Straying out of Sanity

For the first time I've been in this room the blinds were open. A few hours ago The Joker had carried me up to his room in silence. He had laid me down in his bed, taking my shoes off for me, before kicking his own shoes off and taking off both his dress and undershirt. I had watched him, half asleep, get into the other side of the bed so that three or four people could have easily fit in between us and felt oddly alone.

The Joker had just laid there, staring at the ceiling, and left me wondering what to do. I was tired, that was obvious to me but being drunk slowed down my thought process to a bare minimum. I laid there staring at him for a few minutes before struggling to get my skirt off and gathering all of the messy covers around me so I could turn over and pretend like I was sleeping in a much smaller bed alone in a different room by myself.

That was the last thing I remembered before falling asleep. Now I was woken up by rays of sun that were filling the entire room. I wasn't in the position I had been in when I had fallen asleep either, I was nearly all the way on the other side of the bed. Next to me I heard The Joker sigh and I chanced a glance at him. The sun plus the onset of a hangover I just barely realized I had caused the already blinding sun to harshly punish my eyes for doing so and I quickly hid my head in the mattress, groaning in protest.

I felt the bed shift and heard The Joker's bare feet walk across the carpeted floor before hearing numerous curtains closing, one after another. After the noises had stopped I slowly lifted my head back up to notice the room was considerably darker, even with my eyes still closed. I had opened them in time to watch The Joker start to walk back to the bed but quickly turned my head back into the mattress as I started to realized how good his body looked for the lifestyle he lead, and also made me wonder how old this man was.

I came to the conclusion that I was obviously still drunk for thinking such things.

I felt him get back on the bed next to me before he stated, "You're a bed-hog, you realize that right?"

Instead of thinking up a reply I started to move further away from him but I felt a hand land on my waist that stopped me. I slowly turned my head to look back and saw The Joker staring me down.

"I never told you to move," he said to me with a hidden venom lingering in his tone. I still said nothing to him but laid back down on the bed, now facing the ceiling as he was again. "You talk in your sleep you know," he continued as if carrying on a casual conversation.

I felt a small mixture of fear and curiosity form in my stomach as I looked over to him. "I do?" I asked him and he mimicked my position as he also turned to look at me. "About what?"

A devious grin began to spread on his smeared, scarred lips. "Things you might not want me to know about you." The curiosity I had previously felt had transmogrified itself into sheer panic as I felt my eyes widen at his words. "Last night with that 'nightmare' you were having," he chuckled at the thought, "and being drunk earlier." He paused to lick his lips again and stayed silent, as if evaluating his thoughts in his head. "You really love spilling your guts to complete strangers," he then told me.

I sighed, pushing the heels of my hands into my eyes to try and stop them from feeling like there were going to pop out.

"I know things about you your 'friends' probably don't even know," he started again and I felt his weight shift on the bed.

"You enjoy tormenting people don't you?" I asked, hands still pressed to my eyes.

"You're sure you want to ask me that question?" he replied to me and I realized the answer was very obvious. I didn't bother to answer him and instead rolled over onto my side, facing away from him, and let my hands fall off of my eye sockets.

"Hm," he laughed mockingly and I felt him get up from the bed. I saw him walk around the bed, I closed my eyes as he did so, and heard him walk the rest of the way around the bed on the carpet before hitting tiled floor. He had went into his bathroom and I heard the distinctive sound of pill bottles hitting porcelain and tile.

After a few moments I heard the bed creak as he got back on it and I looked over to see him on the other side of me now, holding an ibuprofen bottle in one hand and a few pills in the other. I cringed away from him as he got closer and something crossed his painted features that told me if I didn't take the pills from him he was going to shove them one by one forcefully down my throat. I hesitantly outstretched my hand towards him, thankful he was deciding to be patient with me, and he carelessly dropped a few of the recognizable pills into the palm of my hand. Moving my hand back to myself I stared at the pills while The Joker got off the bed, leaving the pill bottle behind. I glanced up at him as he picked up his undershirt and pulled it on before searching for his lavender dress shirt.

"D-did you even sleep?" I quietly asked him as he got dressed.

He pitied me enough to tonelessly laugh. "I got a good thirty minutes of sleep. Stay in here
until your hangover is gone," he told me then left the room, closing the door behind him.

I sighed, staring at the pills again. "Damn," I muttered and swallowed them dry.

-

I woke up for the second time almost exactly at two p.m., according to the surveillance system. I no longer had my pounding headache but I was still tired, had a mildly dry mouth and was very hungry. I did try to ignore these inconveniences and try to go back to sleep, especially since I wasn't having nightmares, or dreams at all for that matter. I realized I was loosing the battle and, after failing at fixing my appearance in The Jokers bathroom, I left to the room I was staying in with Jay, Mitch and my sister.

Arriving a short time later I entered to find Jay in bed with the two strippers he had disappeared with the previous night. I had not disturbed the trio as I entered or stood there in a mixture of shock, disgust, and amazement. A few seconds passed and I rolled my eyes in disgust and walked into the bathroom.

After a quick shower, changing my clothes, and putting on some light makeup I left the room and the three still dead asleep occupants as I headed for the kitchen.

"Where have you been all night?" I was greeted by my sister. She was seated in a stool next to Mitch, Tom and Stacia from last night.

"Drunk," I said blandly and sat in a stool myself. The four had a few boxes of cereal on the table and without bothering with a bowl or milk I took a box of Lucky Charms and ate them by the handful.

"Where did you sleep last night?" I asked my sister between handfuls.

"A couch," she said spitefully and I noticed she had her hand on the back of her neck and was holding her head at an awkward angle.

"I suppose you noticed Jay's 'visitors'?" Mitch asked me from the other side of my sister.

"More like 'intruders'," I corrected Mitch and Stacia laughed.

"The strange thing is Cherri and Bambi are lesbians," she informed and I noticed Tom stare wide-eyed at her like she had said something about killing kittens before quickly staring at his lap and incoherently mumbling to his hands.

I smiled at his odd innocence and said, "Morning Tom."

"I-i-its-s t-t-t-two," I barely heard him mumble, still staring at his hands.

"So does that make Jay gay?" I overheard my sister asking Stacia and she laughed along with Mitch.

"Not necessarily," Mitch told her.

"Yeah, it just means Jay doesn't have a dick," I smiled at her. For an eleven year old, she already had the teenage girl death glare down to a T.

"It's only funny to you because you got to sleep with The Joker while I had to sleep on a fricken' couch," She sneered.

"Wait, so you are sleeping with him? Wow," Stacia said, shocked.

"I'm not sleeping with him, that's not what she meant," I said quickly and noticed Mitch staring me down now.

"Yes that is what I fucking meant!" Laurel yelled, startling Tom in his seat.

"Hey, watch your fucking mouth!" I yelled back at her.

"Mitch!" Laurel turned to face him.

He sighed , facing away from us and saying, "Your problem."

"I'm so glad I'm an only child," Stacia commented.

"Trust me you're lucky," my sister replied and I scoffed, eating another handful of Lucky Charms.

"But where would you be without me?" I asked her.

"I dunno maybe... Not in a house full of criminals," she said and glared evilly at me again.