Chapter 14 Deja vu

It didn't take long for Alice's henchmen to come rushing in to see if she was okay, after they saw the Joker storm out they were terrified to see what he had done to her. But thankfully she was sitting on the couch unscathed, staring at the wall as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Diamond!" They shouted as they crossed the threshold. Saul ran straight to Alice and sat down beside her while the other henchman kept his distance.

"Hey Diamond" he said softly, "are you okay" he put an arm over her shoulders for reassurance "what did that bastard want."

"I…I, yeah I'm okay." She responded shakily keeping her gaze on the wall. "He wanted to make a deal, it was so strange and random…" she drifted off trying to hide the uneasiness in her voice.

"What kind of deal?" Saul said hesitantly keeping his tone soft and personal.

Alice broke her stare with the wall and turned to face Saul, "He asked me to come work for him, for one million dollars."

The other henchman moved closer upon hearing this, standing directly in front of the seated pair, "oh please tell me you didn't say yes!" he was starting to yell which sparked some anger in Alice, "That guy is a nut case! You can't work for him, he'll kil-" he was cut off abruptly by Alice who stood up matching his stance.

"OF COURSE I SAID NO YOU IDIOT!" She shouted in his face, "WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M CRAZY OR SOMETHING?!"

Saul stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down but she shrugged it off, "Please, the both of you leave me alone. I don't want to talk about this." She said sternly while pushing past them both and storming down the hallway.

Saul gave an apologetic glance toward the henchman who got scolded, "Don't take it personally kid, the Joker can really fuck with your head, she just needs some space."

"Whatever you say Saul, I just think it's that time a month."

Upon entering her bedroom Alice collapsed on her bed and let the tears come steaming out. She wasn't really sure why she was crying, she was completely overwhelmed and crying seemed like the only logical response.

So after sobbing for a good ten minutes Alice sat up and decided to at least try and sort out her many thoughts about her most recent encounter with the Joker, but for the life of her she couldn't. She couldn't even begin to decipher the mess that was her brain, she was so confused and flustered. Nothing about his visit made sense, it just didn't. Why did he want her to work for him, didn't he already have enough henchmen, what would she add to the mix? Was he just simply playing games, like he always did? What did he get out of scaring her and fucking with her mind?

She reached for a pillow and shoved it in her face in attempt to stifle her scream. She was starting to get mad at herself for not understanding and was overall just pissed off about the whole situation. To her, nothing made sense, except one thing, the story about his scars. Oddly enough, it was the only thing she could wrap her head around.

Alice knew exactly what he went through that night, she knew what it was like to be tormented by the Mad Hatter and to live to see another day. She could only imagine the physical pain he went through, but she knew very well what it was like to have a life altering experience similar to his.

Now she understood his 'one bad day' concept, maybe she was the only person who could understand it, maybe that's why he kidnapped her in the first place. To remind her of her own 'one bad day' and to make her realize that he was the only other person to understand what she went through.

She felt relief upon thinking about this, knowing that someone else knew exactly how she felt. To know what it was like to just snap upon a single moment and forever be a different person. But it was strange to think that that person happened to be the Joker and it kind of scared her that in fact he was the only person who would ever understand how she felt. No one ever would be able to comprehend what she was put through by the Mad Hatter, only herself and the Joker would ever know.

Her relief went away in a flash though as soon as she thought of her uncle. The Joker had told her that he was out of Arkham, and hunting for her. Just thinking about him made Alice want to crawl in a hole and die. He was a disgusting human that deserved to rot in a basement of rats; she hated him. However that was three weeks ago, and by now you would think that the Mad Hatter would have found Alice, but he hadn't, even Batman beat him to it. So naturally she didn't see her uncle as such a big threat anymore.

On the other hand she felt extremely threatened by the Joker. He had said he would be back again, and that when the time was right he would tell her exactly what he wanted. It didn't help that Alice new for a fact that indeed he was a man of his word and would keep to his sickening promise. That being the case she found herself starting to question if she really did desire to know exactly what the Joker wanted and if his wants had anything to do with her.

She dismissed this thought quickly and questioned what she wanted. She didn't even know what she was doing in this place, in this life, all she knew that it felt right to her. She had longed for this feeling her whole life, a sense of belonging, and she finally had it. But where she was and what she was doing was dangerous, crazy, and unhealthy, in other words it was pure chaos. Alice immediately thought back to her dream, the Joker was right, her past didn't define her. She didn't need anything to define her, she wanted something to define her, and she wanted chaos.

She sniffled up her tears at this thought and sat up a bit straighter. She had no reason to be scared and cowardly, the Joker's wants shouldn't be a threat to her. If she let it be then he would win, and this was all just some kind of game right, some kind of sick power play between two raising criminals, nothing more than some friendly competition.

Right?

After what seemed like hours of over thinking and justifying herself Alice managed to fall into a deep sleep that her body needed. But now the setting sun was bleeding into her room and teasing her droopy lids to open.

Reluctantly she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes making a mental note to get black out curtains. She glanced at her bedside clock and noticed that it was 5pm, she had slept through the whole night and day, which was odd. Usually if she wasn't up by 1pm her henchmen would wake her up and basically drag her ass out of bed until she screamed mercy. Thankfully they didn't and she was feeling more refreshed than ever.

After last night's ordeal she needed some rest and now that she had an awake and clear conscious she was feeling great. The overwhelming feeling that the Joker instilled in her was completely gone and she decided not to let that stupid clown plague her thoughts any longer. So what if he came back, she could handle him right? She managed to escape him once so she could do it again, right?

Her new outlook on the situation made her want to jump for joy and tell everyone she knew that she didn't care about the Joker because to her he was just another criminal in Gotham. (One that seemed to invade her subconscious), but in the end just another person to cross off her hit list.

Alice got out of the tangled mess of sheets and made her way to the bathroom with an extra oomf in her step. She went about her normal routine with some added liveliness and managed to not even think about the Joker once! She wanted to share her infections good mood with her boys so she made her way to the bedroom door.

As she entered the hallway though something struck her as strange. Usually she would hear the TV blaring or random banter in Italian, but she was greeted by an eerie silence.

"Boys?" she called out in question receiving no answer. She hesitantly made her way down the hallway, "boysssss" she sang, but still no answer. Maybe they were out on a small job, or at the bar.

But as she crossed the threshold into the living room the familiar smell of copper filled her nose and it rendered on her tongue like she was sucking on a penny. Her heart started to beat loud in her ears and as she turned the corner her breath got stuck in her throat and her stomach lurched.

She was greeted by the sight of her men slaughtered, lying lifeless in pools of blood. She managed to take one step forward before falling to her knees in disbelief.

"oh my god." She muttered to herself while eyeing the whole scene. She couldn't believe her eyes, all her henchmen including Saul were dead, with multiple wounds and slit throats. The bloody mess of bodies made her head spin. The smell of death overpowered all her senses and she just stared at the lifeless pile of bloody flesh before her.

She was in complete utter shock. Too stunned to do anything else but just stare. It was scary seeing all this death right in front of her, but it wasn't the fact that it was a gory mess that scared her, it was the fact that she didn't feel anything that chilled her to the bone.

The familiar feeling of numbness washed over her. Numb feeling , how oxymoronic, how fitting. Could you actually feel numb? Or was it the inability to feel? Alice was so used to being numb that she equated it to an actual feeling.

She was stuck in this state of wanting to feel something, but the longer she looked at the bodies she realized she couldn't, and she was okay with that. She was okay with not feeling anything, it was strangely freeing.

However, even though she didn't really care that all her men were dead she wanted to know why. She wanted to know who had the guts to come into her home and slaughter her men. In order for their deaths to be justified there needed to be a reason behind it. And she wanted to know exactly what that reason was.

Alice remained kneeled on the floor still transfixed by the massacre, "who did this to you…" she whispered to the dead bodies.

"Oh I think I would be eh mee."

Alice whipped her head around upon hearing the voice. He stood behind her, purple pants and green vest covered in a deep red, which matched his unwavering grin. She stood up quickly and took a step backwards, with her eyes wide in shock.

"I told you I'd be back doll face!" he extended both of his arms wide and flashed a yellowed teeth grin. "I'm a man of my word Alice." He nodded and raised his eye brow as if giving her the okay to speak.

The blood rushed to her head and anger and adrenaline coursed through her veins, feeding her growing fury. "You." She snarled, "you did this?! How dare you! I can't believe you!" she screamed.

The Joker shot her a mock look of being startled and placed a hand over his chest to dramatize his reaction.

"You better have a good fucking reason for this Joker. I swear to god I will, I will" she tried to think of a threat but his sardonic expression left her speechless. "UGHHH!" she slammed her foot into the ground like toddler which made the Joker giggle.

"Oh Alice, please tell me what you're going to do. Tell me your plan. Humor me." He said grinning through his teeth, fingers twitching at every word.

Truth be told she wished she had a plan but she didn't. She never planned on all her men getting killed, so in reality she was left clueless. She always had a plan for everything, that's how she operated and here she was not a clue in the world, what she was going to do next.

"Mmmhmmm that's what I thought." The Joker said in response to her silence, "So why don't you come with me huh?" He took a step towards her and she instinctively took one back, landing her in a warm pool of blood.

There was no way in hell she was going with the Joker willingly.

"No!" she yelled astonished at his proposition.

"No?" the Joker repeated in a deathly tone. "It wasn't an option Alice." He hissed. His eyes seemed to turn black and his grin turned into a stern grimace. "Look around you Alice, you have no one to go to, nothing to do with all your," he rolled his eyes and caught the words in air with his blood stained hand, "sorrow."

His words hit Alice like a freight train. Once again he was right; she didn't have anyone to go to. She had no one left. But she wasn't feeling sorrowful, she was feeling furious. He had no right to just waltz in on her life, kill her men, and then continue to insist that she go with him. No way!

Even though all her men lay dead at her feet she was not willing to give up that easily. The Joker's words and his actions seemed to only feed the fire burning in Alice, they didn't put it out like he hoped. He hoped that she would just crumble, that she would just snap in half like he wanted her to do from the start but here she was as whole as ever, with that very fire burning in her eyes.

She needed to prove to him that she was just as strong and tuff as him. She needed to beat him at his own game. "You're wrong Joker. I don't feel sorry for myself, I feel nothing." She hissed, "you think that you can just turn my world upside down with a flick of your wrist, but you are dead wrong." She pointed at him and he turned his shoulders and looked around before mouthing 'me?'.

"I don't know what the hell you want with me," she continued, "if its revenge for whatever my uncle did then fine you got it. But I don't break that easily. And this," she motioned to the bloody mess around her "means nothing to me."

"Oh wow Alice, look at you being all bad." He moved closer to her and this time she stood her ground glaring at him. "Ya know, honestly, I didn't expect this." He said in a deep warm tone, "I thought for sure that you would just eh kill yourself or something, but this," he looked her up and down fiendishly licking his lips, "is way more entertaining."

She scoffed in his face, trying to ignore the fact that she was slightly flattered to have the attention, "so that's what this is, just some form of entertainment for you? That's your reason?" she questioned.

"Mmm no, that's where you're wrong, I don't need a reason for any of this," he extended his arms and looked around the room grinning, "reason does not exist, no, no!" he said raising his voice on the last 'no'. "I told you before that I just do things, because I can! You see you don't need a reason for anything. Nothing has to be justified, even though everyone thinks it has to be, it doesn't. Reason, at its simplest, is just something that people made up because they were too afraid to just let things happen. And and, you," he stuttered pointing at her chest, "you don't need reason. You don't need to justify anything Alice, and you very well know that. I know you do. So do yourself a favor and just let go."

Surprisingly his words resonated with her. It was true that no one needed a reason for anything, people just wanted a reason. But even though she knew this and partly agreed with it, she could not let him win, she could not just let go that easily.

Her fight or flight response kicked in and gave her another burst of anger except this time she did not hold back, she drew her fist back and punched him hard, right in the nose. His head whipped to the side and he let it stay there for just a moment before he looked out the corner of his eyes and let a sickening grin slide onto his face.

He quickly reversed their position making himself step in the pool of blood and punched Alice hard in the ribs, sending her straight into the dry portion of the floor, how considerate.

She landed hard, and her breath ceased. She felt sharp jabs of pain throb in her side, she was still struggling to breathe, and her vision blurred with tears.

Alice attempted to get up but the searing pain in her abdomen anchored her to the floor. The Joker walked briskly over to her cringing body and rose his blood covered foot over her porcelain neck. She looked him straight in the eye and pleaded silently.

He met her doe eyed stare with a gaze that burned ferocity, and without blinking he slammed his foot down hard crushing her wind pipe. She was scared now.

A/N: My apologies for the late update, I hope this chapter made up for it. Please leave a review, it really makes my day and I love hearing from you guys. I not only write for myself but I write for you guys, the only people I know who love the Joker/Batman as much as I do.

Side Note: HANNIBAL IS BACK. If you don't watch Hannibal then I'm sorry but you're not living. Trust me Hannibal is the best show on TV rn. Please invest in seasons one and two then watch season three on Thursdays at 10! BTW season two there is a character very similar to the Joker, which is where I actually drew some inspiration from!

That's all for now! Xoxo