Cruel (A Joker Story) [UNDER REVISION]

44: Cheshire

//Joker's Point of View//

I paced back and forth in my office with my hands clamped behind my back, fingers fidgeting and twiddling as I muttered under my breath. I was too hard on Lucy, but I couldn't help it. I was not a nice man, and she had to get it in her head that her past was her past. And it should stay her past.

I cursed to myself. She left home, what was she up to?

I checked my phone. No missed calls, no text messages.

She really was angry with me. I did almost put her in a choke hold.

I pursed my lips, licking my scars from the inside of my mouth before I picked up the keys to one of my vans, walking out to driveway. I got into the van. Good thing I knew where she'd be at a time like this.

The only way out of Gotham City. The boarder of Gotham.

//Lucy's Point of View//

I parked on the side of the road. I was currently sitting on the hood of my car with my head in my hands. Every now and then, I'd look up at the sign that, even in the pale moonlight, read those damning, yet comforting letters.

NOW LEAVING GOTHAM CITY.

I put my head in my hands again. No, I couldn't leave. I loved Joker.

He was my everything.

A gust of wind blew past, the trees around me shook steadily as I heard a vehicle pull up behind my car.

It sounded like a van.

It sounded like Joker's van.

I smiled, removing my face from my hands. I heard his footsteps nearing until he was standing only inches from me.

"Hello, baby." I spoke with a raw voice.

Gloved hands touched my shoulders, but they didn't slide down my arms like they usually did. Instead, they wrapped around my neck and flung me back into the windshield of my car, cracking it with the collision of my head.

I gasped as pain flooded my head, along with blood at the base of it as my world grew dizzy. I looked up to see who this person was, to meet the blue eyes of Officer Remus.

My eyes hardened as I tried to punch him in the jaw, but my senses were dull from the injury to my head, and it was getting hard for me to fight back.

"How do you like this?" he spoke as he placed a knife in my mouth, holding my head still as he sliced deep into my left cheek.

I let out a blood-curling scream as I felt my skin tear in two, my mouth filling with blood that dripped down my chin and down my neck. I pushed my hands against his chest to push him off, but he was already working on the other side of my face. He sunk his blade through the flesh of my right cheek, and by the time his word was done, I was twitching in a pool of blood on the hood of my car, fighting to retain consciousness through the blood-loss. I had fifteen minutes max before I would lose enough blood to threaten my life. And I was the only person who could stitch myself back up without passing out. My nurses wouldn't be able to do it well, and I couldn't go to the hospital.

I was preparing myself for another strike, another slice, but the man just laughed as he started to walk back to his van, but the sound of a car pulling up caused him to halt. His footsteps stopped at the sound of a door creaking open, and the cruel laugh of the Joker pooled out into my ears.

I couldn't lift my head to look at him, all I could do was try to move my arms, but I couldn't due to the amount of pain coursing through my head.

"Why is my girl on the hood of her car?" Joker asked the man.

There was a brief silence before Officer Remus spoke up. "I had to teach her a lesson."

"You know how I don't like my possessions hurt," Joker growled. "And that girl right there, she's more than just a possession. She's my princess."

The man responded with laughter. "Well, now she's ugly as you."

I heard the bang of a gun, followed by Joker's laughter. "Well, at least my head's still in tact, huh, Officer?"

His footsteps drew closer.

Closer.

Closer.

Until I could hear the click of his tongue, , and the halt of his feet. He reached his hand out to lift my head up.

I met his eyes and watched as they widened, a wave of emotions hitting him like a Tsunami, but his final reaction shook me more than the previous ones.

He looked scared, lost, and guilty.

I had never seen such a look in Joker's eyes before, previously I had assumed he was unable to process those emotions, but he looked into my eyes as he let out a crippling, wavering set of words that sent me in more sadness than I had ever felt in my life, as the reality sunk in with these two words.

"I'm sorry."