Death's a Joke.

The Joker stood bemused with his arms crossed leaning casually against an empty stall that had been a shooting gallery earlier in the day. He stared at the large circus tent that consumed the middle of the plot of land. The material flapping wildly in the wind as metal held it down tightly.

“Ah…my son…I can sense you’re troubled man, you have much on your mind…”
Wailed a dream like voice, the end of each word finished with a low breathing noise.

The Joker turned around with a frown of his face. As the people flittered past it seemed the person in front had been stopped in time. Only a few paces in front of him sat an aged woman with mangled grey hair that was un-kept and brittle. She wore several beaded scarves around her scrawny neck and her eyes were magnified by the crystal ball that she was looking through to see him.

The Joker paused for a while as if in deep thought before sitting down so that a table with a deep plum coloured cloth draped across was the only space between. She hastily pushed the ball out of the wall before messing with her scarf and taking out a pack of cards. She flicked through them and shuffled before spreading them across the table and mumbling at them while waving her hands around. She scooped them up in a tight grasp and fanned them out so that the images were hidden.

“Take three cards,” The woman’s airy shriek told the Joker who was smacking his lips together and staring at her hands.

A leather gloved hand reached out and pulled out 3 cards like she had asked, as he went to turn them around she slapped his hand and shook her head. She placed the other cards away and shuffled the cards before pushing them in front of him. She gestured to them for him to pick two cards and he did just that.

“Ah…the Five of Hearts and the Three of Spades…was it a wise choice to pick the middle one? Who knows, but fate has obviously foreseen this, may I pray for good fortune,” Hissed her voice that caused the smoke of several incense she had lit to go towards the Joker.

The Joker tried to read her face in confusion before he looked down at the card which had its corner singed and the backing had began to peel. She placed two hands on the card and brought it to her eye level while mumblings about his fate. She turned the card around and held it at arm’s length so it was almost pressed against his face. The Ace of Diamonds.

“Since that this ace is now your lot,
You will wed one that’s fierce and hot;
But if a woman does draw it,
She will wed one with wealth and wit.” She cried in song, her arms waving as she slightly mouthed about future spirits talking to her.

The Joker found his eyes burning into the card he held in his hands and he shook slightly with fury. He brought himself up in one quick motion causing the table to be overturned and the crystal ball to roll away. He grabbed a knife from one of his several pockets and began attacking random people that walked past.