Chapter Text
Halloween had always been his favorite time of year. It wasn’t because of the fact that he could walk around unnoticed or that he could get really into the stabbing and no one would care about the screams. No, it was the candy. He was a sucker for candy.
It was relatively easy to find a suitable candy bucket – the one with Batman’s face worked just fine. Those surprised eyes were just mmmMMMmmm … tantalizing! Not that there was much of a likeness, but fans can only be so picky. He’d decided to be a clown for the occasion since he already was a nightmare and didn’t particularly need to dress like Freddie or Jason to get a, hehe, rise out of folks. He’d found the nicest purple and green glowsticks and had strung them together in a necklace.
He didn’t get much of a reaction, which for once was just fine. “Ooh! Ooh! Trick-or-Treat, lady-lady!” He held out his plastic Batman head and smiled.
“Oh, aren’t you frightening!” The old woman was laughing nervously, picking out a few chocolates and plunking them into his bucket – first candy of the night. “In my day you’d be too old to go door-to-door like this, but I love seeing your costumes.”
“You’re never too old for dress-up, I always say.”
The woman chuckled a bit, “Horrifying what happened this summer, though. I don’t know why you young people insist on dressing as that horrible man.”
“Well, he’s uh pretty scarey. Don’t you think he’s pretty scarey, ma’am?” He was already fishing out one of the miniature candy bars and munching on it contentedly.
“You’d have to be crazy not to.” She was shaking her head. “You be careful out there. There are dangerous people around.”
“Oh, I will.” He beamed as she shut the door, then headed back down the driveway. A pair of costumed kids raced past him, Jack Sparrow and Cinderella by the looks of them, with only the slightest glance. As he passed their mother at the end of the driveway she looked him up and down and winked, “Wow, nice costume handsome.”
He gave her his toothiest smile, “I like to go for, uh, realism. Very important, you know.”
“You’ve got his voice right. Would you mind posing with the kids when they get back? They’ll be the envy of the other kids, getting their picture taken with the Joker for Halloween.”
He felt the weight of the many knives in his pockets but didn’t even bother with them. A few teenagers were screaming and laughing at the end of the driveway too but he didn’t have much desire to go for them either. Nah, the killing could wait. At least ‘til the neighbors ran out of candy. The Joker laughed long and loud, “Sure! I’d just love to make the kiddies smile!”