Black Rose

Chapter Seven

Joker's POV

I had stayed silent during her story so far until Batman came up. I don't think she knows who batman is. I am still confused how she hasn't heard of me and maybe she has never heard of Batman at all. I think that little Dick bird patrols over in Bludhaven but that has been within five years.

    I definitely cannot picture my little girl to be a deadly creature. She is just so...good and innocent. It makes me jealous knowing that this other man was the one to corrupt her. I had fisted my hands so hard when she talked about him that I think my palms bled a bit. I wiped them on my dark pants just to avoid her seeing.

    If her family was looking for her then they would be an unexpected complication but one that I can handle. Maybe it will be a motivation for her to stay with me longer. But honestly, by then, she will be so hopelessly in love with me that she won't even want to leave. I smirked remembering how she keeps finding ways to touch me. She is so warm and my chest aches in a good way when she is near. Plus she still smells so sweet even with my clothes on her. She is very addicting so I let her touch me and be near even though I would typically push most away.

    She takes a deep breath before continuing. "So my roommate was interning for Wayne Enterprises. I was starting to get low on money and needed to find a way to make some so I asked her about job opportunities there. She said she would look into it. A couple days later, she was excited about this opportunity for 'exceptional students'. Since I had ambitions to continue my education, I was excited and applied. She was very jealous especially when I was accepted. Bruce interviewed me personally. I tried cheating by affecting his emotions but he is smarter than he looks."

    "He picked up I was definitely 'exceptional'. We had to past physical and mental tests in order to qualify. Apparently all the other participants were goody two shoes and was honest. I lied. I saw one girl that had anxiety of public speaking and get kicked out. So when they asked me about my health, I denied any issues. It saved my life." She was shaking pretty badly at this point so I put my hands on her shoulders and started rubbing down her arms and back up. I wonder if she was sick, I started to worry.

    "We were injected with drugs that were supposed to make us different. They wouldn't tell us much but we started noticing. Some had super strength, some had super speed, one could manipulate fire, another could be invisible, etc. They were assholes though because mine apparently wasn't 'cool' and it takes a lot to activate. Most of us needed some kind of stress to activate our powers. I needed EXTREME stress." She laughs bitterly but it clicks to why all those torture items were there. I continued to rub her and it seemed to comfort her.

    "Most couldn't handle it. Our emotions heightened. Well I have Bipolar Disorder and was used to extreme emotions and them changing so rapidly. Especially being an empath. Others were not strong enough. They all begged for death. Some killed themselves, others just withered away. I was the lone survivor." She smiled at the irony and so did I.

    "They warned us what we were getting into when we were offered a final position. It was a million dollars and protection. Protection I desperately needed. Bruce could tell I was desperate for the protection because I was rushing him. I was following my family's movement and they were closing in. Bruce helped me disappear but no matter how much he asked, I never told him why." At this point I had picked her up and sat her in my lap. I started rubbing circles on her back.

    "He made me so angry. Always visiting but never touching me, never letting anyone touch me or get close. If people touched me, they had to wear gloves. He developed the injections. I felt nothing, no human touch or emotions for five fucking years until last night. Then it was because they tranquilized me and tried to rape me! Yet he had the nerve to look at me like he felt guilty." She spat the last part. She stopped shaking in my arms but she had this cool kind of anger. It was still and I could see where she could be intimidating.

    I wanted to make her happy, to take her anger away so I came up with an idea. I picked her up bridal style and she yelped "Where are we going?"

    I kept walking forward heading to the basement and told her "Trust me." I went down a hallway thankful that the left door was shut, a room I never wanted her in, and went to the right door.

    "Okay" She responded before I entered the room.