(Hey Dear Readers! Here's that sneak peek I promised you for Chaotic Lullaby! Enjoy!)

Chapter One

Samantha, Alice and Harleen walked down the halls of their school, laughing at something Samantha had said. The loud clang of metal that came from around the corner brought their laughter to a sudden halt. The girls slowed their pace to briefly look at each other before hurrying to the turn in the hall ahead of them. Samantha rounded the corner first and came to a sudden stop, making Alice and Harleen bump into her. Alice looked over her friend's shoulder and gasped.

Allan Jordan was being held up against the lockers by a big, muscular, body-builder, of a jock. The jock's hands were clenched around the front of Allan's red shirt. A look of pure hatred was on the jock's face, but Allan was grinning. "You wanna say that to my face?" the jock hissed.

Allan sighed. "Really; you want me to repeat it?" he asked, nonchalant.

The jock slammed Allan against the lockers, hard, causing Allan to slightly wince. "You're nothing but a piece of sh-!"

Allan wagged a finger at the jock. "Ah-ta-ta-ta-ta-tah! Let's not swear. There are ladies present." He jerked his head in the girl's direction.

The jock turned to look, giving Allan the opportunity to make a move. He latched onto the side of the jock's head and butted him. The jock let go of Allan and moved his hands to the spot where their heads had made contact. Allan maneuvered himself to be behind the jock and shoved him face first up against the lockers. He grabbed the jock's arm and twisted it behind his back.

Allan leaned to the side to look the jock in the eyes. "Now, uh, whaaat was that you were saying about me being nothing, hm?" he asked. The jock let out a grunt as the lockers' combination knobs poked him in the chest. "What? What was that?" Allan goaded.

"If those girls weren't around, I'd show you what I've got in store for you!"

"Oh don't use the girls as an excuse for your inability to hurt me. That's juuusssst-ah… pathetic." Allan then twisted the jock's arm, making the athlete clench his teeth and squeeze his eyes shut. Allan grinned at the sight and twisted his arm a bit further. The jock opened his mouth in a silent yell and bared his teeth.

Harleen gave a nervous laugh. "Al, alright boys. Come on, that's enough," she said. Allan ignored her and kept going.

Alice grew more and more upset. "Hey, Allan, please stop," she asked in a small voice. This time the jock let out a scream of pain.

"Allan!"

Allan's head snapped in the direction of the voice to see Samantha staring straight at him. The look on her face was hard to read but her voice was telling him the obvious; 'stop!' Allan eased up on the jock's arm as he kept eye contact with Samantha. He looked away to glance down at the jock and then returned his gaze to Samantha. "Let him go…please," she asked in a calm voice.

Allan shoved the jock against the locker once more and released him. The jock slid to a slumped, sitting position on the floor. Samantha stepped towards the jock, glancing warily at Allan, and found the athlete examining how much movement he could coax out of his arm. He looked up at her and frowned. "I didn't need your help," he told her.

"Just get out of here," Samantha spat back.

The jock gritted his teeth as he got to his feet. He shot a hateful glare at Allan and walked away. Allan turned to Samantha with a smug grin on his face. The expression disappeared when he saw the hard stare Samantha was giving him. "What?" he asked her.

"What is wrong with you?"

Allan quirked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"You were going to break his arm-!"

"He was going to break me!"

"Out of anger! But you …" Samantha paused and looked into Allan's eyes. They were practically glimmering with excitement! "…You were going to do it because you wanted to. Allan, I saw the look on your face; you were going to love it if you broke his arm, weren't you?"

Allan didn't answer. He gave the floor a split second glance before bringing his eyes back up to hers. But she knew. The answer was 'yes'.

"Allan… you need help."

Allan's entire body went rigid. His eyes flashed and turned into an engulfing shade of black. He snaked his tongue along his bottom lip and tapped his foot on the floor at a fast pace. His voice took on a strange, uneven tone. "I need help?" he repeated with a scoffing laugh. "There's something wrong with me? Let me ask ya something, Samantha…. What. Do. You. Know. About. Me? Hm? What does anyone know about me? Everyone is always saying that there's something wrong with me; but maybe there's something wrong with them!"

Samantha fought the urge to back away as Allan stared her down. "Okay, listen; maybe I was out of line. But Allan..."

"But Allan- what?" Allan suddenly reached out and seized Samantha by the wrist. His fingers painfully dug into her skin. "Come on, finish your sentence!"

Samantha clawed at Allan's hand to get him to release her. "Allan, let go! You're hurting me!"

Insane laughter filled the air, making the blood in Samantha's veins freeze. She looked up at Allan's face. In its place was her living nightmare. An ashen white face, blackened eye sockets, blood red lips, straight yellow teeth, and wild green hair. Two jagged scars, high-lighted in red paint, started from the corners of his mouth and curled up like a smile. Another scar, much smaller than the other two, went from his bottom lip and came down, stopping near the middle of his chin.

The nightmare grinned maliciously at Samantha and pulled her towards him. She looked back at Harleen and Alice. Harleen was laughing and her face was changing into a harlequin. Alice gasped at the change and turned to run, only to fall down, down, down, into a black hole. Everything began to fade and was replaced by a dim room with no windows and no doors. Harleen and Alice were gone. Samantha was trapped inside the room with a monster!

The Joker let out another maniacal laugh and threw Samantha against one of the walls. She scrambled to stand up right and then felt the Joker's body pressing in on her. A knife appeared out of nowhere and was held to her throat. "Let you go?" the Joker laughed. "Oh Samanthaaaa; I'll never let you go! You're just too much fun… and you're mine!"

A shot of agonizing heat wrapped itself around Samantha's left hand and she brought it up into view. The golden ring on her finger was glowing with a red hot hue. The Joker threw back his head and howled with laughter. "All mine!"

….

Samantha jolted awake from her dream; a cold sweat broken out over her skin. She was breathing rapidly and her body was trembling. Her green eyes darted all over the room to see none of the images she had seen in her nightmare.

"Mrs. Reads? Are you alright?" a foreign voice asked.

Samantha turned her head to face the voice that had spoken to her. "Do I look alright?" she thought, angrily. She sat up from the chaise lounge and glared at the man sitting nearby. "You told me you wouldn't do that again! I told you not to hypnotize me!"

Samantha's psychiatrist, Dr. Hugo Strange, sighed heavily and removed his glasses. "Mrs. Reads, as I have said before, the hypnosis is necessary. How can I treat you if I do not know what lies inside your mind?" he asked in his thick accent. Samantha had been seeing the man for nearly five months and she still couldn't place his nationality.

It had been a year and five months since Samantha had been plunged into a living nightmare with the Joker and her nightmares had increased to her breaking point. After putting it off for a year, Samantha had finally decided to take Dr. Arkham's advice and see Dr. Strange. She was told that Dr. Strange specialized in hypnosis and dreams, and she was becoming desperate for a good night's sleep. But so far, Samantha and Dr. Strange kept butting heads with one another. There had been a few other instances where the man had trampled on touchy areas and invaded her privacy.

Samantha swung her legs over the chair and let her feet touch the floor. She gripped the bottom of the chair, tightly. "You lied," she snapped.

"It was necessary."

Samantha scoffed. She was getting tired of all these 'necessary' liberties that Dr. Strange took. She knew psychiatrists were bound to keep the secrets of their patients and that they were meant to be helpful; but Dr. Strange didn't exactly seem to follow the same rules as others of his profession did.

"I've had it, Dr. Strange. I asked you to never hypnotize me again the first time you did it and you betrayed my trust."

"Mrs. Reads," he began. He always seemed to start his sentences by addressing her. "You are under great stress. Consciously, you refuse to enlighten me on the subjects that I question you about. You are too guarded. With you under hypnosis, your unconscious mind opens up and I am able to diagnose you easily. Unfortunately and surprisingly, you also guard your mind even under hypnosis. It's rather fascinating… and unusual."

"Like your name?" Samantha mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Samantha winced and pinched the bridge of her nose as a flood of pain hit her head. She was careful not to mess up the wires that were suctioned to her forehead. They were attached to a little machine that recorded her brainwaves. At least that's what Dr. Strange had told her.

Dr. Strange noticed Samantha's discomfort and paused from writing notes. "Mrs. Reads?"

Samantha moved her hand away from her face and looked at him. "Hm?"

"Do you often suffer from these headaches? I couldn't help but notice that this has occurred before."

"I, uh… yes. I get these headaches a lot," Samantha replied, absentmindedly.

"How often?"

"Almost every week or so."

Dr. Strange actually sat up a little straighter in his chair. "How severe are they? Mild?"

"No; anything but mild. Sometimes I stay in bed for hours, waiting for it to pass."

Dr. Strange jotted down a few notes and stroked his beard. "When did they start occurring?" he asked.

Samantha took a moment to think, trying to ignore the throbbing in her temples. "Um… about two years ago."

"When you were first kidnapped by the Joker?"

Samantha stopped herself from nodding and eyed the psychiatrist. Something in his tone didn't sit well with her. He'd sounded almost … eager. "Maybe," she answered.

Strange stared at Samantha with his piercing grey eyes and waited. When she said nothing, Strange sighed. "Has the pain increased over time or has it always been the same?"

"It started out as any normal headache; just a dull pain. But now…" Samantha shrugged and looked at her hands.

"I see," Strange breathed and thought for a moment. Samantha eyes happened to fall on her wrist watch and she groaned. "What's wrong?" Strange asked as he replaced his glasses on his nose.

"I have to cut this short and leave or I'm going to be late." Samantha began to remove the wires Strange had stuck to her forehead.

"What are you doing?" Strange asked in an almost panicky tone of voice.

"Were you not listening?" Samantha asked, hotly. "I. Have. To. Leave. Or. I'll. Be. Late."

"Late for what; if you don't mind my asking?"

Samantha shouldered her messenger bag and faced Dr. Strange with a quirked eyebrow. "Oh you're actually going to ask this time before invading my privacy? That's an improvement. Fact is, Dr. Strange, I do mind. I like my privacy, which is something you obviously fail to understand. I don't want you to know every little detail about me."

Dr. Strange pursed his lips before forcing a pleasant smile onto his mouth. "Until our next session, Mrs. Reads."

Samantha walked towards the door and paused with her hand on the knob. She looked at the doctor over her shoulder. "Dr. Strange, I meant business when I say that if you ever attempt to hypnotize me without my consent, I will report you. Is that clear?"

Dr. Strange took note of the hard edge in Samantha's voice. "Yes, Mrs. Reads." Samantha gave him a curt nod and walked out the door.

Dr. Strange shook his head as he opened Samantha's file to insert the notes he had taken. His eyes scanned over her information by habit and he stopped when it came to the date of Samantha's birth. September 9th, 1981. He looked up at his wall calendar to check the day's date. Today was Mrs. Reads' birthday.

(Well, I hope that'll tide you over until I get the entire Chapter One finished. Please leave me a review and let me know what you think! Feel free to tell me what you think is going to happen. Also, I have a new poll out; Which of my stories do you enjoy the most?)