Status: i'm abroad right now, so it'll be difficult to upload chapters - i'm still writing them though :')

Crossroads

doll, you're ***ed

"Wakey wakey..." the voice faded in and out, rippled - as if she was underwater, hearing it underneath waves. Her eyes fluttered open at the sound and the world swam around her- grey and purple wavering - but the dark waves crashed over her again before she could focus. She sank to the bottom, only to be brought up to the surface by that voice.

Even though that voice seemed to be saving her - which she later thought to be painfully ironic - she knew it was dangerous. She couldn't feel anything, her nerves were frayed - but when she heard that dark, slightly nasal tone, her skin squirmed. In suspicion, almost - the voice seemed gentle, almost soothing - but her long-suppressed survival instincts knew it was camouflage. A tiger crouching among grass.

"Wake. Up!" there it was. A roar. The beast revealed itself.

Smack. Her head snapped to one side, and she woke up with a sharp gasp. Her eyes snapped open, gasp cutting off into a low whimper as a deep pain flared in her side.

Instinctively, she tried to clutch at it with her hand, only to realize that both were tied to the arms of the chair. She stared at the rope, crisscrossing against her pale arms, panic bubbling up in her chest; but it was nothing compared to what she felt when she looked up, and saw him.

His eyes were brown, surely, but with the chalky white facepaint and the black makeup he looked like he had no eyes at all; they were sunken, gaping, screaming holes.

Mouths.

"You look a bit, uh, queasy." he squinted at her, voice level again. She stayed silent. "You're smaller in person. And... weaker."

Her eyes narrowed, lips curled into a frown; but she wouldn't do more than that, couldn't.

"But, I guesss..." he trailed off, a tongue darting across his lips. Serpent. Satan. "That'll make this easier." he drew a small pocket knife out of his pocket, eyes lighting up as Hayley visibly tensed.

"So. I'll ask you nicely - why did you burn down my warehouse?"

"What did you do with Kyle?" her voice was hoarse, unused. But there was a note of defiance in it, in ignoring his question.

A few moments of silence.

He reached down and broke her finger with such ease, she didn't even notice he had done it at first. But then the pain hit her, and she howled like a wounded animal, head bowed.

"Why did you burn down my warehouse?" he grabbed her chin, yanked her face up to meet his. The smell of leather and paint made her head dizzy.

"Don't hurt Kyle, he was only doing what I asked, I didn't mean for this to happen to him." she blinked away tears, no longer trembling in his grip. Why wasn't she answering his question? This was the person who had killed her brother, ripped his cheek in half; why should she submit to him?

And, a smaller, more cowardly part of her whispered, as soon as you tell him, you'll die. And fuck, she was scared of death. More so than pain.

They stared at one another for a few moments; her, frightened but resolute, and he, disturbingly calculating.

He then let out a wheezy cackle, releasing her and turning around - she slumped down in her chair, free from both his hands and his dominating, overpowering prescence.

"You wanna see, what I did with Kyle, huh?" he forced the words out between cackles. His mirth made her uncomfortable, and she shifted in the hard metal chair.

He was gone no more than two minutes, and when he returned, he was dragging Kyle behind him. He looked fine; his clothes were a little ragged, but he had no broken fingers or ribs, not even or bruise or a mark. Her heart swelled, but her brow still furrowed in suspicion.

"Kyle...?" Kyle flinched at her voice, dragging heavy brown eyes up to meet hers. He looked so goddamn guilty, and her heart immediately deflated. Her voice took on a more dangerous edge. "what's going on?"

"What's going on, Kyle?" the Joker mimicked her, eyes widening in mock-horror; but he was practically bouncing with excitement. "Tell her, Kyle. Tell her in exactly the way I told you to."

"I..." he swallowed, glanced up - either he was trying to remember what the Joker told him to say, or he didn't want to meet Hayley's bewildered gaze. "I betrayed you."

"What?"

"I betrayed you. I only ever became friends with you, and... fucked you..." he flinched, the Joker tittered, "so that he could find out what you wanted with him - he knew you were trying to find him the moment you started asking around for Travis. You've been double-crossed. Ha...haha...ha..." Kyle trailed off unenthusiastically, before looking at Hayley and desperately babbling "I'm so sorry Hayley, I didn't want this to happen, I lo-"

"Aaaaand that's enough out of you." the Joker slapped a hand over Kyle's mouth. "That was poor acting, really. You're cackling was pa-thetic.You're gonna have to give up your big broadway dreams." he sighed dramatically, wiping away an imaginary tear out of the corner of his eye. "Now, sit down and hush, or I'll rip your tongue out." the Joker pushed him down to the ground, dusting his hands on as if he had just touched something dirty.

Hayley stared at Kyle as he picked himself up from the floor and leant against the wall, a curious numbness spreading throughout her body. She didn't feel any white-hot rage at being betrayed - she didn't have the urge to scream, or beat him to a bloody pulp. She was in shock; she was cold.

"You done whining about Kyleeee now?" silence. Hayley brought her eyes up to meet his, lips pressed into a white line, green eyes blown open. Looking almost pathetically child-like. "Good."

He glided - it wasn't the best word, but it was the only word she could think of - around the chair, stopping behind her, leather fingers tapping against the back of the seat. There was a certain amount of grace to it, as if he had done it many times before - her stomach flipped at the thought.

However, she refused to turn her head to watch him, staring resolutely forward; she wouldn't let him intimidate her any more than he had already done.

"Is this little stunt Maroni trying to intimidate me?" he said it quietly, but it was more of a hiss than a whisper.

Of course he knew about her connection to Maroni. Kyle had told him everything he knew. Anger flared, deep in her stomach.

"Fuck you."

"Fuck me?" he chortled.

"Fuck. You." she repeated, slightly breathlessly.

"Doll, you're the one who's fucked here."

She tilted her head up from its bowed position and glared at him.

"Well then, you can just go ahead and kill me, because I'm not telling you anything."

He sighed. "Oh, how very no-ble of you. I can see this is going to take a while." he glanced over his shoulder at Kyle, who had begun to edge his way out of the room. "Ah ah ah, you're gonna watch every. Last. Bit of this." he let out a wheezy cackle, the harsh snap of his hands slapping together making Hayley flinch. "I hope you're all as excited as I am."
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I'm sorry for the long wait, but I'd forgotten how unbelievably hard it was to write Joker dialogue :'') so yeah this is sub-par characterization but I'm really rusty with this ;-; it's been over a year, practically. But yeah this story is still going, albeit slowly ^-^