Joker and his Ace

The making of the Joker

Jack and Oriana had been married for 5 months, and she was 4 months pregnant. She had quit drinking but continued to gamble all of Jacks hard earned money away. The comedian business hadn't been going very well and they were struggling to pay bills. One night after a gig, Jack came home and heard murmured voices and the sound that would haunt him forever, Orianas screams. He rushed into the kitchen and found 4 men surrounding her, one holding her, two watching, and the other with a knife touching her face. Jack lunges towards them but the two extras beat him down quickly.
"Hehe you get to watch while we carve up your pretty whore," said the one with the knife " she's in too deep unless you have 10k sitting around... then she's gonna be crying for awhile!" He said maliciously.
"No!! Don't hurt her! I promise I'll get the money please, just don't hurt her. Take me instead if you must!" Shouted Jack.
"Hmm Nah I think she can learn her lesson right here and right now!" The man said as he turned to Oriana. "I think... I'm gonna start HERE!" The man stuck the knife into her cheek and dragged it down so there was a gaping hole marring her beautiful face. Jack screamed as she screamed but the men just laughed.
" shhh shhh shhh, I'll have to do something with those pretty little lips of yours doll." The man said. He took the bloody knife and jabbed it into the skin right above her lips and started to trace around her lips. Ignoring the screaming of both Jack and Oriana, he went on to carve a misshapen flower on her forehead and a star on her other cheek. Chuckling to himself at the unconscious Oriana, he nodded to the men holding a still screaming and swearing Jack, and the whole world went black.

When Jack woke up, there was blood covering the floor. He slipped in it, attempting to get to his love's side. He found her faint pulse and got up, dripping with her blood and found his phone. He managed to dial the police and was told an ambulance was coming their way. He rushed to her side and cradled her in his lap, begging any God there might be to let her live. The ambulance got there about five minutes later and loaded her in. The insisted on taking him in too for head trauma, no matter how much he protested. After he was cleared with a mild concussion he was directed to the waiting room, to wait for Oriana to get out of surgery. When a grim looking doctor came to him, he felt his stomach drop, the world went slightly fuzzy, and his heart seemed to be beating loud enough for the whole world to hear.
"Your wife is ok, but the scars on her face will be hideous, and very prominent. I-"
" that's all that matters! She's alive!" Jack sank into his chair with relief before seeing the look on the doctors face. "What!? What is it?" He asked apprehensively.
"Unfortunately, the blood loss was tremendous and the baby did not make it." The world once again went fuzzy. He was overcome with emotion. Happiness and sadness raced through his head fighting for dominance.
"Can I please see my wife?" He managed to get out. The doctor directed him to her room. A feeling of dread overcame Jack as he stepped into the room. He saw his beautiful wife, lying unconscious on the hospital bed, her face wrapped in white gauze. After about an hour, she started to rouse. Jack met her eyes as she felt the gauze around her face, then in a panicked moment, reached a desperate hand for her belly, which was strangely flat. Tears sprung to her eyes and Jack got up from his chair to lay in the bed with her. They wept into each other's arms for what seemed like hours, holding onto each other for dear life, each wishing the nightmare would end, and that this would all be some horrible dream they'd talk about in the morning. The doctor awkwardly knocked on the door, and Jack got off the bed to go talk to him.

"As I said, there will be very bad scarring, but she can go home tomorrow afternoon, as long as she comes in two weeks for a check-up and to possibly remove the stitches." The doctor gave Jack a pitying look and gestured to a police officer waiting in the waiting room. "He's waiting in there for you to give a description of the ones who did this." Then the doctor turned away and Jack was forced to leave his wife.

"Hello Jack, I'm Jim Gordon, please sit down." Said the man. He had short cropped blonde hair, a prominent jaw, and dark blue eyes. Feeling silly for being told to sit down in a waiting room, Jack obliged. "So, do you think you'd be able to give me an adequate description of the men that attacked you?" Asked Jim.

"Yes, I think so." I'll never forget their faces, I'll hunt them down one by one and make them regret even looking at Oriana. Jack started, unsettled by the thought that popped into his head. Jim gave him an odd look before reaching for a notepad.

"Ok, whenever you're ready, just go as deep into detail as you can please." Jack took a deep breath and thought back to the kitchen.

"There were four of them. They must've been loan sharks, you see, Oriana has a slight gambling problem. -cough- anyway, I got home and found them all in the kitchen. One was holding her down and a big man was standing in front of her holding a knife to her cheek. Two other goons came and beat me down before I could do anything. All of them were big, mostly muscle. The one with the knife--"deserves a knife in his ugly face. Luckily Jack didn't say that out loud to the police officer. "He had a scruffy beard, the others were clean-shaven..." He described them as best he could to Jim, and when he was done, he felt no better than when he had started.

"Thank you for that, we'll do our very best to find these disgusting criminals," Jim said as he stood to leave. Jack stood also, and without a word turned to Oriana's room, and went back in there. He was surprised to find they had removed her bandages. Her face was a gruesome map of pain. He flinched, and she took notice.

"I'm hideous!" she cried. Jack just shook his head, at loss for words, and lay next to her. They talked into the morning and then slept till noon. They were woken by the doctor coming in to say she could go home. She got out of bed on shaky legs and went to the car as fast as she could. When they got home, Oriana wouldn't speak, she just lay in bed, staring at a Vogue magazine and the beautiful, unblemished women inside. This went on for weeks. She was wasting away, he barely got her to go in and get the stitches removed, with them gone, her face improved greatly. But Oriana was very pessimistic. For the most part, the scars were flat, white lines, but the one where the man had ripped through her cheek, was a lump, and hard to look at without touching your own, unblemished cheek as if worried the scar was contagious. Jack was becoming depressed. He was close to being fired, as he wasn't as funny as he used to be. People were jokingly starting to call him the "Joker", making fun of his lack of comedian skills. Their once happy lives were diminished. Jack hadn't seen her smile in what seemed like years. Finally, one day he cracked.

He grabbed a knife and contemplated what he could do. Smile, you need to SMILE. Without a second thought, he took the knife and put it in the corner of his lip, and slashed upward. White-hot pain shot across his face, and the floor was slick with blood. Grimacing, he took the knife and put it on the other side, and did the same thing. The result was a grotesque smile, that stretched across his once handsome face. He rushed himself to the doctors, where the same doctor who had treated Oriana. He was rushed to the ER and the stitched up his face. Jim was called, and he practically ran into Jack's room.

"Was it the same men?" he asked, breathless. Jack chuckled and shook his head. He pointed a finger at himself.

"I couldn't bear it officer, she was so depressed, I needed to make her smile, now we're the same." Jim's red face drained of color, and he took a step back. He glanced at him one time, and turned and walked out of the room. Almost the second he left, Oriana rushed in, her face covered the best she could with a scarf.

"JACK!" she sobbed, thinking, of course, the same as Jim. For who in their right mind would maim themselves in such a way. Jack then repeated the story to Oriana, who looked at him like she had never seen him before. "Y-you did this to y-yourself?!" She managed to get out, thinking No way, he must be making some sick joke. Jack nodded. Oriana, with tears in her eyes, reached out to him and touched the gouges in his once handsome face. "I-i can't do this, Jack, this is crazy, I'm sorry, I-I can't!" She sobbed.

"I did this because I love you, I can't stand to see you in such misery. Please, No!! Don't leave me!" cried a panicked Jack. Oriana shook her head"That's not love, that's craziness!" and ran out of the room. Jack got up, ripped the IVs out of his arm, and ran after her. He was slow and dizzy with blood loss, and she beat him outside. "Oriana!" He cried, she glanced back at him and met his eyes just in time to be hit by an oncoming truck.