Tonight, You're Gonna Break Your One Rule

Laughter still woke me up a week later, only that night I'd slept a little, still haunted by pale face, black eyes and red lips.

I groan and roll over, staring at the clock for a second before the numbers make sense. Only nine thirty, and Cassie and Jess are still asleep. I roll out of bed and into the shower, taking a long, hot shower to calm me down from the reoccurring dream I'd had since that night. I exhale softly before turning the shower off and taking my time towelling dry.

As I emerge from the bathroom Cassie stirs, the noise of the shower waking her up a little, "Whattimeisit?" She mumbles into her pillow and I glance at the clock before I answer with ten a.m.

She sits bolt upright and I giggle at her bed hair, before exiting the room and taking a seat at the kitchen table. Adam was the only person in there and he smiles at me from next to the kettle, making a hot drink.

"Want a coffee?" He asks with a smile, opening the cupboard full of cups.

"Yes please Ad, two sugars and a lotta milk?"

He obliges and a few seconds a coffee is set in front of me. I wrap my hands round it and take in its warmth.

Adam takes a seat next to me and watches me for a second, "You alright Pixie? After what happened like?"

"Pshh." I say as I lower my coffee, quickly building a wall round my true feelings, "I'm fine, I was just a little freaked that's all." I brush it off with a wave of my hand.

Adam leans closer and stares me out, "Don’t believe you."

I snort in disagreement but Adam doesn't continue, only leans back and watches me again as I carefully sip my coffee and hiss when it burns my tongue.

"Why are you here Pixie?" He says, and I close my eyes, wishing that question would just go away, "I mean, you seem way too innocent to be here. We've all done wrong, me I've mugged and all that, Jess and Cassie done wrong, and all the other henchman." He leans close again and gets in my face, "What've you done Pixie?"

I stare him out for a second, ice blue eyes boring into his green ones for what seems like forever, until I push my chair back, set my half drunk coffee down and walk away.

I take a seat in the empty living room, wondering where everybody was, and finding an old episode of Scrubs and snuggling down in the sofa a little, smiling at JD and Turk.

A bang echoes through the house, and I switch off the TV and listen, knowing from past experience not to burst out of the room and find out what's happening.

"Batman!" I hear Boss roar, "Thinks he's so fucking big! Thinks he can push us around! Fucking oversized flying rat!"

"Shoulda got that clown to kill it." Someone else chuckles, and as I creep to the door and ease it open a fraction, I see Boss slam the speaker into the wall.

"The clown is as dead as the bat will be." He spits, shoving him into the wall for good measure, before walking away. I shut the door as quickly as possible, scramble back and turn on the TV, trying to act natural.

Boss walks into the room a minute later, and fixes a smile on his handsome face, "Morning Pixie, how are you?"

He sits next to me and I cuddle up to him as he puts his arm round me. I felt safe for the first time since the Joker had laughed his way into my subconscious a week ago.

"I'm good thanks Boss, and how are you?" I lean up and rest my face in the crook of his neck and breathe in his smell. He rests his head against mine and I hear him make a small noise.

"Sort of. The Batman is pissing me off." He states, signalling it’s the end of the conversation. Jess and Cassie stick their heads through the door a while later, and tell us their going shopping and will be back soon. I close my eyes and I almost fall asleep, feeling so at peace and finally safe, and I'm sure I doze off for a while.

I'm woken by a loud bang on the main door, and Boss stirs, telling me to stay here, but listen and watch.

"Boss," I hear Adam say, "Some men are here. They save they've killed the Joker. They got the body."

Boss makes an interested noise, "I'll be in the pool room."

He exits the room and leaves the door a centimetre ajar, where I position myself and watch and listen. About eight people file through, something suspended between two, covered in black bin bags.

The Jokers body.

I feel happy, glad he's gone, glad he's finally dead. But when I take a small breath in I feel a little sick. Gotham would be so different without him. I wouldn't wake up and hear his latest escapade on the news, or walk the streets with just a touch of exhilarating fear in my veins.

They file past and into the pool room, where the dump the body on the pool table, and Boss says something I cant quite hear from here. In a split second the Joker is up off the table, knife on Boss's lips. Everyone else is at gunpoint from the Joker's goons, and his low voice pounds through my blood. Whilst everyone is occupied I slip a little closer, across the other side of the hall and press myself against the other wall, just out of view, but just able to see everything.

I hear the Joker's voice run through me like a knife, "Why so serious, son?" He hisses it like venom and jolts Boss's shoulders a little. I hear both men breath in a little, "He comes at me with the knife, 'Why so serious, son?'" His hiss is even more venomous, hatred and death and revulsion dripping from his mutilated smile, "He sticks the blade in my mouth, 'Let's put a smile on that face!'"

The clown pauses, tension pulsing through the air with heavy breath and male sweat. He turns to Adam and says, in a horribly calm and monotone voice, "Aaand, Why so serious?"

The clown jerks his arm and suddenly, Boss falls to the floor, blood slowly seeping into the plush carpet. A scream falls from my lips, harsh and loud and piercing. I inhale sharply and press my hand to my lips, and in a second the whole room is turned to me.

"Pixie!" Adam says, his eyes pleading me to run while I have the chance, but I'm rooted to the spot, eyes fixed on the corpse of my saviour for the last eight years.

"Catch her!" The Joker roars, and in a second someone is grabbing my waist and pulling me into the room too. I don’t struggle, not yet, and watch in horror as the clown steps over my boss's body, pulling off the bin bag, and snatches a pool cue from the rack. He regards me for a second, not bothering with me until his plan is complete.

"Now," He says, walking back to the three people at gunpoint, Adam and two of the others, "Our operation is small, but there's a lot of room for," He grimaces in an almost beautiful way. I stop myself and gulp back fear and revulsion, "Aggressive expansion! So which of you fine gentlemen would like to join our team?" He's almost mocking, his grin repulsive and plastic, twisting and contorting with the red, the white surrounding it in all of it's scarred glory, "Oh," He says, as if he's just remembered, "There's only one spot open at the moment, so we're gonna have..." He snaps the pool cue over his bent knee and smiles at the snapping wood and the snap of pain on his knee, "Tryouts!"

He throws one half of the pool cue on the floor after observing the sharp point. He steps over it and looks at his goons, "Make it quick." He makes a motion to the man holding me to follow him, and it registers this clown is not going to let me go, and my boss is dead and I'm in deep, deep trouble. I start struggling and kicking my legs, screeching and writhing.

"Stop." The Joker says, finally looking at me with those black, black eyes. I tear my own eyes away, unwilling to let him into my mind again, "Stop." He checks his reflection in the blade of his knife, before glancing at me again, "Stop!" He motions for the other guy to let me go, and in a split second, before I can even think about running, he's pinned my shaking form against the wall. I let out a stream of whimpers, and he lifts his hand, still holding the knife, and smoothes down my hair, "Sh, sh, sh, sh, shh." He lifts my chin with the same hand, the flat of the blade pressing against my cheek. It's cool sends shivers down my spine, as does it's owners eyes, when he forces them to meet me, "Shh Precious."

I shut up. Fast.

He keeps hold of my wrist, and checks through the glass doors of the pool room, seeing the 'tryouts' in place. I don’t even dare look. "Come back when you're done. The van will be there," He tightens his already death grip on my wrist and starts dragging me towards the door. I start screaming and screeching again, kicking my legs and digging my heels in the plush carpet. He's just too strong and I start crying a little, tears slipping down my cheeks and smearing my makeup a little. He opens the front door and almost throws me down the stairs to the van parked outside. He tears open the side door and throws me in there too. My head bashes against the side of the van and I see cartoon birds fly round my head. I whimper and start crying properly, as the Joker climbs in next to me, as I finally give up, stop struggling and go limp.

He addresses the goon sat at the drivers seat, "Go."

"The others?" He says, and the Joker instantly has a gun at his head.

"No questions." The Joker whispers viciously.

I half close my eyes, my head pounding from the impact. The Joker sits next to me and I make no movement to shift away, too woozy from my head.

He watches me carefully and smoothes my hair again, "Shh Precious."

I let conciousness slip from my grasp and blackness spreads over me in more than one way. The Joker had kidnapped me and killed my boss, his mutilated smile crushing every millimetre of my spirit. I had no hope.

I was as good as dead, and at the Joker's hands.

I didn’t know which was worse.