Madness (Joker Love Story)

Let the Games Begin

      Allison stepped out into the cool night air. The breeze reminded her of the tears that still lingered on her face, and she quickly wiped them away before the passing strangers could wonder about them. Just then, a phone call. She quickly reached into her purse, ripping out her phone and checking the caller ID. Arkham it read. She wasn't exactly in the mood to talk to anyone, let alone her boss, but she sighed and answered anyways. After all, if she didn't have her work, what did she have?
         "Hello?" She called into the phone. Silence. She began to get annoyed when it continued and repeated herself as she sat down to remove the uncomfortable shoes. "Listen, if this is a crank call, sir, you're doing it all wrong. I mean, come on, where's the heavy breathing.?" She joked and smiled at her own teasing. More silence. She sighed drastically as she walked and was about to hang up, dismissing it for some technical error, when all of a sudden there was a loud bang sound coming from the other end.         
         She jerked the phone away from her ringing ear and quickly wondered. Was that a gun shot? She brought the phone back to her ear and listened intently. Suddenly, "Hiya, Alley..." She recognized the voice before he even finished the greeting, and drew the phone closer to her mouth. She looked around her, though she wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for. Just something. Anything really. She was extremely paranoid now and realized he was waiting for an answer. She fumbled with her own words.
         How could she possibly respond to such a greeting? The joker, most feared man in Gotham, supposedly behind bars, calling her from her boss's phone. "What the hell are you doing?" She couldn't decide between whether to whisper or yell, so it came out as a struggled combination of the two. He laughed into the phone and it sent all too familiar chills down her spine. "Well I wanted to surprise you, since it is your birthday and all. But, it seems these people are just no fun. They tried to stop me but, uh, that didn't work so well... "
         She was still trying to comprehend all that he was saying when she heard him groan in pain. She furrowed her brows as she spoke her next words. "What happened?!?" She was now racing towards Arkham. The miscellaneous sharp objects that littered the streets found their way into the soles of her feet but she refused to cry out in pain. She needed to be completely silent if she was to comprehend any of what the Joker was telling her. 
         "Yeah.. I knew you'd be curious. But where's the fun in me coming out and spilling my guts to  you? It's much more fun to spill other's guts--" "Cut the shit, J, what's going on?!?" He growled friskily into the phone. "Ooh, what's the rush, toots? Rough night, huh?" "You don't know the half of it, buddy." She chuckled to herself, but it was only to hold back the appertaining rage to the night as a whole. "Well how about a party game?" 
         She was now stood directly in front of the rusty gates of Arkham. It looked so much more threatening in the dark. Perhaps it was just stress. She watched as lights flickered off in separate rooms in the asylum. "If you can find me," he paused and suddenly the asylum went completely black. "I'll let them live..." "You honestly think I care about these people? You're more pathetic than I previously judged." Lies. A defense mechanism she used more often than not. She wasn't even entirely sure who they were. 
         She began to walk through the rusty iron gate of the ward. How idiotic. They never did renovate the hospital, despite a plethora of complaints. Change is scary, after all. But now it caused Allison trouble as the edge of her dress caught on a lower corroding spoke. She tore the fabric, not caring about the beautiful, now soiled, dress. Everything changes. Well, almost everything. 
         Humans are the exception, though we like to think we're constantly evolving. People don't change. If anything, they only become more of who they always were. Trends change. Technology changes. Language changes. People don't change. While we like to think of ourselves as so much better than our ancestors, here we are, after so much time; afraid of everything, obstinate, selfish, greedy beings. And there's nothing we can do to change that.
         We still have our same weaknesses, we've just given them new names. "Flu." "Right." "Wrong." "Madness.". Allison's weakness was a man without a name. And he was just beyond those dark doors where the screaming was unbearable.
         "Let the games begin."