Time to be Serious

“Hello there.” Her body gave a sudden start as the feeling of cold water rushed onto her face. She tried to lift up, but found her hands were now chained to hook, screwed into the wall. She looked to see her captor staring down at her.



“Good-ah morning, sleepy head.” She turned her head, and felt her scabs crunch against the chains. Her shoulders were covered in dried blood, that no doubt came from when he smacked her head against the floor. She placed her swollen cheek on the cold chains, allowing the steel to soothe it.



“If that’s what you’d call this” she replied gazing lazily up at him.



“Aw, don’t be like that.” He squatted down his hand reaching out to brush her hair out of her eyes. “You never know, today could be...ex-cit-ing.” He hesitated a moment before smacking her check playfully. “Of course, that could be good or bad, and oh, have you been very bad-ah.” His voice went dark and his smile disappeared behind his painted on grin. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach, as she watched him walk over to chest of drawers and pull out a large wooden paddle. “Do you know who I am?” He asked running his hand over both sides of the grainy textured object.



“I have my guesses.” She replied eyeing him cautiously.



A grin formed on his face as he looked down at the paddle and then at her. Oh shit, she thought as he began to stride back towards her. She had figured given the paint, clothes and odd speech he was the criminal Gotham referred to as “the Joker”, or a really good copy cat, but either way that look and that paddle weren’t looking to comforting. He sat beside her on the mattress watching her failed attempts to wiggle out of his chains and away from him.



“At-tat-tat-ta,” he muttered forcing her onto her stomach. “Do you have any idea what my leg looks like after that little...incident of yours?” She tried to wiggle out of his grip. “Hm?” He reached into his pocket opening a switchblade. Her eyes widened and she began to fight back more.



“Ah-I wouldn’t move around a lot if I were you,” he jeered, “There’s a mad man with a sharp object, and he could cut you. Then again I’m not you, so wiggle all you want. Doesn’t matter to me either way.” Her body stiffened as he brought the blade down to her back, and she felt a hand slip beneath the waistband of her jeans. Slowly, he ran the knife through her jeans ripping the fabric from top to bottom.



“What are you doing?! You could have just ask me to take them off!” she gaped.



“Take them off? But this is much more fun.”



She shoved her head into the mattress and closed her eyes trying to drown out the sound of ripping fabric as he slowly slide his knife down the other leg of her jeans. She felt a quick pull, and cold air on her legs as he tossed the pants remains away.



“I have a game,” he started. “Don’t worry it’s an easy game to play, and seeing as I’m the one with any form of weapons well...you don’t have much choice do you.” She tried to remain calm as she felt is rough fingers run over her legs and up to her panty line. His hand left her leg and grabbed her chin forcing her to face him in a fashion. She resisted, trying to place her head into the mattress and imagine him and everything away.



“Aw, what’s the matter? Is it my scars?” She stopped struggling and looked him dead in the eye.



“No.” She spat. “Honestly your scars aren’t so bad, I’ve seen worse. I could even live with your ridiculous make-up and gawd awful oily hair. What I can’t stand are your damn yellow teeth. It’s called a tooth brush, I’ll even spell it for you.”



“Oh-oh-oh,” he chuckled, “You’ve got a little fight in you, I like that.” With that he brought the paddle down hard on her backside, causing her to jolt and scream. She started to struggle to get away from him again. She managed to distance her body a little ways away from him and curled herself into a ball trying to protect what little of herself she could.



“Aw, what happened? You were so eager! Where did all that fight go?” He grabbed her leg and jerked her back to his side. “Like I said, we are going to play a game. I want you to say my name,” she shot him a look. “I want you to say it like you want me, and when I believe you I’ll stop. You better say it loud though, I might not be able to hear you over all the noise.”



Before she could even form the question What noise? she knew. He brought the paddle down hard and it made a terribly loud slapping sound as it collided with her skin. Her screams echoed around the room, as he continuously brought it down with what seemed like more force each time.



“Stop!” Was all she could think to mutter between screams and sobs.



“I’m sorry what was that?” He paused paddle in midair.



“Stop! Please stop!” She cried looking back at him.



“Mmm, sorry wrong answer.” He resumed his previous task. The game! The damn game! The suddenness of his start and the pain had distracted her. She swallowed her pride and yelled as loud as she could.



“JOKER!” The paddling stopped, he looked at her a moment pursing his lips.



“Ahhh- nope, don’t believe you.” The sound of the paddle was almost worse than the feel. It was deafening in the small room. Her butt was already tender and it felt like it would explode at any moment.



“JOKER!JOKER!JOKER!”



He stopped again placing the paddle down beside him, and leaning over towards her ear.



“How do I know your saying that cause you want me to stop, or because you really want me?” He whispered, causing a shiver to run down her spine.

“I want you, I want you.” She said quickly, almost too quickly for him. The Joker glanced back down at the paddle, a look that didn’t go unnoticed by Arien and she quickly chimed in “I swear!”



He looked back up at her, a smirk playing on his face, causing his scars and paint to wrinkle and crack.



“Prove it.” He sat up jerking the chains, causing them to slacken, and her hands to drop. She sat up, flexing her wrists, allowing feeling to flow back into them. She glanced at him, and then back at the door.



“Uh-uh-uh,” he waved a finger in her face, “that wouldn’t be smart. I still have a weapon!” He said hold the knife up to her face. “I guess though if you don’t mean it, I really should get back to business.” he muttered reaching back for the paddle.



“No! Wait, wait!” She brought her hands up to cradle each side of his face. “Wait.” He turned back towards her lowering the knife.



“Hm?” He looked so pleased with himself, she wanted to wipe that stupid smile off his face, but one look at that paddle and she couldn’t think of anything she could do that would be worth facing that again. She took a moment to steady her breathing, then mustering up some courage she leaned in and touched her lips to his. She let the touch linger for a moment, surprised by the fact he had remained so still, and then pulled back letting her hands fall to her lap.



“You’re going to have to do better than that.”