Chapter 10
Allure
Ana stared at her bedroom door, ready to attack the day that awaited. The Joker had been staying in her apartment for almost a week now, laying low until he recovered from his injuries. After their brawl on Sunday night, Ana tried to make sure that she was out of the apartment during the day for the remainder of the week. However, the Joker was always there in the morning.
To his annoyance, the Joker needed Ana to change his bandage every other day, so despite the awkwardness, they were starting to get used to each other.
Ana opened her door and clocked the Joker sitting at the kitchen island eating his cereal, like usual. She gave a deep breath and walked out of her room.
"Morning," she mumbled, walking past him. The Joker glanced over at her as she made her way around the island.
"Morning," he sucked his scars then continued texting on his phone.
"Coffee?" she breathed. The Joker nodded in response just as Winston jumped onto the island.
The Joker lowered his phone and watched Ana curiously as she made the coffee and poured herself a bowl of cereal. His gaze was interrupted by Winston walking past him, the clown glared at the cat.
Ana placed the coffee between them and sat down.
"Extra strong," she falsely smiled.
"Correct again," the Joker smirked as he took a sip of his brew. They sat in silence as they ate their breakfast, both on their newly purchased phones. The Joker looked up at Ana and studied her face that still held the cut that he gave her on Monday when Winston attacked him. He sucked his scars again.
"Sorry," he mumbled. Ana looked up in surprise.
"What?" Ana squeaked. The Joker tapped on his own cheek, mirroring hers.
"Thought you were the mole," the Joker looked in pain as he apologised.
Ana was shocked, she couldn't recall a time he ever apologised for anything. Ana glanced at his forehead, where the bruise she gave him from whacking him with a frying pan was still prominent.
"I'm sorry too, for…" Ana pointed to her own forehead. He let out a grunt and nodded in acceptance. As they went back to eating their cereal, Winston waltzed past the Joker again, accidentally flicking him with his tail.
"Why is the cat on the table?" The Joker sighed. Ana let out a small laugh while the Joker took another sip of his coffee. She then picked up Winston and put him on the floor.
"Now, let's go over the plans for tonight," the Joker enthusiastically spoke as he sat up to address Ana.
"Sure thing, Boss," Ana smiled.
"The targets usually head to the Vig Bar at 9 pm, you and sweet little Allie will be there ready to uh... hunt," the Joker smirked.
The clock ticked to 7:44 pm, Ana was in the bathroom, getting ready for tonight's plan. She needed to look more sultry than normal to allure her target. She brushed through her long, dry, blonde hair, and then started applying her concealer and foundation. She tried to add more concealer to cover the cut on her cheek, but it refused to disappear.
Just as she was brushing in her foundation, the Joker barged into the bathroom.
"Excuse me?" She snapped.
"What? You're decent?" the Joker shrugged and stood in front of the mirror next to her. He was almost in his full outfit with his new green, suede waistcoat, and purple, geometric shirt. He grabbed three of the face paint tins from the corner of the sink and started carelessly applying the white paint to his face.
Ana glanced up at him as he slowly transformed into the Clown Prince of Crime, and then returned to applying her makeup. Once she had finished her foundation, she quickly moved on to the eyeliner, electing for a cat eye style. As she perfected the flicks, the Joker started applying his black face paint around his eyes, hiding his obvious exhaustion underneath.
When Ana applied her mascara, her eyes flickered over to the Joker's reflection. She let out a breathy chuckle at the image of both of them doing their makeup in front of the mirror. The Joker raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. She laughed harder as she gestured to their makeup.
"Oh," The Joker scoffed as he realised what she meant and started to cackle with her. She shook her head.
"How do I look?" she joked. The Joker eyed her up and down.
"Hmmm, I think you're missing something," the Joker smirked as he grabbed a red lipstick out of her makeup bag. Ana looked down at the lipstick and cocked her head to the side glancing back at the Joker.
"Really? I only wear that on proper nights out," she explained. The Joker moved the lipstick closer to her in response.
"Fine," she rolled her eyes, snatched the lipstick out of the Joker's hand, and started to apply it. The Joker mirrored her as he started drawing red paint over his scars with his fingers.
Once she was satisfied with her work, Ana glanced at the Joker to reveal the finished look.
"Perfect," he smirked.
"Whatever," she scoffed and walked past him out of the bathroom.
Ana sat on the sofa and zipped up her black, knee-high, heeled boots. As she stood up, standing a bit taller, she brushed off her outfit and looked down for final checks. Winston was watching her from the adjacent chair. She had opted for a black blazer and a mini dress for tonight's task. She never liked tight-fitting clothes, so she made sure the dress had some give and was comfortable to move around in.
The front door knocked expectedly, Ana glanced over and made her way to it. She checked the door's spy hole before confidently letting the guests in.
"Hello Charles," she smiled, "and Rex," she grumbled walking back into the lounge.
"Hi Ana, how're you holding up?" Charles asked as the pair walked in.
"I'm fine, thank you," Ana smiled at Charles and crossed her arms.
"Figures you'd live in a dump," Rex snorted as he swaggered in, Ana's face dropped. She wasn't happy that Rex now knew where she lived, let alone him being in her flat. She strolled over to him slowly.
"And what about you Rex? I figured you as a traitor," Ana snarled, as she squared up to him.
"What are you talking about?" Rex stood his ground.
"I suppose it is just coincidence that you weren't there during the attack," Ana spat.
"Back off bitch, you don't know nothing," Rex stepped forwards, making them dangerously close to each other.
"Did you get off on it, betraying your team? Did you watch from a distance as eight of our men burned?" Ana snapped.
"I said back off," Rex growled.
"You're pathetic, a coward that can't even admit it," Ana shoved Rex, catching him off guard.
"Oh, you want to fight?!" Rex roared as he shoved her back.
"You're a piece of shit!" Ana yelled as she pulled out her paring knife from her blazer pocket and stepped towards Rex.
"Enough," the Joker appeared and forcefully wedged himself between the pair. "As much as I enjoy a good fight, we all have somewhere to be tonight," The Joker glared at Ana and Rex as he stepped aside.
"Besides, you'll set off the cat," the Joker grumbled waving to Winston, who was still innocently sitting on the chair. All three henchmen confusedly glanced down at the feline. Ana gave a light scoff as she calmed down.
The Joker received a text, he licked his scars as he glanced at his phone.
"Ana, your uh… ride's here," he instructed.
"Right, Boss," Ana nodded, grabbed her clutch bag, and headed to the door. She hesitantly stopped and turned to address the room, "Remember, you need to…" she started.
"Go down the fire escape," the Joker finished, popping his p for emphasis. Ana could not have the Joker just casually stroll out of her building. At least under cover of night-time, they should be undetected on the fire escape.
Ana nodded and headed out, locking the front door.
As she made it out of the building, she walked down the side alley where there was a car parked, with a van stationary behind it. She spotted Allie sitting in the driver's seat of the car and wandered over to her side to open the door.
"Get out, I'm driving," Ana instructed. Allie rolled her eyes and begrudgingly scooted to the passenger's side.
The drive to the bar exuded awkwardness and discomfort as Ana and Allie didn't say a word to each other. Ana was growing irritated by Allie's attitude, as they had an important job to do that evening. She figured that when they got to the bar, she would try to get through to Allie over a needed drink.
As they both waltz into the Vig Bar, in their Friday night attire, Ana immediately headed to the bar to order them both a drink.
"Two vodka and cokes," she ordered as she leaned against the counter. "So, do you understand the plan?" she asked Allie. Allie nervously looked around the venue and then glanced at Ana.
"Yes, we need to seduce the security guards to gain access to their apartments. Then we grab the key to the power plant's security office," Allie recited.
"This is our second attempt at this, so there can't be any mistakes. We lost all our prep for the Power Station job in the fire. We need that key to access the security office," Ana explained.
"Why can't we just break into his flat and grab it, instead of all this," Allie gestured to herself dressed in a purple mini dress with long lace sleeves. The drinks arrived.
"We did that the first time, if we do it again then they'll get suspicious and change the locks," Ana sipped her vodka and glanced over at the anxious girl next to her.
"How are you doing after the attack?" Ana asked looking down at her drink.
"I'm okay I guess, my shoulder is healing," Allie referred to a burn from the attack, and sipped her drink, "Missing him though," she mumbled. Ana knew she meant the Joker.
"You know he's at my flat, don't you?" Ana asked.
"Yeah, I texted him that I was there, hoping he'd come down to see me. How's it been living with him?" Allie nervously questioned.
"Not great, there's not a lot of places to avoid the Joker in my apartment," Ana rolled her eyes, taking another sip. Allie studied Ana's cut on her cheek.
"As long as there's nothing else going on," Allie mumbled. Ana let out a laugh causing Allie to jerk as she was sipping from her straw.
"Really? Is that what you're worried about?" Ana scoffed. "Trust me, you're fine," Ana shook her head as she laughed, Allie let out a small smile.
"Where is he tonight anyway?" Allie asked, looking around.
"Apartment hunting," Ana smirked.
"What about you and Duncan?" Allie cheekily smiled. Ana lightly exhaled.
"He seems more affectionate after the attack, I don't know," Ana let a smile escape. Allie gave a cheeky giggle as she swayed to the music.
"Are you getting a little crush?" she teased. Ana laughed but then turned her attention to the bar's entrance.
"They're here," Ana signalled.
After about an hour, Ana and Allie had drawn the attention of the two security guards, Steven and Marshall. The bar started to fill up with more people looking for a good night out, the ambience seemed to get darker with neon signs illuminating the walls, and the music started to get noisier with songs Ana hadn't heard of.
"So, Steven, what do you do then?" Ana asked, sipping her 3rd vodka and coke, leaning on the bar.
"Well, Marshall and I work at the Power Plant, we're part of security," the 30-something guy spoke, he smiled behind his decent, dark goatee.
"Wow, so you guard all the electricity that runs through the city, very courageous," Ana smiled as she stroked his arm.
"You could say that," Steven chuckled. "And what about you?" he said resting his hand on the counter, dividing the women as the other friend spoke to Allie. Ana glanced over to Allie, who shyly giggled at whatever joke Marshall had performed.
"We both work in Marketing," Ana acted, "Not as physically demanding as your job, I imagine," Ana swayed closer to Steven.
"I don't know about that, what happened here?" Steven asked, tenderly touching Ana's cut cheek.
"Just my cat," she smiled as she playfully intertwined her fingers with his on her cheek, then softly slid her fingertips down his arm.
"Say you look like a girl who likes a bit of fun," Steven leaned in closer, to ensure the surrounding guests couldn't hear, despite the loud music booming.
"What kind of fun?" Ana slinked in closer too. Steven looked over his shoulder and then discretely revealed a sachet of cocaine in his pocket. Ana let out a chuckle.
"What gave it away?" Ana grinned. Ana knew that her inhibitions were down after her third drink and not a lot of food. She could hardly contain her excitement as her favourite product stared up at her.
"I'm a good judge of character," Steven smiled as he warmly moved a strand of hair away from Ana's face.
"Clearly," Ana smiled softly, trying to hold back a laugh as Steven had no clue about the rest of her story. Ana's eyes blinked over to Allie, who was flirting with Marshall and playfully circling her finger on the back of his hand. Allie glanced over to Ana and gave a subtle nod to signal that they were ready.
As Ana looked back, Steven was coming in for a bold kiss. Ana played along and kissed him back, teasingly placing her hand on his cheek and then slowly drifting it along his jaw, then down his neck.
As they parted, they both giggled.
"You know, my place is across town, perhaps we could continue the fun at yours. Do you live close by?" Ana asked, knowing that he did.
"I do, I'll let Marshall know that we're heading out," Steven started.
"Well, my girl Allie likes a bit of fun too," Ana lied, "Perhaps we can have a party," Ana slid her hand into Steven's pocket where the sachet was waiting for her. Steven looked down at the siren, taken aback slightly.
"You do like some fun, don't you?" Steven raised an eyebrow. Ana got closer to his ear.
"You have no idea," she whispered and flirtatiously grinned.
Once everyone finished their drinks, the four left the bar and headed to Marshall's car. Marshall wasn't drinking that night as he was the designated driver. Marshall and Allie were in the front, whilst Ana and Steven were in the back.
Allie and Marshall were chatting as the guy drove, Allie would let out a giggle now and again to keep him interested. She looked to the back seat and saw Ana and Steven laughing as Steven opened his bag of cocaine. Ana was twizzling his curly dark hair with her finger as she looked down at the substance.
"Here," he laughed, as he sprinkled the powder over Ana's cleavage. Ana let out a laugh as it tickled when he snorted it up. Ana was having more fun than she anticipated, Steven seemed like an exciting guy.
"My turn," she laughed while she sprinkled the powder on the back of Steven's hand. She snorted it up, placed his hand on her waist, and kissed him deeply again.
"Jesus," Allie breathed, shaking her head.
"Oh ignore him, he's always like that stuff," Marshall explained.
"Not a fan?" Allie asked looking back at the driver.
"Nah, I like getting to know the person," Marshall explained as he rested his hand on Allie's upper thigh. Allie tensed as she didn't know if the Joker would be happy with someone else touching her, but she tried to play it down.
"You're very sweet, I look forward to getting to know you better at Steven's place," Allie purred. Marshall let out a chuckle and glanced over to Allie who started stroking his hand on her thigh.
Marshall glanced into the front mirror and observed the two at the back playfully making out, he chuckled and pulled over the car and parked the hand break. Allie looked around nervously as they were stationed down one of the streets in the Narrows.
"You could give me a little tease before we get there," Marshall spoke as he wrapped his arm around Allie's back and pulled her towards him for a kiss. Allie thought of the Joker and started to panic, she couldn't pull away from him. She fumbled in her clutch and pulled out a small pistol. Without thinking she pulled the trigger, straight in Marshall's face.
A loud bang rang out in the car, followed by a massive volume of blood splattering against the car windows and on the couple at the back.
"What the fuck!" Shrieked Steven, breaking the passionate moment.
"What the fuck, Allie!" yelled Ana. "You were supposed to keep him alive?!" Ana scolded.
"What?!" Steven barked, staring at Ana in disbelief, before frantically trying to undo his seatbelt and get out of the car. Ana rolled her eyes.
"Sorry," she moaned and quickly pulled out her pistol.
"No!" Steven called before Ana shot him in the side of the head, causing more blood to splatter into the car window and onto Ana.
Ana and Allie sat in silence for a moment, the only noise coming from the grumbling of the car engine.
"What the fuck was that?!" Ana spat breaking the silence.
"I'm sorry, he was going to kiss me, and I didn't want to cheat on the Joker," Allie cried.
"Oh for fuck sake," Ana breathed.
"You don't get it! You and Duncan aren't together like me and J," Allie yelled. There was another round of silence as the smell of gunpowder danced around the vehicle.
"What are we going to do?" Allie gingerly asked. Ana rolled her eyes and then fished into Steven's pockets and pulled out his wallet.
"What are you doing?" Allie asked.
"Making this look like a robbery," Ana mumbled pulling out cash and his driver's license, reminding her of his address. She looked out her window to check what street they were on and noted there were no passersby.
"The dark will hide them until morning, we've got to get that key," Ana instructed. "He parked down the street from the flat," Ana pointed before climbing over the car seat to turn off the engine and rummage through Marshall's wallet.
"Let's go," Ana rallied before hopping out of the car followed quickly by Allie.
"We're covered in blood?" Allie exclaimed as they looked at each other's clothes that had splashes of red seeping in, with more splatters showing on their faces.
"We only need to go down the street. It's the Narrows, walk as if we have somewhere to be and no one will want to ask," Ana lowered her voice.
"It's freezing," Allie hugged herself in the winter cold.
"Is it? I feel fine" Ana looked around.
"That's because you're high and drunk," Allie grumbled.
"And yet I'm not the one who fucked up the plan," Ana hissed. "Come on," she pulled Allie in the direction of the apartment. Ana's tolerance for drugs and alcohol was greater these days, she knew that wasn't a good thing.
Once they were outside the flat, Ana pulled out the singular key she stole from Steven. There was a satisfying click as it opened the door.
"We're in. Hair up and gloves on," Ana ordered as she pulled a pair of latex gloves and a hair tie from her clutch. Allie did the same. They both put their hair up and snapped on the gloves.
When entering the apartment, the girls used their phones as torches to look around. They didn't want to turn on the light and draw any unnecessary attention. The flat looked like a damp, messy 2- bedroom apartment with a merging lounge kitchen. The kitchen had dishes and pans not washed up, while the coffee table had takeout boxes and old beer cans displayed on it.
"If I had a key to my office, where would I put it?" Ana whispered.
"Near the door," Allie remarked as she strolled over to the console table near the door and searched around an assortment of books and behind a lamp. Ana could see that Allie didn't find anything.
"Or I forgot about the key as I was quickly getting ready, and left it in my pocket," Ana explained as she headed to Steven's supposed bedroom. Allie continued to search in the lounge.
Ana sieved through the drawers for a pair of trousers. She opened Steven's underwear drawer and almost immediately closed it again until something caught her eye. She saw a metal container reflecting her torch light. She picked it up and opened it to find his stash of cocaine.
"Jackpot," Ana whispered to herself as she smirked and put the stash in her pocket. She felt around the drawer for anymore and touched a familiar shape. Drawing it out, it was a handgun.
She flashed her torch to the other side of the bedroom and saw a pair of trousers on the floor.
"Bingo," she smiled as she strolled up to them and went through the pockets. She found the metal key and quickly rummaged through her clutch to pull out a small plastic case filled with a putty-textured substance called alginate. Generally, it was used to create moulds for mouth retainers, but it was perfect to create a new mould for the key.
Ana knew they couldn't simply take the key, as this would raise suspicions. 60 seconds is all it takes to complete the mould, as she waited, she looked around the room at Steven's belongings.
"Pity," she muttered as she felt a twang of guilt for killing him. When the mould hardened, Ana quickly put the key back into the trouser pocket.
"Ana!" Allie called. Ana snapped her head to the lounge and saw the light on. She rolled her eyes as she stormed to the door.
"Who the hell are you?" a man's voice yelled. Ana froze, as she questioned if Stephan had a roommate. Then remembered there may have been 2 bedrooms in the flat.
"No one! I'm sorry!" Allie cried. Ana walked out of the bedroom, locking eyes with Allie and then the man. The man was stunned and confused by the two women's presence in his flat, he then noticed the blood on their dresses. Ana ran towards him; his eyes widened as he suddenly tried to back away. Ana raised her pistol as she lunged and shot him near his temple.
Allie let out a whimper as she covered her face. Ana stared at the corpse, glanced at Allie, and then snapped into gear. She quickly shut the front door and spun around.
"We haven't got a lot of time. Someone would have heard that," Ana sternly spoke. Allie observed Ana as she worked.
"He's the roommate," Ana pointed at the corpse, "Who killed himself," she started to tell a story, "After killing his roommate and his friend in the car," Allie watched as she momentarily disappeared into Steven's bedroom, returning with his handgun. "With this," Ana raised the handgun and placed it in the dead man's hand.
"I got close enough to make it look like he shot himself," Ana explained.
"But why would he do that?" Allie asked, wiping a tear from her face. Ana looked around for probable cause and remembered the stash in her pocket.
"He's high, and wanted more," Ana smiled as she pulled out the metal tin and dressed the corpse to look like he had snorted the cocaine. Ensuring there was powder on his fingertips and nostrils.
"You're scarily good at making a fake crime scene," Allie observed.
"Learnt from the best," Ana grinned, looking up at Allie as she crouched by the corpse. She knew the ballistics wouldn't add up as the bullets from their guns wouldn't match, but there was nothing she could do about that without drawing more attention to themselves.
"Let's go, I'll call Duncan," Ana finished, leading Allie out of the crime scene.
Ana quietly dragged herself to her apartment, it was past midnight when Duncan picked them up in one of the vans and dropped them home, so thankfully there was hardly any commotion in her apartment building. As she turned on the light, she clocked the Joker wasn't there. Letting out a sigh she hauled off her bloody boots and went to wash.
After taking off her outfit in the bathroom, she hopped into the shower. She noticed how there was green dye and face paint smeared around the tub and the walls, but she didn't care at this moment. She felt relief as the hot water ran down her body and washed off the gunpowder, blood and sweat.
After she was done washing and removing her makeup, she wrapped a towel around herself and walked out of the bathroom. As she opened the door, a purple figure was sitting on the sofa.
"Jesus!" she jumped back, clutching onto her towel.
"Evening," the Joker purred as he glanced over to her, eying her up and down.
"You scared me," she breathed, noticing Winston sitting next to the Joker.
"I have that uh… effect on women," the Joker giggled and licked his scars, "How'd it go?" he asked.
"We got the key mould," Ana said as she grabbed her clutch on the coffee table and pulled out the small plastic case, handing it to the Joker.
"Good," the Joker checked the mould and placed it in his inner pocket, he eyed her again, "Why is there blood?" he nodded to the boots that were carelessly thrown on the floor.
"We had some trouble, Allie…" Ana started to recount the evening, but stopped herself from ratting out her colleague's mistake, "We handled it, they won't know it was us," Ana relayed.
The Joker nodded and stood up, sucking his scars as he looked down at Ana. Ana watched him nervously as she held onto her towel.
"Good job," he finally said before walking past her to the bathroom.
"Thanks, Boss. Night," she finished. The Joker grunted as he left the room.
Ana headed to her bedroom, already feeling the events of the night, along with the drugs and the alcohol taking over. She closed her door and got changed, forgetting to drag the side table to barricade the door. She very quickly drifted to sleep.
The night was still, Ana was completely out, lost in a deep sleep. She didn't hear her door creak open, and she didn't feel the cat jump off the bed. The dark figure walked over to the sleeping Ana that was facing away from them. They leaned on the bed and aggressively grabbed her shoulder.
Ana automatically woke up, drew out her pistol from underneath her pillow and twisted around. As she hurled the pistol around ready to hit the intruder, the gloved man grabbed her forearm, stopping her. Ana glared with wide eyes as she adjusted to the night and saw the Joker's face emerge through the darkness.
"They're here," the Joker growled.