You Ought to Smile More

I stood still as The Joker dropped his hands from my face and continued to circle me. He held his hands behind his back and ‘hmmed’ every now and then. I shut my eyes and opened them hoping I was dreaming, but it was no dream. The Joker was actually here again.

“What’s wrong, Doll Face? Cat got your tongue?” he giggled and stood in front of me again.

“W-What are you doing here?” I choked out. The Joker cocked his head to the side and smiling, showing me his yellow teeth.

“I’ve had this feeling lately that you’ve been trying to avoid me,” he said his smile falling slightly, but he added a soft giggle at the end and stared me straight in the eye.

“You uh, go out to lunch with the millionaire, and uh stay at work until morning hours. Did you not want to see me?” he asked, enunciating the t in want.

I immediately shake my head no and The Joker’s hand flies out and grabs my chin harshly.

“I don’t like liars, Caprice! Not one bit!” he hissed. The window behind us shattered and there was a loud thud noise. The Joker glanced behind us and grinned.

“Looks like Batsy wanted to come and interrupt our alone time, Caprice,” he giggled and let go of my chin. I stepped away from him and touched my bruising chin.

“What are you doing here, Joker?” Batman asked in his husky voice. The Joker shrugged his shoulders like he was bored, but his large smile said the opposite.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he chuckled. In the blink of an eye they were on top of each other, throwing punches and taking hits. I backed away and ran for the kitchen.

There was a loud crashing again and I looked behind me to see The Joker throw Batman into my coffee table. Glass went flying everywhere and I almost thought Batman was dead, but he coughed.

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed my phone. I was dialing 911, when a purple hand grabbed my phone from me and threw it at a wall, causing it to break into many pieces. I screamed and tried to get away, but The Joker shoved me up against the wall.

“I don’t need the police to interfere with my work again, Doll Face,” he growled. I gulped and tried to pry to hands off of my shirt collar.

“Do you understand?” he asked shaking me and making the back of my head hit the wall.

“Yes!” I yelled squeezing my eyes shut and gritting my teeth when the pain spread all over my head.

“Good. Sh sh sh, calm down,” he mumbled and ran a hand over my cheek like he didn’t just hurt me.

“Don’t touch her!” Batman collided with The Joker and they crashed into my kitchen table. Blood was pooling on the floor as they fought.

“Get out of here!” Batman yelled barely looking at me. It took me a second to force my legs to move. My feet led me out of my apartment door. I was yelling for help. Many of my neighbors opened their doors.

“What’s the matter?!” one of the asked.

“Call the police! The Joker and Batman are in my apartment fighting!” Everyone went into a panic and they were calling the station. Sirens filled the air right when The Joker was shoved out of my penthouse. Batman pushed him up against a wall which only caused him to laugh.

“The police will be here soon,” Batman boomed. The Joker nodded his head with a smile and kicked Batman off of him. The Joker ran towards a window and jumped out of it, breaking all the glass. The Batman jumped out right after him. We all ran to the window, but neither of them could be seen. How could they just disappear?

“Are you okay?” one of my neighbors asked me. I shook my head and asked to borrow her phone. It was almost 2 in the morning, but I knew Todd would answer.

“Hello?” he asked. It sounded like I woke him up.

“Sorry for waking you, but I need you to come over.” I whispered into the phone.

“Caprice?! Whose phone are you calling from? What’s going on?” he asked. There was shuffling around so I knew he was getting up.

“It’s a long story… Can bring my back up phone and come as soon as possible?”

“Yeah I’ll be there in 5 minutes,” I hung up and wrapped my arms around myself. I probably won’t get any sleep tonight…

~*~

The Joker mumbled to himself as he rung the water out of his clothes. After he jumped out of the window, The Batman caught him and the only way to lose him was to jump into the bay.

“Shit,” he growled when he noticed that his clown paint was running off. The Joker took off his coat, vest, and shirt so he wouldn’t get sick and started to take the alley ways back to his hideout.

Once he got there, he ignored all the questioning looks that his men sent him when they saw him shirtless. It actually didn’t bother him if they saw all his scars, but if one man asked him why he was wet—

“Boss, why are you wet?” Something in The Joker’s mind snapped and threw a knife right at the man’s head. He dropped dead and The Joker glared at the men, daring them to say something else. When nothing was said, he continued to walk into his room and shut the door behind him.

The Joker took the rest of his makeup off and changed into sweatpants and a plain white shirt.

He took a seat at his makeshift desk and sat there in thought. Caprice was definitely someone to the Batman.

He took out his favorite pocket knife and played with it. Suddenly, he shoved the blade into the wood of his desk and stood up. He stalked over to his door, opened it and called out.

“Doc! Get in here,” one of the henchmen jogged into the Joker’s room. He was sitting back down at his desk with his feet propped up on it. Doc shut the door behind him and walked closer to his boss.

“Yeah Boss?” he asked.

“I want you to do something for me. Take Grumpy, and Happy with you. I need you to keep an eye on this girl,” The Joker handed him a picture of Caprice from her fundraiser.

“Find out who she associates with and who’s closet to her. I want you to dig up everything you can about her,” he said letting Doc keep the photo.

“When do you need all of this?” Doc asked looking up from the picture.

“I need it in 3 day tops,” The Joker told him and dismissed him. Doc walked out of his boss’ room and back into the living room.

“Happy, Grumpy, let’s go,” he said. Doc is more of a leader like figure to the other henchmen. And only the good henchmen got nicknames. The ones The Joker didn’t plan on keeping around kept their birth names, but no one knew that besides the nicknamed henchmen and The Joker.

“What’s up, Doc?” Happy asked bouncing to his feet. Grumpy scoffed and stood up. Their nicknames went along with their personalities.

“Boss gave us an important job. It needs to be finished in 3 days. Let’s get going.”