Sequel: A Serious House on Serious Earth ›
Status: Sequel? Yes? No?
The Joker and the Thief
Abuse
It was by far the strangest elevator ride I've ever taken. The only sound was the hum of the elevator as I stood against the wall; as far away as possible from the Joker and the dead man. It took us a full minute and a half before we reached the roof. The entire time I was wondering what would happen if another janitor needed to use the elevator; then I noticed the gun that had appeared in the Joker's free hand. I prayed the other janitors didn't need to use it.
The elevators doors opened into a small structure which held nothing of interest besides the heavy metal door opposite the elevator which had the words ROOF ACCESS painted neatly across it. I politely held the door open for the Joker but before I closed it I shoved a rock in between the door and the wall so it wouldn't shut all the way. The strong wind caused my already disheveled hair to blow into my face. Once I got the hair out of my eyes, I noticed the Joker was already at the eastern edge of the roof; so I stumbled my way over to him, trying not to trip on the rope.
When I reached him, the body was laying haphazardly on the ground and the Joker was leaning over the edge, staring down with a cynical smile on his face. I threw the heavy rope down next to the body. "Uh, why are we throwing a dead body off the top of City Hall?" I asked. I could fill the sun's rays on my back. The heat and the wind made me uncomfortable. I was assuming the Joker would take it as a rhetorical question but I was wrong, as usual. The next thing I knew, my feet were not longer on the ground. The Joker grabbed me around the neck and lifted me so my head was dangling in the open air and my feet kicked desperately in an attempt to reach the ground again but the only thing they hit was the concrete edge. Forty-one stories below, the mid-day traffic zoomed by with no knowledge that I was about to become a blood stain on the sidewalk.
"Would you prefer it if I threw a living person off the top of City Hall?" I shook my head as much so I could. "Are you going to keep asking questions?" I attempted to shake my head again. "Ever?" I shook it more violently this time. "I'll shut up, just put me down!" I yelled but most of the volume was lost in the wind. I was almost in tears when I felt my body hit the rocks on the roof. I stood off to the side, trying to control the physical symptoms of my recent near-death experience, while the Joker prepared the rope. I watched as he tied the end off on some near-by metal pipe and he tied a noose on the other end. It didn't take much self-control for me to keep my mouth shut; but I still saw no point in him bringing me along on his little adventure to a roof in the center Gotham City. Then I watched, somewhat in horror, as the Joker placed the noose around the dead guy's neck, then pick him up and lightly throw the body over the edge. He peered over the edge for a few seconds with a wide red smile plastered on his face before he grabbed my hand roughly and pulled me towards the exit.
The elevator ride down was just as quite as the ride up but the tension was much stronger. I was unable to hug the wall because the Joker insisted on holding my hand the entire time. When the doors dinged open, he almost pulled my arm out of the socket. After we exited City Hall and walked into the same alley, the Joker dropped my hand and tossed a set of key into the air, which I caught out of instinct. "You're driving." He said as he made his way around the car to the passenger seat. I was completely confused but I didn't voice my concerns; at least I would have a little control in the situation. I put the black car in gear and drove safely out the alley and into the busy street. It had only been three minutes since the Joker hung the body but I could hear police sirens in the distance. I drove south; away from City Hall and the approaching sirens.
About ten minutes passed until the Joker gave me directions for where to go. A 'left here' or a 'right there', nothing too illustrated. After driving in what seemed like circles for half an hour I drove the car into what the average Gotham citizen would consider a bad neighbor at the Joker's request. I was certain we were going rob or kill someone again when he told me to pull into the driveway, where a large white van was parked halfway in the yard. The house was sandwiched between two warehouses, all appeared to have been abandoned for a while. The gray exterior paint was chipping and the majority of the house covered by large overgrown pine trees. I parked the car the small garage, which opened the second I was in the driveway. The inside of the garage looked much like the outside; run down.
I silently got out of the car and I would have preferred to stay a safe distance behind the Joker as we walked into the house, but as he walk towards the door he took my upper arm in a rough grip and dragged me alone beside him. The first thing I noticed was the smell. There was no way the house would be deemed liveable; the smell of mold was so strong it gagged me. As I was being dragged I could bits of green stuff growing in the cracks of the concrete floor and on the lower half of the way. I saw the vague outline of a person close the garage door as we walked farther into the house. When we finally came to a stop, I was almost in tears. Along with the pain of the Joker's grip on my arm, his haphazard dragging of me had caused many of my limbs to come in contact with wall. I was pretty sure I had three broken toes and a few more bruises to go along with the ones I managed to acquire over the passed few days.
Our journey came to an end when I thrown into a Lazy Boy recliner. I wouldn't have minded if there wasn't someone already in the chair. My head hit his and I felt my ring finger crack as it was bent in an awkward position when I threw my hands out to catch myself. I rolled back and fell in the floor and just laid there with my eyes close. As I laid there I could feel my finger start to swell, so without opening my eyes I moved the ring from the finger to another. I could few multiple voices mixed in with the familiar voice of Scott England, of GCN, which was playing on the raggedy television set which was placed about ten feet about from my head.
“Uh....Are you okay?” I knew the voice was coming from the recliner. From my very brief encounter with him I guess he was about 25, maybe 26, and something told it was same guy who's nose I broke. “I'm fantastic. How are you?” I was completely beyond being polite. I heard the man give a quick soft laugh before saying, “I'm great but if I was you I wouldn't lay in that floor. I spent about an hour killing cockroaches yesterday.” I jumped onto the nearby couch as fast as my injured body would allow me. I quickly swept my body for bugs for violently clawing my fingers though my ratted hair. The man let out another laugh before announcing, “I was just joking, kid. No need to freak out.” As I stared as him, he flashed me a innocent smile before laughing again. His laughing seemed to be a nervous twitch for him. “Pay back for the nose.” He muttered as he turned is attention back the television.
The news was video of man dressed as Batman but with a big red smile painted across his face. When the heard the Joker's come through the speakers of the television, I turned away and paid my attention to the ugly design on the couch. It was obviously older than me. My awful mental comments about the couch were cut short when a pile of clothes appeared in the seat next to me. “Change into theses.” The Joker demanded from his place behind me. I suppressed the need to ask why.
The elevators doors opened into a small structure which held nothing of interest besides the heavy metal door opposite the elevator which had the words ROOF ACCESS painted neatly across it. I politely held the door open for the Joker but before I closed it I shoved a rock in between the door and the wall so it wouldn't shut all the way. The strong wind caused my already disheveled hair to blow into my face. Once I got the hair out of my eyes, I noticed the Joker was already at the eastern edge of the roof; so I stumbled my way over to him, trying not to trip on the rope.
When I reached him, the body was laying haphazardly on the ground and the Joker was leaning over the edge, staring down with a cynical smile on his face. I threw the heavy rope down next to the body. "Uh, why are we throwing a dead body off the top of City Hall?" I asked. I could fill the sun's rays on my back. The heat and the wind made me uncomfortable. I was assuming the Joker would take it as a rhetorical question but I was wrong, as usual. The next thing I knew, my feet were not longer on the ground. The Joker grabbed me around the neck and lifted me so my head was dangling in the open air and my feet kicked desperately in an attempt to reach the ground again but the only thing they hit was the concrete edge. Forty-one stories below, the mid-day traffic zoomed by with no knowledge that I was about to become a blood stain on the sidewalk.
"Would you prefer it if I threw a living person off the top of City Hall?" I shook my head as much so I could. "Are you going to keep asking questions?" I attempted to shake my head again. "Ever?" I shook it more violently this time. "I'll shut up, just put me down!" I yelled but most of the volume was lost in the wind. I was almost in tears when I felt my body hit the rocks on the roof. I stood off to the side, trying to control the physical symptoms of my recent near-death experience, while the Joker prepared the rope. I watched as he tied the end off on some near-by metal pipe and he tied a noose on the other end. It didn't take much self-control for me to keep my mouth shut; but I still saw no point in him bringing me along on his little adventure to a roof in the center Gotham City. Then I watched, somewhat in horror, as the Joker placed the noose around the dead guy's neck, then pick him up and lightly throw the body over the edge. He peered over the edge for a few seconds with a wide red smile plastered on his face before he grabbed my hand roughly and pulled me towards the exit.
The elevator ride down was just as quite as the ride up but the tension was much stronger. I was unable to hug the wall because the Joker insisted on holding my hand the entire time. When the doors dinged open, he almost pulled my arm out of the socket. After we exited City Hall and walked into the same alley, the Joker dropped my hand and tossed a set of key into the air, which I caught out of instinct. "You're driving." He said as he made his way around the car to the passenger seat. I was completely confused but I didn't voice my concerns; at least I would have a little control in the situation. I put the black car in gear and drove safely out the alley and into the busy street. It had only been three minutes since the Joker hung the body but I could hear police sirens in the distance. I drove south; away from City Hall and the approaching sirens.
About ten minutes passed until the Joker gave me directions for where to go. A 'left here' or a 'right there', nothing too illustrated. After driving in what seemed like circles for half an hour I drove the car into what the average Gotham citizen would consider a bad neighbor at the Joker's request. I was certain we were going rob or kill someone again when he told me to pull into the driveway, where a large white van was parked halfway in the yard. The house was sandwiched between two warehouses, all appeared to have been abandoned for a while. The gray exterior paint was chipping and the majority of the house covered by large overgrown pine trees. I parked the car the small garage, which opened the second I was in the driveway. The inside of the garage looked much like the outside; run down.
I silently got out of the car and I would have preferred to stay a safe distance behind the Joker as we walked into the house, but as he walk towards the door he took my upper arm in a rough grip and dragged me alone beside him. The first thing I noticed was the smell. There was no way the house would be deemed liveable; the smell of mold was so strong it gagged me. As I was being dragged I could bits of green stuff growing in the cracks of the concrete floor and on the lower half of the way. I saw the vague outline of a person close the garage door as we walked farther into the house. When we finally came to a stop, I was almost in tears. Along with the pain of the Joker's grip on my arm, his haphazard dragging of me had caused many of my limbs to come in contact with wall. I was pretty sure I had three broken toes and a few more bruises to go along with the ones I managed to acquire over the passed few days.
Our journey came to an end when I thrown into a Lazy Boy recliner. I wouldn't have minded if there wasn't someone already in the chair. My head hit his and I felt my ring finger crack as it was bent in an awkward position when I threw my hands out to catch myself. I rolled back and fell in the floor and just laid there with my eyes close. As I laid there I could feel my finger start to swell, so without opening my eyes I moved the ring from the finger to another. I could few multiple voices mixed in with the familiar voice of Scott England, of GCN, which was playing on the raggedy television set which was placed about ten feet about from my head.
“Uh....Are you okay?” I knew the voice was coming from the recliner. From my very brief encounter with him I guess he was about 25, maybe 26, and something told it was same guy who's nose I broke. “I'm fantastic. How are you?” I was completely beyond being polite. I heard the man give a quick soft laugh before saying, “I'm great but if I was you I wouldn't lay in that floor. I spent about an hour killing cockroaches yesterday.” I jumped onto the nearby couch as fast as my injured body would allow me. I quickly swept my body for bugs for violently clawing my fingers though my ratted hair. The man let out another laugh before announcing, “I was just joking, kid. No need to freak out.” As I stared as him, he flashed me a innocent smile before laughing again. His laughing seemed to be a nervous twitch for him. “Pay back for the nose.” He muttered as he turned is attention back the television.
The news was video of man dressed as Batman but with a big red smile painted across his face. When the heard the Joker's come through the speakers of the television, I turned away and paid my attention to the ugly design on the couch. It was obviously older than me. My awful mental comments about the couch were cut short when a pile of clothes appeared in the seat next to me. “Change into theses.” The Joker demanded from his place behind me. I suppressed the need to ask why.