Author's Note: This story is still a work in progress. I'm still struggling with the ending, but I will work as quickly as I can and even quicker if anyone shows interest. Thanks for reading!
Chapter now edited and complete
~~~~~ 2009 ~~~~~
By the time he’d cleaned his plate, full memories of Scarlet were flooding into his mind. Not all of them were pleasant. He’d been a stupid kid back then. He would never let a woman mentally torture him like that now. He was fairly certain she still loved him, and he could use that. She was already proving useful. Of course, as soon as she stopped being useful he’d have to kill her. He couldn’t let someone who knew his true identity live.
**********
It had taken Leon hours to call, and when he did it was with bad news. He couldn’t get the guns until the next night, maybe not even until the day after that. He was having trouble finding the guy who could get into the patients’ belongings locker. I’d wanted to get Jack out this very night, but two nights from now was Devil’s Night, the night before Halloween. The cops would be so busy elsewhere we could probably sneak him out easily. It was fitting in more ways than that, though, and it would give me time to prepare for him. I’d been so caught up in my plans I’d not even paid attention to the date.
I drove back to my brownstone and started cleaning up the spare room. I’d shoved a bunch of unpacked boxes in there. There wasn’t even a bed. I wanted to assume he’d want to share mine, but he didn’t even remember me. I would set this room up for him. I would also have to do something about the windows. It would seem suspicious if I suddenly blacked them all out, but I couldn’t have a nosy neighbor catching a glimpse of the Joker in my house. Heavy drapes and blinds should do the job. Before I took off shopping, though, I’d have to move the boxes into the dining room. I had another spare room, but it didn’t have a bathroom. Besides it was full of boxes of books.
The first few boxes I dragged downstairs held old clothes, but soon I began finding the boxes that brought back memories. One box in particular made me smile, and I had to reach in and cuddle the clown.
~~~~~ 1994 ~~~~~
I’d lain awake for over an hour after Jack and I had... what? Made love? Fucked? I didn’t know what to call it. I’d never experienced anything so terrifying or blissful in my whole life. For a few panicky seconds I thought he would accidentally kill me, but I trusted him. My panic had exploded into ecstacy. I’d never felt more alive than when he’d come inside of me. How could so much happen in one night? I’d held Jack in my arms as he slept, and I’d wondered what would happen when he woke up. Could we really go back to
just being friends? Would he really want to? I had eventually fallen asleep, and when I woke up it was past noon. Jack was still sleeping, and he clutched me to him in a death grip. If I hadn’t had to pee so badly I would have just enjoyed being in his arms. They were so strong, and the feel of them made me throb. Still, I untangled myself and made my way to the bathroom.
When I’d taken over the attic suite, my parents had let me decorate it any way I’d wanted. I’d still been a little girl, and I’d wanted it to look like a carnival. I’d had carousel horses on everything, a canopy bed that looked like a circus tent and even murals of a Ferris wheel and a carousel. My bathroom had been decorated from floor to ceiling with clowns. When I turned fourteen I’d redecorated my bedroom to its current fashion, but, for sentimental reasons I suppose, I’d left the bathroom as it was. On the back of the toilet a green, purple and gold clown doll leaned lopsidedly against a basket of pastel colored bath beads. The shower curtain was red and white striped with a string of clowns lining the bottom. They juggled, rode unicycles and did somersaults in a repeating pattern. Jack had teased me endlessly about the decor, but I still hadn’t changed it. I liked it when Jack teased me. I liked it when he paid attention to me period.
He’d paid me a lot of attention last night. I actually giggled with giddiness and was glad he hadn’t heard me. He’d think I was being too girly. I moved to look at myself in the full length mirror on the back of the door. I was completely nude. Normally I wouldn’t have the guts to see myself this way. Something inside me had changed, though. I liked the way I looked. My pale body was a map of everything it had endured the night before. My knees were scabbed and there was a scratch on my stomach from breaking into and out of Arkham. My makeup was worn mostly off and smudges of Jack’s eyeliner streaked my breasts. I turned and looked over my shoulder to see scrapes on my back from the brick wall in the Narrows where I’d lost my virginity. My butt cheeks were bruised, and there were half moon shaped gouges from Jack’s fingernails digging into them. The most noticeable of all was the necklace of purple welts around my throat. I wasn’t sure if they were from the yuppy or from Jack. It didn’t really matter. In my mind they were Jack’s mark.
My body ached with exhaustion, and my hair faintly smelled of burnt gasoline. I shoved back the shower curtain and climbed under the hot spray. The heat of the water conjured up even more scents from my body. My cherry body wash prevailed, but the musk of sex mingled with it. I hated to wash it off. What if Jack really was done with me? Could one night sustain me? I washed the makeup from my face and let the water flow over my mouth and nose for as long as I could stand it. I gasped for air and sputtered, and the shower curtain billowed inward on a cool breeze. I knew Jack was in the bathroom. The shower curtain only moved like that when the door opened. I was tempted to peek around the curtain, but I waited to see what he would do. Slowly, a tiny clown’s face poked past the shower curtain. I could see Jack’s hand holding the doll that had been on the back of the toilet, and then he used its little arm to launch a purple bath bead at me. "Hey!" I laughed and jerked the curtain open. Jack stood beside the tub as nude as me. His body looked as battered as mine, but he looked utterly hilarious buck naked and holding the stuffed clown.
"Uh..., good morning, beautiful." He greeted me. His eyes were roving up and down my body, and I felt my heart beat rev up.
"Hi... I see you caught the clown pelting me with bath beads." I teased.
"Bath beads? I thought they were candy." He frowned and tossed the clown onto the hamper. He smacked his lips and grimaced. "That explains why it tasted like shit." He added and climbed into the shower with me. Later I would understand he’d used the bad joke to mask the awkwardness of the morning after, but just then I was overwhelmed by his nearness. He towered over me anyhow, but in such close quarters I felt dwarfed by him.
"You didn’t really eat one, did you?" I asked as his hands glided from my shoulders down my arms.
"They smell like cherries...
you smell like cherries. I
love cherries." He captured my mouth in a kiss. I clung to him as my heart overjoyed. He still wanted me! His arms circled around my waist, and our pelvises came into electrifying contact. He nudged his semi-erect penis into my belly, and a giggle bubbled up from my throat. Jack was subtly pushing me down to my knees, and I knew what he wanted. I knelt before him, and the sight of the water sluicing down his abdomen instantly turned me on. The temporary dye from his hair turned the water the color of grape Kool-Aid as it poured like a miniature waterfall over his pubic hair and cock. He fisted his hands into my soapy hair and directed my lips to the crown of his dick. "Hey, Scarlet, you wanna see a magic trick?" His voice had a faint tremor, and his penis bobbed as it lengthened. I licked my lips as I looked up to his face. "Open for me." He coaxed my mouth with his thumb. I obeyed. The head of his cock pushed past my lips, and I let my tongue flick against the underside of his shaft. He grunted and swayed a little. "Mmm... see? My cock just disappeared." His chuckle rumbled out of him like a lion purring, and I endeavored to get even more of him in my mouth. It was hard to breathe with my mouth so full and trails of lavender tinted water dribbling over my nose. Jack’s hands tugged rhythmically on my hair as he rocked his hips. I could feel the beat of his heart through the vein on his shaft. It throbbed in an erratic tempo as he made gurgling noises deep in his chest. I sucked harder and pressed my breasts against his thighs. I ran my hands up his slick stomach, dragging my nails over the sleek skin. His pelvis was jerking arrhythmically now, and his legs shook. I knew he was going to come, and I wanted him to. I took his balls into my hand and squeezed roughly. His entire body spasmed, and he erupted into my mouth. I swallowed some of it, but not all of it. I let it leak from my mouth onto his dick, and he watched with glassy eyes. His hands relaxed in my hair and caressed my face. For once Jack was speechless. I plugged the tub’s drain and switched the water flow to run a bath. I tugged on Jack’s hand to get him to join me, and I began sudsing up his chest with the cherry scented body wash.
**********
It wasn’t going to be enough. One night, one weekend, one month, one lifetime... he wasn’t ever going to get enough of her. It terrified him as much as it excited him. He’d learned early on that being the one in control gave you power, but with her he kept losing control. Those moments when she took over were exhilarating, but, once they passed, they left him at a loss of words. How do you restore the balance of power after being physically leveled by a set of lips, a tongue, two eyes and ten fingers? Getting angry at her didn’t work. She’d just give him that kicked puppy expression, and he’d ache with remorse. It didn’t help that he was conscious of caving in to her, either. He was powerless against her.
She was massaging shampoo into his hair as they sat entwined in the tub. It should’ve infuriated him, that power loss, but it made him feel free in a way he’d never imagined it could. He knew he was safe with her. She wouldn’t abuse the power she held over him. She would never hurt him. He leaned back against her chest with his knees bent so he’d fit in the tub. Her legs were wrapped around his waist, and he stroked them absently as he mused over their current status. Clouds of purple suds drifted over the bathwater, and the air was pregnant with the aroma of cherries. "I suppose we should just admit it." He grunted. Her fingers froze, and her whole body tensed. She clearly wasn’t expecting a commitment from him. Tough. She was getting it. "Nobody else in this world gets it, Scarlet. Just me and you. We may as well team up and take the bastards on together." He suggested. She gave him a full body hug, squeezing him with her arms and legs. She giggled and kissed his soapy neck. "Don’t even start thinking about making plans for the Prom... unless they involve pig’s blood and fire. Then I
might consider it." He warned her.
Author's Note: To those who've reviewed or rated this story I send many grateful thanks! I am currently working to finish this story as quickly as I can while retaining it's quality. Thanks for your time!
