sightless.

1: The Robbery

Amy opened her eyes to blackness, and it wasn't the usual black--the black where you know that a light is on somewhere in the house or in the world.  It was an all-encompassing, lost-in-an-abyss-of-black emptiness of light.  Where the hell am I?

She knew there was a robbery at the bank that she got caught in the middle of.  She just wanted to switch money from her savings to pay this month's rent.  It was Saturday, the fifth of the month, and one hour before the bank closed.  There was no way she was paying a ten percent late fee.  She didn't have the eighty-five dollars even if she wasn't entirely against paying the thieves she called landlords the extra money.  She was so tempted to stay in bed all day, though.  She just wanted one day—just one.  She hadn't felt well all day yesterday.  Her ears were ringing, and her head ached.  Her stomach felt turned all day, and it was even worse this morning.

Amy was the fifth person in line, the bank extra busy because it was the beginning of the month.  Everyone had the same idea she did.  She was a people watcher by nature.  There were a couple middle-aged women waiting in line in front of her.  There was a man behind the counter.  There was a cute old couple taking their good old time getting in the door, while a younger business woman impatiently followed behind them.  She wasn't ready for what next came through the door. 

Men in costumes—a panda, different masks, they were all carrying guns.  Huge guns. Machine guns?  She knew there was only one explanation for this.  The Joker.  She watched the news every morning and every night without fail.  She liked to know what was going on in her world, especially Gotham.  The antics the criminals of Gotham insisted on terrified her.  She wanted to be safe and just hide at home when they felt like carrying on.  The joker maintained a posse of strangely masked henchmen.  These were his men.

Then, as she expected, he walked through the door.  She knew his face from the footage from helicopters, from video cameras far away, but she never expected to see his face so close.  She almost couldn't believe he was real.  She could tell he yelled something to everyone, but the ringing in her ears got worse.  It was all a blurred mess.  "... and gentlemen... Thank... " 

She could see that a middle-aged woman who was standing in front of the counter screamed. Dumb twat. She ran towards the other side of the bank but didn't make it very far.  One of the masks released what looked like hundreds of rounds into her poor body in seconds.  The ringing just got worse. 

Everyone fell immediately to the floor and covered their heads.  Amy followed suit.  She looked up and saw the dead woman lying on the floor in a bloody mess, and what she noticed next was the unfortunate older couple struggling to get on the floor.  Her heart broke. 

"AH HA HA HA HA."  After releasing his bellowing signature laugh, the ring leader made an announcement to everyone. The ringing, oh, the ringing.  Amy couldn't catch any of it.  He held his arms out as if speaking to a captive audience and walked towards the couple. "... help?  ... looks ... generously help you."  With his signature grin, he brought his well-polished dress shoe up and kicked the woman down to the ground.  She couldn't watch the pitiable woman as she fell; she just knew something broke when the woman went down.

"... better ... withdraw ... merry little way."  He hopped up onto the counter and jumped down behind the counter.  He disappeared behind a doorway, which she assumed led to the safe.  There must have been a scuffle behind the counter as soon as he was out of sight because one of the henchmen started shooting at something—or she assumed, someone—the man that was behind the counter. 

Amy put her nose to the tile and then started taking deep breaths in and out.  She felt like she was going to be sick right there.  Her whole body was completely out of her control, she was shaking too much.  Before she could think about it, out of some stupid instinct to keep the mess she knew was quickly coming, contained, she jumped up to run to the trashcan. 

She couldn't hear that all the masks turned her way.  Instead of shooting first, one walked towards her.  She leaned over the trashcan and emptied her stomach violently.  It wasn't pretty.  She knew she was coming down with something.  The henchman that walked over to her leaned down and brutally grabbed her up by her hair.  He was big, too big to be natural, and his breath smelled repugnant.  It made her stomach turn even more.  She saw he was talking to her but getting sick and his hold on her hair made the pounding in her head get worse.  Before she knew it, he cocked his gun back and swung with all his might at her face. 

She should have stayed in bed and figured out a way to pay the damn late fee.

The blackness was disconcerting.  She needed to get up and find a light to turn on.  If I were in a hospital, there would be light coming from under the door, and the sheets wouldn't be so damn soft.  She sat up, and found that her stomach still wasn't settled, but she pushed on.  She then pushed her legs over the side of the bed, and they didn't reach the floor.  Definitely too high to be a hospital bed.

She was able to reach her toes down to touch the floor and stopped suddenly.  She heard a breathy chuckle coming from somewhere in the room.  "Who's there?  Why are the lights off?" she started spitting out questions one after another.  "Where am I?"  The chuckle stopped at the questioning, and she heard someone take in a long, slow deep breath.  They didn't say anything.  "Please.  Say something.  Anything," she begged.  The darkness was becoming unbearable, and she was still frozen in place, afraid to make another move. 

"You are in my home," a deep, growling male voice told her. 

A/N: So there's the first part. This is not going to be your usual Joker steals, beats, and corrupts girl, and they fall into some kind of sick and twisted version of love.  I am hoping to write a unique story with a unique character.  I'm really enjoying the Suicide Squad version of Joker, and I want to play around with his character in this story and a couple others in the works.

Please let me know what you think.  I would like to think that I am doing well and capturing your attention as much as my own, but I could be wrong.  Let me know what you think of the OC, Amy, and my version of the Joker.  Let me know what you think about the storyline.  Let me know if you like or dislike something.  Constructive criticism is extremely appreciated. 

Until next time, lovelies.  Ta!

08/29/2016