Annabelle sighed as she listened to the man on the stage fail at his attempt of doing stand-up comedy.
She wanted nothing more than to go find her elder half-brother and get him to give her a dagger and some white oak ash, so she could dagger herself and not have to hear this man any longer.
It seemed that Annabelle wasn't the only one because not even halfway through his first joke, half of the audience in Oswald's nightclub had gotten up and left.
Annabelle wished she was one of those people and could leave whenever she wished but alas, she could do not such thing and could only pinch the bridge of her nose and start to shake her head, while the man on the stage said, "So the mortician says to the waitress— No, the waitress says to the mortician 'he was always stiff'."
Annabelle slowly raised her head and stared at the man on the stage with a blank look on her face before she started to repeatedly hit her head against the table she was sitting at.
An elderly man that was sitting at a table with a much younger woman said to her, "That's it. Let's go."
The man on the stage said, "Wait, no. Have a good night. See you next week, sir. Okay. That's fine, we got..."
Then another man said to one of Oswald's workers, "Check, please."
The other customers that hadn't left simply eyed Annabelle as she repeatedly hit her head against the table, while they wondered if they should ask if she was alright or to simply just leave her alone.
Fortunately for them, they decided to leave her alone.
If they bothered her, she would have most likely ripped their throats out.
Oswald only sighed when he saw all of the customers that were leaving and the fact that Annabelle was still hitting her head against the table without a care for the cracks that were forming after every hit the table had received before he looked over at the bar where three of his workers were quietly arguing with each other.
It was then that he limped over towards the bar and asked them, "What's wrong?"
While the two other workers walked away, the one that remained said as he stumbled over his words, "Mr. Penguin. I mean, the Penguin. I mean— I mean—"
Oswald raised his right hand before he asked the man, "What is it?"
The man told him, "We're out of booze."
Oswald's eyebrows furrowed as he said, "What? Hello? Behind you, there's a wall of booze."
The man told him, "Just colored water, sir. Always has been. We keep the real stuff down here, but we're out."
Oswald replied, "So, duh, order more."
The man said to him, "We did. It's just that—"
From the other end of the bar, Butch told Oswald, "It's Maroni's booze. And he's a little grumpy with you these days."
While he limped over towards Butch, Oswald retorted, "He was hardly a fan of Fish, either. Why did he sell her booze?"
Butch replied, "Business is business. But he hates you with a passion. But he can't kill you, so—"
Oswald asked him, "But what about Annabelle's booze? I see her with some all the time. Hell, she has some with her right now."
Butch told him, "That's Annabelle's booze. She brings it with her from each temporary home she stays in. She never shares them with anybody. Well, unless she trusts you or has grown a liking towards you and given how she doesn't like you and just wants me dead, it's not very likely to happen."
Oswald groaned as he said, "This is ridiculous. There's a thousand places to buy booze."
Butch replied, "Well, that's where it gets complicated. See, Maroni, he supplies this whole side of town. No one would dare cross him to help you."
It was only when Oswald heard a glass break and a woman yell 'boo' that he turned around to see the man dodging the broken bottle and Annabelle laughing as the man said while he walked off of the stage, "Thank you. Bye. Sorry."
Annabelle laughed even harder when one man said, "You're not funny."
It was then that Annabelle's laughter became even louder, while she heard a man say, "And you're not telling jokes."
Oswald sighed when he saw just how much Annabelle was enjoying the fact that the man that was on the stage was dodging anything else she threw at him before he turned to look at Butch and said to him, "You must take great pleasure watching me fail."
Butch replied, "On the contrary. I was with Fish when we took this place off a Chinese bookie nine years ago. It was used for cockfighting. Took forever to get the smell out. My blood, sweat and tears are in this dive."
Oswald sighed before he said, "Well, if you'll excuse me, it seems as though I need to procure some alcohol for my dwindling clientele."
While Oswald started to limp away from the bar, Butch said to him, "Be careful. You've seen what happens when you cross Maroni."
While Oswald continued to limp past Annabelle, she quickly got up out of the chair and followed him out of the nightclub as she hoped that there would be some form of an altercation between Salvatore and Oswald.
Despite her enjoyment in seeing bottles get thrown at the failed comedian, she was in a dire need to kill someone after not doing it ever since the night she murdered that blonde woman at Haly's Circus and all of the people she killed after she and Victor had left the circus.
* * *
While the two men sitting in the front of the car loaded their guns with bullets and Oswald only chuckled to himself as he watched two of Salvatore's men walk in and out of one of their trucks, Annabelle sighed to herself.
Then Oswald turned his head away from the window and asked with a chuckle, "That's it? Just two workers? This'll be easy."
Annabelle scoffed and shook her head to herself, while Oswald said, "Make it quick, guys."
It was only when they heard approaching sirens and saw cops stepping out of their vehicles that Annabelle started to chuckle to herself, while she glanced at Oswald, whose face had fallen once he saw the cops.
Oswald said to himself, "Well, this is inconvenient."
Annabelle's chuckling grew louder, which got Oswald to turn to her and glare, only to stop when she narrowed her eyes at him and her veins had come onto display.
Annabelle sighed to herself, while she heard one of Salvatore's men said to one of the cops, "Whoa, officer. Nothing going on here."
While he walked closer to one of Salvatore's men, one of the cops said, "Is that so? Your liquor license is out of date. We're gonna be confiscating this shipment."
The man asked the cop, "Hey, does Don Maroni know you guys are here?"
The cop ignored his question and said, "Walk away before I run you downtown."
The man shrugged before he and his partner walked away from the cop, while Oswald said, "This town is truly going to the dogs."
It was then that a thud was heard, which got Oswald to jump and Annabelle to chuckle to herself, while one of the men seated in the front of the car quickly pointed his gun at Butch, who said to them, "Evening, fellas." Then he nodded his head at Annabelle and said to her, "Annabelle."
Annabelle didn't bother to respond and only tilted her head, while one of the men turned off the safety to his gun, only for Oswald to wave the man off dismissively before he asked, "Why the smile, Butch? First, Maroni blocks our liquor, and now, the cops."
Annabelle sighed as Butch asked while he pointed at the cops, "Oh, who, them? They're with me. I always keep a few uniforms in the closet. A lot cleaner than going in guns blazing, don't you think?"
Oswald only turned his head away form Butch, which got Annabelle to chuckle to herself, while Butch said, "You're welcome, Oswald."
Annabelle laughed to herself, while she watched Butch walk away from them and congratulated one of the cops on the job he did and didn't bother to glance over at Oswald, while she listened to Butch tell the cops where to load Salvatore's liquor.
* * *
Annabelle sighed, while she dropped another body and watched her victim's head roll over towards the pile of heads she had stacked up.
After she and Oswald had returned to his nightclub, Annabelle couldn't help but feel a little down.
She wasn't able to kill anyone, seeing as how Carmine had restricted her from going out on her own and doing her own thing.
It was as if he needed her to be Oswald's little guard dog that would drop everything and ensure his safety, despite the fact that she couldn't care less about whether or not Oswald lived.
He was nothing to her and would remain nothing to her, no matter how much Carmine wished otherwise.
If anything, the only people she wished to not be harmed were Carmine and Victor.
Despite her initial hatred for Victor when she first started to work for Carmine, the hitman had grown on her and she'd hate it if someone were to try and harm him.
Then there was Carmine, who had kept his word and didn't inform her brother that she was inside of Gotham, which she was most grateful for.
Her reason for her loyalty towards Carmine was that he was a reasonable man that stood by his word, and that was something she respected about him.
After all, not many men stood by their word, as he had been doing for the past eleven years.
Not even her own siblings would do that, given how they had a way of finding a loophole when they gave their word to someone.
She would also do that and found it handy whenever she needed to scare someone into doing her bidding, if they had vervain in their system.
For example, there was a time when a vampire had pissed her off and she knew that when they were older, he turned his younger siblings into vampires so that he would never have to risk the chance of losing them.
It was the year 1349.
While she was traveling with her siblings in Europe, she came across a young male vampire named Luka, who had accidentally insulted her.
It wasn't until later when he saw her speaking with her twin brother, Kol, and realized just who she was that he profusely apologized before Kol had left to go to Africa in order to spend some time with the witches that lived there.
After hearing his apology, Annabelle merely tilted her head with a plastered smile on her face and she merely waved him off and reassured him that all was forgiven and he had nothing to worry about.
Seeing as how he knew nothing of her reputation as the most bloodthirsty and deadliest member of her family, he told her that she could come over to his home at any time.
And not even a full week later, she went to his home and attempted to enter it, only to find that she needed to be invited in.
She slowly became angry as she started to think that he tricked her, only to slowly lose the tension and anger that were rising in her body when he went up towards her and apologized before he told her that it wasn't anything personal.
He needed to take extra precautions, so that no one could try and harm his siblings, who weren't so lucky in procuring themselves daylight rings.
Once more, she plastered a smile on her face before she told him it was fine and it was then that he got the woman he'd compelled into letting him and his siblings stay in her home to invite Annabelle inside, but not before asking Annabelle to give him her word that she wouldn't try and harm his siblings.
It was then that a wide grin made its way onto her face before she told him that she wouldn't do anything to harm his siblings.
After all, she knew very well the loyalty and devotion one would have towards their own siblings.
After being invited into the home, she looked around herself and saw the decorations that were hung up inside of the woman's home before she looked up towards the staircase when she heard laughter.
It was then that she saw two men and two women running down the stairs and looking as if they were in their late teens, or at least in their late twenties.
She was just about to follow them, only to stop when she heard another fit of laughter and looked at the staircase once more to see a young girl, who looked to be about seventeen, running down the stairs and yelling after her siblings.
Annabelle's eyes narrowed upon seeing the young teenager and saw the similarities between the teenager and how Annabelle herself had looked at the age of seventeen.
Despite it being three-hundred and fifty-eight years since she was seventeen, she could still see just how similar this young teenager was to how she'd been when she was the same age.
Just as the girl was about to run past her, Annabelle grabbed her by her arm and sped up the stairs, while making sure to avoid any windows because of the girl not having any daylight accessories.
It was only when she went up the stairs and into a hidden room that had no windows that she put her bag down and pulled out some items that a couple of witches she'd made an alliance with had spelled, which made certain that nothing she said would be heard by the others.
She had her own wish that she wanted the youngest sibling to make happen, and it couldn't very well happen if the teenager's other siblings heard what she was going to say.
It was only when the items had started to work that Annabelle grabbed the teenager's face and turned her head before she stared into the young teenager's eyes with dilated pupils and told her just what she wanted the teenager to do.
Once she was finished with speaking, she threw the items back into her bag and sped out of the room and down the stairs before she walked towards the room where she heard the other siblings talking with each other.
It was only when the youngest had entered the room that Annabelle no longer had a blank look on her face.
Instead, a wide grin started to make its way onto the Original's face, while she watched the youngest sibling walk around the room and eye the curtains that were closed and had kept her and her older siblings, who also didn't have any daylight accessories, from burning to death.
It wasn't long after the youngest started to eye the curtains that Luka walked out of the room for reasons unknown to Annabelle, which allowed her to quickly leave the room and lock and close the doors, but not before she nodded her head at the youngest.
After she sped out of the room and sat down on the staircase, she heard the blood curdling screams of Luka's siblings.
A wide grin made its way onto her face, while she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sound of them dying from their exposure to the sun, only to stop and quickly open her eyes when she heard a door get broken down and a strangled sob.
She sighed before she stood up from the staircase and walked towards the room where Luka was on his knees and sobbing at the sight of his siblings, who burned to death and were nothing more than piles of ash.
When Luka heard approaching footsteps, he slowly turned his head and saw Annabelle standing a couple of feet away from him with a grin on her face before he said to her, "You did this."
In turn, Annabelle's grin became even wider as she nodded her head and said, "Mm-hmm."
Then he asked her, "Why would you do this? I don't understand. I thought we made up."
Annabelle replied, "Well, you thought wrong, Luka." As she walked towards him, she said, "If there's one thing someone should know about me, it's that I don't forgive others, no matter how many times they apologize to me for the wrong they've done to me."
Luka said in a whisper, "B-But you said you wouldn't hurt them."
As she raised her eyebrows at him, Annabelle replied, "Well, technically I didn't. I merely compelled your youngest sister into doing as I wanted. So, technically, I have nothing to do with the tragedy that has occurred."
Luka's veins came onto display as he quickly jumped up onto his feet and yelled, "You bitch! I swear, I'll make you pay for this!"
Annabelle chuckled before she sped towards Luka and threw him towards the other side of the room.
After pinning him to the wall with a hand wrapped around his neck, she said, "Good luck with that. In case you haven't heard, I can't be killed. You, however, can."
Then she shoved her hand into his chest and grabbed his heart with a tight grip before she said to him, "You know, you should have really come up with a better insult than 'bitch'. I mean, you're not the first person to call me that, so why should I care if you call me that?"
When he didn't respond and only let out a gasp, Annabelle sighed before she quickly pulled his heart out of his chest.
She allowed a small smile to make its way onto her face, while she watched his veins start to crawl up his neck and towards the top of his head before she sped off with his heart in hand to show off to her siblings and to share with Kol when she saw him again.
Despite it being six-hundred and fifty years since that happened, Annabelle was still quite capable of doing that, which was why she saw no point in Carmine having her do nothing but be a practical guard dog for Oswald Cobblepot.
After sighing to herself and punching a hole into a brick wall, she sped off and headed back to the nightclub as she felt more than satisfied with the amount of people she killed during her time away from him.