Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

The rain thumped against the windowpanes of Eleanor's house the next morning. She was going to be late for work today, and late for taking Elijah to his pre-school class. Both of them had slept in, after Elijah had crept into her bed in the middle of the night because he'd had a nightmare.



Already ten minutes late for work, she dropped the boy off at pre-school, and rushed off again, getting in the car to go to work. She stopped for a moment to compose herself, the whole morning had been nothing but a mad rush. And it was then she noticed something out of the corner of her eye on the passenger seat. She looked over and saw what appeared to be a playing card, with some sort of message scribbled on it in red pen. She frowned and picked it up to look at it. It was a Joker card. She breathed in. The Joker's famous calling card. The message on it read: In heaven or in hell - we WILL meet up again.



She quickly put the card back down again. Her heart thudded in her chest. Yes, now she believed it. The most dangerous man in Gotham City seemed to be stalking her.



She switched on the car's ignition and the tyres squealed as she sped out of the school car park, her mind now a mess.



"How can he do this? Why is he doing this?" she asked herself out loud over and over.



Finally arriving at work twenty minutes late and full of apologies, her work colleagues looked concerned.



"He's been here, looking for you." her friend Lisa said. "The Joker. He was here just as we opened the bank."



Eleanor put her hand to her forehead. "I guess he left this in my car after he'd been here." She showed her co-workers the Joker calling card.



"What does he want with you, Eleanor?" Lisa asked. "How do you know this guy?"



Eleanor sighed and slumped down at her desk. "I knew him a long time ago. Before he was The Joker. We were good friends. Then he went crazy and started killing people and blowing stuff up. And I didn't want anything more to do with him."



"Good friends?" Lisa repeated, raising an eyebrow.



"Yes!" Eleanor said loudly. "Look, I don't know what to do here. I think he's stalking me. I don't know why. I don't feel safe. He's got my cell phone number. He knows where Elijah's school is. He knows where I work."



"You need to get the police involved, Eleanor." Lisa said quietly. "This is The Joker we're talking about. He's a wanted man. And you know how dangerous he is..."



"Yeah, I know!" Eleanor shouted, "I know, alright? I know! More than anyone, just believe me on that. I know what he can do. And I don't want him near Elijah. He can never see him, it's just too dangerous...I just...can't risk it."



Lisa put her hand on Eleanor's shoulder. "You need to call the police, Eleanor. You need protection from this guy."



"The Joker doesn't give a shit about the police, Lisa. He lives by his own rules. He doesn't care about anything else. If I got police protection, he would find a way around it to get to me. I know he would."



"But you've gotta let the police know, Eleanor. We're concerned about you."



Eleanor sighed and buried her head in her hands. "I know you are...I know. I'll call them in my lunch break."



A little later, when her lunch break came round, that was exactly what she did. A police officer came to see her at the bank after lunch, to gather some details. The police took anything concerning The Joker very seriously, because of what he was capable of, and the fact that he was a highly wanted man.



Eleanor was given a panic alarm, a device that alerted the police station straight away if she used it. She was assigned a police officer to accompany her on the school run, and for going to and from work. She was advised to use extra security precautions in her home, such as alarms and extra secure windows and locks. And in the meantime, the police were going to monitor and trace any calls The Joker might have made to her mobile phone, and were going to do their best to trace his whereabouts.



Once the police officer had gone and Eleanor returned to her work, she felt a lot more at ease knowing she and her son were going to be protected from such a dangerous and violent criminal. He may not have harmed her or her son yet...but she didn't want to let it happen at all. Better to be protected and safe, than to be complacent, and eventually end up dead.



Two very quiet weeks passed. With a police support officer around and the extra security measures in her house, Eleanor felt that she and Elijah were pretty much out of danger. She had neither heard nor seen anything from The Joker at all.



The police were still looking for him, and he was still on the run. The news on TV and in the newspapers had been very quiet about him too. There were no more stories on him, and his last crime wasn't being so talked about now.



Was there more to The Joker's disappearance than there appeared to be? Perhaps the answer to this was down to someone else. Bruce Wayne. A good looking billionaire playboy during the daytime - and at night time, The Joker's biggest nemesis. The armoured batsuit wearing "Batman", as everyone called him.



The Batman was controversial himself, more of a crime fighting vigilante with methods not everyone agreed with, rather than a real "hero".



The police were seriously considering that The Batman may have been holding The Joker somewhere, which might have explained his sudden disappearance from their radar. If The Batman did have The Joker, they wanted him there as long as possible. The Batman was more than wise to The Joker and would give him the toughest time possible. The police didn't want The Joker to be handled gently. They wanted him to be handled roughly, and The Batman was the only one they knew who could do that.