(UNDERGOING REWRITE) Crime & Chaos [ ᴊᴏᴋᴇʀ ]

Chapter 3: Snitchin'

Crime & Chaos

" SNITCHIN' "

by alwaysgeia

⸻⸻⸻⸻

Julie cowered around the corner, staring at the fat white door, a knife clutched in her shaking hands. After a couple of hours, she started getting tired and slid down the wall, digging the ball of her palms into her eyes, trying to rub away at the fatigue. Had I just escaped the Joker? Was that even him? 'Course it was, he wore the same purple suit, scars across his mouth, thin greenish-brown curls...

Rubbing her wrists, she was sure bruises were forming. They hurt.

A trying turn of the door-handle caused her head to snap towards it, pressing her hands against the floor to hoist herself up. With the knife pointed at the door, she waited.

The jingle of familiar keys virtually made her cry in palliation. As the door opened, her mum stepped over the threshold, finished with her shift at the hospital. "Julie, what-" Julie just dropped the knife and hugged her mum like she wasn't even sure she was there. Like she was an illusion.

Heavy tears fell from her eyes, crying into the front of her apparel, a string of snot hung from her nose and she wiped it with her coat.

"I thought you were- Oh, god, mum, he's after me. He's gonna- he's gonna kill me. Please-" she commenced spluttering gibberish, sobbing hysterically. Her mum grabbed her shoulders, shaking them faintly.

"Who's going to kill you?"

Julie blinked away the blur, looking up at her mother with terrified, bloodshot eyes.

"The Joker," left her trembling lips, barely a whisper, like he could appear when she said his name. If she convinced herself enough, saying his name three times would grant her his appearance.

Her mum laughed. She actually laughed at her terrified daughter.

"Why would a psycho like him go after a 17-year-old kid? I really doubt it, Julie." Her mum walked into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, hanging up her keys on the wall, unworried and amused, "I don't need this bullshit straight after a 10-hour-shift."

Her eyes welled up again, "you- you think I'm lying? He chased me down the fucking forest path and walked past the window! He knows where- where we live- I-" Panic was forcing its way through her body.

"Come off it. He was last seen near Gotham Bank, he wouldn't be anywhere near here. Anyway, you're not exactly that special." (You're a special little thing, ain't ya?)

"That was like a day ago! And how would that make me special?!"

With a roll of her eyes, her mum grabbed the cup of tea and walked up the staircase. "I don't know! Just go take a shower, you look filthy."

Julie couldn't believe this. An overwhelming sense of dread overcame her.

He was going to know she told someone.

Blood pounded in her ears. Her heart thudded in her chest. Her hands shook. Her feet tingled. Running up the staircase, she locked herself in her room, sliding down the door, her chest tightening. She couldn't think- the bed- she had to get to the bed. Crawling on all fours, she clung to the mattress, climbing onto it.

If she wasn't crying enough before, she was crying even harder now. It was hard for her to breathe through the sticky tears and the watery streak of mucous dripping from her nose.