No Place in My Heart for a Criminal Like You

Everyone’s gaze turned to me as I scampered across the floor towards the elevator, still looking shocked and scared. No doubt, someone had probably called the police by now, reporting my appearance. Once I was out of the room, I ran as fast as I could to leave the building. As soon as I stepped outside, I saw The Joker’s white face staring at me with a grin through the window. His smile widened when he noticed it was me. Before entering the car, I tried to put on my most upset face, trying to fool him into believing that I’d killed Gordon.

I took a seat in the car next to The Joker and stared straight ahead, not making eye contact. It was eerily quiet in the van and the atmosphere felt really tense. The Joker was the first one to break the silence.

“So?”

“What?”

“Did you shoot him?” He asked calmly.

I nodded my head, still refusing to look at him. My eyes turned to his hands when I heard the rubbing of leather as he clenched the steering wheel with angry fists. Without a word, he grabbed something to the side of him and lividly opened his door. He stormed his way around the van to my side and heaved my door open. I whimpered as he reached for me to drag me out of the car.

I figured he had guessed that I was lying, but how, I did not know. I fell out the car painfully and was now being dragged by the arm back towards the building. My legs were scraping against the floor, not being able to stand up properly. I noticed that the object that he had picked up before he left the car was a shotgun.

“Get off me!” I screamed as I tried to struggle away. To stop my struggling, he thumped the head of the gun into my temple almost completely knocking me out and making me groan in pain. I stopped struggling however, making it easier for him to drag me. Now, I was totally oblivious to what was going on, seeing everything as a blur and all noises were muffled. Everything became clear when The Joker fired the shot gun making me look up to see what it was that he shot. Blood was strewn across the wall behind the unfortunate female receptionist as she slowly dropped to the ground. The whole scene took awhile to sink in completely and I didn’t scream in fear when I saw the poor woman die in front of me, but once we had entered the elevator it hit me, as well as The Joker’s leathered hand.

“Stand up!” He exclaimed as he pulled me up to stand on my two feet.

“Why are you doing this!? I did what you wanted me to do!” I cried feebly. He let out a low growl from his throat as I angered him more and he grabbed a fist full of my hair tightly.

“Let’s just see about that, shall we, hmm?” He asked as the elevator door pinged. I could literally hear my death approaching closer and closer. The Joker was definitely going to kill me when he found out that I hadn’t killed Gordon and had lied about it too. “Commissioner Gordon,” The Joker hollered once we had entered the penthouse, throwing me to the floor viciously. He shot the gun in the air, giving everyone a fright. They immediately turned around to stare at him terrified for their lives. While The Joker’s back was turned, Bruce quickly rushed to my side and helped me up off of the floor. He held me protectively trying to soothe me. “Where is he? Can anyone tell me where he is?” The Joker questioned as he aimed his gun at the innocent guests. He waited for awhile waiting for a reply, but no-one answered. His eyes searched the room looking for me and Gordon. He didn’t succeed in finding Gordon, but he found me, desperately clutching to Bruce for help.

“Let go of her,” The Joker ordered as he made his way towards me and Bruce. It only made Bruce’s grip on me tighten. The Joker noticed this and cocked his gun ready to blow Bruce’s head clean off. “Let go of her,” he repeated but more sternly through clenched teeth. Bruce still didn’t let go. I didn’t want to see someone die again for me, so I decided to sacrifice myself, knowing that Bruce wasn’t going to let go. I eased out of Bruce’s grip, shaking.

“I’m okay,” I assured Bruce as I made my way towards The Joker. Bruce stared at me worriedly, not knowing whether to save me or not.

Once The Joker had me in his grip he immediately threw me to the ground again, but aimed the gun at my head straight after. “Is no-one going to tell me? No? That means the doctor gets it,” he explained at he brought the gun closer to my face.

“Stop!” I heard Gordon yell from behind me. “Don’t shoot her.” The Joker looked up from me to look at Gordon, but turned his glare back down to me soon after.

“Oh, so you killed him, did you?” He asked me smarmily with clenched teeth. “I think you’ve been telling me lies, Harley. And I hate liars.”

“Shoot me now. Please, don’t hurt her,” Gordon pleaded as he advanced towards The Joker.

“I’m not going to hurt her and I’m not going to shoot you. But she is though,” he informed him as he pulled me up off of the ground. He turned me around so that I was facing the powerless Gordon, who was almost begging The Joker to let me go. “Do it, Harley,” The Joker whispered harshly behind me. “Do it, do it, do it!”

“I’m so sorry,” I apologised as I pulled out the gun from my bag. I turned around quickly and pointed the gun at The Joker’s face. He stared at me sincerely shocked.

He gasped loudly and shook his head at me. “You’re going to shoot me? But I’ve looked after you and took care of you in your time of need. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

His arm moved slightly to lift up his shot gun, but I quickly screamed at him, “Don’t make me do it! Just let everyone go, please.”

“I’m not letting anyone go. You’re going to have to shoot me, Harley.” I placed my finger on the trigger ready to pull it, but for some strange reason I hesitated.

“Pull the trigger, Harley!” He bellowed. “I dare you! I knew you’d be too chicken to do it! You’re very weak, Harley. You’ll never be able to achieve anything the way you live your life. A very pitiful life to say the least. Are you proud of this pitiful life you lead, Harley?” He knew he was getting to me. The way he was talking sounded like my parents constant nagging. It brought back the old memories and I’d never been so angry before. Without a second thought I pulled the trigger of the gun.

Instead of the anticipated bang, a click was heard and at the barrel of the gun, out popped a little red flag with the word ‘BANG!’ in yellow letters written on it. I squeezed my eyes shut when I realised the whole act was a set up. He had been trying to test me and I failed the test. That was how he knew Gordon wasn’t dead. Here I am thinking that he’s some kind of psychic, when in reality he had everything sorted out nicely. The tears started to roll down my cheeks, terrified of his next move.

“So you would kill me? After everything I’ve done for you? Well I must admit, I’m quite upset,” he said sincerely, yet still maintaining a slight hint of sarcasm and smugness. “But the party must go on. And now it’s my turn,” he aimed the gun at my head, but was stopped when in came Batman ready to save the day. Batman punched The Joker in the stomach, making him fall down to the ground dropping his gun and making it skid across the floor. But that didn’t stop The Joker. Instantly, he pulled a smaller gun out of his coat pocket and aimed it at me making Batman stop charging towards him. Without a word said he slowly made his way towards me cautiously.

“Now that Batman’s here, this party is a real roof raiser. Let’s raise it a bit more, hmm?” He asked as he reached into his pocket again and pulled out the detonator.

“Do you think you can get away with this Joker?” Batman asked in his deep raspy voice.

“Yeah,” Joker replied simply.

“The police are already on their way.”

“Yeaaah, I’m gonna go and I hope you all have a blast without me,” he chuckled smugly waving the detonator around. While he was busy tormenting the guests, I quickly kicked the detonator out of his hand and sent it skidding across the floor and into the crowd of guests. His head shot towards my direction, glaring evilly and then he launched towards me and wrapped his arm around my neck choking me as he directed me towards the elevator, aiming his gun at anyone who dared to move. I moaned pleading for help from anybody, but there was nothing anyone could do to save me now. Even Bruce was nowhere in sight to save me. As soon as the doors of the elevator closed, he slammed my head again against it, making me scream in pain.

“What do you think you’re doing, puddin’?! Huh?! You’ve just wrecked the whole goddamned party! I hope you’re happy, because I’m not! Do you like seeing me this way, hmm?!” He asked as he brought me up to his level by the throat and pinned me against the door. “Because to me, it seems like you do! Why do you have to upset me like this, Harley? I don’t like doing this to you, but you’re leaving me no choice. I ask you to do simple little things and you always disobey me. All I want from you is to do as I say, right?!”

I nodded in defeat, not being able to breathe. My tears had run down my face and onto his gloved hand. He brought his hand away and then wiped my tears away from my face with it, then wiped his hands on himself.

“Shh, shh, shh, stop crying now, Harley,” The Joker soothed as he stroked my hair. The door pinged and then opened ready for us to step out. He had hold of my arm firmly, briskly leading me out of the door. As soon as we stepped outside of the building, the sound of police sirens wailed throughout the city. This made The Joker speed up, helping me up into the van and then making his way around to the driver’s seat.

“Boss, what’s she still doing he- ”

“Shut up!” The Joker barked at one of his men as he started the engine and began speeding off from the building. I figured that The Joker had been planning to kill me in the building, from what that goon had said. Why he had changed his mind, I didn’t know.