No sleep for the wicked

chapter 12- Young death

My breathing was fast and erratic as the scarecrow walked towards me. I pushed against the door again but I knew it was no use; I gave a chocked dry sob as I slid down the door to the floor of the scarecrow’s room. The scarecrow finally reached me and sat down beside me on the floor, I brought up my knees to my chest. The scarecrow swung his arm’s round my shoulder and pulled me into his chest as I dry sobbed over the fact that he killed someone so young. But at the same time I felt sorry for the monster that had to kill so he could live. I wrapped my arms around the Scarecrow and sighed; Jonathan also sighed and pulled me up to stand. I wasn’t going to cry over the Scarecrow he had hurt me by making me believe he was constantly the good guy, and not just the monster. I pulled away from the Scarecrow and looked down, at his shirt and pulled it down so it was closer to my knees, scarecrow gave a chuckle and lifted my chin up to look at him.

“Ashleigh I’m sorry for misleading you, but I was only doing it because I thought I was in your best interest.” I looked into his eyes and I saw he was sincere. I pulled away from his deep dark eyes and looked over to his bed. I was tired from this bad day gone terribly wrong, I walked away from the Scarecrow who just gave another sigh and walked towards his brown leather chair. He threw himself down and sighed again, I lied down on the bed and pulled the thick covers over me. I just looked at the scarecrow and snuggled down further down into the covers. Scarecrow was defiantly staring at me intensely but I had no idea why.

Then he got up from his seat and walked over to the bed, he sat in the curve of my body which you could see through the bunched up covers and he gently stroked my hair, “you know your heads going to be really sore in the morning. “ I nodded as I felt his finger brush over the fresh stitches which were holding my swollen skin together, “are you feeling ok?” I nodded again, I didn’t feel like talking but who could blame me. I had been kidnapped, tossed about like a rag doll by the Riddler, as a fight with the joker and got my head smashed in by the bathroom sink. I sighed and curled tighter around the scarecrow; he then got up off the bed and walked to the end of the bed. I looked at him confused as he began to climb on to the bed; I sighed and let my head drop heavily on the cushions. I felt the bed lean in behind me as the scarecrow made himself comfortable and wrapped himself around me. I still didn’t feel like talking to him but I pulled up the covers and allowed him to join me under them, he smiled gently.

We lay there silently not saying a word, I felt so tired. Then the Scarecrow leaned up on his elbow and looked at me in the dark room, “I’m sorry Ashleigh.” And after that small statement, I turned round to face him and saw he was sincere. This maybe another mistake on my behalf, but I wanted to show I had forgiven him for his deception. I leaned up and kissed his cheek gently, and as I did this I felt the Scarecrows mouth curl upwards into a smile, I lingered there for a few more seconds as I felt the scarecrows grow hot from my sudden action. I pulled away from the Scarecrow and saw that his eyes were filled with adoration; my face began to heat up as the scarecrow looked at me intensely. Suddenly the Scarecrow wrapped his arms round my and pulled me into his chest, my ear was pressed against his chest and I could hear his elevated heart rate. I sighed and made myself comfortable against his muscled chest and found myself falling asleep to the natural rhythm of the Scarecrow’s heartbeat.

But even though I was in a relatively happy reality at the moment, my dreams portrayed a completely different scenario. It was no longer dark, but the room I was in had a red tint almost as if the whole room had been obscured by blood. And there in the corner was a scarecrow, but it wasn’t The Scarecrow. I got up from the floor I was sitting on to go and look at the burlap hessian, I walked over to it, but as I was about to touch it blood started to seep through the hessian mask. I gave a muffled cry and as fast as possible I pulled of the hood of the scarecrow. You could tell it used to be the face of a teenage boy, but now it was shattered into pieces of ivory skull and red flesh I stepped back, only to feel my back collided with someone standing behind me.

I looked up and saw it was The Scarecrow, he was wearing his famous hessian mask and it was covered in blood. I tried to get away but The Scarecrow just wrapped his arms round my waist, and weirdly I felt safe. I brought up my hand and pulled off the hessian mask which The Scarecrow was wearing and saw his face was covered in lacerations. Soon his face began to crumple as if some invisible force was destroying his face. I walked away from The Scarecrow and saw the once shattered skull teenage boy was now clean of blood and his face was no longer shattered. Soon the wall began to run red, I turned towards the Scarecrow and saw it was the young Jonathan Crane which had been lost for twenty years, cowering on the floor. Suddenly the dim red room began to flicker to black but with every flicker of light I saw the young Jonathan Crane being killed before my eyes. I screwed my eyes shut, as I saw the impending death of the young Jonathan Crane in front of my eyes.