Old Love (A Joker love story)

Chapter 7

Harper

"Jack?"

The man in front of me turns around and fully faces me. "Yeah, princess it's me."

I start laughing, thinking this must be a joke. I mean, he is the Joker, after all. The Joker must have known Jack at one point, figured out who I was dating, and decided to pretend to be him to try and get me to love him. He frowns at me. So I look at him seriously, "No, you're not. Jack's dead."

His eyebrow raises, "Ask me a question only Jack would know then."

After a minute of thought, I asked, "How old was I when I met Jack?"

Without hesitation, he responds, "You were 20 years old when we met. I was 25 years old." He's right. "Jack" gives me a slightly creepy smile before continuing, "We met at 'The Laugh Shack' right after I got done doing a comedy set. We talked for an hour that night and we went on our first date the next week." Fuck that's all correct too.

My eyes trail over his body examining him and honestly yeah I'm starting to see it now if my Jack had pure white skin, green hair, and was a bit more muscular it would be the man in front of me. "If you really are Jack what happened to you? Where have you been the last six years?"

The Joker runs his hand through his hair and sighs before speaking again, "The night I went missing my boss had us doing a job at ACE Chemicals. Someone tripped the alarm and soon the place was swarming with police. I got cornered over some of the tanks of acid, the handrail gave out and I fell in. Somehow I survived and made it back out. I was very weak for a while and once I had recovered I went back and killed my boss and everyone else who was in that gang. I wanted you back but at that point, I didn't think you would take me back so I just disappeared."

I look at him dead in his eyes, "I'm the one who found the aftermath of your murder spree. That's why I was so adamant that you were dead I just assumed you were killed somewhere else and that's why I didn't find your body." The scene replays in my head, there were a dozen men on the floor all with throats slashed and smiles carved into their faces. It was horrific. I knew where the gang was because Jack had told me to go to them in case of emergencies and they could help me. So when Jack had been missing for a couple of days I went there to look for him but instead of finding him, I found a bunch of dead men. Before calling the police I looked for Jack's body but it wasn't there. As far as I know, that was Jack's first time killing someone.

His eyes have darkened and he looks shocked. I pull myself out of my memories. "Why'd you kill all of them?"

Jack grinds his jaw a bit. "After my accident, I did some spying on them, and apparently the whole job was a set-up to either kill me or get me arrested. I was furious when I found that out and my emotions took over once the opportunity struck I killed them all after making sure they knew what they did to me." He walks closer to me and starts reaching to touch my face, "I promise I didn't mean to leave you..."

I smack his hand away, "Don't touch me." He stares at me with fury in his eyes but he just clenches his fist and brings his arm down to his side. My eyes are starting to water as my brain is finally understanding what is happening. Jack looks at me unsure of what to do, clearly this is not going how he planned. "What did you think would happen when you revealed yourself to me? I'd leap into your arms like the last six years haven't happened?" He just shrugs his shoulders. I shake my head, "You're an idiot sometimes Jack you know that?"

"So you believe me?" he asks me with hope in his voice.

I sigh, "Yeah I do. I'm not sure why but I do. However, I need time Jack I've spent the last six years of my life thinking you were dead, and now knowing who you are it's a big adjustment."

He nods and turns the stove off behind him. Jack starts to leave and as he walks by me he pauses and looks at me with longing before he leaves. Once he is gone I go and sit down for a bit, trying to process all this new information. I start crying at one point it feels good to just release all of my emotions finally.

I've missed him so badly.