The Fear Dissertation // A Jonathan Crane Dark Romance

57

Jonathan's eyes widen as he takes in the scene.

I'm pacing across the room, unable to look at the corpse on the floor. Phone still in my hands from where I called him. The Joker's sat on the interview table, pretending to smoke a pencil.

"Hey, Doc," the Joker says. "Come join the party."

Jonathan absorbs everything. He's silent. Unreadable. Almost angry. Then he comes to me, takes my face in his hands.

"Sienna, are you alright?"

I shake my head. "I've ruined everything."

"No you haven't."

I look at Jonathan like he's gone mad. "Sweetie, there's no hiding this."

"And why not?" He asks me.

"Because there's... There's CCTV footage."

"There are no cameras in here," he replies evenly.

"There are in the corridor."

Jonathan nods slowly. "We've just been hacked, Sienna. Half our files cleared. We can wipe the footage."

The Joker chooses this moment to laugh maniacally. I raise my eyebrows and gesture. "And there's a witness."

"The Joker will have a price for his silence," Jonathan says, before turning to him. "Won't you?"

The Joker quiets. Grins.

"There's still a freaking body to deal with!" I hiss, placing my hand to my head and pacing once more.

The Joker shrugs. "Unless we say I killed her."

Jonathan and I both pause.

"Think about it," the Joker chuckles. "She came in here completely unauthorised. No cuffs, no procedure. She'll be responsible for that."

"And you'll be charged," Jonathan says.

The Joker rolls his eyes. "Another life sentence. Big whoop."

I shake my head. "No, the cameras will show that I bought the fire extinguisher in."

"Precisely," the Joker grins. "And that's when I chose to attack."

"But we didn't sound the alarm," I point out. Then I still. Smile softly. Regretfully. "Because you wouldn't just attack Rachel Dawes. You'd incapacitate me too."

The Joker's eyes shine with approval. But Jonathan's voice becomes harsh.

"Forget about it, Sienna. I'm not having you harmed."

"How harmed do you think I'd be in jail?" I point out.

He shakes his head. "You're not going to jail. We're deleting the security footage. Rachel will be reported missing, and that'll be that."

"Jonathan, someone let her through here! The DA office had her visit Arkham today. Some member of staff let her through all these doors. We were seen arguing with her just this morning. She gave quote in a fricken newspaper article defaming us, and now she's gone missing, with our CCTV wiped?"

Jonathan blinks. "Precisely. The burden of proof is on the prosecution, Sienna."

"And what about freaking execution by public hanging? The whole of Gotham thinks we're creating a supervillain already. Throw this in there, we'll have to move, which will only make us look guiltier."

"I'm tired of this," the Joker announces with a roll of his eyes.

Then he attacks.

With astounding skill, he snaps my wrist into a handcuff and attaches it to the bar on the table.