Porcelain [ ᴊᴏᴋᴇʀ ]

Chapter 12: Rabbit Hole

A/N: Holy shit!!! An update for this story! BIGGEST APOLOGIES<3

(Originally written: October 2020)

(Rewritten: December 2024)

⸻⸻⸻⸻

Crime & Chaos

" RABBIT HOLE "

by alwaysgeia

⸻⸻⸻⸻

Three weeks had passed.

The pale face of a young blonde was illuminated by the glow of a laptop screen, slouched over her desk with too many tabs open.

Julie's room mirrored her mind—papers scattered everywhere, books piled up, her laptop surrounded by empty coffee cups and crumpled snack wrappers.

She pushed away from her desk and leaned her head back against the chair, sighing. The need to understand the enigma that was the Joker was heavy--she wanted to know more about the slashed criminal.

Her thumb found her lips and ran itself over them over and over during these three weeks, and his touch was still there. Still lingering. Still, she could feel the rough texture of his scars grazing her cheeks as he pressed his mouth against hers. It was strange that she could still feel how bruised her lips felt after he left, how he knew how to touch her, and the way he all but commanded her to kiss back, even if she didn't want to.

I was such a liar... of course I wanted to.

Slim fingers hovered over the keyboard after she wheeled her chair back to the desk, before she began typing again, opening another tab. Since she moved to Gotham, she wanted to stay out of the world of chaos, to remain in the shadows to watch crime from afar.

But she was part of that world now.

This wasn't the first time she had researched him, but never this thoroughly. The last time she tried, Joker had broken into her house and snatched the laptop straight out of her hands. If she knew more about him, she thought she'd be less frightened of him. It seemed logical to her, but she'd have to see if it actually worked.

'Who is the Joker?'

Search.

Article after article filled her screen.

Some of them labelled Joker as a violent, disturbed individual with no remorse and no regard for human life. Some said he was a man who had lived a long life of trauma and abuse that shaped him into who he was today. Then there were the ones who said he was insane and needed locking up in Arkham.

The deeper she scrolled, the more she felt a twinge of empathy.

One article caught her eye: 'The Joker: A Soldier's Descent into Madness by Anonymous.'

It was posted a week ago and Julie didn't blame them one bit for staying anonymous.

This person's theory was that Joker--or Jack, she wasn't sure which one she preferred to call him--had once been a Special Forces soldier. Maybe one that specialised in counter-terrorism.

'Could the Joker be a war veteran? It has been a rumour for some time in the Gotham community that the Joker could have history in the army, shown in his violent and precise skill in planning and detail--such an example is when he first appeared on the news during the infamous Gotham Bank heist.