Batman & Robin And Me .:rewritten:.

IX. Night Terrors & Bat Pajamas

I TOSSED AND TURNED THAT NIGHT, alone and small in a bed that wasn't mine. Dreams pressed in on me from all sides, crowding my head with icy recollections and distorted memories. Again and again I was startled awake, and wished desperately to be six again and have the luxury to crawl between my parents in their bed when a dream turned sour. But every time, I was alone in a ornate poster bed in a cold room with moonlight peering through the too-large window.

Cold green eyes watched me as I tramped through distorted alleyways that seemed to bend to meet me. I caught glimpses out of the corner of my vision of leering faces that vanished when vanished as soon as I turned my head.

I was on top of a skyscraper, feeling the wind rush past my bare legs and the gravely roof under my fingers. There were misty mountains lurking in the distance, just beyond the city around me, and I had the strangest desire to go limp and tumble off my perch and soar like a bird until I got to those faroff green smudges.

Golden hues dappled the sunlit road, where boughs hung heavy with ripe, firm apples. A shadow crossed the road, and I looked up as a flock of crows swooped from behind me to cover the sky. Black feathers were everywhere--

The lingering sound of a gunshot reverberated off the brick walls. A pale boy crouched on a sidewalk, flanked by paler bodies that were twisted in the stiffness of death. Blood and pearls covered the ground. There was popcorn there too, but it was soaked in red and no longer edible. The sobs carried far into the night, but no one came.

Even among a crowd of five hundred people, the silence was deafening when the ropes snapped. It was no accident, you could see it in the faces of the man and woman as they plummeted to the ground like falling stars in golden uniforms. For once, there was silence under the big top when the performance ended, and not even the raven-haired boy could break the horrified spell. He simply stared, brown eyes wide.