ANGLERFISH

8

I ran towards where I heard the gunshot and stood behind the crowd. The Joker was the one looking for Harvey, he was surrounded by his usual goons and smiled with all his teeth. "We are tonight's entertainment!"

"I only have one question, where is Harvey Dent?" He said as he chewed on some shrimp. He began walking towards all the guests and pointing his shotgun to all of them, "Do you know where Harvey is, do you know who he is?" He smacked a girl's head.

The guests' faces showed no emotion but their bodies trembled with fear; they tried to cover it up.

"Do you know where I can find Harvey? I need to talk to him about somethin—just something little? Huh? No." He got closer to a guest's head and turned it. I began slipping through the guests and stood next to Rachel, "What is Bruce gonna do?" I asked her.

"You know—I'll settle for his loved ones!" He smirked. "We're not intimidated by thugs!" An old man said with confidence, trying to stand up to him.

"You know...you remind me of my father—I hated my father!" He gripped the back of his neck and placed the knife in front of his face, presenting his aggressive side. Rachel then walked in front of the crowd we were in and stood with confidence. "Okay, stop." She announced and crossed her arms.

"Well, hello, beautiful.'' Joker looked at her and began brushing his hair back with his knife, "You must be Harvey's squeeze, hm?" He smiled. "—And you are beautiful." He growled as he began circling around her.

Rachel flinched here and there, and he took it into his own hands and called out the elephant in the room. "You look nervous, is it the scars? Do you wanna know how I got 'em?" He pointed the knife at her.

"Come here, Hey! Look at me...So, I had a wife, she was beautiful, like you...who tells me I worry too much—who tells I ought to uh—smile more—who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks. Hey!" He tried getting a hold of her head as she kept moving to get out of his hold.

"—One day they carve her face, and we have no money for surgeries." He paused, "—She can't take it, I just wanna see her smile again. Hm? I just want her to know that I don't care about the scars." He faked sympathy for this so-called wife he had.

"So...I stick a razor in my mouth and do this to myself, and—you know what?!" He yelled, "—She can't stand the sight of me!—She leaves, now I see the funny side, now I'm always smiling." He deepened his voice. Rachel knees him and he starts to laugh hysterically, "You got a little fight in you, I like that." He straightened back up.

"Then you're gonna love me!" A deep voice said as Batman jumped out and began fighting Joker by throwing a punch to his chest. Bruce began getting jumped, but then started to fight his goons by smashing their heads together, breaking their arms, he even grabbed one of the goon's head and placed him in a headlock and then kneed his face. People cried in fear and began ducking and backing away, I couldn't take it anymore and smacked one of the goons with an ashtray in the head, and then kicked him where it hurts.

I then grabbed another man's arm and twisted, placed it behind his back, and passed him to Bruce so he could handle him. "Look! Such a brave girl!" The Joker laughed as we made eye contact, "Grab her!" He yelled at one of his thugs as he pushed him towards me.

I turned around to run, but I felt two arms grab me by the waist and lift me into the air, "Let go of me!" I yelped. Bruce tried getting a hold of me and getting the guy off me but Joker then jabbed his shoe blade into Bruce's side, which led to him getting pushed to the floor.

He stood back up and ran towards Rachel and held onto her again, but this time with a gun to her head. "Choose who you'll save, Batman." He laughed as he tried keeping his hold on Rachel, while the thug kept tightening his grip on me. "Drop the gun, and let her go." He looked at Joker then at me.