Badlands • Jerome Valeska

Haunting

Screaming. Laughing. Breaking.

My screams.

His laugh.

My bones breaking.

Eyes open.

A scarecrow.

"He seems to be taking well to the gas Joker." More laughing. Manic. Oh so desirable.

Wool over my eyes.

Warm breath against my throat.

Eyes wide. My eyes. Can't see. A blindfold.

Pain. Unimaginable pain. Right arm.

"Maybe you want to stop Jerome. Or maybe you enjoy the pain." Mr J.

Slipping away. Feeling dazed. Sleep.

I woke up again, still with the pain in my arm. But no longer with fear. I found myself on the bed that Mr J and I share from time to time, where a man wearing glasses was sat next to the bed, hands placed on his folded knee,

"I was wondering when you would wake up again. I was beginning to think that the dose I gave you would have been too much." He removed his glasses as I sat up, the pain still in the back of my head from the blow I had suffered,

"Who are you?" He smirked and played with his glasses,

"Dr Johnathon Crane. But I hear you enjoy calling people by their last name so you may call me Dr Crane." I furrowed my brow, that name sounded familiar but I couldn't place where. Then it hit me,

"You were the guy in the scarecrow mask." He got up from his place in the metal chair and walked towards the bed,

"That I was Mr Valeska. It is a tactic I use when administering the gas. I find that it adds to the panic." Mr J must have really been angry to call someone else in to do his dirty work,

"How did I break my arm?" He put his hands in his pocket and looked to his left where a door was being opened,

"That is due to your own stupidity Jerome. From what Joker tells me, you have been quite the little trouble maker, for him especially." The person who walked in, spoke in a manor that could only be described and explained by the mask he is wearing. It's Bane. I've certainly heard of him,

"So I'm guessing that he broke it for me?" Bane walked to stand beside Dr Crane and folded his arms over his chest,

"Actually you did that on your own." My attention was back on Dr Crane who had just spoken,

"What? How?" He made himself comfortable on the edge of the bed and placed one knee up so he could face me,

"You took very well to the gas and it did what is intended, but perhaps maybe too much since you started thrashing and broke your arm on one of these many metal beams." He said that whilst gesturing to the many metal columns that helped to serve as a foundation for the building,

"I broke it myself?" Dr Crane nodded,

"Yes, we had to restrain you so you couldn't hurt yourself. That is what Joker asked us to do." Confusion set in again and it left me with more questions than before,

"Wait, I'm still confused. Why the gas?" Dr Crane looked to Bane who had begun to stalk the area then looked down and I swear I saw a bit of a smile creep onto his face,

"I needed a test subject and Joker very eagerly offered up you. He said something about a punishment and I suppose he felt that my gas would be a perfect substitute for any pain that he could inflict." He said this, all while his eyes stayed on Bane who was still walking, looking. He turned his head to look at me again and spoke,