Hush little baby, don't say a word.
Momma's gonna kill for you the whole damn world.
And if they don't laugh at our jokes,
Momma's gonna stab out their goddamn throats.
And if they start to run away,
Momma's gonna paint the streets with blood.
And once the blood starts to wash off,
Momma's gonna blow some more heads off.
And if the world still doesn't laugh,
Momma's gonna go and poison them.
And once the poison does it's job,
Momma's gonna show you your legacy.
And if the world still tries to fight,
Momma's gonna burn their houses down.
And if you grow up with his smile,
Momma's gonna be so...proud of you.....
Mary was jolted awake by a knocking at her bedroom door. The memories, the voice of her mother quickly faded as she pushed them from her thoughts and jumped up to answer it. "Eli." Her voice was cheerful as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I thought we could go out and see the town, maybe grab some breakfast?" His smile was bright and hopeful. Mary, however, didn't feel like going out into the world with everything that was going on in her head at the moment. "I'm sorry... I'm feeling kind of under the weather today. I might just go back to bed." Eli nodded understandingly, though disappointed. "Well, if you need anything, just ask..."
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Mary was staring a hole into the back of her closet. The box that she had stored in there seemed to be haunting her. Every night since it's arrival, she'd been having bad dreams. Perhaps the box held the answers to remedy them. With a deep sigh, Mary found her footing and pulled the box from it's shelf. The nagging was not going to stop on it's own. Returning to her bed, she grabbed the rattle. There was a moment where she just admired it, but even that filled conflict in her. It only further supplied evidence that she was truly a product of such monsters. A sharp huff escaped her lips as she flung the object across the room, letting it shatter to the ground.
Searching through the VHS tapes, She found that they were labeled by the alphabet instead of by numbers. She gripped the A Tape and took it to her TV. Luckily for her, Eli was a bit hipster and had insisted that they needed TVs with a built in VHS player. That, or he was just being cheap. Static came over the TV and Mary slid down to her knees. The first ten seconds of audio was just laughter. Cackling, eery, unsettling laughter. "Well, Hello there..." A voice chimed excitedly, though off screen. There was a slurping sound, almost like he was licking his lips, before he emerged on screen. His muddy makeup hid his features and his greasy hair draped across his forehead.
"My dear baby." He twisted his eyebrows curiously. "Er, I suppose you're not exactly a baby anymore, huh?" Mary felt as though he was looking her up and down, she glanced around her room uneasily. It felt as though she was being watched. "I know, I know. It must have been hard without a father figure in your life, let alone without one as legendary as me." Another laugh broke his sentence. "Don't worry though, my little trickster. I'm here in spirit, to guide you through life. I will show you the way-" She clicked the TV off. Tears stung her eyes and she didn't quite know what to do with this feeling. Part of her felt like she needed to turn the tapes in, give them to Eli at the very minimum. The other part of her, however, wanted to keep them all for herself. They were her's, after all. This was the only link to her father that she had left. Why should anyone be able to take that away from her? Besides, Just watching them couldn't possibly hurt. Right?
Taking a deep breath, Mary resumed the tape. She had made her decision. "I will show you the way to success. The way to make me proud." The fact that her heart jumped at the word proud made her a bit sick to her stomach. "First things first, I feel like we need to come clean to each other about something. Break the ice, you know?" The girl's brows furrowed, intrigued. She wondered if he knew he was making her feel watched and uncomfortable. If so, it was an impressive trick. One of many he had up his sleeve, she assumed. "Your mother may have told you that I died in a grand fiery explosion. A hero, she may have said at some point." Mary nodded. It was the exact wording she had used. "While it may be true, don't let it have you assume I was taken out by accident, caught off guard. I'm far more exciting than that." He chuckled for what felt like five whole minutes. "It's part of my master plan, you see. I am dying. I inhaled a bit of a stinker when joining a game with the-uh, fearraven, scaryseagul- no that's not right." He paused a moment before smirking, another laugh. "The scarecrow! That's it. Bit of lazy naming if I do say so myself! Anyhoo, one of his stink-bombs seems to be doing me in. Slowly. Now, that's no fun and I don't like to do anything on terms other than my own. So, my solution? Going out with a-" Another pause before he shouted into the camera, causing Mary to jump. "BANG." Laughing, he leaned closer to the camera. "Got you, Didn't I?! " Mary blushed. "Now, fairs fair. So It's your turn to tell me a secret. A deep dark secret. Something that keeps you up at night, that you've never ever thought of telling another soul for as long as you lived." He got silent as if he'd made his point and were truly waiting.
Mary felt ridiculous for a moment, staring at The Joker staring back at her. But then she realized, that was the point of all of this. To make things eccentric. "Well..." She started, pausing to see if he would actually respond. He just sat there, continuing to stare as he held a creepy smile on his face. "I'm afraid..." The words were hard to say, even to someone who would never hear them. "I'm afraid that I'm never going to be anyone but a psychopath's daughter. I'm never going to have the chance to make my own choices because your's always follow me." Tears stung her eyes as she continued, not being able to stop the faucet on her mouth. "No one is ever going to love me or trust me. They're always going to be too afraid of me, or feel sorry for me..." She wondered which of those categories Eli fell under. Seemingly as soon as she'd finished spilling her guts to thin air, The Joker began to clap. "Feels good, doesn't it? To speak your mind. Especially to someone who is here to listen and guide you." The smirk widened. "And to think... This is just the beginning of your beautiful transformation."
YOU ARE READING
No Rest for the Wicked || The Joker's Daughter { ON HIATUS}
Fanfiction◀Madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push.▶
