Love, Hate, and Family Ties

Handcuffed to Hell

Matthew and I talked for a little over two hours. I have learned a lot about him, and nothing new about my father. It seems that my mother had had him five years before she had me. She never told the Joker. This explains why he didn't know about Matthew. My mother had sent him to live with friends of hers in L.A. She just didn't want the Joker to find him. She knew he didnt want children.

He said his family recently disowned him, after learning who his father is. They felt that he would inherit Joker's insanity. He decided that it wouldn't hurt to reach out to the Joker. So, that's exactly what he did. I'm surprised that Dad didn't kill him.

"So, you're staying with us now?" I ask.

"Looks like it." he says, with a shrug.

The door bursts open and my dad runs in.

"EVERYBODY OUT IT'S NOT SAFE HERE WE HAVE TO-" He's cut off when the world around us explodes.

When I wake up I feel like I've been dropped off a building. I would know what that feels like too. (Thanks dad.) My ears are ringing. My head is fuzzy. I have a pretty good idea of what happened: something exploded. What, I don't know. But I know I should get up to find out or dad will yell at me for being lazy.

I try to get up but my left wrist is chained to something. I force my eyes open and turn my head to look at my wrist. What I see makes me want to scream and cry until my throat is raw.

I, Amber Napier, am handcuffed to my father. I have had some bad nightmares. I've been hit with a whiff of Scarecrow's 'fear gas.' In those gas induced, waking dreams, this had never even crossed my mind as something to fear. But I now know what a true nightmare is.

I quickly try to see if I can slip my hand out. Nope. Too tight. I look around for my brother. He is passed out about ten feet from me, completly unhurt and NOT HANDCUFFED TO ANYTHING. Okay, Okay Amber, calm down, figure something out.... nope. I've got nothing. Guess I have to wake up the tyrant.

I shake his shoulder, knowing he can't hit me if I'm attached to him. He seems to be coming back to consciousness. I shake him again, harder this time, to make sure he wakes up.

"Dad! Wake up. We have a problem." I say to him.

"Yeah no kidding. I noticed the explosion, dear."he mumbles. He tries to get up and tugs my arm out from under me in the process.

"OOFF! That's what I was trying to tell you! We're kinda attached at the moment!" I yell at him.

"What makes you think you have the right to talk to me like that?!" He tries to smack me but he can't because obviously we are cuffed.

"Um... I don't know... the fact that you're right handed and your right hand happens to be ATTACHED TO ME!" I scream in his face, not caring what the consequences are.

"Why are we cuffed?" he asks, observing the cuffs, brinning my hand with his.

"I don't know! Why don't YOU tell ME who you pissed off enough to cause an explosion in our Hideout AND cuff you to your daughter?" I yell, pulling our hands back down to the ground.

"Well... Isn't this gonna put a bump in my plan?" he says, thoughtfully.

"Can you stop thinking about your plan that's gonna fall to peices anyway since you always end up improvising!?" I say, waving my hands around. How unlucky for him that I inherited my mother's way of talking with her hands.

"Stop moving! Damn! Shut up too! When have I ever let you down? Actually don't answer that." he says, using his free hand to scratch the back of his head.

"Uh... Guys?" Matthew calls from across the room.

"Come on Amber, let's get up. We should get started on figuring out what to do about this." He starts to get up, grabbing my wrist to help me up.

"I'm not walking around town like this. And how the hell are we supposed to even change clothes or go to the bathroom?!" I say while we walk towards Matthew, who's walking toward us.

"Very carefully of course!" he says with a smirk.

AHHHHHHH NOOOOO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING NO NO NOOOO! KILL ME NOW!

"I think I'm gonna be sick!" I say, feeling dizzy.

"Not while you're attached to me, you're not!" he says.

"Stop fighting guys. You need to get along to fix this." Matthew says.

"I don't want to have to change with him! OR SHOWER GROSSSS!" I yell, thoroughly disgusted.

"Who the hell do you think helped you put clothes on when you were a baby? Did you think I just let you run around naked? You're my daughter, nothing to worry about." he says calmly, obviously trying to calm me down and make me feel better about our situation, but utterly failing and making it ten times creepier.

"Oh my god, dad, stop. Please. Just shut the fuck up. I need to breathe." I say.

"Should we figure this out tonight or sleep on it?" asks Matthew.

"I think we should sleep on it. Amber is being a little bitchy today. Must be that time of the month, she's always horrible then." my dad says.

I promptly sock him in the face with my free hand, which also happens to be my dominant hand. The Joker falls, bringing me down with him.

"You'll pay for that later you little bitch!" he growls.

"Sounds like this is gonna be a long night." Matthew says, sighing.

"Tomorrow we're gonna find out who did this and and crush them like bugs on pavement." my dad says.

I sigh and follow my dad to his room, knowing he be yelling at me as soon as I fall asleep. He only let me sleep with him once as a kid. I move a lot and kick in my sleep. I must have kicked him or moved too close because I woke up getting shoved off of the bed. I didn't get up, I just slept there for the night.

While changing we are both uncomfortable. We stay as far away from each other as the chain allows. Hard to put a shirt on, but with team work we finally managed. We get into bed and I silently pray that he doesnt beat me to death in my sleep, since he can't push me off the bed.

"Goodnight father." I whisper.

"Shut up and go to sleep, noisy bitch." he says back

Tomorrow we'll figure this out. Tomorrow this will all be fixed. Dad may be an ass, but he's smart, he'll know what to do.