TB: Cry Wolf ch. 28

Chapter 28: One Rotten Day…

[Jeanette’s POV:]

I always thought that my wisest course of action if I ever were kidnapped would be to keep silent.  It was simply one of those things that stood to reason.  I never thought it would be safer to talk on occasion, let alone make biting, confrontational remarks as well.

Then again, I had never in my life anticipated that I might wind up getting kidnapped by a madman like The Joker.

I watched as he constantly went about—well, whatever it was he was doing—in the old television station, ordering Punch and Judy around rather often.  The first time he had done something that didn’t seem to be fitting with the rest of his plan, I made the mistake of asking why.  He had asked his two goons to turn off some of the fluorescent lights toward the far end of the room.  He then demanded that they turn them back on, then back off again, then back on again, then back off a third time, before finally demanding that they rip the lights out of their fixtures in the ceiling entirely.

“Why?” The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it.  Joker turned and looked at me, his eyes bulging slightly, as though shocked I had asked a question.  “What purpose does that serve?”

“Why, I didn’t like the lights, of course!”

After that answer, I resolved that I should refrain from asking questions about things unrelated to his plans for my evident demise.  My brain was hurting enough already.

Perhaps one of the few bright points of my insane captivity was Xack Hathaway.  There was still something about the young woman that unsettled me slightly on some fundamental level, but her presence soon became to me a comfort of sorts.  She rarely engaged in doing anything the way Punch and Judy always seemed to, even though she didn’t dare go against anything Joker said.  Of course, he didn’t seem keen on ordering her around in the same way he did them, and some time had passed before he addressed her again.

“Xackie!” He spoke suddenly, and she looked up, her face an expression of polite interest.  Not for the last time, I wondered what in the world she was doing there, and what her particular relationship to the Clown Prince of Crime was.  I watched as she said nothing, and the Joker sauntered over, carrying a rubber chicken by its neck.  Without a word, he set it unceremoniously on Xack’s head, arranging it to look like a makeshift hat.

“Ahh, much better!” He declared, admiring his handiwork for a second before marching off.  I raised my eyebrows and shifted in my seat to look at Xack.  To my vast relief, she appeared extremely disgruntled and irritated about the rubber chicken, and after Joker had disappeared from sight, she reached up and swatted it off of her head.

“I suppose this isn’t the first time he’s done something like that to you.” I prompted.

“You have no idea.” She said with a mirthless half-chuckle.

“How in the world is it that you came to be in the company of Joker?” I asked cautiously.

“You mean right now, or at all?”

“Both.  After all, I’ll probably understand the former best if I know the latter.”

The faint ghost of a smile flickered onto Xack’s face as she shifted in her seat.

“I was in Arkham; both my brother and I were.” She answered, and I couldn’t hold in my shock.  Arkham Asylum?!  But she was only perhaps a handful of years younger than me!  How in the world was that possible?  She saw the look on my face and chuckled hollowly.  “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“If I may ask why—“

“Please don’t,” she cut me off quickly, shaking her head, “It’s…not an easy topic for me.  Point of it is, that’s where I met Joker.  He…took an interest in me, I suppose.”

“You suppose?”

She ignored my sarcasm and slouched forward, her expression unreadable.  “And the feeling was kind of mutual, at first.  I thought Joker was weird, different, unusual, and he was a break in the monotony at Arkham.  But then after a while, I learned something really important.” She said quietly.

“Dare I ask what that was?”

“It’s deadly to ever get on the Joker’s radar, in any way.”

I shut my mouth, feeling as grim as she sounded.  I knew all too well what she meant.  Still, something about all of this didn’t add up.

“So why are you here, right now?” I asked, as gently as I could.  She exhaled a sigh that blew her bangs out of her face, rolling her eyes in a way that suggested she was less-than-pleased about the matter.

“I was following Joker one day,” she replied, “Spotted him outside my apartment, and thought I would find out what he was up to.  Didn’t exactly work out like I thought it would.  I met someone called Fantasia—“ I nearly jumped in shock, hearing my cousin’s stage name, though she apparently didn’t notice, “And I stuck with him for a while, until we caught up with a bunch of other people at some mansion.  Then things with the weather started getting weird, I heard Professor Strange’s name thrown around once or twice…then Joker grabbed me and we left.  I figured I shouldn’t argue, but I had no idea what he was planning to do, you have to believe me!  I didn’t know he was planning on kidnapping or hurting you, honest.”

“I believe you.” I told her with a weary nod.  “Life has a tendency to just get crazy without warning, as I keep getting reminded so frequently lately.”

She went quiet and watched me for a time, her expression still somewhat melancholy as she hugged her knees to her chest.  Really, she was a lovely girl in many ways, and I couldn’t help but feel a stab of pity for her.  Life was hard enough with Joker just out to kill me; I wasn’t sure I wanted to know exactly what it was like to be an object of interest to him.

“I’m really sorry,” Xack said suddenly, looking away from me and picking at one of her shoelaces absentmindedly, “I know it probably sounds useless and empty to you, but I really do mean it.  I’m sorry, Jeanette.  I wish there was some way I could actually help you, but…I just don’t know what to do.”

I was at a loss for words.  Despite my earlier feelings, I just couldn’t hold this against her.  This was all Joker’s fault, and to an extent, mine as well, depending on how one looked at it.  Really, a sensible woman would have worried more about her life and the lives of others rather than antagonizing a known maniac, let alone attacking that same maniac…twice.  And now, I was going to pay the price for my moment of idiocy.

And Lance, came a thought from the back of my mind, I’ve endangered him too.

A sinking feeling of guilt twisted my stomach.  Lance had nothing to do with this, and yet somehow Joker had found out about him, and now was demanding a ransom from him for me.

It’s a trap, my woman’s intuition had decided when Joker had first televised that message, it has to be.  Even if Lance shows up with all the money, Joker’s going to kill me.  There’s no way that he’ll just forget what I did to him for a large pile of cash.

The thought still provided no comfort now.  I could see no potential way out of this situation, not even remotely.  And beyond that, what would the effect be on those close to Lance and me?  Would Michelle become a target, just because she was my sister?  Would Joker attack Lance’s businesses, just treating them like a massive treasure trove to dive into?

No, I thought stubbornly, I may not be more than a captive for ransom and torture in these circumstances, but I am NOT going to just let that happen.  Heaven help me, there must be SOMETHING I can do!

I glanced around hurriedly, hoping inspiration would just come to me.  Surely there was something I could use.  Improvisation wasn’t my strong point, but I had managed well enough with Doctor Dorian, hadn’t I?  So there had to be…

My eye fell on the far end of the room, where the outdoor family pool Joker had stolen and dumped chemicals in waited for me.  And a wild thought occurred to me.  It was a flighty, silly hope at best, and there was no guarantee it would work at all.  But it was the best idea I could come up with.  So maybe, just maybe, if I played this right…

“Xack,” I whispered, glancing around to see if Joker or either of his lumbering goons were around, and she looked at me, blinking her green eyes, “There is something you could do to help me, but it’s a long shot, and it’s probably going to sound incredibly mindless.”

She also looked around, a nervous tension in her overall posture and expression, but after a moment, she looked back at me with the tiniest of nods.

“What is it?” She whispered in urgent tones, “Better hurry, they could show back up at any second.”

“I had a small hand purse with me.  Punch and Judy took it from me when they tied me up.  Do you know where it is?” I asked, and when she nodded, I spoke as low and fast as I could.  “When Lance gets here, Joker will be preoccupied with him.  Do you think you could get to my purse, grab something from it, and get back here without being missed?”

“Probably,” she said, regarding me with a skeptical expression, “What do you need?”

“Body spray.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth turned down in a disbelieving frown as her eyebrows rose.

“Just trust me on this,” I begged, “There should be a bottle of body spray in my purse.  My sister gave it to me before I…before I got on the bus.  All I want is for you to grab it and slip it into the ropes so I can reach it.”

Her frown eased up, but I could tell she still didn’t quite believe me.  Either that or she thought I was already halfway crazy and getting worse.

“This is unbelievably boring!” Joker’s voice wafted toward us, and we both quickly tried not to look guilty of speaking to one another.  Within moments, he rounded the corner, huffing and stomping about with Punch and Judy following dutifully behind him, evidently waiting for an opportunity to be helpful.

“What’s boring?” I asked as politely as I could.  Joker paused long enough to shoot a flat look in my direction, and I couldn’t actually blame him this time.  I’d picked the sort of polite tone that a boy wizard would use to ask why something was curious, and when put in the right circumstances that particular tone hints that you could be up to something.  He was right to look irritated and suspicious.

“Not that I would expect you to understand, but waiting.” He answered.  “Then again…I suppose I don’t have to wait for midnight and your sugar-daddy to roll around.”

“Sugar-daddy?! ” I spluttered, feeling both a flush and angry indignation coming on.  “Mister Pendragon isn’t—“

The rest of his words finished registering in my brain, and my mouth went dry.

“O-oh.” I managed to say, feeling a knot obstruct my throat.

“But,” Joker sighed somewhat dramatically, “That would take most of the fun out of it.  This will just be better with an audience.”

And with that, he resumed walking the studio, his stomping pout turning into a self-assured strut.  I couldn’t bring myself to watch, and I stared down at my shoes.  My fears had just been confirmed; Joker was planning to kill me regardless of whether or not Lance actually produced the ransom, and the only reason he hadn’t done so already was because he wanted Lance to see it happen.  I tried not to think too hard about it, but my brain wouldn’t focus on anything else.  I was going to die, and a show would be made of my death.

I don’t want to die.  I don’t want to die.

Trying not to imagine how I would die was difficult, and only made things worse.  I was probably going to die slowly as acid ate away at me…assuming of course, that I simply didn’t drown in the chemicals first.  And Lance, dear, sweet, kindly Lance…he would be force to watch this happen.

The memory of his smile filled my mind, and I wanted desperately to cry.

We’ll never get to have that second date.  Lance will have to be the one to tell Mom and Michelle I’m dead.  To think, I finally got a prospective boyfriend and patch things up and start rebuilding old bridges with my sister, and now I’m going to die before any of this can really come to full fruition.

No, I’m not, some stubborn part of me argued, I won’t die.  Batman will show up, like he always does, and he’ll stop Joker.  Lance may even try to stop Joker.  He is a werewolf, after all!  And in any case, I have my hope for an escape of some sort.

Who am I kidding? The resigned-to-death thoughts argued back.  It’s a fool’s hope at best.  That body spray won’t be enough to neutralize chemicals that will kill me.

Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.

I only wound up feeling more confused than before, and at the same time, I had to wonder if part of Joker’s madness wasn’t already rubbing off on me.  After all, it was very rare that I argued with myself in my thoughts.  Glancing up, the seat next to me was empty; Xack had gotten up and walked over to Joker, watching him with those wide eyes.

So much for hoping she would help.

I don’t want to die.

That one thought swirled in my mind over and over.  No matter how much I tried to focus on anything else for any amount of time, everything came back to that one thought.  I don’t want to die.  Time passed slowly, but I couldn’t even agonize over that.  I don’t want to die.

There was no way for me to have figured out what the time was for certain, but I knew this: It was definitely not midnight when I finally heard Lance’s voice echo through the studio.

“JOKER!”

The sound of his voice jolted me out of my gloom, and I looked up wildly.  There he was, throwing open the double doors at the far end of the studio, looking absolutely livid.  And what was more, he wasn’t alone—Rook and Eva were with him!

“Lance!” I cried out, a few tears spilling out of my eyes in relief.  Hope came back in such a rush I thought my chest would burst.  There was no way they would let me die!

Joker looked up from the small desk table where he had been playing what I assumed was Go Fish with Punch and Judy while Xack watched.  For a moment, he seemed mildly perplexed, as though he couldn’t figure how for the life of him why people had just suddenly shown up, but he recovered fast and gave a broad grin.

“Ahh, the knight in shining armor has finally arrived to rescue his damsel in distress!” He said loudly, spreading his arms open wide.  Punch and Judy took this as a cue, and moved toward me.  They stood on either side of the chair, and it struck me just how tall they were up close.  I looked to Lance, saw his furious expression, and realized he was carrying a briefcase at his side.  I felt like I had to find a way to tell him the ransom was pointless, but how?

“So,” Joker said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together with evil glee, “Where’s my demanded loot, Mister Tycoon?”

Lance’s eyes narrowed as he handed the briefcase off to Eva, balling his fists and baring his teeth as he took up a stance like he was ready to get into a fistfight.

“GIRD UP NOW THY LOINS LIKE A MAN!” He shouted.

I blinked, unsure what I had just heard.

Had Lance actually just quoted the King James edition of The Holy Bible?

I glanced around at everyone else, who looked equally confused, with the exceptions of Eva, who rolled her eyes and groaned, and Rook, who looked ready to sob.

“Dude,” he whined, “I’m begging you.  Just say balls.”

“Wait.  Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Joker said, holding up a hand for everyone to pause and looking at Rook incredulously, “You can understand this guy?”

I felt like saying that I could understand him, but I doubt Joker would listen to his own hostage for any reason.  Either that, or he would probably think for some cock-and-bull reason that I was ‘trying to pull a fast one.’

“Ehh, kind of?” Rook answered him, shrugging.  “Been around him long enough I can sort of interpret what he says when he gets like this.”

That’s an impressive feat.  For you that is, Rook.  I thought wryly.

“So, what exactly did he say to me?  Can you translate it into English?” Joker asked, still looking mildly confused.  This time he got a roll of the eyes and a long-suffering sigh.

“He said, ‘Yo, hollah.  Cover your balls, dawg, ‘cause we ‘bout to rumble and it’s gon’ get ugly.’”

If you’ve never seen a white-boy vampire try to talk like a gangsta from the ‘hood, count yourself lucky.  My confidence in my rescue dropped.  Rook would be getting a serious lecture about this in the future, I silently vowed.

“Oh.” Joker blinked.  “Why couldn’t he just say that in plain English?”

“I know, right?”

Lance tossed his best friend a quelling scowl, muttering something about how he was speaking English, and gave a jerk of his head in Eva’s direction.  Eyes narrowing, she flung the briefcase at Joker, throwing it like a Frisbee.  I nearly jumped, not because she had thrown it, but because at that precise moment, something slipped between the ropes binding me to the chair, and was pushed into my hands.  I recognized the body spray bottle instantly, and a quick look up at Judy and Punch showed they hadn’t noticed anything; their attention was fixed on their boss.

“Good luck.”  It was barely a whisper in my ear before I sensed Xack had already gone, hopefully vanishing out of sight somewhere in the studio.  It wasn’t much, but it was a little bit of comfort to me regardless.

“Hey!” Joker squawked, and I realized he had the briefcase open and was gaping at its contents.  “Game money?! ”

“No need to take this all so seriously.” Lance piped up in a sweetly mocking tone of voice.  “I thought you would be one to appreciate a good joke.”

Joker stared at him for a moment, then threw back his head and laughed, shoulders starting to shake.

“And here I thought you suit-and-briefcase stiffs wouldn’t know comedy if it bit ya!” He roared between laughs.  I saw Eva and Rook exchange apprehensive glances and shift position slightly before Joker’s laughter died down, and he smiled coldly at Lance.  “In that case Mr. Pendragon, you’re gonna love this next little joke of mine.”

He snapped his fingers and the floor fell away as Punch and Judy lifted my chair.  It wobbled so much I thought I would drop my hidden bottle, and vaguely I wondered if a person could get seasick this way.  Perhaps it would be safer to assume vertigo, but at that moment I didn’t care, as they made to move toward the pool full of chemicals.

This was it.  I was about to die.

“Put.  The chair.  Down.”

The voice echoed menacingly through the studio, and my chair came to a halt as Punch and Judy hesitated.  I looked all around the ceiling rafters, trying to catch a glimpse of a pointed cowl.  Then, a dark shape detached itself from the shadows and dropped down between Joker and Lance, rising fluidly and glaring daggers.

“Batsy, you weren’t supposed to join this party.”  Joker said angrily, crossing his arms.

“I tracked you here, not that it was hard.  You used this same television studio when you took Detective Tankinson hostage.  Now, let Miss Harker go.”

A smile came back over Joker’s face as he looked back in our direction.

“Well, boys?  You heard Batsy!”

Time seemed to slow down.  I was flung bodily with the chair, the room arced and spun in a blur.  I lost my grip on the body spray and prayed with every heartbeat it ended up in the pool.  The vile-looking yellow-green chemicals flashed into view briefly before I was falling sideways toward it.  The last sound that reached my ears as I sucked in a breath was Lance shouting in rage.

And the world became green liquid fire as I plunged beneath the surface of the chemical bath.