he looked at Alice with a deadly stare,
"Don't you EVER FUCKING HIT ME. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME WOMAN." He came at her and punched her hard in the face, her head snapped to the side and she spit out some blood to the floor. Not giving her any time to recover he punched her again in the opposite direction snapping her head to the right. This blow sent her flying to the floor. She tried her best to back up but he stalked over to her.
"I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" with that Will planted his foot hard onto Alice's throat, pressing her into the floor and crushing her windpipe. She struggled under his force and tried to catch her breath, she could feel the top of her head go numb and with all the strength she had she whipped her leg up causing her hard combat boot to collide with his lower back. His knees buckled under the unexpected pain causing his to step off Alice's throat. Within that second Alice scrambled to her feet and ran across to the room to get some distance between her and William.
He grunted and shook off the pain, he stared at Alice who was now on the other side of the room tenderly rubbing her throat. He maneuvered across the bed and lunged at Alice knocking her to the floor, but somehow she managed to roll out of the way and was now back on her feet. She was clearly winning this fight and William would not have it.
"I'm gonna kill you Alice, just like your uncle should have, and just like the Joker should have. You really need to stop cheating death. You deserve to die." His words rang in Alice's ear and it was like someone had injected her with an extra dose of adrenalin because all of a sudden she was racing towards the weapon covered night stand and grabbed the closest knife and switched it open. She then charged at Will with a growl and before he could register what was happening she plunged the knife deep into his stomach.
In that moment everything seemed to stop, she could no longer hear her own heavy breathing or the painful whimpers coming from Will. The only thing she could hear was the voice of the Joker. "remember there's always madness. Madness is the emergency exit… you can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away… forever." With that she twisted the knife deeper into his abdomen and let the hot blood ooze around her hand.
"No Will, you deserve to die." She hissed her words with venom as she continued to twist the blade deeper and deeper. The blood was now soaking her hand and the front of his shirt; it slowly dripped onto the floor creating a little crimson pool. She stared at it transfixed, and utterly fascinated, but his slight groan and whimper broke her stare and she met his eyes. They were silently begging for life and she just stared into them with a burning fiery gaze. She watched as Will's eyes slowly rolled back into his head leaving his body limp and lifeless.
A wave of euphoria washed over Alice as she pulled out the knife and let his body collapse to the floor. She backed up to the bed and dropped the blood covered blade. She let herself fall backwards onto the firm mattress and she just looked up at the ceiling blankly, replaying what happened moments ago in her mind.
All of a sudden she let out a soft chuckle that then turned into a giggle and before she could stop herself she started to laugh hysterically. She really didn't understand why she was laughing but instead of trying to stop it she just continued and let herself go. She let herself slip into madness.
I hope you all enjoyed! Once again I cannot stress to you how much reviews mean, they legit make my day, not even joking *wink wink* so please review!
P.S hollar at me if you guys would like to see me do a Joker/Harley fic, I'm most likely going to do one but I would love your opinions! oh and I'm going to be cosplaying her at a couple of East Coast Cons so check them out if you're in the area!