No Place in My Heart for a Criminal Like You

(A/N: I made a new banner! I think it's pretty good, to be fair! I think its depicts Harley's descent into madness well, don't you think? No photoshop used, just MS paint.)

I had slept all night through, until I was rudely awoken by a loud bang. I sat up startled by it, thinking it was The Joker’s doing, but I found out that I was the only one in the bedroom. He’d probably gone out to run errands, I figured. Once I had grown aware of my surroundings, I later realised the source of the loud noise. It was pouring down outside and with the usual Gotham rain accompanied with the thunder claps and lightning.

The Joker had laid out some new clothes for me on the loveseat next to the dresser. It was another dress, this time it was white. Sometimes I wonder where he gets all of these clothes from. Picturing him actually going into a feminine clothes shop didn’t really fit into his image. Not that I was complaining about having new clothes or anything, I was just curious. But curiosity killed the cat, so I didn’t bother asking him.

Automatically, I assumed that I was locked in for the day, since he was gone. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to check if the door was locked once I had got dressed. To my surprise, it actually wasn’t. At first, I thought it was some sort of game he was playing with me. Or maybe he had just forgotten to lock me in. Perhaps he trusted me now. It was possible. Either way, I wasn’t going to let this chance go to waste. I must admit, I hesitated at first. Not because of The Joker, but because of the possibility that his men were downstairs, ready to jump my bones whenever they got me alone.

After that disgusting mental image, I decided that I wasn’t going to go downstairs. I’d just wonder around aimlessly on the top floor. Maybe I might find something interesting like a secret window or a trap door. A place like this is bound to have some secrets in it. I opened and closed the bedroom door as to not attract any attention, if there were any goons sitting downstairs. A sudden bang alarmed me, while I was trying to be as quiet as possible. It wasn’t the same bang as the thunder clap or even a gun shot. It was like something had fallen on the floor. It happened to come from down the hallway that was apparently forbidden and I should never ever go down there. Curiosity had gotten the best of me and without acknowledging it; I was already drifting towards the door at the end of the corridor. The door was slightly open and to me it looked like any other bedroom that was in the mansion. I failed to see what made the bedroom forbidden.

Even when I first stepped foot into the bedroom, I didn’t notice anything that stood out. The main colours in the room were a dark red and mauve. It had a gothic and macabre touch to it, but it was actually well decorated. The room was rather large and in the centre was a round table with a few chairs surrounding it. The bed was a king sized canopy bed, with red curtains hanging from the posts. There was a huge fireplace beside the door and above it, there was a big portrait of a young woman, with bright, blonde, curly hair with big, blue eyes. Her porcelain skin made her baby pink lips stand out with a natural pout curving into a smile. I figured that she lived here before The Joker had taken over it. Then my mind wondered off to what he had done to her to get this house. I shivered assuming the worst.

Shaking my head out of the thoughts, I turned my focus back to my task. Finding out what that noise was. I searched the room trying to find the disturbance and I noticed that the window was wide open, where the curtains flailed frantically as the wind blew and rain lashed against it. I quickly ran over to the window to close it, before it damaged anything in the room. Once it was shut, I turned around to leave the bedroom frightened that if I stayed there any loner I’d be caught. But I was distracted when I stood on something out of place. I looked down to see some sort of small picture frame. To be helpful, I thought I’d pick it up and place back on the table next to the window. I assumed that that was what the bang was and that the wind must have knocked it over.

Not being able to help myself, I took a quick glance at the photo in the picture frame. At first glance, I didn’t recognise the couple in the picture, but as I stared longer there was definitely something recognisable about them. They were smiling, well and truly happy. The young female matched the description of the woman on the wall, but the young male to the right of her came as more of a shock to me. He had dirty blonde, wavy locks with deep, chocolate brown eyes. His teeth were pearly white which were enhanced by his beautiful, perfect smile. He was incredibly handsome and young. Either late teens or early twenties. Analysing longer, I finally figured out what it was I recognised. It was The Joker.

I gasped when I had realised. He looked so young, innocent and happy in contrast to what he was like now.

While I was analysing the photo more, I was deep in thought and failed to acknowledge the sound of footsteps coming closer to the door. My back was facing the door, so I didn’t see the door opening, nor did I hear it. But I did, however, hear it closing. I immediately froze on the spot, not being able to turn around. There was no need to. I already knew exactly who it was. His presence had grown too familiar to me.

There was a deathly silence lingering in the room and I had no other option but to turn around. I did so, but very slowly. Sure enough, it was The Joker, looking extremely annoyed and infuriated. His gloved hands were wriggling and clenching, while he grimaced at me through dark hooded eyes. He was dripping wet head to toe from the rain, making his make-up smudge and run across his face and some of his hair was matted to it. His back was heaving with deep, angry breaths almost growling at me.

“I thought...I told you...not to come in here,” he muttered trying not to raise his voice, attempting to cover up his anger.

“Yeah, but- ” I was cut off when The Joker suddenly flipped over the centre table, making whatever was on it fly across the room. I jumped up immediately in fright and exclaimed, “Calm down!”

Before I could get another word in, he was already racing towards me growling. I attempted shielding myself from his fist, but I didn’t succeed. I moaned loudly when his fist came in contact with my jaw. The hit was so hard; I fell to the ground in a daze. Once again, The Joker was straddling me, just like the previous night. His attacks had now become more frenzied and I whimpered whenever I was slapped or punched. When his hands darted for my neck, I quickly grabbed his wrists to stop him from strangling me. With all the muscle in my body I tried restraining him for as long as I could, but seeing as I wasn’t doing a good job of it, I hastily thought up another idea to stop him from hurting me further. For a second, I let go of one of his wrists, to twist the top half of my body around, while he continued to straddle me. He saw this as some sort of attempt to escape, so in response he quickly grabbed a fist full of my hair to turn me back around. I screamed in pain as I felt the roots of my hair tug my scalp. Quickly, I grabbed the photo frame from beside me and thwacked the corner of it into The Joker’s temple. Groaning, he rolled off me as he held the side of his head in agony.

Now that he was off me, I took this chance as to flee the room. He was still holding his head by the time I had reached the door, but he was now attempting to get up.

Not bothering to take a glance behind me, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, swerving around the corners and stumbling over my feet in the process. I could hear his footsteps following behind me along with his growl like breathing. It only made me speed up faster.

When I approached the stairs, without a second thought I jumped down at least five steps at a time, almost falling down all of them completely. I heard The Joker behind me doing the same thing, the loud thuds making me paranoid. After reaching the bottom step, I raced towards the huge front door. I was praying to God that the door was open and that no goons would attempt to kill me on the way out. I sighed with relief when I realised that they were open, but I shrieked straight after when I saw The Joker running closer to me.

As soon as I stepped outside, I was immediately soaked by the heavy rainfall. But that didn’t stop me. I continued to run and run, until he stopped chasing me. I was curious to why there were no goons or dogs patrolling the grounds, in fact I failed to see any indoors too. Maybe The Joker had sent them out on a crime spree or something.

Feeling confident, I brought my head around to look behind just for a second. “Leave me alone!” I screamed, when I realised he was only a few meters behind me. His feet were slipping in the mud and so were mine. Eventually I made it out of the grounds without getting caught up, but now I had to run through the forest which could prove to be even more of a challenge. But at least it will be easier to lose him through the trees and bushes.

When I first entered the forest I heard The Joker let out a loud yell, “Harley! Come back here!”

“No!” I screamed back at him and then continued dodging all the trees and jumping over all the roots. The Joker let out another bellow and startled by the loud noise, I didn’t notice a large tree root sticking out of the floor. My foot happened to get caught and with a scream I went flying forwards, face first into a muddy puddle. My dress was now covered with dirty water, turning the once white dress a disgusting brown. The water had also splashed up into my face, sprinkling it with mud specks. Instantly, tears began to fall down my face knowing that I was most likely about to die. I heard The Joker’s footsteps slowing as he came closer to me. “Please, don’t hurt me,” I cried, choking on my tears doing so. I could now feel his presence behind me, just towering above me as I continued to stay on my hands and knees in the puddle. For some reason, The Joker wasn’t lashing out at me yet. “I didn’t want to go into that room, I swear. I just heard something fall, that’s all. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Don’t hit me again,” I explained through the tears.

As soon as I had finished begging him not to hurt me, he placed his hand firmly around my arm and wrenched me up off of the floor. Thinking he was going to hit me, I shielded my face like a coward, but instead he wrapped both his strong around my body into a tight embrace. I suppose as a sign of relief, I cried loudly even more letting tears fall into his already soaked shirt. I gripped his shirt tightly, bringing him closer to me as I continued to weep.

After a few minutes of standing in the rain, he pulled away from me and pulled off his trench coat and then wrapped it over my shoulders. I could tell he wasn’t too happy about doing this, because his face still held a grimace. I knew he wasn’t comfortable with showing any form of affection, so it made me happy to see that he was trying in his best to please me.

He nodded his head towards the mansion while muttering, “Let’s go inside.”

Before he turned around I noticed something on his shirt shoulder. Even though the rain had darkened his clothes already, the mark on the shoulder was still visible. I squinted at it, trying to figure out what it was. When he turned around to leave, there were a lot of other marks scattered across his back. I then realised that his vest and shirt had been cut open where the marks were.

“Wait! You’re bleeding!” I screeched seeing the blood oozing from the wounds on his back.

“It’s just a scratch,” The Joker explained simply, continuing to walk towards the mansion. I ran up towards him to catch up.

“No, no! We need to get you cleaned up, quickly! These aren’t just scratches,” I told him as I grabbed his arm gently and began tugging him towards the mansion faster. He merely sighed in return and let me lead the way back.