Straying out of Sanity

My chest was heaving, my knuckles white from gripping the knife so tightly. His blood was all over me. He was still trying to breathe, choking on his own blood. I smiled down at him when he died and stood from straddling his stomach.

Thinking quickly I dropped the knife into the kitchen sink and glanced over to my brother, who was still sitting silently at the table, eating his bowl of Apple Jacks.

Wait... I've done this before...

He smiled at me as I looked over at him and suddenly dark crimson started gushing from his mouth. Out of shock I took a step backwards, away from him and bumped into somebody. I spun around quickly and came face to face, or rather face to neck/shoulder area, with The Joker (since he was taller than me, obviously).

I looked up at him, my eyebrows furrowed, before looking back at my brother. Everything seemed to have frozen in place, my brother had blood pouring from his mouth and gushing from his eye sockets but nothing was progressing, not even gravity for the blood to fall onto the table in front of him. It just hung there, suspended in the air.

"Aren't you tired of this?" I heard the Joker ask from behind me and I looked back to him.

"Tired of this-?"

"You've done this enough already, don't you think?" he asked, cutting me off.

I just stared at him, questioning the whole logic of this situation.

Joker sighed and told me, "There is no logic in this situation, you're dreaming. There's no logic to dreams."

"I-I... I don't understand..."

"I wouldn't doubt that. Come on," Joker grabbed my arm and stated pulling me through the kitchen.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to a party."

"... What?"

He didn't reply but instead lead me through the house and out the front door. "Where are we?" he asked once outside, scanning the landscape.

"Vermont," I replied and he looked over at me.

"You're from Vermont?" he asked and I nodded, looking around too. All the trees outside were bursting with reds, oranges, and yellows and everything looked beautiful. He didn't say anymore but instead sat down in the front lawn of my old house where he was standing.

I joined a few seconds later and asked, "Why's it Fall?"

"...Because it's Fall," Joker replied after a few seconds.

"I killed my dad in March," I stated.

"Oh."

There was silence between us as we stared out at the beautiful landscape for a few minutes.

"I thought we were going to a party?" I asked, breaking our silence.

"I think the party was left back in March," Joker answered and I nearly laughed, turning to smile at him.

"But you see, I really can't just let you-"

"Heh, like someone your size is gonna stop me?"

"I... I... but really, if hes not up by now he has a reason not to be-"

"And I have the reason that'll get his ass up."

I quietly groaned. Two arguing voices were making their way down the hallway outside my room. The quiet sound of a heartbeat wasn't enough to drown them out either.

Wait, heartbeat? I opened my eyes as quickly as I could for being half asleep and confirmed my realization that I was not in my room.

My body tensed and froze in place, last night flooding back to me. But nothing I remembered could explain why I was half on top of The Joker. A low, throaty chuckle came from the man under me, the sound magnified in his chest, and I felt him start twirling random stands of my hair with his ungloved fingers.

Suddenly the door burst open and I gave a quiet gasp and tightly shut my eyes. I wasn't facing the door so, even if I had my eyes open, I couldn't tell who came in.
"And that's his reason for not bein' up."

"Fletcher, I think it's best you leave," The Joker stated, again his voice being magnified in his chest.

I didn't know which man he was addressing but there was a grunt and the door closed. "You know, I didn' take you as the type of guy to jump in bed with some chick a month after bein' out of that joint," said the man that was left.

"Thats 'cause I'm not that kind of guy. I'm not interested in women right now," Joker replied, moving on from playing with strands of my hair to lightly running his fingers up and down my side, leaving a trail of goosebumps as he went.

"Mhm, well I've got some news for you Joker."

"News? For me?"

"Yeah, Lau's back. They found him bound up outside of the MCU, trussed like a chicken. That was earlier, six am maybe?"

"Lau? That money launderer for the Italians?" whoever this guy was, he seemed to suddenly gain the full attention of The Joker just now with the mention of this 'Lau' character.

"Yeah. It was all over the news, reporters are saying that the Batman brought him back."
"Batman?" Joker was now laughing, "How ironic!"

"Heh, yeah. But there's more, turns out Lau ratted out all his clients. The pigs have been roundin' them all up slowly, they got Maroni first thing."

"Maroni's in jail?" Joker asked, suddenly serious.

"Yeah."

"Jill, move," I heard The Joker tell me as he lightly pushed me off of him. I gladly moved the rest of the way off of him and laid back down on the mattress, now laying on my stomach, all the while keeping my eyes tightly shut.

"You chose the wrong mornin' to sleep in, Joker, I'm tellin' you. I figured you'd've gotten a hold of me within the first five minutes Lau was in custody."

"I had some... 'previous engagements', as you can surely tell," after The Joker's statement I heard the distinct sound of watter hitting tile and realized one of them, most likely The Joker himself, had started the shower in the bathroom.

"That you weren't sleepin' with," the other guy continued the conversation.

"That I'm not sleeping with," Joker corrected, speaking over the running water.

"Heh yeah, okay." I felt eyes on me at the end of that statement and that's when I started wondering if the beds covers were up far enough on my legs to cover up my ass. What a great time to wonder about stuff like that, I know. I opened my eyes and lifted my head up to quickly check if the covers were up far enough or not and, to my disappointment, I found that they were not.

I quickly reached back to grab the covers and pull them up so they'd cover me up and in doing so I caught a glimpse of the other guy in the room. I'd imagine the look on my face was of pure shock because this man in the room with The Joker and I was huge. By far he was the tallest and biggest man I've ever seen. He was leaning up against the wall in front of the door leading into the bathroom. He furrowed his brows at me and I slowly laid back down, pulling the covers as far up as they would go over my body, and decided to pretend I didn't exist.

"Hey, Joker?" he called to the Joker in the shower.

"Yeah?"

"What's up with your woman?"

"What did she do?"

"I think she's tryin' to hide."

"Oh... shes a little shy, she'll get over it," and once he was finished speaking the shower shut off. Well that was the quickest thirty second shower ever.

"So what are we doin' today then, Joker?" The giant man asked.

"We..." Joker paused and I heard the ruffling of fabric before he continued with, "are going to get Maroni to cave so I can pay you back. Jill..."

Suddenly I felt the covers being pulled off my body and I yelled, "No!" and struggled to turn around and sit up to pull the covers back but before I could Joker had my right arm in his grip and he pulled me off the bed, but not fast or hard enough to hurt me. He quickly handed my pants to me then spun me around and led me, hands on the back of my shoulders, to the door.

"Go make your sister breakfast, it's late," he told me when I was out the door and with no further words left me in the hall, confused.

I stared at his door for a few seconds before glancing around me and quickly pulling my pants back on, careful of the bandage on my right thigh, and then quickly headed for the room I was staying in with my sister, Jay and Mitch.