Paparazzi

Today had finally happened for Victoria. The day, to be specific. The day she had been telling everyone would soon happen. The day her classmates thought she was crazy for. The day her friends tried telling her would be impossible. The day her parents had forbidden her to be out alone in the city of Gotham because. The day that Victoria Andrews finally took a picture of the infamous criminal mastermind and psychopath, The Joker.

Endless nights of crawling out of her second floor window and walking to the nearest café with Wi-Fi so she could listen to her 5-0 radio iPod app for hours had finally paid off for her. Almost two months she had been doing this same routine every night, from six to midnight slowly drinking coffee and listening to Gotham City Police chat.

After one week of hearing nothing even remotely about The Joker, Victoria was wondering if her friends were right, that this task was impossible. She started to wonder if her classmates were right, if she was crazy to believe she could do this.

The first time she had heard the 5-0 radio mention something about The Joker she had almost missed it she was so bored. After confirming that she had actually heard something about The Joker she stood up so fast that she knocked over her coffee, still half way full, onto the floor as she ran out of the small coffee shop. After only a block of pure sprinting on her part, Victoria realized that she would never be able to run six miles, assuming her body could run that far, in time to catch even a glimpse of The Joker, let alone take a picture of him.

Several more times Victoria had done this, frantically running out of the coffee shop in the direction of The Joker's mayhem only to realize he was too far away from her. Even so, she was still persistent. She had tried mapping out all of the locations but they were scattered and senseless. She tried organizing the places he was going and the things he was doing but they too made no sense. Victoria realized that if the Gotham Police and The Batman couldn't catch this man using methods like this, neither could a simple sixteen year old high school girl.

So she continued to sit at the coffee shop, patiently waiting to hear about her favorite villain on the 5-0 radio. After two months of spending her nights doing nothing but that, Victoria finally heard what she was waiting for. Because she had listened to this police radio for six hours a night for two months straight she had learned the chat by heart; It started with a 10-14, meaning a suspicious person, and a 10-72, meaning a gun was involved. The radio went on to report in the next three minutes a 10-31, crime in progress; 10-35, major crime alert; 10-29F, suspect wanted for a felony; 10-79, bomb threat; 10-24, emergency backup; 10-00, officer down, all respond; and a 10-52, ambulance needed.

Victoria was literally on the edge of her seat as she waited for a location of the chaos and when she finally heard it she jumped off of her chair and ran out the door. The Joker was a little under half a mile away from her. She wasn't sure if she had received the location too late but she knew for sure that she could sprint half a mile, and hopefully be in time to take a picture of The Joker.

Victoria had snuck out earlier today since it was a weekend and she had no school, and she was very glad she did. If she had left her house around six as usual she would be over half an hour late for this.

When she arrived, out of breath and feeling sick from running, Victoria quickly grabbed her old camera from around her neck and frantically started taking pictures of the scene, almost forgetting her camera wasn't digital and used film, limiting how many photos she could take. Once she started to observe the crime she had almost thought that she was too late, and that The Joker was already gone.

Standing on the sidewalk out of breath and her camera held in her shaking hands, she observed what was happening before her. She noticed cops and sirens and lights but at first didn't see any trace of The Joker. She surely thought that the bomb threat was him, along with the persons wanted for a felony. But no one on the radio actually said that it was The Joker.

Suddenly doubting herself, she noticed a tall man, dressed in purple, hastily trying to get to a nearby van. Victoria watched and with each second that passed she realized that this was the moment she had been waiting for.

Victoria quickly raised the camera back up to her eyes, ready to take the picture of the dangerous criminal when she noticed that he had stopped moving, he was froze in place with one foot in the van and both arms ready to pull him inside to safety. Victoria pulled the camera away from her face to see why and realized that he was staring straight at her.

Victoria felt her heart stop as she stared back before realizing that, with all these cops around, The Joker wouldn't be here forever. Quickly, she pointed her lens back at The Joker and snapped a shot. She pulled the camera back down in time to see The Joker hoisting himself into the van as it began to drive off.

Amazed with herself for actually achieving the impossible, photographing The Joker, she watched in amazement as the van drove out of sight. Deciding to quickly leave the scene as well, before any cops notice what valuable evidence she had in her camera, Victoria noticed she had only one shot left. She turned the camera to herself and took the last picture she had of herself, wanting to see the surely priceless expression on her face and save this memory forever.

Hours later, back at her house in the garage, which Victoria had turned into a cursory dark room so she could quickly develop the film she had taken, she finally got to see what she had managed to capture on film that day. Most of the photos were carelessly taken, especially the first few which were off-center and out of focus. Progressively they began to better in quality. By the time Victoria's eyes actually saw the photo she had taken of The Joker everything was as perfect as it could be in a precipitous situation. And now she had realized why he had stopped. He was posing. He was posing for her. He had even smiled for her. For her, a sixteen year old nobody. The Joker had risked his neck for Victoria to take a picture of him.

In the last photo, the one Victoria had taken of herself, the expression on her face was almost alien. It was the strangest mixture of pure excitement and amazement she had ever seen but it mirrored exactly how she felt now.

Taking the photo of The Joker in her hands once again she sat down on the cold concrete floor of her garage and cried, overflowing with emotions. Victoria was quickly realizing that she loved the man in her picture as much at the picture itself. But not only that, not only did she love him but she was in love with him.

Victoria Andrews had fallen in love with The Joker over a photograph. The photo she held in her hands was so magical to her. And she new she needed another one, she wouldn't live with only one.