Deal the Joker (1)

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(CHAPTER 15)

Sally’s POV

Suddenly I didn’t feel like sleeping any more. If this reporter was telling the truth, we would have cops sniffing around the Joker Building pretty soon. And I didn’t want that. They would question me, and lock me up, and search me, and poke around in my head until I went as mad as my sister. They couldn’t fool me with their fake worry they put on for the cameras. The cops didn’t give a damn that I had been abused and so on. All they wanted was to stare at the Joker’s Whore, the freak.

Well, they wouldn’t find me. I found some black boots kicked under the computer desk, but there were only purple and green clothes to wear, as I’ve said before. I walked out of the room and started running down the corridor, barging into every unlocked room in search of clothes. Once I burst in on a little ‘interrogation’ between the henchmen known as Raptor and a man with two black eyes.

“Know where I can find any decent clothes?” I asked, tugging the short dress down self-consciously. Raptor shrugged, and then pointed to a room three doors away.

“The Boss won’t be happy,” he warned, punching the guy in the nose. The guy groaned as a crunching sound came from beneath his fist. I cringed.

“Well, the Boss isn’t here,” I said, and moved on.

I felt sorry for the poor guy being beaten up but I didn’t want to interfere. It would only cause more trouble, which I wasn’t keen on getting into. Besides, I was busy finding an outfit that wouldn’t immediately connect me to the Joker.

I was surprised to find a wide range of choices in the room Raptor recommended, but I was searching mostly for one colour. Black. You blend in best with black. Just ask Batman. There were black jeans in my size, and a black coat down to my ankles, but no black tops. I settled with a skintight red lace camisole, because I generally can’t stand the colour pink, and the only other tops that were my size were for men.

Once fully dressed, I started climbing down the endless staircases leading to the main rooms. At this time of the day hardly any goons were around, and those that were didn’t recognise me in this outfit. That made me feel more relaxed. If these people who saw Gina or me every day didn’t recognise me, then that meant the plan I had formulated may just possibly work.

Finally I arrived at one of the main rooms. I could hear the buzz of people talking amongst themselves and knew I had found the right place. As I marched in, they all looked at me in confusion. I put my hands into my pockets and stood in front of their TV, which was showing Gotham News.

“Alright, you goons, I have a question,” I announced, feeling my stomach turn over nervously behind my show of confidence.

“Oh my god, it’s Gina!” Arrow squealed from the arm of Joey’s chair.

“No, I’m Sally,” I corrected her patiently. “And anyway, I need to ask you something. Especially the women. Somebody gave the press photos of the Joker and me. It was someone from in here, as you probably know.”

Looking at the sea of silent masks, I knew I was right.

“But it isn’t the photos I’m worried about,” I continued, lying. “Because while this masked woman handed the pictures over, they…”

“…Told them roughly where the Joker Building is, yeah, we know,” Joey interrupted.

“Ok, I’ll get right to the point,” I said. “Which of you was it? I need to know, now. If you don’t tell me, I can’t sort this mess out, and we’ll all end up in Arkham.”

There was a growl from one of the men on the sofa.

“Why are you lecturing, whore?” he snarled, flexing his muscles. “You’re just a toy to the Joker. A cheap fuck. You can’t even shoot a man. You have to get your physco sister to do it for you. Why don’t you keep out of this and stop causing trouble?”

There was a general muttering of agreement. I couldn’t believe it.

“I’m more than just a whore! Why does everyone think that’s all I am?”

“Because you ARE just a whore!” somebody bawled. “Now get out of here before Boss gets back and kicks your ass.”

“Actually, that might be pretty funny to see,” Ember muttered, and the goons started laughing. All of them, except Joey and Arrow.

I approached Ember and pulled Gina’s knife from my belt. I had smuggled it out with me just in case. Trembling, I held it up to Ember’s painted face.

“YOU! I bet it was you who snitched, wasn’t it?” I accused her. Arrow’s head shot up in alarm. So she had been suspicious too, had she?

“No, no, it wasn’t me,” Ember gabbled, leaping backwards. Her book dropped to the floor and a picture fell out of the pages. It was a photograph of me from the newspapers, and it had an arrow sketched roughly through my head. Ember flushed.

“That was planted! No way did I tell the police and the press where we are!” she squeaked. I looked at her uneven, messy hair, and jabbed at it with Gina’s knife clumsily. It felt awkward in my hand, a dead weight I had to use. Even so, a few of her golden hairs fluttered down to the dirty carpet.

Ember’s blue eyes narrowed at me in hate.

“You think that just because you’re Boss’s whore you can treat us like shit,” she hissed, shoving me hard in the chest. I toppled backwards and landed on my back, making everyone snigger. Quickly I clambered to my feet and fastened my hand around Ember’s scrawny neck, bringing my face close to hers.

“You’re jealous, aren’t you? You’re just another Harlene Quinzel,” I taunted, using the name the cops had mentioned when driving me to the headquarters. “I bet you’ll have a knife accident too. Just like she did.”

Ember’s face twisted in rage, and she snatched Gina’s knife away from me. Hastily I let go of her throat and stepped back, almost tripping over somebody’s leg.

“Take that back,” she whispered, spitting with every word.

“No way! It’s true! Go on, why don’t you do it now? Then you won’t get beat up in Arkham when everyone knows it was you who grassed on us.”

Ember darted forward, slicing my arm with the knife. I gasped, dripping blood on the carpet. The goons were jeering at me, cheering for Ember. Joey struggled to his feet, grimacing as his broken arm bumped against his chest.

“Don’t fight over this,” he begged, and I noticed he hadn’t got his mask on. Arrow must have painted the same design onto his face. “If Boss sees you attacking each other they’ll be hell to pay.”

“Boss isn’t here!” Ember screeched. Suddenly she plunged the knife down, aiming for my heart, but I dodged under her arm and aimed a desperate kick for her stomach. She jabbed at my head, never pausing.

“Boss does care about me!” she convinced herself. I shook my head.

“He doesn’t! And now he’ll want to kill you because of what you’ve done!” I argued, avoiding every lunge of Gina’s knife. Ember used it perfectly, unlike me.

“You’re a liar! I’ve done nothing!”

The goons were baying for blood; mine, actually. It looked as if Ember would tear me to shreds as I was backed up against the TV, trapped with no way out. She grinned evilly, holding the knife up to my face.

“STOP!” screamed Arrow, and there was a split second when it looked like she was too late, but then she dragged Ember backwards by her hair and forced herself between us. A heavy silence fell on everyone. Nobody dared to breathe.

Then Ember threw the knife down and ran out of the room, shutting the door with a bang behind her. She was screaming in rage. We could all hear her howling for about a minute before the sound faded away. I closed my eyes for a second, thanking my lucky stars that I was still alive.

“Arrow…” I began, blinking at her. She shook her head.

“Please, Sally, I can’t look at you anymore,” she whispered. “Maybe Ember did hand in those photographs and everythin’ but we can’t tell Boss. She’s like a sister to me. And it was wrong of you to say that. She’ll be upset…”

I felt so frustrated with these people I kicked the TV screen in a Gina-like fury, smashing it. There was an electrical puff of smoke, but I hardly noticed. I picked up the knife and started marching towards the front door.

“You idiots kill without a second thought, but when it comes to the prize bimbo you’re all happy to protect her from the Joker,” I yelled, tucking the knife back into my belt. “Well, I don’t care. When he comes back, tell him I’m going to clean up this useless mess for you. Goodbye!”

With that, I threw the door open and stormed outside. It was raining, and I felt like the sky was crying for the injustice I had just seen. But then, what could you expect from a nest of full of criminals?

Joker World

The Joker had left the Building in a bad temper, which was unusual for him. He wanted to shoot Harry Carlisle’s brains onto the sidewalk. Whatever he had said to Sally had just ruined the perfect moment. Damn, he could have made Sally into a whore after all. If it wasn’t for that stupid phone call…

He felt like killing a random person, just for the hell of it. All of these sad little people inhabiting this city deserved to see a bit of anarchy before they died. Life spans were short in Gotham now the Joker was around. He grinned to himself. They didn’t know it, but he was doing these freaks a favour.

Suddenly, the sound of police car sirens drilled into his thoughts. He noticed that walls on all sides closed him in, and that he couldn’t scale them in time. He shrugged to himself, amused. Let the cops arrest him. It would be fun to mess with their minds, make them think they were superior, until finally he made them wish they were dead. Life was such a big joke. It was a pity most other people didn’t see it. While he thought this, three separate police cars pulled up around him. Cops were getting out of their vehicles, demanding he put his hands up.

The Joker raised his gloved hands, and laughed in their faces.

“Why so serious?” he asked, before they cuffed him and drove him away.

Commissioner Gordon’s POV

“Commissioner!” Phil called, running up the corridor towards me. I looked up.

“Have you found the girl?” I asked, disappointed when he shook his head.

“No, but we’ve caught the Joker again. He didn’t put up much of a fight.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled thoughtfully. “That means he’s up to something. Bring him in for interrogation, there’s a couple of questions we need to ask him.”

“His in a cell already. You’d better come with me.”

I followed the young officer into a small room, where sure enough the Joker was sat in a small cell, smirking at me. I shivered. It was as if he knew what was in my head.

“Hi,” he said casually, stretching his arms above his head.

“Joker.” I acknowledged curtly. “We need to ask you a few things before we send you to Arkham again, which is ofcourse the inevitable outcome of your capture.”

“Yeah, I know,” he nodded calmly, never taking the smile off his face. That scarred mouth covered in make-up always gives me the creeps. “So, commissioner, what do you want to know? I though Marco told you everything…”

“No, he didn’t,” I snapped, unnerved. How did he know that his henchman had talked? It wasn’t advertised. Information like that was kept quiet.

“Marco hasn’t said anything for a long time now…”

“Maybe that’s because the Scarecrow gave him one two many drugs.”

“We don’t use drugs on convicts these days.”

“Scarecrow uses them on his ‘patients’ all the time.”

“If you mean Dr. Crane…” I trailed off, knowing there was no point lying. “Alright, let’s get to the point. You kidnapped a girl from the streets of Gotham roughly a week ago, and a masked woman handed in these photographs of you with her.”

I handed the three photographs through the bars to the Joker, who looked at them briefly. These ones had Sally Carlisle’s face unprotected. You could see her very clearly. I was surprised that he didn’t look more concerned.

“People refer to this girl bluntly as your ‘whore’. Joker, you are aware she’s underage?” I asked, praying silently that he hadn’t done anything too stupid.

“She’s seventeen,” he shrugged, tossing the photographs onto the floor. Phil was shifting his feet, itching to get out of the room.

“Phil, you can go,” I said absently, then to the Joker, “No. Gina is seventeen. Sally is technically only thirteen years old. As far as the law is concerned, both sisters are underage. Whichever one you choose, you are breaking the law.”

“I know. Wouldn’t be the first time”

I was irritated with his attitude. He honestly didn’t care. I should have known he would react this way to my questions.

“We are aware that the girl you have interacted with sexually is Sally Carlisle. So I have to ask you frankly: did you rape her after this photographs were taken?”

The Joker didn’t answer me. He just laughed in my face, and then pulled a knife out of his pocket. I glanced up in horror at the officers around me.

“Why didn’t you remove all his weapons?” I shouted, gesturing for them all to move away from the cell.

“We didn’t know he had any,” the youngest said, looking miserable. They should really train these cops more thoroughly.

“The Joker always carries weapons!” I told him, running a hand through my hair. The Joker found all of this amusing. He carried on with that demonic laugh for quite a while, making my head ring with the noise. It still echoes around the room when he stopped.

“God damn it, Joker, answer my question!” I yelled. The Joker ran his thumb gently across his knife, smirking again.

“No. We were interrupted,” he replied, before I walked out of the room in disgust. I couldn’t look at him for another minute. One of these days, the stress is going to drive me crazy as him...

This is how I imagine Ember without the make-up on.

This is how I imagine Arrow to look without make-up. I couldn't find any one older looking on the internet, so even though she's about twenty five she's pretty short and looks young.