Two sides of the same coin

Chapter 4 - Alfred

Immediately after he ran in, he saw a familiar figure sitting in a chair. Giving out low chuckles while slouching as he sat. The light shown above his head casting an outlined shadow of him and the chair on the ground. A table stood next to the chair with the same Jack-in-the-box there, the same one shown from the projections.

"Alfred."

The low chuckles continued to travel and echo throughout the room as Bruce made his way towards Alfred.

'He never deserved this'

'This was all because of me'

When Alfred noticed Bruce's presence, his hand went down to his boot before he pulled out a razor. He held the razor in front of his face, slowly opening it and revealing the blade. He pulled the razor up to his mouth and began to cut the side of his mouth. The razor going through his cheeks and giving a bloody illusion as if he was always smiling. After finishing one side he brought the razor to the other side. Alfred's expression was faltering between laughter and terror. He was being forced to do something he was terrified to do while Bruce had to watch in horror as he witnessed his only family carve a smile into his face.

"Alfred, please. Please, stop." He could hear the blade tear and rip through Alfred's cheeks in the process, blood trickling down the cuts from his cheeks. The intercom clicked on. Jeremiah once again made his appearance and began to speak.

"We're all searching for someone whose demons play well with ours and you, Bruce, I believe that your demons are particularly similar to my own."

Anyone could almost sense a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but Bruce didn't notice it. A rush of comfort went through Bruce as he realized he wasn't alone. He was too panicked at the moment to even realize who's voice it belonged to, he was just glad that someone else was there. Bruce quickly snapped out of it, when he realized who had said those words. When he realized that was- no, is the same person who is putting him through all this. What was he even thinking? Of course, Jeremiah was only trying to lead him to false security. Although the thought of having someone comforting him seemed tempting in a situation like this.

Even if it was false security.

'No. No. That isn't true.'

Bruce thought to himself, he could never trust someone like Jeremiah. Not after what his old friend had done.

Bruce was pulled out of his thoughts when Alfred stood up, swinging the Razor towards him. Bruce was barely able to dodge it. He looked up only to realize that Alfred had attempted to attack again. He dodged the razor again, and Alfred swung his hand back to repeat the same attack. This time, Bruce managed to catch his arm, attempting to try and get Alfred to snap out of it.

"Alfred!"

Alfred pulled his arm back towards himself and swung again. Bruce ducked, dodging, and again grabbed Alfred's arm- this time with a tighter grip.

"Alfred! Alfred, stop."

Even with his attempt, Alfred would only cackle in response. Bruce pushed him back so he wouldn't have the chance to cut him with the razor. He stood there, he didn't attack because he knew that Alfred wasn't himself, and he wouldn't attack his own family. He could only hope that Alfred would snap back to his senses if he kept beg and try to convince him.