Damaged Beyond Repair (Joker Fanfiction)

Chapter One: Locked Up

"Get off me!" I shouted, kicking and flailing at my assailants as they dragged me down the hall. They ignored me and one guard took a key ring out of his pocket and unlocked a cell, sliding the door open. I dug my heels into the ground, trying my hardest to resist, but it was no use. I was flung into the dark and dingy cell and the door was instantly slammed shut. I flew up against the bars, rattling them and screaming as the guards departed.

"I'm not crazy! You can't do this to me! Let me out of here!" I was half-sobbing by now, though I expected no one was listening.

Eventually I tired of yelling and sank down to the floor, running my fingers through my long blonde hair and feeling the hot salty tears cascade down my cheeks. I couldn't be here. I made a mistake. This seemed no different than a jail cell down at Blackgate Penitentiary. Why had I chosen this again? Oh right, because my lawyer had told me it would be better to plead insanity. I drew my knees up to my chest and let out short, broken sobs, feeling my heart beating rapidly in my chest.

A few months back, my brother and I had been walking home together from his football practice. He was only a freshman in highschool, and I usually met up with him on my way home from work and we walked together. Most evenings it was uneventful. We'd talk, laugh, maybe run into the occasional person that we recognized on the street and stop to have a conversation. Life was good, up until that day.

My brother had been going on about something unimportant that had happened at school that day and I'd been texting my friend Sarah, barely listening to what he was saying, only giving the occasional "mhm" or "yeah" to make it seem like I was listening. Only now do I wish I actually had been listening. It would be the last conversation I would ever have with my brother, after all.

In the middle of his story, a man had waltzed out of the shadows, a gun pointed straight at me. He had wild tangles of dark brown hair matted to his face and a raging fire in his black eyes. He looked like a murderer.

"Give me your money and no one gets hurt," he'd growled, adjusting his grip on the pistol and glaring at me, his eyes occasionally darting back and forth between me and my brother.

My breath was hitched in my throat, my hands were shaking, but somehow I managed to slip my purse off my shoulder and shakily hand it out to him. He snatched it abruptly and emitted a low chuckle.

"Now you die." Before I could speak or even think, I heard a wild yell and my brother leapt at him while the man's attention had been focused on me.

"Jeremy!" I screamed, fearing for my brother's life. I was rooted to the spot, not knowing what to do.

"Run, Cara!" He'd grunted as he wrestled with the man. My brother was big for his age, and was actually seeming to hold his own against the man. My body unfroze, but I still didn't run, not wanting to leave my brother behind.

"CARA I SAID RUN!" He screamed, and that was the last thing I heard from him as I turned and sprinted, my shoes pounding against the concrete. I couldn't see anyone in sight, and I cursed myself for walking along one of the backstreets where few people ever ventured save for crooks and criminals.

I got halfway down the street when I heard it. It reverberated off the surrounding buildings like a firecracker. I'd never heard a gunshot before. Not until now. I turned briefly to see my brother's limp body falling to the ground in the distance and the man standing up with the pistol in his hand. A bloodcurdling scream left my winded lungs, but I couldn't stop running, for the man had seen me and was now after me.

I tried not to think about Jeremy as I ducked into an alley, sprinting as fast as I could to get the man off my tail. I glanced behind me periodically, but I didn't see him. I didn't stop running until I arrived at my house, banging on the door with my fists since my keys had been in the purse taken by the murderer.