The Joker's New Toy { Wattys 2016}

Braking His Bunny

***

Stacey was usually an intelligent and strong young woman. Raised by a highly respected police officer and graduated from college with a degree in business. She was well educated and had dreamed to one day become an entrepreneur. But right now, this independent young woman who graduated from college with honors was reduced to a frightened and helpless little girl. She could almost feel worms eating into her brain. Her mind almost had a sensation of coming alive and wanting to burst out of her skull.

The Joker still held her tightly against his chest, whispering comforting words into her ear in a voice that was very much out of character for him. Stacey clung onto him for dear life, as if she were to let go of his shirt for a second she would fall to her death. At that moment, Stacey no longer remembered who she was. Where was she? What was she? Was she alive? Was she dead? Was she human? Did she even exist? Questions dashed rapidly through her squirming brain like a speeding locomotive.

How old was she? Was she an adult? Was she a child? Was she an old woman? Was she just born? Questions, questions, so many questions. She rattled her brain trying to figure out what and where she was. As she attempted to answer her own questions, she tried to make sense out of what was happening to her. Visions flashed through her mind, some casual, some frightening and some just making absolutely no sense.

She was still hallucinating. Even with her eyes tightly shut in fear, her visions were as lucid and realistic as if they were really happening. She saw an empty playground with a single swing, swinging back and fourth in slow motion and then speeding up rapidly, whipping back and fourth so fast now that it was a blur. She heard children laughing in the background, but they were nowhere to be seen. She saw a man with a goat head smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper that was made out of sheepskin.

She saw the inside of a police station that was wavy. The entire scene looked like it was made out of water. The people, the walls, everything made of water. She was a little girl of about five and she felt wavy too. A man sat her up on his desk smiling at her and put a police hat on her head. He had a brown hair, a mustache and glasses. Then the man spoke, and his voice even sounded bubbly like he was deep underneath the ocean. "This is where daddy works sweetheart."

Then her vision transformed to a giant eye, glaring down at her. It swallowed her up and she was thrown into a carnival setting. Short hairy trolls surrounded her with pitchforks, laughing manically. Stacey cowered in fear as grotesque looking freaks surrounded her, all laughing and speaking in tongues that she didn't understand. Two headed creatures with protruding ribs tearing out of their flesh and dripping blood. A gigantic blob of a woman sat up on a stool chortling in a deep voice. Disfigured humanoid things danced around her.

And then in the middle of this commotion, a hideous clown towered over Stacey. His eyes were swirling in their sockets and his mouth curved into a wicked grin. His smile seemed to go on forever. Stacey whimpered and shivered beneath him. But then the clown beast spoke. "It's okay little bunny, sh, sh," He spoke to her in a gentle voice. And it almost sounded as if the voice was speaking to her from another dimension.

The clown then ripped off his face, and another face appeared underneath. A handsome young man with golden brown hair and chocolate eyes was now smiling down at her. For a moment, Stacey was put at ease. Then a spine tingling cry reached her ears and she saw that bat creature. That grotesque creature that had attacked her, and called itself 'The Batman.' She had a vision of it torturing a man and tearing off his flesh. The Batman, with his long claws and deformed features, completely ripped off half of the victim's face and swallowed it whole.