Embrace the Madness: The Joker and Felicia Sullivan

Chapter Five: A Little Push

          When I woke up nothing was the same; I no longer sat in the small cell I was once confined to, no one I recognized was in sight, and no matter how hard I tried, my arms just wouldn’t move. I looked down to see them wrapped tightly in a strait-jacket, rendering them completely useless as I fought to free myself from the uncomfortable suit. My eyes darted frantically around the room; it was equally as small as my old one if not smaller, yet the setup couldn’t have been any more different. All around me were walls as white as the corridors just outside the entrance, which was no longer just a wall of bars, but a secure, metal door with nothing but a small glass window so high that I questioned my ability to even peer out of.

“Excuse me?” I said loudly, wiggling around in the firm bed as I struggled to sit myself up, “Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

“You’ve been moved to a more, uh, prestigious wing of Arkham.” A clowny voice replied smoothly.

“Um, why?” I replied lamely, instantly recognizing the Joker’s voice.

“Your so called plan,” he answered, his voice condescending despite the amusement lacing it.

            I rolled my eyes, though I knew he couldn’t see me, opting to not bother with a reply as I hoped awkwardly out of my bed in an ill-thought out attempt at making something of my new circumstances. I staggered over to the small glass window in the high center of the metal door separating me from the ward’s corridors, peering out of it to look at a hallway almost identical to the one outside of my old cell. I tried to look over at the Joker’s cell, but since I couldn’t see him anywhere in my range of sight, I just assumed he was in one of the rooms next to mine, not that it was easy to look at any of the other high-security inmates through the sad-excuses for windows.

“So, why didn’t anyone bother to explain this,” I began before taking a brief pause, “change of scenery… to me?”

            The Joker began to laugh, though I quickly became irritated by it, wishing I hadn’t bothered to ask at all, “You don’t honestly think that they would sit around all day, waiting for some lunatic to wake up… just to explain a couple of changes?”

“I’m not a lunatic,” I replied irritably, “and yes, it would have been nice.”

            I walked back over to my bed in the corner of the cramped space, sitting down idly before leaning up against the brick wall surrounding me. For a moment I was sure that the loud sigh leaving my lips as I slumped back down into my bed was loud enough to resonate throughout the entire institution. In the immediate distance I could hear the Joker’s muffled giggles, without a doubt inwardly mocking me and my seemingly stressful predicament.

“Shut up,” I shot harshly, wondering if he would even hear me.

            He continued to giggle uncontrollably, his laughter ringing throughout the hall so loudly that it seemed as though it were coming from ten Joker’s at once. The sadistic, unyielding laughter oozed chaos and disarray, and it was eerie enough to give me goose bumps and cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. I sat up and walked back over to my door, trying to ignore him as I began to bang frantically on the metal barrier standing between me and my freedom with my side.

“Hello?” I screamed down the hallway, “Will somebody please come here?”

            I peered out of the window, but still no one was anywhere in sight. For a moment I just stood there, desperately hoping that someone would hear me and come attend to my request, though I was almost certain they wouldn’t give me the time of day now that I ruined any chance of escaping. I didn’t have anything in mind, but I had to do something or I was positive that I would die here of boredom. Honestly, the most fun I had so far was stabbing that guard with the end of a plastic fork, and that went so terribly wrong that it wasn’t worth the effort.