Mad Love

Chapter 28

It didn't take me long to find the basement, where Nick was being held. He was tied to a chair in the middle of the room. I peeked through a nearby window and saw a bunch of the henchmen, some of whom I didn't recognize, beating him up. I felt sorry for him, he was basically my only friend around here and he did kinda save my life by getting me out of Arkham. But I couldn't risk getting caught, they would tell joker for sure and then I'd be dead meat. I waited for almost 10 minutes before they stopped beating him and talking trash to him and left the room. I hid in the shadows behind a few boxes so I wouldn't be seen and then snuck into the cold concrete room with a single light illuminating the chair on which Nick sat. He was gagged, tied up and blind folded on top of it. His nose was bleeding heavily and he had bruises and scrapes and wounds all over his body. I touched his face and he let out a muffled scream, most likely thinking it was the joker.
"Hey, don't be scared! it's me, Harley." I whispered, taking off his blindfold and cloth that gagged him. "Are you okay? Why did they do this to ya'?"
"T-they didn't want me to tell you-" he broke into tears, blood gushed from his wounds. I used the two cloths that were used as a gag and blindfold and put pressure on his wounds in hopes to stop the bleeding.
"They didn't want you to tell me what?"
"The chemical factory, i-it's not... No, I can't he'll kill me if I-I tell you."
"Who? The joker?"
"YES!"
"What about the chemical factory?!" I raised my voice.
"Don't go there tomorrow, just trust me when I say it's a b-bad idea." Nick started trembling and passed out cold.
"Shit!" I muttered to myself. He needed to go to a hospital. I continued to put pressure on his wounds until the flow of blood seemed to lower. I left him there, re-gagging and putting his blindfold back on, just so no body would suspect anything. But I wanted to help him, maybe I could untie him and get him to a safer place to rest for a while. I looked around and then quickly untied his unconscious body from the chair, dragging him up the basement stairs and into a nearby storage closet. It would work for now. Deciding to keep him gagged so he would keep quiet but taking off the blindfold I left him there, praying no body would find him. Afterwards I didn't want to go back into the jokers room. Something was wrong, the joker made a plan of some sorts and I'm part of it. However, the joker acted pretty trustworthy towards me, he was probably right about Nick going crazy, he'd gotten beaten pretty badly by the time I got there and was probably blabbing out nonsense. When you work with the joker, you become the joker I guess.
I opened the door to the jokers bedroom and peeked inside, the joker was gone! I entered quietly, knowing this was a stupid idea, but sleep got the best of me.

The next morning I was woken up by shouting downstairs. I went to the bathroom to put on my costume, makeup, etc. then I went down to see what was going on this time.
"What are we gonna do now, huh?!" One of the henchmen shouted to everyone including the joker. I walked in pretending not to notice and went straight for the old fridge in the back that held drinks and miscellaneous food options. Walking back into the crowd of henchmen I decided to see what was going on.
"What's the problem this time?" I asked, taking a sip of the soda drink I retrieved from the fridge.
"Someone blew up all of the cars in the garage." One of them responded, too angry to look in my direction.
"I bet it was Nick, someone let him loose last night." Another chimed in.
"Where is he now?" I began to get worried for him, he probably has a serious concussion and need to go to a hospital.
"Back in the basement where he should've stayed last night. The jokers going to deal with him right now and it's going to be ugly."
"Wait! He's most likely hurt badly enough, and he probably didn't do anythin' to ya guys' cars."
"Why are you sticking up for him? He's nothing but a rat anyways."
"What did he ever do to ya? Huh?" I looked over at the joker for help but he seemed far too amused by the whole situation to say anything.
"How are we going to get to the chemical factory without any wheels?! I ain't walkin'." The henchman grumbled, leaving the room.
"Men...and Harley. Don't worry, we always have wheels. We just need to get them the old fashioned way." He pulled out two shotguns and headed for the door, gesturing for the rest to follow.

We returned with four trucks, two convertibles, a van, and a purple corvette. We then packed up some of our belongings to give the impression that the chemical factory was indeed our hideout. I didn't have any belongings except for my old clothes I wore while working at Arkham and my makeup. I grabbed them and shoved them into a paper bag, meeting the joker and his men downstairs. We took the same amount of cars and men as we did when we went to the casino to beat up the pengiun, leaving a few behind to watch the place for us, especially Nick. I looked out the window of the corvette joker was driving. The city flashed by and before I knew it we were pulling up to the factory.
"Breathe in that sweet chemical air and get used to it, we're gonna be here till batman shows up. He often shows up late so..." Joker spoke as he entered the building. We unpacked the trucks and brought stuff in. I could hear the joker laughing and making racket upstairs, he was enjoying himself WAY more that he should have. A few henchmen rolled their eyes as they carried a giant armchair up some stairs to an old abandoned office room. Just then we heard a loud crash from the opposite end of the factory.
"Boss, is that you?" One of the men shouted, looking around scared. A black figure landed in front of us. I was pulled out of the way and out of sight by someone behind me. It was the joker, he grabbed my arm and led me up a flight of stairs leading to the top banister of the factory, just above a giant canister, big enough to fit a 5 story house in, of green chemicals. It was bubbling and smelled foul. I gagged and covered my nose as joker ran to the banister that looked down at his men who were fighting off batman. It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set. I sighed, why did batman always have to bombard me at the worst times.
"Why hello batsy, long time no see. Did you miss me? Haha!" The joker called down to batman, getting his attention. He glared up at him and started for the staircase leading up to where the joker and I where.
"Now now, no need to rush things, we just got here." The joker backed up, pushing me with him toward the banister railing where just below the canister of green chemicals was.
"You're going back to Arkham, both of you." Batman slowly grew nearer until we were only about 15 feet apart. Now I was pressed up against the banister thanks to the joker who was purposely leaving me stuck behind him. Was he trying to protect me? I looked below at the chemicals and gulped, it was a long drop.
"Back up bats, or else." The joker threatened and all of the sudden grabbed my arm with enough strength to lift me and held me over the banister. I wanted to scream but it was probably just part of the plan, there was no way he would drop me.
"You wouldn't." Batman said, tensing up.
"Oh? And why not? It's not like she's helped me in any ways that I'll need in the future. If anything she's just extra weight that needs to be dropped." As he said the word dropped he let go and made me slide off so that I was hanging on to the railing for dear life. This time I screamed. Was he serious? Was he actually going to drop me? Did he mean what he was saying?
"Don't do it, this isn't what it has to be like." Batman moved closer and joker tried to pry my fingers off of the railing.
"Please don't! Why are you doing this?!" I cried, not able to hold on for much longer.
"When you love what you do, you'll do whatever it takes to keep it in order." Joker responded bluntly.
"I thought ya cared about me!" I screamed.
"My dear, don't you understand that I only needed you as my ticket out of Arkham? I don't even know why I kept you around this long, but thanks for your help!"
"You're tellin' me that I sacrificed my life, my job, MY SANITY?! ALL BECAUSE YOU NEEDED SOMEONE TO GET YOU OUT OF ARKHAM?! YOU'RE TELLIN' ME THAT ALL THIS TIME YOU DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ME, YOU JUST FOUND ME AMUSING AND USED ME AS YOU'RE PRETEND HENCHGIRL?!" I was becoming hysterical, screaming at the top of my lungs. He was a full out madman and he was going to kill me.
"Surprise!" Joker answered sarcastically, continuing to pry my fingers off the banister.
"Batman was right about you. You don't care about anyone but yourself. You're a monster." I said with defeat. I was going to fall to my death into a giant vat of chemicals and that would be it.
"Stop! Let her go Joker, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Batman was trying to help me but I knew it was too late.
"How about we do things my way." And with that he ripped my hands off the railing and let me fall. Batman ran over to where I was to try and catch me but he wasn't fast enough. Joker was already running out of the building shooting his guns randomly and laughing hysterically. The world seemed to move in slow motion as I fell. I anticipated the contact with the chemicals but I felt no pain. The world turned green as the chemicals went into my eyes and everywhere else. Then darkness. And then, nothing at all.