Carnations for Emily

Chapter 17: Joker

"Ack!"
Jack couldn't see anything but felt pain as he hit carpet face first.
He had been blindfolded after he was knocked out and captured by what was remaining of the Broken Glass Gang.
Unsure of where he was, he pulled himself up from the carpet but kept quiet.

Only silence filled the room.
Knowing he was in the clutches of the Broken Glass Gang only flooded his head with memories.
Memories he'd wish he'd forgotten already...

...

Hiding behind a smiling mask, Joker A.K.A Jack, with his crimson red hair and crimson eyes, was running across the rooftops of New York City.
He was training to become a full fledged "Broken Glass Shard" or a member of the "Broken Glass Gang".

After Jack had lost control of himself and harmed his classmates, he had took a train to New York.
After a painful goodbye to Emily...
In hopes of getting the therapy he needed after the trauma Harvey put him through.
Unlucky for him, when he arrived in the city he was soon tracked down by Harvey's gang.

Dragged back to their hideout, Harvey forced Jack to join the gang by threatening his slice of peace.
"If you don't join my gang son, I'm afraid I'm going to have to send my "shards" to your little town.
So they can slaughter every single person you love."
Mortified at the threat, Jack had no choice but to join.

Though it wasn't long till he was getting better and quickly rising through the ranks of the gang.
It was strange.
When he put on the smiling mask...
That near Psychotic persona, that Jack turned into when he first went toe to toe with Harvey, would come alive.

His eyes would shine a bright red through the eyes of the mask, and as the moon would shine upon his crimson red hair...
He looked like a reaper...
The Broken Glass Gangs reaper...
An alias that he soon claimed, for the Joker in the mask became real, and apart of Jack's every day life.
With or without the mask...

Eventually, Jack no longer existed inside the head of this...
this thing.
He was an empty shell.
Only doing as he was told.
If Harvey said "jump", Joker would ask "how high?"
Drug smuggling.
Robbing.
Even murder...
None of it phased Joker.
The blood on his hands never bothered him.

Yet...
After a few years Joker started to change once more.
He began to have a change of heart again.
Jack was slowly regaining control of his mind.
...sadly his heart and body were still under Jokers possession....

One night...
"Please just let us go.
Please."
Joker in his smiling mask had a mother and her daughter on the ground.
The mother was a debtor hiding from the gang for months.
With Joker under the gangs command she wasn't able to hide any longer...

Now with tears in her eyes and clutching her daughter tightly she was begging him to let her go.
Joker had no forgiveness in his heart.
He had became the "Bloody Shard" of the gang.
Another alias he wore well.
His mask, many people in the city feared...

Joker brought up the weapon he was holding, a spiked bat, prepared to beat the woman to death.

...
Til a warmth began to fill his heart...
A voice rang in Jokers head.
"We can't do this."
Joker turned around and faced the group of gang members he ran the streets with.
"What's the matter Joker?
Put this debtor down.
She owes us."
Joker paused.
In a flash he slammed his tool into the face of the "Shard" that spoke to him.
The rest of them jumped back.
"What just happened?"
"Hey! Joker?!"
"The fuck are you doing?!"
All the members then surrounded him.
Joker looked back at the mother and child.
"Go." he said calmly.
"Ah, thank you sir!"
After they ran off, Joker turned back to the group.

"You're making a big mistake Joker."
"You know the boss isn't gonna be happy about that."
Joker just shrugged and cracked his finger.
"I'm bored with this, let Harvey come for me." Joker said.
The members all charged him prepared to put him down for treason.
Joker at this point was Harvey's right hand.
Anyone that tried to attack Harvey fell at Jokers hands.
And it was vice versa too.
But Harvey was nowhere to be found and the group Joker was the leader of was tired of his abusive nature towards them.