Chapter 12: Rabbit Hole

92 7 0
                                    

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

⸻⸻⸻⸻

Crime & Chaos

" RABBIT HOLE "

by alwaysgeia

⸻⸻⸻⸻

The glow of a laptop screen illuminated Julie's face; the girl slouched over her desk.

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

She felt the weight of her last encounter with Joker pressing down on her. His words, his touch... She needed answers. She needed to understand him.

It had been about three weeks since that happened, and she found herself running her thumb over her lips multiple times throughout those weeks, remembering how bruised they were after he left, how he knew how to touch her, and the way he had all but commanded her to kiss back, even if she didn't want to. God, I was such a liar... of course I wanted to.

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before she began typing, her search diving back into the chaotic world she had tried to avoid. If I know more about him, maybe I won't be so afraid. She was trying to believe that, but all the warning signs in her body screamed LIAR.

She had done this before, researching Joker out of morbid curiosity, but that was before he broke into her home and terrorised her.

Article after article filled her screen.

Each one painted a picture of a violent, disturbed individual with a twisted worldview that seemed to stem from a long life of abuse, pain, and trauma, or so that was what everyone thought. There were a few who claimed he was just a disturbed individual who was completely and utterly insane. The deeper she delved, the more she felt a strange mix of fear and empathy.

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

Her heart pounded as she clicked on the link. It was by an anonymous source, posted a week ago... I don't blame them for being anonymous.

The article detailed a theory that Joker had once been a soldier, possibly a counter-terrorism expert. It suggested that he had been deployed in a long, drawn-out war where he had fought against ideological extremists. The constant exposure to violence, the need to break enemies, and the realisation that there was no pure ideology or objective justice had shattered his psyche. Julie read with rapt attention, her eyes scanning each word hungrily. The theory painted the Joker as a man broken by his experiences, his mind warped by PTSD. He had become a full-fledged sociopath, his behaviour and worldview shaped by the horrors he had seen and perpetrated.

As she continued her research, Julie found herself drawn to images related to Glasgow smiles and PTSD victims. She was pulled into a rabbit hole; each photo was more disturbing than the last. The images of mutilated faces, the haunted eyes of those suffering from PTSD—it was a descent into a world of pain and torment. One image stood out: a black-and-white photo of a soldier, his face contorted in a grimace, his eyes filled with an eerie emptiness. The caption read: "Permanent facial tics are a side effect of several antipsychotic medications. Sticking out the tongue is a classic one."

Her stomach churned. Could this be the Joker's story? A soldier sent home from war, his mind fractured, his body marked by the side effects of medication?

You've reached the end of published parts.

⏰ Last updated: Oct 22 ⏰

Add this story to your Library to get notified about new parts!

(UNDERGOING REWRITE) Crime & Chaos [ ᴊᴏᴋᴇʀ ]Where stories live. Discover now