Harley

A Shocking Revelation

In searching for more evidence on Harley Quinn and the Joker you find a small red book in the wreckage of her old office at Arkham Asylum. Much to your surprise some of the contents are still legible despite the water damage from the sprinklers. You've hit the jackpot but aren't so sure if you should tell those at Checkmate about these findings. It's...unsettling.

"This is for your own good." He would grimace as he tightened the straps on the bed.

I knew better than to thrash around or speak out, I couldn't hold my hands up if he decided to hit me.

He stood over me, looking down at me with a sinister smile. A smile that I used to mistake for love and compassion. The same smile he showed to all his business associates was the same one he gave me when he was about to up the voltage.

I asked if I could skip out on his fancy parties, the ones where he would flaunt his wealth and make me wear those hideous dresses. The tone I used was disrespectful and I was ungrateful because without him I would be on the streets of Gotham. 

"Rotten girls, have rotten brains Harleen." Grandfather said as he smoothed my hair down and planted a kiss on my head.

Tears would trickle down my eyes in the beginning but they would soon stop.

When he hit the button I felt everything come to a boiling point and fizzle out. My life from the beginning to this exact moment meant nothing, my life was a small dot in the midst of a vast black pool.

I felt my hands go numb first, then my arms, until my entire body was but a quiet hum in this loud, awful world.

I saw flashes of everything, my dad being on the hunt for me after he shot my mother. I was next but I was great at hide n' seek as a kid. I saw my life now, in somersaults and handsprings, what I was sure was the future was just me hiding from the world in a mask.

While I was being tortured the world just kept spinning. Even if I was dead it would've kept on spinning, nobody would've looked up for Harleen.

I couldn't even look up myself.

When he was satisfied with his results he would stop the electricity. Those tears that fell before were dried on my cheeks, my body was weak from tensing and my mind had left me.

I couldn't cry anymore, talking wasn't an option at all. I struggled to look at the demon of the man as he looked over me.

"You're all clean Harl." He smiled with glee, he loosened the straps on my wrist and ankles.

I was all empty, that would be the cleanest I would ever be to him.

Nothing, all topped out on nothing.

I've always wanted to be enough for him, enough for anyone really. █ ███ ████ █ ██████ ████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████ █ █████ ███ ███ █ ███████ █████ ██ ████ █ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ████████.Only violent endings and lonely nights, yeah, that sounds about right.

The rest of the page is ruined, the pen marks have been bled through. You set the book down and rub your eyes. They had it all wrong, Waller told you that Harleen was a madwoman that needed to be stopped. If this journal entry came out about the abuse Harleen suffered at the hand one of the richest, most respected men in Gotham they would have to acknowledge the truth. The question is:

Will you tell the team?