Hello Joker, Won't You Play My Game?

Tainted

-Joker-

I needed a drink.

Stretching my back which had been hunched over my work, specifically turned 45 degrees away from the far corner of 'my room'. I had spent the last few hours on this, aware that Alexander could be back at any said minute and my cover would be blown. I let myself chuckle at the thought, it was all a bit of fun. 

I had finally gotten all the details corrected for my latest costume. Elias' skin feeling smooth against my own. He was one of 3 I had completed so far, the other two were Sammy and Felix in the security team. Of course, making these creations all came with risks but Alexander had left me with no choice at the moment. 

I packed up everything in my bag discretely, putting it back in my wardrobe, in a hidden compartment, in the bottom right-hand corner, that in itself took a lot of effort to build but was easier in the beginning before that camera was placed in here. I looked towards it through the corner of my eyes but sighed and moved as usual. 

Alexander had a meeting to attend to, one with other higher-standing leaders of the underworld, I was sure. And although it would have been amusing to see their reactions at my being there, knowing I had sabotaged more than half of their schemes, ruined some of their valuable drugs, and killed hundreds of thousands of their soldiers, I am more humble with my past and that much prouder with my present. Causing a rift in that meeting wouldn't benefit me, although my name may have been sprinkled in already. I was going to ignore them for now, I had more important things to attend to. 

I knew that in my room wasn't the only place I was being watched. As soon as I left it, I would have eyes peering at me, whether around the corner, down a corridor or through one of the many other cameras here, each with men stationed on the other side. I wondered if this was what religious people would imply when they said that God was always watching. 

Alexander was no God though. He was breaking character a little more every day, being just a man, he fell right into temptation and seduction was one of my specialties. Maybe I would have enjoyed it too if I hadn't had to be aware that hidden cameras weren't far from his reach if he had chosen them. 

I walked down a hall towards one of the game rooms. With Alexander occupied in one of the more peaceful times, the men who were off duty would be found here. 

The first click of my heel against the marble floor of the room silenced the chatter, leaving the gentle music in the background to be my only contender. I didn't pay much attention to it though. 

Men weren't the only ones in here. This game room was where you could play and what would men like to play more with than that of women? 

I noticed a good few of them turning to look at me too, ignoring for a moment the jobs they had of entertaining their own masters. I didn't blame them. For a woman to walk around this mansion on her own was more dangerous than a soldier through no man's land. And sure enough, this land wasn't mine and yet I tread as if it was of my own creation. 

There was a certain pair of eyes which I was intrigued in for her eyes lingered the longest. As I poured myself a drink, leaning back on the bar, I made sure she knew I noticed. From looking at her to the man next to her, I pulled out a couple of pills from the pocket of my blazer and set them on the table, taking one myself too. I knew this act, as innocent as it was, was an alert for him. He saw it, he saw me see him watching me, so reporting it was his first duty. 

Alexander really shouldn't have made his rules so easy to read. 

As I expected, the man put a hand on his earpiece and spoke into it, soon after letting his hands drop from the woman he had on his lap before walking out. 

5 minutes is what I had left. 

Turning away, I waited for the girl to approach me as I knew she would. 

"You're her. The..Joker, right?" I started making my notes, the tone of her voice being the first. 

I gave her a side glance through my glass which I lifted once more. "I am," 5'7, russet brown number 80461B. 

"You're my age," 26, marionette lines, two beauty marks on forehead and left shoulder. 

"You seemed surprised at that," 3A crow black hair. 

She was a bit taken aback by that as if anyone normally would be surprised, I suppose she's right. "I've just heard so much about you," aware of her surroundings, "the power you yield, especially...here..well, it seems so surreal," Triangle figure, beautiful. 

"It doesn't matter where you are Abigail," she was shocked I knew her name but I carried on before she could ask, "Power," I started, putting my glass in her hand but holding it together with her as I continued, "Is something you command as if you needed it to breathe. Then as long as you manipulate it through your heart and exert it in ways strengthened by you alone, you start to transcend everything you know as real." 

Leaving her with the glass, I start to walk away, knowing catching any more attention would be bad for the both of us, "If you'll excuse me," I tell her, knowing the next time I'll see the like of her will be in my mirror when I test my next suit. The time after that might be as leader of this miniature strip club. 

I hid a smirk as I left, very satisfied with my work here, but there was more I needed to get done with the people on my own side of the court. How to get in touch with them was the issue. 

Alexander had slowly throughout the weeks of me being here, made his attempts at binding me to his labyrinth, taking away any forms of communication with those outside and hoping my influence would dampen because of it. While it was an inconvenience being as bored as I was here, I wasn't as uneducated about my people's actions as he thought I was. 

I was known for my deeds because my army would carry them no matter where in the world they were, and they would spread the way I planned for them to. They were all independent people, capable people, none of which I trusted but I entrusted all to and they excelled at their tasks. They had me to face if they did otherwise and that was enough. 

Boredom though, that demon had a strength that not even I could ignore. 

I had my phone taken away but I knew it wasn't disposed of, not yet anyway. They would want to unlock all I had in it, find out what they could about my plans and my past. If they could go that far as to hack into it though, I would have heard an explosion go off by now. One I was waiting for patiently. It wasn't enough to kill a man but it would activate the data transfer into the next of the 10 copies of the phone I had and my boredom would be killed at least. 

I was just about to open Alexander's office door to find the phone when I heard a shuffle from inside. Standing back again and hiding a wall away, I realised this wasn't the quietest time to take this action as I had thought. 

I waited, wondering who could have been inside the office while Alexander was away. He hadn't returned himself yet, that much I knew already. 

I took a knife out of a hidden holder I had on my thigh, getting ready for an attack when suddenly, the explosion I had been waiting for for so long finally went off. 

Escaping the cloud of smoke, the person hiding inside the room struggled out, coughing, panicking, knowing that soon this area would be swarmed. 

It was one of the more minor henchmen which is what piqued my interest. I was more than sure that Alexander hadn't been the one to send him here to hack my phone and fail. 

I put my knife away, a plan circling in my mind made of many. 

Coming out of my hiding space and approaching him with a face I had practised thousands of times, I say, "Are you okay?" Concern laced perfectly with every word. 

He turned to me quickly, his fear clear but I also sensed confusion and that was exactly what I wanted. "Don't come near me!"

"Please," I say sincerely, pointing to the bleeding across his forearm, I slowly step closer when I see him relax slightly. I hid my smirk as much as I could as I said my next words, knowing that my web around here was only going to solidify and suffocate the longer I stayed- and that was exactly how I wanted it. 

"Let me help you."