Protect Me From What I Want

Harley’s POV

For the past few days now I had been spending the majority of my time with Ivy. The days didn’t seem to be as dreary anymore now that I had a friend to talk to. Her stories managed to amuse me to no culmination, maybe because they were so much more interesting than mine. That is one of the most evident reasons for my liking towards her. She seems to be the complete opposite of who I am. She’s funny. Confident. Smart. Strong. She’s the perfect example of how every woman should be in this modern day. She’d never let anyone push her around. Especially men.

Previously, she’d explained to me how she had imagined every man to be. Her heart was completely devoted to something other than the male population. In her mind, plants were her one true love. Ivy adored any aspect of a plant and worshipped the beauty of nature. However, men she seemed to detest. Men were pigs in her eyes. Possibly from past experience which influenced her to think like this. It’s not my place to ask.

At the moment I was currently laughing along with Ivy as she explained the backgrounds of some of the patients in Arkham. How much of it was true, I wasn’t quite sure. Some of the stories seemed a little farfetched, but they entertained me nevertheless.

“What about her?” I asked, giggling as I pointed to a middle-aged woman sitting in an arm chair close to the TV. She held a death grip on either arm of the chair and not once moved her eyes away from the screen.

“To be honest , I’ve never seen her out of that chair. I’ve been here for…six years, maybe and I’ve never seen her move. Maybe she’s dead. I wouldn’t be surprised in this place. I know about her though,” Ivy stated as she pointed to an elderly woman, walking towards the sofa near the armchair. “She used to be an ex-porn star.”

“That is wrong on so many levels. Do I really want to hear the rest of this story?”

“Oh, will you lighten up, Harls? What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Continue with your story.”

“As I was saying she was a porn star and a complete sex maniac.” I was already giggling uncontrollably and the story had hardly begun. True or not, it was amusing. “As her sexcapades continue, she starts thinking of more and more weird shit to do with her lovers. One day she ties a dog collar and chain around one of the men’s neck. And not realising that the collar was getting tighter every time she gave it a yank, she killed the poor bloke. Strangled to death. But then she craves more. She begins to form a blood lust. The sex only starts with a few nicks with a blade, but then she get’s deeper and deeper and deeper until eventually they die in their own bloody mess. It’s pretty tragic. And then to finish off she takes pictures of her and the dead bodies.”

“That is unbelievable!” I laughed.

“Fine. Don’t believe me. But I know it’s true. I’d stay away from her if I were you. You never know when she might try and lull you into a false sense of security so that she can try another one of her blood romps with you.”

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on talking to her anytime soon anyway. How do you know all of this?” I asked, curiously.

“Trust me, Harls. I’ve been here for six long years. I know a lot around here, toots.”

My eyes widened at the nickname. As strange as it sounds, I almost vomited at the sound. I swear I had almost completely forgotten about him for awhile, until I heard that name. “Please. Don’t ever call me that again.”

“What? Harls?”

“No; Toots. Please, just don’t do it.”

She merely nodded quietly, understanding the situation immediately. “So, I’ve talked for way too long. How about we talk a little about you? Tell me about yourself, Harley.” I knew she was itching to ask about what happened between me and The Joker and I appreciated her subtleness.

“There’s not much to tell, really. I was once a psychiatrist working here, in Arkham. I was given The Joker case and it got way out of hand. I ended up stupidly…’falling in love’ with him. He escaped from Arkham, found me, burned down my house and office and took me away with him. He transformed me into a little mimic of himself and I joined forces with him for a little while. But he never told me about what he was planning to do to Gotham. Believe me. I should have known, but I was blind. Sure, he went out all the time without me and never told me what he was doing, but I always thought they were just minor jobs. Obviously not. I was a fool. I miss him though. He let me go and left me on top of the rooftop.”

“And that is why I don’t like men. The only place in my heart is for plants. Speaking of which, I’ll have to show you my plant one time in my cell. Considering you just told me your story, I may as well tell you mine. I used to be a botanist working for cosmetics and fragrances and I was lectured by Professor Jason Woodrue. I always thought he was a lovely man, until one almost fatal night. I was told to stay behind in Woodrue’s lab late one night. Being a devoted botanist, I stayed. Unfortunately, Woodrue was only planning on experimenting some of his extremely harmful toxins on me. It was then that I learned that I had a hyperactive immune system and it caused me to reject any toxins that he injected into me. I later became Poison Ivy. I began creating toxins of my own and desired payback on any nature abuser of hater. Woodrue was my first antagonist. Afterwards, my protests began to get out of hand. Therefore the police got involved and I was brought here.”

“You seem so harmless.”

“And so do you. Looks sometimes deceive.”

“Miss Quinzel?” I heard someone call out from behind me. I turned around and was met with the rude nurse I had encountered previously. “Commissioner Gordon wishes to speak to you. He said he’d be waiting in your cell.”

I sighed loudly, exaggerating slightly. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting a meeting with Gordon, considering that I hadn’t had one for so long. But today, I couldn’t be bothered. For once, I wasn’t bored and now it was being ruined.

“Oh, commissioner Gordon? Send him my love,” Ivy said and she blew a kiss to me. I pretended to catch it and tucked it into my pocket.

Once I had stood up from my seat, some guards were already waiting to lead me back to my room. I quickly waved a goodbye to Ivy before being manoeuvred out.