Gotham City is probably the most crime ridden city in all of the United States. Even with Batman on the lookout for criminals it's a risk to walk the streets. Especially at night. During the day you're usually fine–unless you live in the Narrows. There you've got a 50/50 shot. At night, around the whole city, it's more of a 30/70.

I'm unlucky enough to live in the Narrows. Not on the outskirts either. With my shitty paying waitress job at an equally shitty bar I didn't have many options. The Narrows is dirt cheap while the high end parts of the city cost an arm, a leg, and maybe a kidney. No doubt a plane ride overhead would show an obvious difference.

To make bad luck worse I'm a woman. I walk home alone in a black miniskirt and tight fitting white blouse. The clothes are what I'm required to wear to work. That and black high heels. The shoes are loud enough to announce my presence to anybody nearby. I cringe for every step I take on the wet concrete.

The news talks about all sorts of stories about some poor unsuspecting person being murdered or raped. Rape seems to happen most often to woman. Which I am one, walking home alone in the dead of night by myself. It's like asking for some guy to jump out of a dark alley to have his horrifying way with me. But rape is something everybody has to watch out for.

Like all the other nights so far I made it home safely without any problems. Once inside I locked the door knob and both deadlocks before sighing in relief. I'd only been groped twice at work, so I thought the day would finish peacefully.

I started by kicking off my heels to relieve my aching feet. Next I pulled my dirty blonde hair free from its messy bun. If I sat on the couch now there would be no chance of me getting back up.

A steaming hot shower helped relax my muscles. After getting out I made sure to wipe off any leftover make-up before putting on my pajamas: a pair of fuzzy pants and a large white t-shirt.

With a glass of red wine in hand and the tv remote in the other I was just about to sit down on the couch when I heard a muffled noise come from outside my window. Suspicious noises are something a smart person would run away from. Being inside my apartment made me feel confident enough to check it out.

Living on the second floor prevented me from seeing the bottom of the alley beside my building. I had to push open my window so I could cautiously look down and see what was made the noise.

I couldn't see any details because it was late at night and the alley barely had any light. What I could see didn't make too much sense at first.

There were two men in the alley. One was holding a plastic bag in one hand and some sort of long object in the other. Possibly a shovel. The second man was sprawled face down on the alley floor. A bad feeling started creeping up my spine when the second man wouldn't move.

Unable to look away I watched as the first man tossed the shovel aside and kneeled over the other. I couldn't really see what he was doing, but because it was so quiet I could hear the man ru's sling through his plastic bag, followed by the sound of duct tape.

The man used the duct tape for about a minute before setting it aside and moving off of the unconscious body. I watched him flip the man onto his back and start wrapping duct tape around the persons head, making sure it went over his mouth.

I had a hand pressed to my mouth in shock. My brain was trying to comprehend the situation below me. I thought it might have been a kidnapping, but I questioned the idea when the stranger grab a stick like object from his bag and tied the man's legs to each end of the stick. It would keep him from closing his legs.

When the first man started fumbling with the unconscious mans belt I threw myself away from the window. My breathing was ragged while my thoughts warred with one another. I should've been calling the police, but by the time they'd get here the act would already be done. Not to mention they took twice as long to get to the Narrows.

Running to my bedroom I grabbed the aluminum bat I kept propped against the wall beside my bed. I couldn't sit around and do nothing while I knew a man was about to be raped in an alley thirty feet below me.

I raced out my my apartment towards the stairs. They led down to the lobby that was completely void of people. It made sneaking out through the back door a lot easier. It led out to the alley behind the apartment complex that attaches to the alley with the two men.

I cursed myself for not grabbing a pair of shoes. The wet concrete was cold against my bare feet, but I wasn't going to run all the way back upstairs. It at least helped me walk down the alley silently.

When I reached the end of the alley I heard somebody talking. "This is your fault, you son of a bitch. You killed her! I loved her and now she's gone!"

The man's voice was filled with despair. I couldn't help the pang of sorrow and pity that filled my chest. Whoever he tied up was apparently responsible for the death of a loved one. That didn't mean he could rape him.

My grip on the bat tightened as I peeked around the corner of the alley to see the two men. The unconscious man had his knees bent up with his feet flat on the ground. I saw his pants around his ankles and my heart skipped a beat. Maybe I was too late to prevent it. I could at least stop the man from finishing.

My worries eased when I realized the first man was kneeling in front of the second man with his pants still on. That fact could change very quickly, so I needed to act fast.

"You should be relieved to know that I'm not going to touch you. I wouldn't ruin myself like that. Instead I bought these," he pulled the plastic bag towards him and pulled out various items. The most prominent looked suspiciously like a dildo, "just for you."

The man that was tied up moved abruptly. He brought up his legs and kicked them at his would-be rapist. The stick his legs were tied to smacked into the guys chest. I thought the man might have a chance to get away, but the first man just grabbed the pole and shoved it towards the ground. He put his knee on top of it so it wouldn't happen again. "Don't fight it. It'll be easier that way."

Now completely disgusted I moved along the wall of the alley silently. I didn't want to move too fast in case the man would hear me, but I saw him readying the first sex toy and changed my mind.

Bringing the bat up to my shoulder I ran towards the duo. My bare feet helped silence my approach. The man was so focused on his task he didn't see me come into view, bat at the ready. Taking a large step I let out a loud shout. The man's head shot up in surprise–only for my bat to crack against his face.

He fell back with a scream of pain. He pressed his hands against his face while laying against the ground.

I stood with my bat ready in case he tried getting up again. Looking down quickly I went to quickly ask if the tied up man was okay, but the words died in my throat.

Staring up I at me with black eyed was none other than the famous Joker himself. The street lamp was shining some light into the alley, and before I wasn't at the right angle to see who the victim was. Now I could see the white face paint, scars, and purple clothes.

"Holy shit," I breathed in disbelief. I just saved The Joker from being raped.

A loud groan drew my attention back to the would-be rapist. "What the fuck!?" He glared up at me with blood dripping between his hands. My bat must've hit him in the nose. I hope it broke.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" I snapped back.

"Listen lady–"

"Don't you 'listen lady' me! You're trying to rape The Joker? Seriously?" Knowing he was about to rape somebody was bad enough. Learning it was the Joker? The man must've been certifiably insane. "Why didn't you call the cops or something?"

"Why didn't you?" He snapped back.

"I saw you tie up some guy ready to rape him. By the time the police got here you'd be done. I didn't know it was the Joker, but I don't think that really matters" I argued. "Besides at least if I'd done it they would've just arrested him, not shove dildos up his ass."

"He deserves it." The guy spat. "He killed my wife!"

"Nobody deserves this." I said firmly. Memories of my friend Jenny made my heart ache. We had been roommates for several years before one night she was walking home from school and got attacked by a group of men. She went catatonic afterwards. All she did was stare off into space. Only ate or drank if I forced her. She only slept when her body shut down, and even then she'd wake up from nightmares. Eventually she told me a couple details, but she never went in depth. I didn't blame her or push her. I regret it now because it turned out she couldn't handle remembering what happened to her. I found her body in the bathroom.

The man stood up while glaring at me. "This doesn't concern you. Go home."

I narrowed my eyes. "No."

My response made his eyes widen. "You're standing up for him? He's the Joker."

"Yes he is," I agreed.

He stepped closer, making my grip on the bat tighten. "Don't you know what he's done?"

"Of course I know what he's done! I watch the news, I talk to people. But you know? I've never heard anything about him raping people."

The guy held out his hand. "This is the worst thing I could think of that didn't include killing him. Just give me the bat, and you can go home and forget all of this."

I clenched my jaw while eyeing him suspiciously. What he said was true. I could go home and pretend none of this ever happened. Or I could try and help him. I never thought I would be faced with helping The Joker, but there I was.

Sighing loudly through my nose I slowly lowered the bat from my shoulder. I kept both hands clenched around the handle while biting my lip nervously.

"That's it." He stepped closer, arm outstretched ready to take the bat.

When he was about a foot away from me my muscles tensed. I waited a second before whipping the bat up from beside my leg. With as much force as I could muster I aimed right between his legs.

The man didn't expect me to move like that. He wasn't prepared to stop me so I managed to hit him directly in the groin. His entire body tensed while he made an odd high-pitched noise. He stumbled away a few steps and vomited on the alley floor. While he was bent over I brought the bat up and swung it down onto his head.

He laid on the ground with his face directly in the puddle of stomach acid and whatever else he ate that day. With him down for the count I could finally relax. I tok several deep breaths to try and calm my racing heart. It worked a little bit, but when I kneeled down next to the Joker it started racing again.

I set my bag aside while being careful not to look at his exposed body parts. "Um," my hands were shaking, "what–where–I don't–ugh." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I needed to calm down.

First I looked at the tape wrapped around his mouth. The man obviously hasn't cared about Joker's hair, so it was stuck on the tape. I couldn't pull it off so I moved on. Since his hands were underneath his body I had to skip them and go to his legs.

I made sure to keep my eyes locked on his feet. I didn't want them to stray and look at his exposed skin because he probably felt violated enough. Me getting an eyeful wouldn't be appreciated. And seeing The Joker's dick was not something I wanted to see any time soon.

The pole between his ankles was hollow with a white rope threaded through it. The guy tied the extra rope on each end around Joker's ankles. My shaking fingers fumbled over the tight knots. Usually I was really good at untying knots, but my fingers wouldn't cooperate with me.

I needed to use something sharp to get the ropes off. That's when I remembered how famous The Joker was for using knives. I didn't feel any safer remembering that fact, but I needed a knife. "W–Where's your knife?"

I looked over at him, still careful to keep my eyes away from his private area, and jumped when I saw him staring straight back at me. It shouldn't have been a surprise, but his black eyes would scar anybody. Especially since they're the eyes of a well known mad man.

Joker suddenly sat up. I quickly pushed myself away because I thought he was going to hurt me. I didn't know how he would accomplish it, but with him anything could be possible.

Instead he lifted his left shoulder and pointed his chin at his coat pocket. I hesitated before slowly crawling forward to reach into his pocket. His penetrating stare never strayed from my person. It made me shake even harder, but I forced myself to keep going.

My clammy fingers found the handle of his knife. I quickly pulled it out and clenched it in my hand. This was the knife he used to kill people. It wasn't even a knife; more of a potato peeler.

It felt weird holding something I knew was used by a murderer who cut smiles onto people's faces. I shook my head to try and dispel the thought. I just needed to cut him free and I could go to bed. Hopefully I wouldn't remember this in the morning.

Even though it was a peeler it quickly cut through the thick rope tied around his ankles. When I freed both ankles I picked up the rod and chucked it down the alley. I couldn't see it land, but I heard it clatter loudly against the ground some yards away.

"Okay, uh," I swallowed heavily and licked my lips, "hands or face next?"

He stared at me for what felt like an eternity. The weight of his stare made me sweat. I felt beads of it trickle down my spine while I waited for him to respond in some way.

In the end he just shrugged his shoulders. I didn't actually know if that meant he wanted me to get his hands first, but I figured he would want to get his face by himself.

His hands were completely covered in duct tape. It looked like they were balled up into a fist. With such bad lighting I had to be extra careful while cutting the tape. I didn't want to accidentally cut him and make him angry enough to kill me.

When I had a decent sized rip in the tape I set the knife aside and used my hands to pull at the tape. Cutting was taking too long, so I decided to try and just rip it off. I might have been hurting him every time the tape quickly came off of his skin, but he didn't make any pained noises. Him being who he is I assumed he had a high pain tolerance.

At one point I had enough tape removed to see I had been partially right. The man must've folded his fingers together to make one big fist, and then proceeded to wrap Joker's hands with duct tape.

Joker suddenly ripped his hands apart. The tape was still stuck to one of his hands, and he had to rip it off. I averted my eyes when he stood up and didn't look until his pants were around his waist.

Fear began twisting its way into my heart. It was one thing being in the Joker's presence while he's tied up. Now he's freed to move around to kill me and the guy who assaulted him.

I scrambled onto my feet with his peeler still held tightly in my hand. For a while Joker stood over his attacker and stared at the unconscious body in complete silence. The Joker wasn't known for silence so my nerves skyrocketed.

Still silent the Joker reached up and started pulling at the duct tape still wrapped around his mouth. He kept getting more and more insistent, almost frantic, trying to get it away from his mouth. Watching him struggle with it really bothered me for some reason.

I couldn't stop my voice from shaking. "Stop." At first it seemed like he didn't hear me, so I tried again. "Please stop."

With his fingers still trying to get under the tape he turned his head to make eye contact with me. Joker didn't say anything as I approached with my hands raised slightly. Once he spotted his knife in my hand I spoke. "I'll get it off, if you'd like."

His hands froze. He stared at me for what felt like an eternity before he lowered his arms. We stood there watching each other as I waited for him to make a decision.

To my surprise he slowly nodded his head. I walked towards him cautiously with the knife in plain sight. I didn't want him thinking I was going to try and sneakily stab him. Something a lot of people would've done if they were in my position. Instead of stabbing him in the eye I carefully grabbed onto the tape he'd managed to loosen and pressed the edge of the peeler against it.

I pulled the tape away from his face as far as it would go (which wasn't much) and slid the tip of the blade behind it. I carefully dragged the edge of the blade over the end of the tape. It took a while since I was making sure I didn't cut him.

A sliver of a cut appeared in the tape. Cutting became easier, and I could pull more and more of the tape away. Progress was good until the edge of his scar became visible.

My body automatically tensed when I saw the scar. Everybody knew he had them. They were his signature that he always proudly showed off to the people of Gotham. Darting my eye up I immediately looked back down when I saw him looking back at me. Now that I knew he was staring I could feel the weight of his eyes drilling holes through my skull.

I did my best to ignore the scar while I carefully peeled the duct tape away millimeter by millimeter. It came off quicker after more and more started coming off. Maybe five minutes went by before I finally cut through the width of the tape.

Grabbing one end of the tape I started pulling it away. The paint he used for his make up caused the tape to come off very easily. I didn't have to worry about hurting him since his skin barely stuck to the tape. When the tape came off completely from his face about half of his face paint went with it. He still had red on his mouth and scars, but it was faded.

"I'll let you get the rest." Removing it from his face was one thing. Hair would be another obstacle entirely.

Joker remained completely silent. Before was maybe understandable since he had the tape around his mouth. But even then he wasn't laughing or making any sort of giggling noises. Now he wasn't laughing or talking.

Clearing my throat uncomfortably I held out his knife. He kept eye contact with me for a moment before looking down at the peeler. He took it without hesitation and slid it back into his coat pocket.

I picked my bat up from the ground and shuffled my feet. I didn't know what to feel now that the Joker was standing a few feet away with nothing preventing him from killing me. Fear definitely, but it was put as strong as it would've been in any other situation. Seeing someone about to be raped really changes your view.

Feeling awkward I took a step towards the alley that would lead back to my apartment. "You'll be fine." I looked down at my feet. By now they were completely numb. "You're stronger than she was." Jenny came back to mind. I always tried not to think about her. I felt like I could've done more to help her. When she died I always wanted to be able to help other victims of rape, but never got the chance. Until now when the victim turned out to be Joker.

I heard something metal scrape against the ground. When I looked up I saw the Joker had picked up the shovel. When he walked over to the unconscious man the spade dragged over the asphalt. He stood over the man for a second before bending down and roughly grabbing the man by the ankle.

I watched him drag the man toward the street with wide eyes. I knew he was going to kill the man. Deep down a part of me protested against the murder. The smart part of me realized there wasn't anything I could do to save the man's life. A vindictive part also thought he sort of deserved it for trying to rape someone. Didn't matter if that someone was a homicidal clown.

The Joker suddenly stopped walking. He stood directly below the street lamp right outside the alleyway. He turned slightly to look back at me. We stared silently at one another before I saw the corner of his mouth twitch up into a small grin.

Something inside of me relaxed. It was like his sign of saying he would be okay. True he would also be going back to his pastime of murdering innocent people and blowing up random buildings, but at that moment I didn't actually care. I saved that man from a horrible fate, and I thought I would do it again without a second thought.

I nodded in acknowledgment and headed for the back door to my apartment building. The night proved to me the streets of Gotham were dangerous no matter who you were.