Straying out of Sanity

"Authorities have no new information on this criminal that has been causing chaos and building panic in the citizens of Gotham city. If this dangerous man is spotted please take all precautions to stay clear. Please do not approach him, he is armed and dangerous, and contact the police immediately."

I put another Cheezit into my mouth, not feeling particularly hungry at all but feeling quite bored. Sitting in front of a television news channel for nearly three hours was possibly one of the most boring things a twenty year old could do. And not to mention my leg had been constantly stinging, not enough to really hurt but enough to annoy the fuck out of me, for the past thirty minutes.

I had been shot nearly a week ago and could finally wear pants but the goddamn thing decided to only hurt enough to annoy me. Which didn't help the fact that I've been on a no sleep binge for the past six days. The most I could sleep was about two hours without being tormented by my dad and brother. So I pretty much gave up sleeping for the week. Oh and not to mention eating. I've also quit eating actual meals and stuff because this all greatly affected my appetite.

And you'd think sitting in between Jay and a schizo would be a bit more... eventful than just staring at a TV and quietly eating Cheezits. Us three, plus my sister, were the only people in this part of the manor and possibly the only people at all. I guess The Joker had gotten bored earlier and went to cause 'chaos' in the city.

Next to me Jay sighed. "I hate the Goddamn news," he stated before yawning. With me being in a lethargic state it was infectious and I yawned as well.

"Then change the channel," Laurel said from the other side of Tom, who seemed to be in his own little world at the moment seeing he was calmly muttering to his hands that were bound in his lap.

"I haven't seen the remote in nearly three hours," Jay told her and let out a groan from pure boredom. True, we had been watching the GCN news channel since about seven and it was now nearing ten pm according to the news channel's little digital clock on the bottom of the TV screen that would periodically switch to the temperature and back.

"What did you do with it?" she asked.

"I didn't do anything with it! It disappeared on me!"

"Oh yeah, it just got up and hid from you, like that's not logical at all."

"Maybe someone took it..."

"Because we've been the only people in the room since five," I added in, "and you had the remote then."

"You know what Emma? No one asked you!" Jay raised his voice, catching Tom's attention and he quickly looked up at Jay. Jay smiled at him and asked, "Have you seen the remote Tom?"

Tom shook his head 'no' and I smiled at him. He quickly returned it before staring up at the television. I moved closer to him and rested my head against his shoulder; he tensed up a bit as a reaction like he did with any physical contact but relaxed nearly a second later.

"Well you know what?" Jay asked a moment later as he stood up.

"Huh?" Laurel asked blandly.

"There's a TV in our room with a remote so we don't have to watch stupid news!" Jay told her.

"But this TV is like five times bigger," Laurel pointed out.

"That doesn't matter when you're watching people with three foot wide faces drone on about stupid news!" Jay nearly yelled.

"Okay! Okay! Jesus, we'll go back to our room," Laurel stood too.

"Noooo," I whined and moved off Tom's shoulder so he could stand too. "I'm too tired to move," I added.

"Well… That sucks for you," Jay said as Tom stood up.

"Boo, you suck," I said emotionlessly and threw a few Cheezits at Jay. He stared at them, on the ground where they fell after bouncing off of his stomach, before he picked them up, looked around, and dropped them into a nearby expensive looking vase.

"That’s gross," I laughed at him.

"Not my problem," Jay told me and disappeared with Laurel and Tom.

"Bitch," I muttered and looked back to the TV. Jay was right, the news was boring. I groaned, wishing that Jay would come back and carry me, even though he was pretty much a twig. I grabbed the Cheezit box; closing it and hiding it back under the couch where I found it hours previously, unopened. I then used the couch to help me stand up before manually turning off the TV and dizzily trudging off towards the room I was staying in. I guess that it helped that most of the house was dark for my dizziness but not for my sleeplessness.

About a minute later I stopped walking in a hallway and leaned against the wall, closing my eyes. I was too tired to do this crap and Jay needed to come back and carry me now. A few seconds later I involuntarily slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor with my knees up to my chest.

"You're gonna fall asleep and you're gonna scare the fuck out of yourself," I told myself, resting my head on my left knee as I let my right leg lay flat in front of me. The bullet wound I had received nearly a week ago was mostly healed by now. Apparently Joker did know what he was doing back in that van.

"Creepy, huh? Do you thing he used to be a doctor?"

I froze, making sure my eyes stayed shut. Surely I didn't just ask myself a question that I hadn't even thought of. I heard the same voice chuckle and I realized that I didn't sound like a ten year old prepubescent boy.

"Scary isn't it? How fast you 'fell asleep'?" the voice asked me just as I was pondering on how fast I had fallen asleep. "That is," the voice continued, "if you've even fallen asleep at all."

Another chuckle sounded as I was about to say 'Of course I've fallen asleep, you're here aren't you?' but quickly stopped myself because if I wasn't asleep and I was just hallucinating I would be talking to myself.

"Emma… are you listening to me?" the same voice asked and I let out a small groan of annoyance.

"Go away, Aaron," I told him shortly after, moving so my arm was over my eyes, resting on my knee, so I wouldn't open them. If I was asleep my little brother would scare the fuck out of me, like what I realized would happen if I stupidly fell asleep.

"I thought you wouldn't reply to me in case I was just a hallucination? Now you're just contradicting yourself," he told me.

"Why don’t you go back to Arkham where you belong and leave me the fuck alone?" I asked him, growing impatient with him and myself.

"Oh I'm not the one who belongs in Arkham, you are! You killed my dad!" Aaron responded, sounding slightly pissed off.

"Your dad killed my mom; you just sat there and watched him do it. And then you just sat there and watched me kill him. Then you refuse to leave with me and Laurel and then you frame yourself by calling the cops nearly fifteen minutes later and saying that-" I abruptly paused when I opened my eyes so I could properly tell my little brother off but he wasn't here. I gave a confused look to the emptiness to my right where I had heard Aaron's voice coming from.

I just figured I had either woke up or that I was in fact hallucinating. Until, of course, I turned so that I was facing forward and saw my father slumped against the wall opposite me, blood pouring out of his torso.

I quickly pulled my legs away, earning a throbbing pain from my right thigh, and shielded my eyes again. Now I knew that I had fallen asleep and that I needed to wake up.

Of course, like always, waking up from a dream when you know you're sleeping is impossible, especially when you really really need to wake up. So I just sat there, listening to myself hyperventilate and waited for something to happen or for me to wake up. For what seemed like hours nothing did happen and I calmed down enough to get up the courage to check if my father's corpse was still in the hallway.

I slowly lifted my head up so my eyes could see over my arm and saw nothing in front of or around me. I sighed, rolling my eyes at myself, and let my head fall back down into my arms on my knees. But fuck, at least I was awake-

Before I even knew what was happening someone had there hand around my arm and I started screaming, "No! No! N-!" but was quickly cut off by a hand around my mouth, stifling me. Despite the intensifying pain from my right thigh I started kicking at the person as I bit down onto the gloved hand covering my mouth. There was no way in hell this was a dream, this was fucking real.

"Hey! Jill! Stop it! Shh!" I heard them yell at me and I suddenly stopped flailing around to look up at my captors face. The Joker was staring right back at me, the same 'what the fuck are you doing' look on his face from one week previously in the night club.

Once I loosened my jaw from his hand and quit screaming he moved his hand from my mouth. I blinked up at him a couple times, realizing that I feat super dizzy all of the sudden and my vision had been slightly blurred with frightened tears. Before I could do anything further my eyes rolled back into my head and I hell backwards into black nothingness.