Joker [[2014]]

†Chapter Two†: Smile

Ten years and the sun has never shined, even since he had been put six feet under piles of dirt. Everyone had given up all hope of ever being saved. Sure there was police men and firemen, but even they sometimes couldn't stop the villain in the act.

Five of those years and still there was no other hero to take his place. But if one were to ever take his place, Ozwald would have killed him in the matter of days. Maybe even less.

You see the hero and the villain shared a special bond for one another. Ozwald never meant to put him under ground, let alone hurt him. Something in him snapped and that was the result of it. Losing what was once his childhood best friend.

So he sat in the middle of an empty room, eyes open as if they were stapled to stay like that, those four cards in his hand, they sliced at his fingers but he didn't seem to mind. They were the only thing keeping him from bouncing off the walls. All was quiet too and as if to bring the setting all together, the grandfather clock was the only thing heard. It ticked and ticked and ticked. With every other tick, the killer's hand twitched and another cut was formed on his long slender fingers.

Finally the clock had striked twelve and the sound of midnight was heard. This was Ozwald's cue, and so he got up and hurried to the bathroom, locking and shutting the door behind him. He leaned over the sink and reached a hand up to the side of face, the side with his mask. Slowly he removed it and looked up to the cracked mirror to see his stitched smile. Dried blood covered the strings and outlined the semi healed cut.

One by one the villain cut each stitch with his lucky card, the Joker card. Once he had cut the last of his stitches, Ozwald then washed off the dry blood. He glanced to the upper right corner of the mirror. There was pinned a picture of two boys, both had an arm around the other like best friends.

Ozwald stared at the picture, eyes turning bloodshot. A single tear rolled down his cheek, mixed with the black eye makeup. His once expressionless face, crumbled in pain. Though he was in pain, half of his face was smiling. The killer covered his eyes with his palms and tangled his fingers in his hair, digging his nails into his scalp.

His lips parted and his teeth clenched together as if he was trying to keep himself from screaming, but instead he chuckled. His hands dropped from his face and gripped onto his tie. Ozwald tugged on it as he laughed. He laughed not because it was funny, there was nothing humorous about the situation. The man laughed at the sight of another persons blood spilling out, his sanity was long gone. That wasn't why he laughed though. Ozwald laughed at himself for being so careless. Yes his sanity was no more, but when he though of the hero only an ounce of it seemed be still there.

Then again that was only for a second. Ozwald's smile faded once his eyes found his reflection in the mirror. His laughter died down and all that was left was silence. The clock ticked. Ozwald let go of his tie and picked up his card, the joker card for reminders. His breath was shaky but his expression was blank. From a certain angle it would look like he was smiling and Ozwald intended to keep that smile. So even when he was sad he would have half of his face still smiling big. How he got the cut and why didn't he cut the other side? There isn't an easy way to explain.

How he ended up so rotten..well it's easy and not hard to understand. You see as a child Ozwald wasn't the most popular of children. He wasn't popular at all actually. Even the name outcast didn't fit him. He was anything but funny looking though. No he wasn't ugly in the least, he was a nice looking boy who just happened to be a bit geeky and very shy. People were closed minded as well. This made him an easy target for bullies. 

~~~~

The young man ran as fast as his legs could carry him. In his arms held tightly to his chest, were a small stack of comic book. His backpack bounced on his back making it even harder to run. Breathing was getting quite difficult to. Inside his chest he could feel his heart beating rapidly, as if it were going to burst at any given moment.