No Rest for the Wicked || The Joker's Daughter { ON HIATUS}

Chapter 8: Fanboy

     Mary sat on the sidewalk outside of the supermarket she worked at. Ringing Eli a fifth time, it went to voicemail and she sighed. He had said that he would pick her up so she decided to leave her bus pass at home. Now, there she was stranded. It kind of pissed her off, but not in the same way that other people were able to piss her off. She never envisioned hurting Eli, though truthfully he had never done enough to make her very angry. Even this was just an inconvenience. Still, she sighed as she stood up and secured her bag onto her shoulder. Though she didn't live too far away, the walk would take a bit of time.

     It was fairly late when she got halfway home. The clock on Mary's phone read 11:55. She wondered where Eli was and if he was alright. Surely, though, he had just lost track of time. He seemed to do that a lot when working on his pictures. She looked around, still a bit lost in Gotham City. It was so big and all of the streets looked pretty much the same. She was going to ask someone for directions but as she glanced around, she found that the street was empty.

     "Looking for someone?" A voice called from behind her. She turned to see the boy from earlier. His face had been muddied with makeup reminiscent of The Joker and his moppy blonde hair had been sprayed green, even messier than before. He covered a clown t-shirt with a leather jacket that had been dyed green and purple and there were makeshift Joker and Harley Quinn pins littering the front. His purple pants were tight with green suspenders and combat boots. "Um, not really..." Mary turned, wanting to get as far away from this freakshow as possible. Eli had warned her about fangirls and fanboys but she figured she wouldn't ever come into such close contact with them.

     "Hey! We're not done here." He shouted, grabbing her arm and spinning her back around to face him. She trembled, feeling fear for the first time in a while as she had to come face to face with her father's legacy. "Let go of me, you freak." She spat, struggling to get free of his grasp. "I'M a freak?" He began to laugh maniacally. "Sweetheart, you're just like me. Crazy, messed up, bonkers... Anything they could think up, we're far far worse." His grip on her arm tightened and she could feel it threatening to bruise. "You don't know shit about me. That- That's not me. Now, Let go!" She kicked his shin, finally breaking free and making a run for it.

     Mary's legs carried her quickly without her thinking about where to go. She sprinted down the street and cut into an alley before crossing over and heading into another alley. Glancing behind her, it felt as though the coast was clear so she stopped to catch her breath. Gasping for air, she pressed her back against the brick and pulled out her phone again. Aggressively tapping on it, she called Eli once again. This time he picked up. "Hey Ma-" He began, casually, but she cut him off. "Where the fuck are you, Eli?" Her voice sounded quick and desperate. "I'm on the way right now, Sorry i'm late. Did you not get my text?" She pulled the phone from her ear and saw the message notification at the top of the screen. "Ugh, no Eli. I thought that you had forgotten so I started walking home and now I think there's someone following me." "What do you mean some- Mary, Where are you right now?" Eli's worry could be heard through the phone. "I um, i'm not sure."

     Mary looked around and saw a street sign reading Park Row. She was just about to tell him where she was when she was bumped from behind. As she fell to the ground, her phone crashed down the alley. The guy from before began straddling her, holding her arms above her head. "Gotcha!" He shouted, laughing inches from her face. "Get the fuck off of me, you creep!" She struggled beneath his grasp, causing him to chuckle harder. "You're mine now!" The guy grabbed both of her wrists with one hand and pulled a bright red handkerchief from his pocket, holding it tightly to her mouth. The more she struggled, the more she breathed in the fumes it held. Everything started to go dark for her and as she faded into sleep, He leaned in and whispered "Nighty night, my dear."

     As Mary was being attacked, Eli's heart sank into his stomach. "Mary?!" He called for her, despite knowing that she wasn't able to hear him anymore. He was just about to hang up when a voice crackled in from the other side. This time a male one. "Mary Quinzel isn't home right now. Leave a message after the bang." His words were followed by a gunshot and then crackling before the line went dead. "Oh my god..." Eli's voice caught in his throat. He pulled over and pounded on his steering wheel, angry at himself. "I should have been there." He whispered, before calling up his father. "Hey, Son, What's up?" He answered on the first ring. "Dad. It's Mary. Someone's taken her."

     "What do you mean s-" "I don't know, she called me and said that she was being followed and then someone attacked her while I was talking to her and Dad..." Eli's voice wavered, fear rising inside of him. "He sounded like the Joker..." Eli knew that surely it couldn't have actually been him, but the fact that the someone who had taken her had similarities with her father couldn't have been a coincidence. "I'll send out a search party right away, Son. I had a tracker put in her phone in case of an emergency such as this one." Officer Pickett assured his son.