Straying out of Sanity

"So how did you two get involved with Joker?" the first guy to talk asked, moving his clown mask up so that his face was exposed. And I had only one word to describe him. Beautiful.

"Uhm... we were attacked by some thugs in an alley and brought into this... kitchen where they were having a meeting and I guess Joker demanded us to leave with him," I said trying not to act any different than I was before. I looked at the other two and realized they pushed their masks up as well.

"And you willingly came with?" the chick asked skeptically.

"Well yeah, those thugs were probably gonna kill us. And Joker had like five grenades in his coat. I wouldn't argue with that," I said, closing the "Fairytale" book.

"He always has shit in his coat like that," the first guy said, smirking with his perfect lips.

"Well he's the fucking Joker, its not like he's gonna have something normal in his pockets like a pen or a watch," the chick said, shifting a bit on her seat, since she was sitting on her legs.

"He could, you never know with him," the gay guy said and then looked over at my sister. "I'm sorry we're being rude. I'm Jared, that's my sister Paige and that's Hunter," he said introducing him and his... I guess you could call them friends.

"I'm Emmalee and that's my little sister Laurel," I said, in turn introducing myself and my sister.

"You have no idea how weird it is to have a kid in the house," the first guy, Hunter, said.

"Why is it so weird to have a kid here?" Laurel asked, pouting a bit.

"Because... just because!" Hunter said, after failing at thinking of what to tell my sister.

"...No!" My sister said back to him, also failing at finding what to reply.

"Maybe because a kid in a house full of felons and ex convicts and schizos is a little weird?" Paige asked Hunter sarcastically.

"But I'm with Emma and Jay and Mitch all the time, how's that different?" my sister asked Paige.

"They're not felons and convicts and crazies," Jared pointed out in a know-it-all voice.

"Mitch was in Juvy for half a year back when I was five, Jay is crazy and all three are wanted for armed robbery. Oh and Emma has like ADD or something," my sister said.

I playfully glared at her, saying "Armed robbery my ass!" I snorted as my voice slightly rose. "All we do is call overly trusting middle class people over into alleys and then take their cash while holding knives for intimidation, and then let them go," I rolled my eyes at the end of my little explanation.

"Yeah, that’s hardly armed robbery," Hunter laughed, "You should see us when were doing an armed robbery with grenades and M16's."

"Yeah but we hardly ever rob anybody though, it's more like just getting shit for the boss or killing people or some shit," Paige told him.

"We robbed a store today for them," he pointed out.

"Yeah that was just for today."

"Unless they need more stuff," Hunter told Paige and then turned to me, looking hopeful.

"No, I think we're okay," I told him and he pouted.

"Fine," he said sadly.

"Why? Do you like robbing or something?" I asked.

"No, he just liked fucking with Tom and Gabe in Super Wal*Mart," Jared clarified.

"Who?"

"The two crazy schizos in the house. Tom's a sweetheart and Hunter's an ass for scaring him but Gabe's a fuckin' psycho and deserves it," Paige said.

"Okay then... " I said a bit slowly.

"And he's fat. And ugly. And crazy. And-"

"Okay! They get the point!" Paige yelled at Hunter.

"But he's fat and useless!" Jared defended Hunter.

"Holy Jesus," Paige sighed, leaning her head back.

"Um...okay then..." I said and then looked over at Laurel. She shrugged at me and I sighed.

We then looked back over to Hunter, Paige and Jared to find them staring quietly at the entrance to the book room by the elevator. We looked over too and saw a man standing there.

"You three," he said and I recognized him as the man who had brought us to room four yesterday and the man who had brought us the bags of clothes this morning, "You're needed downstairs," he told Hunter, Paige and Jared. He stepped aside as they hurried out of the room, now completely serious. The man then looked over at Laurel and myself.

"I'd suggest that you go change into something easier to move in and be downstairs with your friend that can walk in about three minutes. She," he pointed at my little sister, "stays here with your friend that can't walk. No questions asked," he told me and then followed Hunter, Paige and Jared out of the room.

I took a deep breath in and then stood up, setting the fairy tale book on the coffee table in between the two couches. "Okay, come on," I told Laurel and hurried down the hall to our room.

"What's going on?" she asked me as I opened the door.

"I don't know," I told her and went straight for my garbage bag to look for 'comfortable' clothes.

"What's up?" Jay asked, smiling. I sighed as a response, pulling out a bra, white wife beater and some black jeans before heading into the bathroom to quickly change.

"What's up with her?" I heard Jay ask my sister.

"Some man said that her and Mitch are supposed to be downstairs in three minutes and that I'm staying here with you," she answered him.

"Why?" Mitch asked.

"I dunno, but he told Hunter, Jared and Paige to go downstairs too."

"Who?"

"These people that we met when we were reading in that circle book place," I answered, coming out of the bathroom and quickly grabbing my boots before sitting on my bed to pull them on.

"Why are we going with them?" Mitch asked, eying me.

"I dunno, the guy who came to get them said 'no questions' so I didn't ask any," I said and then dug through the bag with all the hair crap in it for a hair tie and a hair clip.

"Shit dude," Jay said, sighing.

"Tell me about it," I replied as I tied my hair into a ponytail and then clipped it up. "Come on," I then told Mitch and left the room again, walking a little faster than normal.

"What the fuck do they want with us?" he asked, closing the door and jogging to catch up with me.

"Don't ask me," I said, walking through the book place and into the hallway that would lead to the stairs. Mitch followed me quietly and we reached them in less than a minute. When we did we could see Paige, Jared, Hunter, the man from before, another man and the Joker in the middle of the room on the first floor.

"Shit," Mitch muttered when the two of us noticed the weapons they were holding.

"Come on," I said quietly and made my way down the stairs first. He hesitantly followed me and when we were halfway down the group started for the entrance, making their way left to the garage.

The only one to stay behind was The Joker, unfortunately, and he waited for us at the bottom of the staircase. When we reached him he magically produced two guns from his coat, like it was some crazy fast gun factory.

He handed one to Mitch and them pointed at the entrance, indicating that he leave. Mitch gave me a look that was a bit apologetic before following the group that had left. I followed Mitch with my eyes before looking back to The Joker.

"Well then," he said, taking the clip out of the gun he was holding and unloading the bullets. "Would you be able to tell me how to reload this?" He asked me.

I raised my eyebrow at him, wondering what he was getting at, and said, "No."

He sighed before handing me most of the bullets and saying, "I'll explain better later, okay?" and then he took a bullet from me and showed me how to put it into the clip. It was one of those things that looks easy but in reality is probably really hard for someone to do who has no idea what they're doing, like me.

"You put the back of the bullet on the black thing here and then push," he said and magically the bullet was in the clip. He made it look so easy but what he was saying made no sense. We both started slowly following the group out into the garage. "And then you just push," he took a few more bullets from me and loaded them, "The rest in like that."

He finished loading the clip and then took the, gun that he had pocketed, and pushed the clip in, before handing it to me, along with a few more bullets that I pocketed. "Know how to shoot it? Hm?" he asked as we entered the garage.

"You pull the trigger," I told him.

"Before you pull the trigger," he smiled.

"…Aim?"

"Before you aim," he told me and we stopped walking. I stared at him, perplexed. You had to do something before you aimed? What the hell? He sighed and took the gun from me, showing me a small switch on it. "You turn the safety off," he told me, flicking the switch over.

Well he sure had his way of making people feel like idiots. He handed the gun back to me and pointed to one of the many vehicles in the huge garage. "See that car?" he asked, as we walked forward again, stopping at the back of the black van.

"Yeah," I said.

"Shoot out the back tire."

"What?" I asked him, looking over to him from the car.

"Shoot out… the back tire," he said; mimicking shooting out the tire with his hand as he quickly licked his lips.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I wanna see how good your aim is, now are you going to do it or not? Hm?" he asked, a little menacingly.

I didn't argue any further, but instead held the gun up with both hands, like I've seen people shoot before, and tried to line the little lines up with the back tire but the gun was amazingly heavy for how small it was and it was hard to keep it steady. I swallowed and fired the gun off after a few seconds because the longer I held it the harder it was to keep it steady.

Like I expected, I missed my target and hit the ground not even an inch away from the tire.

The bullet ricocheted off the concrete floor and flew sideways into another car's front windshield.

Everyone in the garage froze when I fired the gun and covered their heads, except The Joker, who was laughing at the shot I had made. "We'll work on that later, get in," he giggled, yes giggled, walking me to the back doors and helping me up. A few people followed me in and The Joker closed the back doors as I sat down in between Jared and Mitch. I made sure to switch the safety back on before handing Mitch the gun as the van started.

"You don't want it?" he asked me, with a mocking smile. He knew I knew next to nothing about guns.

"Fuck no," I answered told him.