No sleep for the wicked

chapter 13- Fear test

I bolted up right in a cold sweat, my breathing was heavy. That nightmare was horrifying; I looked down at the bed to see that The Scarecrow was still asleep. I slowly removed the arms of the Scarecrow from around me and got silently out of the bed; I padded as quietly as possible to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I looked in the bathroom to see it looked like a murder scene. I grabbed some toilet roll and began to mop up the blood. I looked over to my clothing by the side of the bath and saw it was covered in blood. I began to cry as all the blood reminded me of my dream.

The bathroom was as clean as it could be except for the blood between the tiles. I sighed as I turned on the stand in shower. I pulled off the shirt that The Scarecrow had given me and placed it on the floor. I stepped under the cold water as it started to heat up. I hissed as the hot water hit my swollen scalp. I ran my fingers through my still bloody hair, I closed my eyes and craned my head back to feel the hot water run over me, almost like a tropical rain. I sighed I brushed my own finger tips over the stitches on the back of my head. I opened my eyes and took in a deep breath, the water dripped over my lips as I took in life giving air which made me feel alive.

I leaned against the cool tiles of the shower wall and gave a large sigh. I knocked off the shower and wrapped a clean towel round me which didn’t have any blood on it and walked back into the room where The Scarecrow sat upright on the bed where he was once holding me. “Why did you get up?” he asked it in such a serious tone, it made me shiver. “I had a bad dream.” I stated simply, the Scarecrow gave a sinister grin, I knew he could never deny his nature he got up off the bed where I had noticed while I was in the shower he had taken off his Arkham prison uniform and had replaced it with some simple black straight legged pants and an opened shirt. He walked towards me, as he asked, “what was the dream about my sweet little Ashleigh?” his distorted voice echoed in my head as he used both hands to pin my shoulders to the wall behind me. The Scarecrow’s hair fell in front of his eyes, making him look more deadly.

“If I told you, you would use it against me.” The Scarecrow nodded quickly to this and pushed my shoulders even harder against the concrete wall behind me, then suddenly he let go of me. He started to pace in front of me, “your right I would use it against you or I could make you use it against yourself.” Oh god. I knew what was coming suddenly The Scarecrow pounced onto me and began to drag me to him, I tried to struggle but what was coming would only come slower if I ran. The Scarecrow grabbed a vile of the fear toxin, his sinister grin make me feel sick to my stomach as he dropped the vile of the fear toxin onto the floor. The black coloured gas spread throughout the room like aggressive snakes as it swirled and twisted around me.

I clutches the towel with was wrapped around me, and closed my eyes and breathed deeply. It takes a lot of things for this to happen to me, but tonight and the day before had caused me to edge closer to madness. It only takes one bad day, to make your life go terribly wrong. A distorted grin carved through my lips as a distorted chuckle escaped my mouth. Tears streamed out of my closed eyes as the feeling of shards piecing my skin felt so real. But it wasn’t like I hadn’t felt this fear before, the images of me dragging a broken mirror piece over my body flashed before my eyes. I fear myself and no one else, as I was scared what I would do to myself and other.

I felt the Scarecrows hands on my shoulders; I opened my eyes and saw he was grinning cruelly. Then he began to laugh, the sharp sound make me look into his eyes which were as black as the smoke surrounding us, but as dangerous as a great white sharks. The Scarecrow embraced me, as slowly the black smoke began to disappear. He placed a hand on my cheek, “what was your dream about?” I felt like I was losing my mind. He had only used the fear toxin to test me, to make sure I only feared myself and nothing else.

I smiled crookedly up at him with blood shot eyes which were still releasing tears, “it was a dream, a dream about the death of Jonathan Crane.” He nodded and looked down at me with those lethal eyes which only made me want to know more about him. He stepped away from me and went to his wardrobe; the Scarecrow grabbed me a long dressing gown and went into the bathroom, and picked up my blood soaked clothing. He looked from me to the clothing, “you are so lucky you didn’t die from blood loss.” I smiled and he opened the door for me which led out into the hall, “Ashleigh you need to see Harley about some new clothing. “ I’m going to go and talk to Two Face.”

 I nodded and made my way to Harley Quinn’s and The Jokers room again. I knocked gently, to be met with a very manic Harley, “hi Ashleigh, are you feeling better?” I nodded, and smiled at her, as she looked at the dressing gown I was wearing, “what happened to the clothes I gave you?” she asked in a mock serious tone. I smiled anxiously and answered, “They got covered in blood.” She smiled at this, and giggled, “Well I’m happy the answer is that. I was expecting you to say Crane had torn them apart.” I nodded, but I lingered on the fact that she had called him Crane, not the fact she was ensuing that The Scarecrow wanted me in a way like that. “Well Harley the thing is I need some new clothes and possibly some spares.” Harley giggled, “Come on in then and you can pick what you like, it’s not like I bought them.”  Harley laughed insanely, as I walked into her and jokers room.