ᴀʀᴛʜᴜʀ ғʟᴇᴄᴋ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ | ɪᴛ's ᴛɪᴍᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴀ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ

Chapter 10

The cold crisp air burned your cheeks and nose as you frantically ran down the large set of stairs outside of Arthur's apartment, small splatters of rain hit your head and you replayed what you had just witnessed in your mind, the pool of blood, the body. You didn't know the full story but you knew Arthur was in danger and that was enough to send you chasing after him. As you were making your way through the streets of Gotham something caught your eye, you stopped dead in your tracks as you looked through the window of a local hardware store, it had many TV's stacked  on show for everyone to see and what was playing broke your heart. It was Arthur doing his stand up, his stuttering voice and laugh that he couldn't hold back filled your eyes with tears. You wanted to go back to this night, things felt simple back then. The scene then switched to Murray Franklin, he was making fun of him, the crowd roared with laughter and the few people standing next to you watching laughed too. This is why he was asked to go on the show because they were going to treat him like a fool. You clenched your fists in anger, how did you miss this? Why didn't you see this episode? You tried to think and suddenly you remembered, that night with the bonfire, you were working late and you got caught up in that crowd, that's why you missed this. Suddenly you weren't so concerned anymore, whatever Arthur was going to do tonight was set in stone and you knew that now. There was nothing you could do. You felt tears roll down your cheeks and began to walk back to your apartment, this was bigger than you, Arthur was hurting and you could only let him do what he felt he had to do.
As you walked into your apartment you shut the door behind you and grabbed your phone and dialed your work number.

"Hello, its (Y/N) I'm just calling to say I can't make my shift today I'm not feeling very well." You lied into the phone.

"(Y/N) this isn't good enough, this is the second time this month you've failed to show up to your shift." Your manager spoke in an intimidating tone.

"I know I'm sorry I just think I've caught a sickness bug or something..."

"Okay fine, once you get better turn your uniform into the store and don't bother coming back." The line went dead and you were speechless. You just got fired.

You slammed the phone down and grabbed a bottle of wine from your fridge, you spun the cap off and began drinking from the bottle. Today couldn't possibly get any worse. You sat on the floor and flicked through your TV, you came across a re run of Murray Franklin's show and you grimaced at his face. You couldn't believe how much you hated this man now, before he was the highlight of your week, he made you laugh and smile when you were down and now you couldnt stand him. Why would someone want to take a person like Arthur and put him down? The more you drank the more you began to hate yourself, you began to think maybe you should have went after him, you looked at the clock on your wall and you knew it was too late, it read 8:30 pm and the show started at 9:00 pm. The only thing you could do was wait.
The show started 9pm sharp and you quickly realised they were saving Arthur for the second segment of the show, you cussed as you hated having to wait even more time, you needed to see him. You took a swig from the bottle of wine as you remembered Arthur practically begged you to stay home tonight, no matter what. Your stomach flipped with nervousness as you dreaded what was going to happen. Watching the first half of the show was almost difficult, not knowing what was going to happen was just awful, but before you knew it they were introducing the next segment and there he was, Arthur gracefully made his way onto the stage, you got close to the TV, so close it made your eyes hurt. "Joker" You said under your breath.
Arthur didn't look like Arthur at all, he was wearing a brightly coloured suit, his face was painted accompanied by emerald green hair. The first several minutes of the scene was like a normal interview, a little strange but normal nonetheless. However things took a turn once Murray asked Arthur to tell a joke.

"it's the police ma'am, your sons been hit by a drunk driver he's dead." Arthur sniggered, holding his joke book tightly. The crowd gasped and grumbled at his poor choice of a joke.