Psychos Can Have Children Too

Chapter 4

After putting on pounds of makeup to cover her scars, Harley turns to Marah. She proceeds to put on a small bit of foundation to cover Marah's scars, guilt written all over Harley's face as she gently guides the brush over her small arms and legs. Time for new clothes. "Ok let's see" she murmurs as she looks through her drawer, trying to find her smallest shirt to fit Marah's tiny body. It wasn't that hard, seeing as Harley wears clothes 10 sizes to small just to please Joker. She pulls out the smallest shirt she has which happens to be a plain black tee. She undresses Marah from her rags and slips on the shirt. The shirt hangs well past her knees and was baggy everywhere. "Hmmm" Harley says out loud and searches her closet for a belt. She pulls out a white belt and cuts it in half with a knife to make it the right size for Marah's small waist. Poking her own holes in the new belt, she buckles it around Marah's waist to make the shirt look more like a dress. "Oh! I have an idea!" Harley pulls off the t-shirt and unbuckled the belt, she just put on 10 seconds ago, off of Marah so she stands there, shivering in her underwear. Harley takes a pair of scissors and cuts off the sleeves to make it a muscle tee. She holds up the shirt and admires her work. "There" she says as the puts the shirt back on Marah and re-buckles the belt around her waist. "Perfect!" Harley squeals and steps back to inspect her work for Marah's makeshift outfit. Marah does a little spin in a circle and giggles at her new outfit. "I love it!" she says excitedly and runs over to Harely, hugging her legs. "Thank you" Marah says, her voice muffled by Harley's legs. She seems taken aback by the affectionate gesture from the small child and awkwardly pats Marah's head. "Your welcome kid" she says with a small smile on her face. how am I going to give her up?  She pushes that thought away and prepares for a fun day of shopping. "You ready to go?" Harley asks with excitement laced in her voice. "Yes!" Marah jumps up in glee as she runs over to pick up her ratty old shoes. "Remind me to buy you a new pair of shoes" Harley says, eyeing Marah's shoes with disgust. Marah giggles as she slips on the small shoes and runs to the door where Harley was waiting. She quickly grabs her purse off the coatrack as Marah yells "Let's go!" her small voice filled with excitement at her first shopping trip. Harely chuckles and opens the door.
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5 stores, 2 pairs of shoes and 7 outfits later, Harley and Marah arrive at their last store for the day. Marah was well ready to be done, her feet aching from all the walking. "I'm going to go in the woman's section. Will you be fine on your own in the children's section?" Harley asks, squatting down to reach Marah's height. She nods her head and Harley smiles a bit, her cheeks still throbbing in pain. "Good girl" She stands back up and walks over to the women's section, looking through a rack of slightly slutty dresses. Marah smiles and skips over to the children's section. She bumps into some one as she rounds the corner, falling on her butt from the impact. She looks up to see the concerned face of a man, about mid 20s, staring down at her. "Im sorry" he apologizes and helps her stand up. "It's ok mister. I know it was an accident" Marah replies and brushes the dirt off her butt. The man seems taken aback by her intellect but nods in response. "Thank you, and what is your name? If I may ask" the man replies and squats down to her height, just as Harley did only moments ago. "My name is Marah" Marah replies with confidence and a big smile on her face. She was never a shy child with meeting strangers which isn't necessarily a good thing, hence stranger danger. "Nice to meet you Marah. I'm Bruce" Bruce smiles and holds out his hand for her to shake it. Marah takes his hand in her small hands and shook. "Sir, you are going to be late for your meeting" An old man appears from behind a rack with some little girls clothes in his arms. Bruce checks his watch and replies "Right you are Alfred!" he turns back to Marah. "It was very nice to meet you and I'm sorry for bumping into you" Bruce smiles widely and Marah matches that smile. He stands up and follows Alfred to the door. "Bye!" Marah calls as Bruce and Alfred exit the store. Bruce turns around and waves quickly to her and turns out of sight. Marah then turns to the clothes and picks out an outfit that looks cute along with a random book she found on a shelf. She prances over to where Harley is now inspecting some tee shirts. "Ready!" Marah's small voice snaps Harley back into focus and she smiles down at her. "Alright, let's go check out" she replies and leads Marah to the check out counter. Harley pulls out stolen money from her purse and pays the total amount. They both walk out of the store and onto the street. "Ready to go home?" Harley asks Marah and she nods tiredly. Harley chuckles and leads them into an alley. Walking through the dark alley scares Marah and she clings to Harley's legs. They continue walking, Marah getting more and more afraid as it grows darker. "Harley" her small voice squeaks in fright. "Yes sweetie?" she replies. "Can you pick me up?" Harley smiles as she stops to pick up the frightened Marah. She settles the toddler on her hip and Marah buries her face into Harley's neck. "We just have one little stop to make" Harley says and turns a corner. She knocks three times on a black door that blends in with the darkness of the alleyway. The door opens to reveal a young man wearing glasses. "Harley! Long time no see eh?" he jokes with her as they just saw each other a week ago. "Ha ha. Real funny John" Harley says sarcastically and steps inside the poorly lit building. "Who's this?" John asks, nodding at Marah who is still clinging to Harley's neck for dear life. "Doesn't matter. What matters is that you have that halogen ready for Mistah J" Harley says darkly, all playfulness drained from her face. "It's almost done, I swear" John replies. This was a lie. The finished halogen was sitting in the other room. He didn't want to give it to them before Joker does his end of the deal. "He asked for it 3 months ago John. Where the hell is it!" Harley yells at him in anger. Marah is frightened by her mood, not wanting a repeat of what she did to her when they first met. She whimpers quietly in her arms. Harley remembers the child and gently sets her down on the ground "Go play in the other room, or something" she whispers to the shaking toddler, embarrassed at her behavior. Marah nods and runs off into the other room. "Now, where is it?" Harley growls and John can feel Scarecrow wanting to take over. "I told you, it's almost done!" John struggles to keep crow down but Harley is thoroughly pissing him off. She sighs loudly and presses two fingers to her temple, closing her eyes in annoyance. "Just give it up, and we can leave" John can't take it anymore. Sure, he knows she is right. i should just give up the halogen now and they'd be on their way. but she can't just come in here and demand from me! "From us" the crow hisses from within him and John lets him take over. John's eyes turn black and his voices gets deeper and scratchier. "Leave, before this gets ugly" Scarecrow glowers at Harley. Harley gulps but stands her ground, knowing full well that he has what they want. "I will not leave until I have the halogen" Harley growls. "And I said, leave" With that, Scarecrow kicks Harley in the gut, sending her flying into the wall behind her. She groans in pain but gets up quickly, swinging her leg underneath him. He falls to the floor on his back, Harley putting the end of her high heeled boot at his neck. "Give it up" she says and presses harder on his neck. "No" He croaks from under her and grabs her leg, throwing her body off of his and into the other room where Marah was standing, watching the whole thing and shaking with fear. Harley lands on the floor, the breath knocked out of her. Scarecrow follows her in and Marah screams at the sight of him. She crawls under a nearby desk for safety and watches as Harley slowly gets up. Scarecrow pulls her up by her pigtails and spits in her face "Get. Out" Harley smirks and kicks him right in the groin. He doubles over in pain and let's go of her. She rolls away and over to where Marah is hiding. She quickly grabs her from underneath the table. "I think we overstayed our welcome" Harley nervously laughs and rushes to the door. It flies open before Harley can get to it and Joker steps through the door. "Puddin?" Harley questions. "Harley?" he replies with just as much confusion as her. "Harley!" Scarecrow roars from the other room and stomps into the front room, carrying the halogen with him. He smashes the glass bottles on the ground and green must swirls through the room. Harley drops Marah in panic and covers her nose and mouth with her shirt. Joker does the same and poor Marah was the only one who didn't know what was going on. It was all happening so fast and she felt like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. The gas filled her lungs and her vision was going fuzzy. She saw the Joker, coming toward her with a knife again. "No no no!" she screamed in fear and backed away from him. Everything was warped, her vision doesn't seem to be working properly and it was making her more scared. Tears were streaming down her face as more of them popped up around her. "Your worthless. Pathetic. Have no meaning!" they yelled at her as he kept advancing towards her. Off to the side, Marah could see her parents, laughing at her. "I'm glad we left, you brat!" Marah's parents cackle. "Please stop!!" She cried out, backing into a wall. She pulled her knees up and buried her face in them. "MAKE THEM GO AWAY!" she screamed with all she had in her. The fear was to much to handle and she passed out.

a/n:
i can be so cruel :/