tinhuvielartanis | The Neighbour's Date part 2 (Reply)

Disclaimers from part 1 apply to this second installment, probably more so. Read at your own risk.

Removing the knife, the Joker grabbed Penny’s wrists and pulled her hand over her head, pinning them against the door. He leaned into her, smelling the corners of her mouth and lips and nuzzling the corner of her nose. Then he kissed her. She felt the y-scar caressing her lower lip as the Joker lightly touched his lips to her, tenuous in his exploration of her mouth. The kiss became more insistent, but remained surprisingly gentle, considering whom it was kissing Penny. Her mind was numb from the surreal predicament she was in, but her body was beginning to respond to the Joker’s ministrations.

“Music…..” he murmured against her mouth and was suddenly gone from Penny, who immediately turned to work on the door knob some more. “May as well give that up, Peaches. You’re not going anywhere.”

There was a click and a wall of sound hit Penny with a physical force. Massive Attack insinuated themselves into every cell of her body. The Joker half turned in that strange hunched way he had and looked at her grinning with a vicious kind of desire. “’Inertia Creeps,’ pretty girl. Our theeeme for the evening. Now… come here.”

Penny’s shoulders drooped in surrender and walked slowly over to the Joker who was standing beside his unmade bed. The tears came again unbidden. “Now now, don’t do thaaat,” the Joker said. “I’m not all that bad, now am I? Hm?”

He pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger and pulled her face up to look at him. Kissing her with a ridiculous level of tenderness, the Joker then flicked his tongue out and drew some of her tears in. “Stop with the crying now. Here, I’ll tell you a story about what crying is all about. Sit down, now.” He pulled her down to the edge of the bed and held her hands in his lap, his fingers easily engulfing her wrists. “Shush-sh-sh, hush now. Listen. Do you wanna know how I got these scars?”

“No,” Penny said flatly, just wanting this over with. She really did need to get back outside.

“Oh, suuure you do! C’mere,” the Joker pulled her in closer, his face only a few inches from hers, so she could get a good look at the damage that had been done to his face. He smelled of an Earthy spice and musk, and of kerosene maybe, or perhaps gasoline. “See these? Yeah, the scarrrs. They’re all the rage on the Gee Cee Enn. I’m my own TV star and these are my co-stars, no. doubt. about-t it. But only a select few get to hear how I began my working relationship with the scarrrs, so you should consider yourself blessed, Sugar Bumps.”

The Joker paused and shook his head as if he were trying to wrench a memory out of the depths of his mind or perhaps quash an unbidden one back down. His pale face seemed to be the true mask to the clown paint Penny was used to seeing. Even though he had looks, the man was frankly a little creepy, what with his pasty features and naturally dark eye circles. She remained stock still as the Joker sat with his eyes closed, seemingly arguing with his own subconscious.

“So!” he suddenly said loudly, making her jump. And he laughed uproariously. “My scarrrs. Back in the day as they say so very often at any old folks home you go to, I was an intrepid youth of twenty or so, attending the Gotham Arts Conservatory on a music scholarship. Needless to say, I didn’t fit-t in. I was…considered a tad-d antisocial, my piano being my only friend. Well, I was there for music, not to be all chummy with the herrrds! While they had their little fun, I was busy working on my … repertoire and I was good. I was very good. I outshone them all only in my second year. And, and some of them were jealous, see. They didn’t understand-d that hard work pays off while slacking gets you in the orchestra if you’re lucky. So… I was chosen as solo pianist for a concert the Conservatory was arranging for Gotham’s ‘Upper Crust.’”

The Joker used his hands to make the quotation marks when he said “Upper Crust” and Penny could hear the insinuation of capital letters as well, not to mention the full-on hatred raging behind the words.

“Sooooo… A young man by the name of Bruce, who was supposed to be studying French Horn, but preferred to study the subtle nuances of being a rich playboy instead, got just leeetle jealous of the poor kid with the scholarship. He and his friends paid me a little visit in the theatre where I practiced on the Grand piano every night. They pulled me off the bench and slammed me on floor, tying my hands behind my back.

“’Think you’re better than us, huh, kid?’ Bruce said to me. Oh, I can remember that angry husky voice as if I’d heard it…well, just recentlee. ‘We’ll show you better.’ They yanked me up by my wrists, dis-lo-cayting my shoulders, and slammed me against one of the legs of the piano. Taking some wire cutters, Bruce cut away one of the strings from the old Grand. So as not to get cut, he donned gloves and wrapped the ends of the string around his hands….for better leverage. Then, and this is the punchline, so listen closely, Duckling, he wrapped the string around my head while his friends pulled my jaw down. After the string was wrapped around my head several times over, Bruce-y boy and his posseee hoisted me up by one of the curtain ropes attached to both my wrists and to the piano wire, so that my weight was being supported by my wrenched shoulders and the wire around my head. With the first big pull on my body, I could feel the piano wire cutting into the corners of my mouth. They pulled me a good twenty feet above the stage and left me there, laughing as they exited stage left. I was there all night with the wire slicing unevenly into both sides of my mouth allll the way up to herrre.” And the Joker made a sweeping motion with his right index finger, tracing a big smiley face in the air in front of his face. “Of course, the wire did more damage too, see. Like the scars here on my lower lip. When I was found the next morning, unconscious from pain and blood loss, the school sent me to the hospital, but asked that I not press charges, given their lofty clientele. They didn’t want to lose any of that Old Money, now did they, especially over a two-bit scholarship kid with a little talent? They suggested I not return after I recoverrred from my injuries. Needless to say, my solo gig came to a crashing halt-t.”

Penny was horrified. She wasn’t sure what to say. The story had a ring of truth to it, but she’d hear the Joker told a different story each time. How was she to know? And why was he telling her a story at all? She opted to take the direct approach because she really needed to get out of there. “I’m so sorry.”

The Joker cackled right in her face. “Sorry? I don’t need your pity! There’s only one thing I need from you.” And with that, he placed his mouth on hers and kissed her with animal passion. His lips were inexplicably soft, his scars softer still. Despite the fear he kept jolting out of her, Penny felt herself melt under his kiss. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.

And then she felt the knife at her throat. “Sh… My knives are…” the Joker whispered in her ear. “An extension of… me… Just a reminder that I’m here with you..on you..in you…Be still, Raindrop. You’ll come to love my knives.”

He was kissing her again, the point of the knife summoning up a tiny droplet just below her ear. It travelled like a tear drop down the body of his blade and onto his finger. The Joker pulled away and looked curiously at the drop of Penny’s blood, then slowly lifted his finger to his lips and drew the blood into his mouth, never breaking eye contact with his new pet. For some inexplicable reason, this was one of the sexiest things Penny had ever seen. Suburbia’s downside was that no one ever engaged in ‘wild and crazy.’ She had ‘wild and crazy’ right in front of her. And, even though she’d love to just bask in it, despite her instinctual warnings to the contrary, Penny really had to get out of here. She decided to move things along. Leaning in to the Joker, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him fully on the lips, letting her tongue swirl along the twisted scars on his lower lip and eventually tangle with his tongue. He tasted like peppermint.

Slowly, the Joker leaned back, bringing Penny along with him as they remained locked in their kiss. He placed one arm around her waist and, with his other, raised the blade to rest it under her chin. With every movement of their kiss, the point dug just a little deeper. Penny found herself sinking into a state of terror as the blade became ever more intrusive.

“Pull your pants dowwwn,” the Joker said lowly against Penny’s teeth. Her uneasiness growing exponentially, Penny thought only about getting out of the situation and back outside as she detached her arms from around the Joker’s shoulders and wrested her sweat pants from around her waist and over her hips. The Joker supported her as she worked the pants off, kicking her shoes off as well in order to get the pants from around her ankles. The knife still poised right at her chin, Penny waited, barely breathing. “Now…pull down my pants. Careful now.”

Something wrenched within Penny, something akin to excitement and horror, but not quite either. With shaking fingers, she worked at the Joker’s button fly jeans. Once all the buttons were free, the Joker lifted his hips so Penny could pull them down over his thighs. Instinct demanded she cast her eyes down to see him. He was already erect, his penis resting in anticipation against his belly. The hair was the same soft blonde on his head, lazily curling around his member, not nearly as eager-looking as the flesh it framed. Penny forced her eyes back up to the Joker’s face. He was staring at her intensely, a sidewise smirk that never quite reached his eyes dancing across his face.

Instantly the knife was gone and Penny found herself being flipped over in a swift move she never saw, only felt. The man was uncannily fast and powerful, and it was this that brought the terror to the forefront of her mind and out of her mouth. She screamed. And she immediately had a hand over her mouth.

“Now we’ll have none of thaaat-t. That was just stupid-d and silly and…other words that begin with the letter ‘s,’” the Joker half sang while tick-tocking a knife in front of Penny’s face to the beat of “Angel.” He then stopped, chewing the inside of his cheek as he thought, his eyes focusing on everything and nothing simultaneously. “Actualleee, you may be doing more of that. Better to gag you now.”

The Joker reached over and grabbed a gasoline-soaked cloth, shoving it in Penny’s mouth. He laughed as she began to gag. Placing his full weight on her, he reached further over and snagged a roll of duct tape with his finger tips. Pulling off a swath, he tore it off with his teeth and secured the cloth with it. Pulling himself up on his elbows, he admired his work while holding Penny’s arms down. “Niiiice. No sound now. All the better to make. you . whimper.”

He brought out the knife again as he wriggled himself between her legs, placing the bottom of his cock directly on her clit. The Joker positioned the knife at Penny’s cheek. “Firrrst, I’m gonna put a smile on your face. The world needs happier people, even if they’re dead. You need to smiiiile more, Penny Lane. The Joker began to rotate his hips, rubbing himself against Penny’s clit. She felt her body respond in spite of itself. Penny moaned against the tape as the Joker continued his slow rotation. “Like that, don’tcha, Sunflower? I can feel you getting wet already. Maybe I should just shove it innnn, nowww.”

And he let the knife break Penny’s skin right at the corner of her taped mouth. “Oh. I guess you thought I was talking about this,” the Joker said, and he pushed himself into her, making Penny gasp and groan against her gag. He filled her completely, not too much and definitely not lacking. He felt perfect to her, despite her trepidation and growing panic. Her groan of pleasure soon turned into a moan and muffled scream as the Joker’s razor-sharp knife sliced into Penny’s. She felt the tip of the blade on her tongue and she screamed, O she screamed, swallowing droplets of gasoline as she choked and wailed from the pain. As the Joker moved inside her, thrusting with slow determination, he watched her face closely as he moved the blade upward, slicing into Penny’s face, creating the trademark smile.

Her scream grew louder as her face was opened up. The Joker stopped his dance of copulation, long enough to reach over and get a bottle of surgical glue. “Shsssshhhh….Oh hush. I survived this just fine and didn’t act like such a baby. If you won’t be quiet, I’ll glue you shut now. Noo? Okaay.”

The Joker pinched the new and bleeding wound between his finger and applied the glue. He worked his way up until the wound, along with Penny’s screams, was sealed shut. He leaned back a little, studying his work as though it were a canvas. “Niiiice. May as well take care of the other side too, while we’re at it, then I can get back to my reaaal business.”

The Joker took his knife to her, slowly carving the Glasgow smile into Penny’s tear-stained face. She could feel his cock throb with excitement with every expression of her suffering. After the smile was complete, he glued her shut, and again studied his handiwork. He suddenly ripped away the duct tape and pulled out the rag. “One more thing to glue, Popsicle!”

And, as Penny struggled and tried to plead for mercy, the Joker applied the surgical glue to her lips, sealing her completely shut. He waited a couple of minutes, making tiny movements inside her, exploring her innermost sex with his eager erection. Once he was certain the glue had set, the Joker smiled sweetly at his panicked kitten and worked his way further into her as he watched her face, studying her eyes for that animal fear most humans exhibited in a situation like this. He never did. He felt nothing like these creatures and he felt nothing for them. They were things to him. He did these things to show his superiority. Super sanity afforded him uncanny strength, stamina beyond comprehension, and the ability to step beyond human fear and suffering. That’s not to say he didn’t find it fascinating to watch.

He pulled Penny’s sweatshirt up and cut away her bra, displaying her full breasts. The woman was dropping milk. That was an interesting development. No wonder she was so eager to take up his deal and leave in peace. Little did she know. He cocked an eyebrow at her and smirked, taking her arms and pulling them out to the sides of her body, holding them down. The Joker leaned down and wrapped his lips around one swollen nipple and sucked hard. His mouth filled with the sour flavour of human milk and it fill the Joker with a sublime arousal. He heard Penny whimper in half pain, half pleasure, as the Joker drank his fill from her ample breast. He then moved to the other one and did the same. She tasted of memories long lost and a childhood that never happened. And this is what brought the anger out of the Joker, the kind of rage that often took him over when he’d lose control and terrible things would happen.

He began to thrust into her hard, driving every iota of rage into Penny, grunting as he did so, squeezing her arms so hard, she cried out against her glued lips. And he kissed the glued lips, letting his tongue flick along her lips and up the edges of her new wounded smile. “Go ahead, Penny, scream all you want. You nosy little breeeeder. Come to my house, will you. Nosy neighbours really…” and he thrust hard into feeling the head of his cock hit her cervix, and she cried out. “PISS….” And he did it again, enjoying the surprised expression of pain in her eyes. “ME…OFF!!”

With that, the Joker pulled out his knife, along with another one, holding them one in each hand, each positioned at Penny’s eyes. “I should just pop your eyeballs like grapes so you’ll never pry againnn.”

Penny was crying hard now, and trying to beg for her life against the glue that sealed her pleas for mercy. The Joker wouldn’t have heard them anyway. He was lost in a fog of lust and rage. He pulled himself up and, resting on his haunches, he grasped onto Penny’s hips and began another siege upon her sex. The knives he held dug into her sides as he held on to Penny’s hips with vicious abandon. This wasn’t just sex, it was a flesh conquest. Penny was everything the Joker despised and wanted to rule. She had manifested something strange in his mind and he wanted to fuck her and hurt her and own her and destroy her. He drove himself into her as he repositioned the knives in his hands.

And when Penny raised her arms to his chest to either feel the man who was possessing her so thoroughly, or to try to ward him off, it made the Joker snap. About the time Penny said, “Please I have a b – “ the Joker pounded his cock into this woman, and he began stabbing her first with one knife and then with the other, just whaling her with is razor sharp toys, ripping into her flesh as he came violently. The Joker groaned with the pure body bliss of sex and death that enveloped him. He had felt nothing so intensely joyous in a long time. His body shivered and vibrated with the uncanny orgasm that rippled through him to the very roots of his hair. He looked down at the dead neighbour, one Penny Latham, his Penny Lane for a short period of time. She had been pretty but now, she looked like a slaughterhouse accident. She was…beautiful.

Weariness overcame the Joker. He pulled out of the body and collapsed beside her, barely mindful of the puddles of blood that were soaking into his mattress and drying on his rumpled and half-shod clothes. The Joker looked at Penny’s wide-staring eyes and how strikingly blue they’d been. And he admired her new Chelsea Grin. It was a shame she wouldn’t be able to go around showing it off. But ripping into her as he fucked her was just too much fun, and the Joker was all about having fun. Fun first, fuck everything else.

That was his final though before falling into a post-coital slumber, snuggled up to his dead lover.

A sound brought him out of his sleep. The Joker rubbed the mat out of his eyes and knitted his brows. Was that a cat? Could there be a cat in heat around here, maybe? What was that godawful sound? He got out of bed, barely noticing the cold, dead woman lying there with open eyes and a glued grin, and he walked to the window, opening it. He listened. That wasn’t a cat. It was…..

The Joker buttoned his jeans and fixed his shirt, which was askew on his body. He left his room and made his way downstairs, juggling three knives just for fun. He liked to keep his juggling skills honed. The Joker made his way outside, following the sound that had woke him up. He found himself on the other side of a large oak tree in his yard. There it was.

A baby stroller and, inside, a very upset baby. So this is why Penny was so eager to do whatever he wanted just as long as she could get back outside. Her baby had been out here all along. The Joker studied the child, a little boy by the colours of its cloths and blanket. All blue. Ugly little thing. Then again, all babies were ugly. They had no real features and came out all wrinkled and red. This one was no different. No wonder Penny had milk.

There was nothing for it. The baby would have to go. Standing in front of the child, the Joker continued to juggle his knives and hum along to ‘Angel’ by Massive Attack. He watched the baby watch him. Catching the knives as each one came down from the air above him, the Joker held on to the last on and pressed a little button on the side of the handle, revealing the shiny blade. He cocked his head as he approached the baby, holding the knife as though it were a bottle of milk. Leaning over the child, he placed the knife very gently against the baby’s throat.

He watched as the baby appeared to be unaware of its sudden mortality. Babies were truly clueless humans. Funny thing was, adults were just as clueless, they’d just learned how to hide their own stupidity. The Joker couldn’t stand outside all night philosophizing with himself regarding the decrepit state of human society. He jabbed the knife into the baby’s flesh and pulled the blade from left to right, cutting the little creature’s throat so deeply, he also cut into the spinal cord.

The baby thrashed a little, but only briefly. It made no sound. Taking the handle of the stroller, the Joker made his way back into the house and into the den, where Sidney sat watching some movie about Bob Dylan of all people. He was so weird sometimes.

“Sidney,” the Joker said in a low voice, his whine barely audible. Sidney jumped at his voice.

“Yeah boss?”

“Stop watching that pretty boy on TV and get rid of this.” The Joker picked the dead baby up by its ankle and displayed it to Sidney, who winced at how it’s head just dangled by a flap of skin. “Also…, there’s a mess upstairs in my bedroom. You need to clean that up too. And arrange for a new maaattress to be delivered posthaste. I’ll be sleeping in the guest room.”

And with that the Joker dropped the dead baby back into the stroller and trunched away, his bloody shoulders gathered around his ears. He was tired, dammit, and he didn’t want anymore squalling babies interrupting his post-sex sleep. That was the best sleep ever. He looked at the clock on the wall on his way to the guest room. It was just past 1 AM. By the time he woke up , Sidney will have made it as though nothing had ever happened. He was that good.

The Joker stopped. He’d forgotten something. Turning around he went back to the den, where Sidney stood looking at the dead baby as though it might reanimate and go for his throat.

“Sidney, one more thing.”

“What’s that boss?”

“Feed my hedgehog and charge my iPod.”

The End

Tinhuviel Artanis

12 July, 2009

In Loving Memory of Heath Ledger