Lucid Dreamer

[azina]

Ewww, Crane is very creepy and very sick here. Well, my Crane is sick too. Now I'm wondering, when he attacked her, was he mainly just getting his "kicks" out of her fear? That's my impression on Crane, not the physical act itself.

[§ilvercell]

i do too,but it's a great story.

[azina]

Don't get me wrong. She does an excellent job on Crane. I want to read more.

[seonedevinian]

heh, thanks. he is, in my opinion, a creepy guy. yes, that scene was him getting his kicks out of her fear. incidentally, it wasn't him who originally attacked her, he just used his "mild sedative" (correct jill, a weaker form of his little blue flower) and his hypnotic presence to insert himself as the Scarecrow into her memory. he wanted it to be subtle, not like she'd wake up consciously believing a scarecrow had attacked her, but enough to link her panic that night to his image.
so, i'm working on more tonight. hope i haven't scared you all off!

[jill]

seonedevinian said:

heh, thanks. he is, in my opinion, a creepy guy. yes, that scene was him getting his kicks out of her fear. incidentally, it wasn't him who originally attacked her, he just used his "mild sedative" (correct jill, a weaker form of his little blue flower) and his hypnotic presence to insert himself as the Scarecrow into her memory. he wanted it to be subtle, not like she'd wake up consciously believing a scarecrow had attacked her, but enough to link her panic that night to his image.
so, i'm working on more tonight. hope i haven't scared you all off!

ohh thanks for explaining, i got it now! that's what i thought originally. i hope you post more soon!

[aurora10]

I love this story!!! Creepy and sick....nah....creepy and sexy! LOL

[azina]

aurora10 said:

I love this story!!! Creepy and sick....nah....creepy and sexy! LOL

Well Crane breathing heavily ... that is sexy.

[azina]

seonedevinian said:

heh, thanks. he is, in my opinion, a creepy guy. yes, that scene was him getting his kicks out of her fear. incidentally, it wasn't him who originally attacked her, he just used his "mild sedative" (correct jill, a weaker form of his little blue flower) and his hypnotic presence to insert himself as the Scarecrow into her memory. he wanted it to be subtle, not like she'd wake up consciously believing a scarecrow had attacked her, but enough to link her panic that night to his image.
so, i'm working on more tonight. hope i haven't scared you all off!

Hey, this is the girl who writes the creepy Scarecrow fic. Can't scare me off that easily. Good job!

[seonedevinian]

'kay, here's just a short passage. it's kind of sad, but it won't shock like the hypnotherapy did. just a little insight into Jane's loneliness. hope you like it!

~and when you pray, I’ll pray with you~

Pray with me, momma.

Jane lay on her back in her dark, ‘private’ room. Faint light from the hallway shone a rectangle above her head, vaguely illuminating the sparse furnishings. Her room at home – her real home – was full of clutter, clothing and posters. Comfort. She had little of that here.

When she was a little girl, her mother had taught her how to pray. It had comforted her then as much as having her mother here now would. This time, she couldn’t stop herself. Jane cried, trying to keep herself quiet, trying to keep one thing private in this place. She feared the camera hidden in the ceiling; what would showing this weakness bring tomorrow? Dr. Crane would pick up on that, for sure. After her session today, she knew he was a predator, with secret motives and techniques. He stalked the hallways with his shining blue eyes, his calculated cruelty, his strange obsessions. Arkham was his haunt, and everyone inside was his prey.

She hadn’t seen him again after her therapy. She’d been delivered back into the common room, given a new medication, to ‘regulate her rest patterns’, as Crane had put it. After a few hours spent staring out of windows, trying to figure herself out, she’d been put to bed early. She was tired. She’d slept since then, had awakened in an unfamiliar cold sweat a few minutes ago. She’d been dreaming, she was sure of it…but what had she dreamed of?

She was afraid to close her eyes again, for fear of finding out. She tasted bitter copper in her mouth; licking, she realized that her lips were so chapped they bled. When had that happened? All signs seemed to point to her still being in the bad dream. When was her heart going to slow down again? Why couldn’t she stop thinking of the park that night? The thick dark air, the curious blur that was the man’s face. She could remember what he looked like at the trial; but before that, the first time they’d met, his identity while he attacked her – suddenly, that was a mystery.

She thought of the attacker now, in her cold and sterile prison; in her memory, he seemed inhuman. His presence that night had been like a demon walking the Earth, and although she knew visually that that man and Dr. Crane were polar opposites, she still could not erase the feeling of familiarity between the two. Was Crane a monster…a devil, too? Now, where had that thought come from….?

She took a deep breath, managing to overcome her fit of sadness. She would get home again; after all, she would be eighteen soon. Surely then she could do something to help herself? Until that day, a few months away, she would play along with him, her greatest captor, and in doing so try to keep her head above water.

Be strong, she thought. Be strong, and pray.

Despite her tension, Jane’s weariness again won, and darkness soon overtook her vision. This time, her sleep was dreamless.

[jill]

that's so sad. but good, really good. Jane seems smart, I'm curious to see how she'll "play along" with Crane..hmmm...can't wait to read more!!!

[aurora10]

I was wondering that, too!!!

[azina]

You really feel sorry for Jane as Crane is messing with her head and the trauma she's experienced, but I get a feeling she's going to get back at Crane somehow. Another great intallment. Keep writing!

[seonedevinian]

here's a bit where Jane gets lucky (not that kind of lucky) and thinks she hears something she wasn't intended to. happy reading!

~big plans~

Days passed, curiously without therapy. Jane learned to sleep early in the nights and awaken long before dawn; as they say, it is always darkest then. In the dark, she’d creep to the edges of her room, try to escape the feeling of electronic eyes on her skin. If she’d had a psychic sense, she’d honed it here, treading waters away from the burning sensation of being watched constantly. If her intuition was correct, the camera was set on an angle that excluded the very corner of the room, behind the door. It was focused on her bed, to watch her sleep. Maybe that was what gave her those mysterious tremors every night.

One such night, having fallen into sleep at about ten, she awoke to the absolute black that told her she’d again timed things correctly. She lay still for a moment, trying to make out the hands of the clock above the door. There was no seeing them; that meant it was around four. The asylum was silent. No one stirred, she’d bet even the night shift was resting. Good news for Jane; she crept out of her bed, along the floor like a shadow. Folding herself into her corner, she found true rest there, where the camera couldn’t see her.

Here, she could think in privacy; catching herself in the middle of that thought, she wondered if she was becoming paranoid. No one could read her thoughts, could they? Not even Dr. Crane. Though if anyone could, it would be him. She’d seen him rarely the last week or so; he’d always seemed very busy, marching down the hallways or walking through the common room on a kind of patrol. He had things to do, perfectly sane people he had to have committed. On a few occasions, she even thought she’d caught him watching her; always out of the corner of his eye, of course, and he managed to turn away before she could meet his secret gaze. Maybe he has a crush! a girlishly insane part of her thought. It was a mad idea. A crush can be a prelude to love, and Crane loved no one. As far as Jane could tell.

The sudden slamming of a thick metal door down the hall jarred her, almost making her give her position away to the electronic villain in the ceiling. No one moved at this hour; what could that be?

Highly unnerved now, the feeling of an impending apocalypse shaking her, (irrationally, she knew), Jane gathered herself into a taught ball, not knowing what else to do. If the zombies bust in here, I’ll just spring up and run past them!

God, she was going insane.

No zombies entered; the sound of one set of feet approached, with perfectly regulated steps clearly not indicative of the undead. This may not have been better news; perhaps her thoughts of Crane had summoned him from wherever he stayed. Although, she’d thought of little else these days and hadn’t seen him near her room, so that was unlikely. To her horror, the sounds slowed and stopped far too close for comfort. Jane closed her eyes, and tried to disappear.

You know who it is. It’s Dr. Crane, of course! Here to haunt you!

Or maybe it’s worse…maybe it’s something else…

A strange fear, somehow familiar, seized her. When had she felt this way before? Every fear had a different taste; fear of being late, fear of being hit by a bus. What danger past was this one from?

“Doctor?” a voice called outside, breaking the suspense. Another set of sounds came to join the doctor outside her door. She hoped they weren’t on their way in.

“Ssh!” the doctor hissed. If ever Jane could identify a man with one syllable, it was Crane. He hissed like no other; how did she know that…? “Patients are trying to sleep. What is it?”

The two retreated a small distance down the hall, presumably to avoid waking those patients Crane was so concerned about. Jane moved just slightly, hoping to hear their private conversation. It was faint, but she could still make it out bits and pieces.

“Your patient. File number…235F.” The voice of the other young man hushed accordingly. “When did you need her…medication switched?”

“Patient 235F…”, Crane murmured, accompanied by what could have been the sound of rustling papers. “I’ll need her…new prescription…tomorrow morning.”

“That’s what I thought”, the young man said nervously. “Good thing…because look at this…”

Another rustling; Jane thought she detected Crane suck in a short breath. “Ah, I see”, he said. “She’ll be of age soon. It’s enough time; not as much as I would have hoped, but enough…”

“So, you want to proceed as planned?”

A pause. “No”, he answered finally. “I’ll need these months to observe her progress. Skip stage two…move right to three.”

“Is that safe?”

“Let me worry about that. Good of you to bring this to my attention…I’ll handle the patient’s safety.”

“Yes, sir.”

One set of footsteps disappeared down the hall. The other lingered for a moment, then moved softly back to Jane’s door. Jane remembered that morning last week, when she’d lain awake in bed, listening to Dr. Crane scold Maggie out of her room. He’d known she was awake then; he probably knew it now, too. He was probably waiting for her to move, to give herself away. They both remained still as coiled serpents, each watching for the other to strike so they could either make their escape, or go in for their kill.

Jane, she imagined him whisper.

Finally, Crane walked away. Jane listened to him go, and prayed for her eighteenth year to come before her sanity left her.

[jill]

wow, chilling! i love the tension, it makes the story scary. really scary, haha. i can imagine this as like a movie or something...well, as usual, can't wait to read more!!

[azina]

Excellent .. I could so see Cillian playing this scene. Skipping a stage in Crane's "research"? That is never good for the patient. I hope she's able to last until she comes of age and finds a way to combat him.