Protect Me From What I Want

In clear view was a new looking complex of shops which I had never seen before. I wasn’t quite sure what was here previously, but it was probably built after The Joker destroyed whatever it was that used to be here. The mall looked pretty trendy and it was a shame to know that The Joker had intentions of ruining it; well that’s what I assumed anyway. Considering the way he was eagerly eyeing the building, it was obvious that he wanted to do something to it. But it was hard to tell with him; he was so unpredictable.

“What are you thinking?” I sighed hopelessly, figuring that any attempt of trying to persuade him out of undergoing this plan was useless. He already had his mind set to it and now all he had to do was manipulate me into doing it with him. Once an idea pops into his mind then he will find away to make it happen because of his determination and ‘dog-chasing-car’ way of life. He doesn’t know what he wants, but he sure knows how to get it simply because he is an anarchist and his number one aim is to destroy.

“I say we have ourselves some fun, huh Harley?” He asked as he turned into the parking lot. I noticed that it was completely empty so I began thinking that maybe the mall wasn’t even open yet, thus shattering The Joker’s plan. He drove straight up to the entrance nonetheless indifferent on the fact. I was sincerely hoping that it wasn’t open just so that his plan failed.

“J, it isn’t even open yet by the looks of it,” I pointed out as he put the brakes on the van.

“Get out and go see when it is open,” he ordered nudging his head in the direction of the main doors. Taped to the door was a laminated notice with something written on it.

“Why do I have to do it?” I muttered as I undid my seatbelt and heaved open the door. I heard him mumble what sounded like a patronising ‘good girl’ before I slammed the door shut. I trudged over to the notice, feet getting stuck in the snow in the process. I began reading over the notice and realised that the mall opened 5 o’clock this evening. Just my luck that it opened today. As I read on and noticed that there was an opening ceremony going to be held before the doors are officially open, The Joker started beeping the horn profusely making me jump almost five feet in the air. I turned around and glared at him, even if I couldn’t actually see him for the tinted windows. I could still tell he was smiling smugly at me, however. “Hold on!” I screamed agitated, followed by another loud beep. I slid my way back to the van and climbed back in.

“Well?”

“It opens at five tonight,” I replied.

“That’s perfect,” he exclaimed happily positively gleaming from the excitement. He unbuckled his seat belt and virtually dived into the back of the van. I had no idea what he was doing, but I knew he was definitely searching for something. “Don’t worry; I came prepared,” he stated as he picked something up off the floor.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“This is a bomb. Although very small, they’re still extremely powerful,” he explained as he bundled up a pile of them. “Come on, Harley. You’re going to help me. All I want you to do is watch my back,” he ordered before opening the back doors and then exiting. I climbed back out of the van and waited for The Joker to make his way around. He led me to the main entrance and then he started applying the small bombs, nicely hidden in the corners. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing, while the whole idea completely baffled me. I was still only very vague on what he was planning to do as a whole, but I knew I’d find out in due course. Just as long as I didn’t have to do anything drastic, I wasn’t complaining.

“You know, your genius is wasted on you,” I pointed out.

“I’m putting it all to good use, aren’t I?”

“No. You’re completely abusing your intelligence by using it for all the wrong reasons.”

“Well, that’s just your opinion,” he finished with a sigh.

Once he finished the main entrance, we scoped the site in search for other possible exits. We managed to find two, not including the Staff Only double door at the back. The Joker planted the bombs in the corners of the two doors also and I figured that we were done after that, until he began tugging me towards the staff door. “What are we doing now?” I asked.

“We play the waiting game,” he replied as he aggressively kicked open the doors. Once inside, we stood in a long, eerily desolate corridor. There were a series of doors along the corridor. The majority of them lead to a section of the main building, but the door at the very end of corridor besides a set of stairs led to some sort of security office. To the left of the room were a number of television screens showing recordings from off the security cameras and at the back of the room was an old office desk. The Joker meandered over to that desk and then sat down in the huge, leather office chair. “Let’s see what’s in the draws shall we?” The Joker suggested as he pulled out one of the draws attached to the desk. “Well, well, well,” he started before slapping down a few dirty magazines onto the desk in front of him. “It seems like the manager is going to be a dirty old man. Woah...even God would say, ‘I didn’t make those’!” He joked staring down at the girl’s overly huge, fake boobs.

“J! Put them away! Shouldn’t you be focusing on this little plan of yours?” I asked sternly, oblivious to how he was acting so calm about this.

“Calm down, toots. We’ve got hours before this place actually opens. We’ve got time to kill. But I’ll leave the killing till later,” he chuckled as he winked at me. Soon after, he placed the magazines back in the draw and leaned back in the chair with a sigh.

“Do you actually know what you’re doing?” I questioned curiously as I made my way over to the desk and placed myself onto it in front of him.

“Not at all,” he answered bluntly. “I’m a spontaneous guy, Harley. You should know me by now. I act on a whim and I know when the time comes around I’m bound to do something interesting. Even I don’t know what I’m doing; isn’t that exciting?”

“Very,” I replied monotonously. I knew him so very well, but even him himself couldn’t decipher his own thoughts or figure out why he did what he did. All I knew was that in the next few hours The Joker planned on conducting sinful deeds of chaos.