The Joker and the Thief

Somewhere along the way I feel asleep. But it was not the peace I was looking for. The bumpiness of the road and my awkward position prevented any actual rest. When I awoke, I felt worse than ever. I had an ache which traveled from my neck and down my back. My throat was scratchy and my head was fuzzy. It didn’t help that I didn’t recognize the space around me when I woke up.

The first thing I saw when I sat up was the river flowing into the west. But my view was from quite a distance up. I could see the tops of several buildings. When I brought my sight closer in, I realized I was sitting in the Pruitt Building, which was half finished. When it was done, the building was supposed to be one of the large office buildings in the city. Plastic coverings were hung where walls were to be built. Many random pieces of hardware were thrown carelessly on the ground. There was no barrier between the interior of the building and the outside world, which I found to be rather dangerous. As usual, I wasn’t alone in the building.

“You know, Bradley, I had high hopes for you.” The Joker said, stepping out of the shadows and into the setting sunlight. A familiar fear set in my stomach when the Joker produced a knife from his pocket. He passed it casually between his hands.

And, as usual, I kept my response short. “Sorry to disappoint.” I didn’t move out of my sitting position, but I made a feeble attempt to move back away from the Joker, who had a homicidal look on his face.

He kept moving closer and I abandoned my attempts to scamper away. When he finally covered the distance, the Joker casually bent down to my level. First, I made note of how close the silver blade was to my exposed skin. That was before my attention was drawn to the expression on the Joker’s face, which was just inches from mine. Many emotions were written beneath the crackled make-up, but the two that caught my attention were clear humor and pure murderous rage. “I guess I’ll just have to try harder.”

That was when I made my escape attempt, but it was cut short when the Joker’s hand once again clasped around my throat. This whole mess was getting really redundant. I expected to be pulled upward but instead I was thrown back onto the cold, concrete floor. I tried to kick the Joker off me but he used his own legs to pin mine to the ground. At first, I thought he was just going to strangle me to death but he quickly removed his hand from my throat. “What the hell?!” was my only response to the situation. That was before the knife was dragged across the skin on the inside of my right forearm.

A loud scream escaped my lips. The Joker didn’t stop. As I continued to scream, the Joker continued to dig the knife into my skin. Even though I couldn’t see the damaged being done, I could tell that the cuts weren’t being made in a single, straight line or in a random pattern. The way the Joker stopped and contemplated his next cut implied that he had a plan. As he continued down my arm, my screams became more feral and louder. I somehow managed to remain conscious though the whole ordeal. But the moment the Joker causally climbed off of me, I passed out.

The sun had set when I regained consciousness. I was beginning to wonder if my constant blacks-outs would eventually lead to brain damage. They certainly couldn’t be good for me. I found myself slouched against one of the interior, metal joists. My arms were behind me, wrap around the beam. When I tried to move, I noticed the handcuffs. I spent a few minutes trying to pull my hand though the metal ring, but my cuffs were too tight and my hand too big.

There was a slight throbbing on my right arm and I could feel blood still tracing its way down my arm. I was still alive and free of any life-threatening injuries so I felt content to adjust my position so I could get comfortable enough to get a decent nap in before the Joker did decide to kill me. If I was going to die, which was practically guaranteed at this point, I wanted to die well-rested. I also wanted to die as an old lady not as a teenager, but we can’t get everything we want.

Unfortunately, my nap was interrupted by what sounded like an explosion a few floors down. That was when I noticed a pair of dogs growling a few feet away. Standing in the middle of the mutts was the Joker. I was unsure of how long he had been there or how he had gone unnoticed by me. It was probably all the black-outs affecting my vision. Probably. However, Batman was not overlooked by me.