Body Count

Shane, after being ushered off stage by one of the movie patrons - who turned out to be Ricky - was shoved unceremoniously into the back of the black car and driven back to the warehouse in a state of euphoria and growing apprehension.

"Did I say what you wanted me to?" she asked, wiggling her fingers nervously as they stepped from the car and into the sunlit yard of the warehousing district.

"Oh, don't be that way!" The Joker replied gleefully, waltzing over to the door and jangling a set of keys out of his pocket. "You were wonderful."

"Okay," she said, trying in vain to pull herself together, to exude that same air of easiness and control he always seemed to have about him.

They entered the main floor to find the goons already arrived, some smoking and others laughing at obnoxious jokes. They silenced themselves as soon as they caught sight of their boss, and cigarettes were hastily stamped underfoot.

"Where is our friend Mr. Bruner?" he said, hands clasped behind his back, gazing around at them all imperiously.

"In the back room with Daemyn," Odie said instantly, seemingly eager to please. "I bound and gagged him myself."

The Joker took several long, loping steps towards the man. His expression was that of feigned confusion and innocence. "Did you? All by yourself?"

Odie paused. "Err, yes. I did."

With a punch to the jaw that left Odie sprawled on the ground, holding his undoubtedly broken nose and whimpering, The Joker said, "Nobody likes a suck-up."

Shane laughed before she could stop herself. The Joker rounded on her, and she thought for a split second he was going to strike her down, too. But he merely raised his eyebrows and said, "Follow me, Princess."

Another unpleasant pang jolted her insides, and she was quite positive it wasn't a nice feeling. Ever since the night Daemyn had awoken from his comatose state, she experienced a sickened feeling in the pit of her stomach when The Joker called her, 'Princess'.

Stone Bruner was, indeed, being held captive in the same store room that Daemyn had been occupying lately. Bruner, unlike Daemyn, was bound tightly to a rickety wooden chair in the center of the room. Also unlike Daemyn, his mouth was stuffed with what looked like a pair of old gray socks. The look of revulsion on his face seemed to confirm this theory.

The whole scene looked to Shane ridiculously like an old mobster film, with a sweating, trembling man who stank of gasoline and blood, tied to a chair. Even Daemyn played his part in the comical scene, now once again donning his frowning clown mask, standing over the prisoner with his arms crossed. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling, swaying back and forth gently in a non-existent breeze, giving off a dirty, flickering light.

Shane spotted her own mask lying on the floor just inside the doorway, and she stooped to retrieve it. She was still paranoid about people seeing her face, despite tonight's fiasco at the play. As she was snapping the elastic band on at the back of her head, wondering what she was about to witness and whether or not she should really stay, The Joker approached the man with a smile on his face.

"Evening ... Bruner."

Bruner gave a muffled shout through the gag, his nostrils flaring, his eyebrows arched angrily.

"Hmm? What was that? I can't hear you!" The last few words were uttered in a sickening sing-song voice.

Rather than attempting more words, Bruner simply roared in agitation and jumped up and down on his bottom, causing the chair to crash up and down on the concrete floor. He looked quite mad.

The Joker ripped his gag out, and Bruner spat disgustedly on the floor at his feet. Shane raised her eyebrows. "You psycho!" Bruner shouted, straining forwards in apparent fury. The chords in his neck threatened to break through his skin. "Where am I? Where is my family?!"

"Oh, if you're thinking about Cole and Britney," Bruner screamed in rage at this, "They're safe and sound at home. With Mommy and Daddy. You don't need to worry about them. They were never in any danger."

"Liar!" Bruner raged, trying valiantly to free himself. "Where are we?!"

"We," said The Joker, waving a hand around at Daemyn and Shane, before placing both hands on his own chest, "Are home," Shane felt a great jolt of confusion. "You," He now pointed at Bruner with two gloved hands, "Are in a very bad place."

"Why? What did I do to you?"

The Joker laughed, throwing his whole upper body backwards, his chest heaving with merriment. He bent low over Bruner, his knees together and his hands resting on them so he stayed upright. "You! You didn't do anything! No, no, no! It was her! Blame her for your current predicament!"

He'd pointed backwards at Shane, who was standing stock still in the shadows, saying nothing. She was paying more attention to The Joker's tone of voice, as it was always a dead giveaway to his moods. It had trilled into the high, slick voice he adopted when in a high state of amusement. It sounded, to Shane, as though he were addressing an infant.

Bruner's head whipped in her direction. She saw him squinting into the darkness that engulfed her, trying to make out her face, but she was right up against the wall. "Who?"

"Show your face, Princess, please, don't be such a little tease!" He whooped at his own clever rhymes while Shane stepped forward hesitantly, slipping her mask off. Her face, still painted into an absurd smirk, remained impassive. She watched with a foreign feeling of guilt as Bruner's face morphed into a mask of hate and repulsion, which she was not quite used to seeing on anybody else but The Clown Prince of Crime. "Yes," The Joker said, mastering his own giggling fit. "She was the one who threatened your family. Maybe you should worry about her."

With an expression of mild interest and concern, The Joker turned to look at Shane. He bent lower, and held up a hand, as though excluding her from the conversation. "She's very violent, you know. Be careful of her."

Shane quickly snapped her mask back on, hiding the grin that had sprung to her face. Backing away against the wall, she chanced a look up at Daemyn, who hadn't moved or spoken the entire time. He was still standing with his feet planted wide apart, his wide chest thrown out, arms crossed. But she noticed his shoulders shaking gently, and she smiled. So he saw the humor in it, too.

If Shane was right, Daemyn had also been forcefully reminded of the time a few short days before when Shane had tackled The Joker to the ground and wrested his weapon away. The memory, far from being humorous in any sense, brought back a bitter wave of resentment towards the man who stood before her. She still recalled it with a small chuckle, though, remembering the look on his painted face when she'd done it.

"Shane," The Joker said suddenly, snapping her out of her reverie. "You're staying in here tonight. No questions, okay, Princess?"

"Of course not," she said obediently, finding it best in these situations to simply do what he said without argument.

"You're following his orders, Fatello?" Bruner spat unexpectedly. Everybody turned to face him. "You, the little mass murderer who had us all going at the theater? I'm not scared of you!"

Shane smiled underneath her mask. "You don't have to be."

The Joker, making rather a show of putting his hand up once again to exclude Shane, stopped in his position at the door. "Oh, yes, you do, Stone. You really do."

Shane rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Daemyn," the boss said, turning sharply to face the towering man behind Bruner. "Come with me. You're going to spend the night with our other prisoners."

This caught Shane off guard, and it appeared to surprise Daemyn, too, because he said, "There are others?"

"Oh, yes, just one wouldn't do, would it? No offense," he said mockingly, turning to Bruner and back again. "No, we've got two more in the warehouse next."

Shane was about to ask, 'What are their names?' but Daemyn beat her to it, and he phrased it much more like the captor she was trying hard to be.

"Are their names important?" Daemyn asked, already striding out of the room.

"No," said The Joker, smiling at Shane as he closed the door. "But their names are William and Cliff."