Chapter 17 DR. J

Alice continued to stare at herself silently in the mirror, her thoughts running mad. She was no longer scared; she was the exact opposite in fact. She was now embracing her new mentality of playing the Joker's little game, and doing everything in her power to win, even if winning meant having to sacrifice a little of her pride to appease the Joker in the process. In the end, as long as she got to see Gotham burn at her hands she didn't care what happened in between, and she sure as hell was not going to let her being a prisoner of the Joker stop her.

Suddenly, with all these thoughts racing through Alice's mind, she got a growing chill in her spine. It was a nervous excited tingle, and it danced in her arms and down her legs. She let out an involuntary shiver and closed her eyes softly. The chill was almost calming. But it was gone in the matter of a second. Her neck started to burn and she clenched her fists hard, a new sudden rage boiling under her skin, her calmness gone.

"Fuck!" she yelled.

Before she could stop herself Alice punched the mirror, hard. She immediately felt the sharp shards lodge into her knuckles, and the glass clattered to the floor, shattering loudly.

She had never felt that kind of rage before. It was a white hot rage that's almost unspeakable. It was caught in her throat and burned in her head like acid. It was a gnawing and numbing all at the time. She wanted to scream to let it out but it wouldn't. This rage didn't come out with any kind of scream or yell. Nothing could satisfy it but the feeling of rage's best friend; pain.

She immediately bent down and started sweeping up the glass with her fingers, which caused more slivers to slice her hands.

"Shit, shit, shit." She stopped the panicked sweeping to run her bloodied fingers under water, but when she stood up she squealed with fear, suddenly noticing that he was standing in the door way, leaning on the frame nonchalantly, arms tightly crossed, and observing Alice's incident silently.

She met his watchful gaze for a moment, like a deer caught in the headlights. But then she returned her attention to her bleeding fingers, which were now leaving crimson droppings all over the linoleum floor. She turned the water on and let the cool stream wash over her heated hands. She let out a sigh of relief, and then looked back at the clown. Her face was still burning red from rage and now embarrassment. She shifted uncomfortably, trying to soothe the pain in her fingers and attempting to swallow the Joker's rather threatening presence. She took a bold breath and forced herself to speak, in spite of her unsettled state.

"Um, how long were you watching me?" she asked hesitantly with a nervous curiosity, gnawing at her lip waiting for his response.

"Long enough," he replied instantly, looking to the broken mirror and back to her, raising a judgmental eyebrow.

Alice kept his gaze and shrugged her shoulders apologetically, she got nervous and started to ramble "I'm sorry, I guess I can try to fix it or go get a new one or som-" she was cut off before she could finish,

"I don't care about the mirror Alice. Never really liked it anyway." He smirked at her slyly and she forced a smile back, clenching her teeth trying to ignore her stinging paws and his strange demeanor.

"What I do care about though, is why my mirror is broken," he gestured to the mess of glass that littered the floor. She followed his hand with her flickering eyes, and in that moment Alice was asking herself the same thing.

"It really doesn't concern you." She replied un-amused, pushing her focus back to her bleeding hands and holding herself a little taller.

He raised his brows at her rather snappish response and stepped through the doorway, placing himself directly behind Alice who was still too preoccupied with her hands to notice. He quickly garbed a fistful of her dark hair and pulled hard, snapping her head back and forcing her body against him, with his eyes looking down and burning into hers.

"OW!" she said pointedly, immediately fidgeting, attempting to wiggle free, and unintentionally rubbing up against him.

"Oh, that feels good." The Joker darkly purred, he let out a high pitched laugh witch made Alice scoff in disgust, her cheeks now burning red, and fingers still stinging.

He tightened his grip on her locks and with the other gloved hand he grabbed a large piece of broken glass.

"Don't fool yourself dear, you know you like it too." He laughed violently once again, right into her ear. With each cackle she could smell his distinct whiskey soaked breath, which made her cringe. Then, his laughter halted abruptly.

"Now Alice," he whispered, his tone sounding dangerous, placing the piece of glass up against her exposed throat and pressing slightly, "why did you eh…punch my mirror?" He raised his eyebrows, looking down at her.

Alice struggled beneath his powerful grip and tried to come up with an excuse as to why, but she wasn't even sure why she punched the mirror in the first place. It wasn't intentional, it just happened.

"Umm," she breathed, trying to move her head to talk easier. She heisted to speak and he pressed the glass harder on her bruised neck, she felt the shards pinching at her skin, and she could sense he was not playing around.

"Okay, okay, um…in all honesty, I don't know why." She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for him to respond. He yanked harder on her hair, and started slowly dragging the glass across her skin,

"Seriously, I really don't know why! Just please stop! " she pleaded loudly. With that he suddenly released her hair from his tightening grip, and dropped the makeshift weapon, letting it clatter to the floor, seeming completely un-amused. Alice recognized his surrender and instinctively moved out from in front of him and further into the cramped bathroom, afraid that he might get that random urge to attack her again.

He did not though and observed Alice as she moved, eyeing her though the mirror, blinking rapidly, and shifting his focus from her perplexed face to her still bleeding hand.

"Ya know, you should probably patch that up." He said pointing to her hand, "trust me, holding a gun in a bloody hand is no fun at all," he said casually, which made Alice's face scrunch up with confusion. Did he forget that he was just about to kill her? Did he realize that he was actually being nice now?

She forced herself to ignore his violent mood shift and just go with it, taking the advice she had been telling herself since she got there, keeping her ultimate goal in mind. "Um, yeah, I guess you're right," she forced out a laugh, "wouldn't want my gun to slip out of my hand." She forced another nervous laugh in hopes to keep the mood light, playing off of his rather nonchalant comment. He grinned in response,

"I'm always right dollface." He clicked his tongue and gave her a wink, to which Alice forced another grimaced smile. She was still gripping her hand to halt the bleeding, keeping a safe distance from the clown, who was now eyeing her curiously. He moved further into the room and crouched down, breaking his gaze, opening the rotted cabinet beneath the still running sink. Alice eyed him carefully as he rummaged through various containers and small boxes, not sure exactly what he was doing.

"Ahhhha!" he exclaimed loudly, making Alice flinch a little. He stood up and held a roll of white gauze in his hand that was still wrapped in plastic, like it came directly from a hospital. "This should do it." He said triumphantly, ripping open the seal, and taking the bandage in his stained hands. "Come 'ere." He demanded, without looking up, too focused on unraveling the bandage.

Alice's eyes were wide at this point. She was so confused as to why he was suddenly being a decent person that she forgot that her hand was bleeding. It took her a moment to actually comprehend what was happening.

"Well? Are you just going to stand there?" he asked impatiently. Alice's eyes were still wide when he caught her gaze. She blinked rapidly, and then shook her head, bringing herself back to reality. She stepped forward slowly and held out her injured hand, keeping her eyes on the clown the whole time.

He reached out and grabbed her wrist rather roughly, but managed to delicately handle her bleeding knuckles. She closed her eyes tightly in response trying to with hold a yelp of pain. He kept his eyes trained on her hand as he slowly wrapped the gauze around and around, making it tight enough to suppress the bleeding but not too tight to cut of circulation. He gently weaved the bandage around her thumb and threw her fingers, almost like how a boxer would tape hands before a fight, making sure to wrap it tightly around the extra bloody parts. Alice was watching him almost amazed. He then secured the bandage with a small metal clip that held the wrap in place, and slapped her palm gently when the job was complete.

"There," he stated proudly, smiling at his handy work, "as good as new." Alice bent her fingers and wiggled them around, taking note that he did a fine job wrapping her hand. She Smiled and then looked up at him,

"Thanks, I um…appreciate it, really." She smiled at him warmly again, actually thanking him for his deed. He scrunched his nose in response, shrugging, as if the task was nothing. He turned around and walked out of the bathroom to the room door. Alice kept her distance and stood in the bathroom waiting for him to leave, but he halted at the threshold. He looked back at her with a snarl on his lips and nodded his head forward in a rigid gesture,

"Follow me." He turned and was briskly out of sight by the time Alice had rolled her eyes. Noticing that he vanished, she rushed out the door and caught up with him, following him down the musty theater hallway. The Joker led them down two flights of stairs into the theater's lower level where it appeared to once be the dressing rooms. Alice struggled to see through the old incandescent light but with her experience in theaters she was sure they were in a dressing or costume room of sorts.

She could make out the large racks of tattered clothing and various hats and masks that adorned the wall. Shoes were scattered about on the floor, and the unmistakable smell of moth balls was all that she could smell. She looked around perplexed, finally asking herself what she was doing down there, and then she looked to the Joker who was flicking on the bright yellowed bulbs that lined a lengthy vanity mirror.

"What are we doing down in the dressing rooms?" Alice openly asked still exploring the bizarre room with her eyes.

The Joker walked up behind her and pushed her forward to the mirror, pulling out a chair from under the counter, he forced her to sit down. He stood behind her and Alice met his eyes through the reflection with a look of 'what the fuck' plastered on her face. He continued to stare at her intently with his tongue kneading around in his mouth, flicking it out to wet his lips every few seconds.

"So?" Alice pushed, getting annoyed that he would not answer her question. He raised his eyebrows in response then moved to Alice's side where he flung open a drawer, violently rummaging through it. His hands then landed on a crinkled brown paper bag, he pulled it out and dumped the contents in front of Alice. As the small metal tins clattered on the vanity he bent his head forward and moved his mouth close to her ear, darkly whispering,

"People hate clowns."