Post by azina on Feb 27, 2006 23:59:39 GMT -5
A small black van rolled inconspicuously through the streets of Gotham City, obeying all the traffic signals and going at the speed limit as many cars raced ahead. The van’s driver could not be seen through the black tinted glass, reflecting the city back on itself like a mirror. As the light turned green, it turned off down a side street and pulled up next to a curb. In a smooth, effortless motion, the van’s side door unlocked and slid back, revealing three black ninja crouched within the shadows of the van and Jonathan Crane in the midst of them.
Slowly Jonathan got out, his feet feeling unstable upon the pavement after the cramped quarters and bumpy ride within the van, feeling ill at ease surrounded by assassins with no faces and no names. Quickly the ninja followed, jumping out of the van and as Jonathan turned to see the ninja behind him they were gone, which made him feel even more sick to his stomach than if they were at his back.
For my protection? They are nothing more than Ducard’s spies.
As Jonathan stepped back from the van, the vehicle quickly sped away from the curb and disappeared out of sight down the street. He imagined the ninja had some communication device to signal to the van when he was done with his affairs. Jonathan began to walk down the lonely, cold street and his breathed in the icy air, hoping it would invigorate him in some way.
No longer were just his hands trembling, he could feel it had to spread to his body but had masked it by what he did best, sitting and standing rigidly, but soon he knew it would become so noticeable even he could not hide it anymore. What was worse than the shaking was Scarecrow, growing stronger, his voice sounding clear and beating at Jonathan’s consciousness like a hammer.
The grinding of wheels on asphalt approached and Jonathan, to his surprise, saw it was a Gotham police car patrolling this backstreet.
How tempting to run out into the street and tell him that he’s in danger. That this city soon will be in ruin!
Jonathan turned around and saw a brief black shadow before it disappeared again around a corner.
You are such a fool. The ninja would kill you before you could speak a word to any cop – and the city will be blown up by a madman.
Jonathan heavily sighed in despair as the cop car drove by, unaware of the terrible danger the city was in and the heavy secret he now bore within his heart. A familiar building approached, a red brick structure with gray stone lining the windows. The sight in some ways was a relief – he didn’t know if he would ever see this place again. Slowly he approached the entrance with a small gray overhang roof and took a deep breath as he removed his keys, passing through the room people wait in as they are buzzed into by the occupants of the apartment, and using his key, he unlocked the door to reach the elevator to the upper level.
The lights remained on in the hall but everything was silent, which didn’t surprise him at this late an hour. As he approached the door with the brass label reading 407, he paused and took a deep breath before he slipped the key into the lock and turned, hoping it would work. To his amazement it clicked open – the locks hadn’t been changed or perhaps it was too soon still.
Or maybe this is a trap.
But Jonathan had no time for caution or subtlety. Already he felt perspiration on his forehead and felt his will growing weaker as Scarecrow’s grew stronger. More and more Jonathan’s thoughts were being replaced by Scarecrow’s in his consciousness and he was becoming too weak to fight it. He threw open the door and gazed inside his apartment. What he saw resembled little of what he remembered.
Instead of the immaculately organized and clean apartment Jonathan left it in, everything was in disorder and looked as though barbarians had ransacked the place. Cushions had been thrown off the foundation of the sofa, books toppled from the bookcase and papers scattered everywhere on the floor. Jonathan’s heart sank as he saw the chaos and what was left of his home. It reminded him far too much of what had happened to his second home – Arkham Asylum and like his beloved asylum, this was the consequence of the deception of Ducard. The police obviously had raided his home for information on the release of the toxin – if he hadn’t made his deal with Ducard, he’d still be head of Arkham and not hunted by the police.
No, now things are worse than the police or the destruction of Arkham and you know it. The death of Gotham City.
Jonathan honestly didn’t know if he could find what he was looking for in this destruction now. He ignored the papers and books, and began digging through the drawers, sifting through its contents, frantic as his hands trembled and his perspiration grew.
Damn! Where is it! It must be here somewhere!
“Jonathan, why fight it?”
“Shut up!”
“Why do you fear me? It’s the fear of others I desire. Jonathan, we are friends.”
“Friends don’t try to destroy the other’s life,” Jonathan spat as he rushed into the washroom, frantically searching the medicine cabinet behind the mirror.
“This won’t happen again – I promise. I was driven mad – mad by the toxin. But Ducard, we shall destroy him. Let us fight him together, Jonathan. Let us make him taste his own Fear. Let us make him pay for how he’s wronged us!”
“Scarecrow stop!”
“Look at what he’s done to us. Taken away your life, your future. Arkham is gone. Your psychiatry career is over. Emily no longer loves you. Let us break his spirit, then destroy his soul through madness!”
Jonathan pressed his trembling hands to his face, gasping, unable to make Scarecrow stop, realizing now he no longer spoke in his mind but with his own voice.
“Jonathan, Gotham City is ours. You know this. It always has been ours. We must take it from Ducard!”
“Enough!”
He slammed the mirror closed and a long thin crack ran down the glass, splitting his image in two. For a moment Jonathan gazed at his image, weak, pale and haggard before it suddenly changed as Scarecrow smiled back at him.
Jonathan staggered into the bedroom, exhausted and sick, and saw even the bedroom had not been spared. The sheets had been ripped off and the pillow thrown aside. Jonathan for a brief moment fell upon the bed, enjoying just the familiar feel and softness of it, but fought dozing off, even as Scarecrow continued his tirade in his mind. Jonathan grabbed something soft, pulled it to him to cover him briefly and closed his eyes.
“Jonathan, don’t you dare fall asleep on me!”
As he pulled it to his chin something rattled and suddenly he no longer felt sleepy. Jonathan realized what he held in his hand – a robe, and quickly dug through its pockets and found something, a pharmaceutical bottle. He barely remembered the night so long ago when he first argued with Scarecrow and threatened to up his dosage of his schizophrenia medication. Then he had shoved the bottle in his robe pocket and had forgotten about it since he kept medication at work as well, which he usually took in his office. There weren’t many pills left, but Jonathan thought grimly there might not be much time left anyway.
Scarcely an hour had passed since he first had entered his apartment, but Jonathan didn’t want to linger too long in his beloved home or else arouse suspicion – or worse, the ninja would come looking him. Jonathan had a few books and some papers in his arms to look like that was what he truly came for and was about to step out onto the sidewalk and down the street when he saw someone approaching down the street. Jonathan thought it would be safer just to let this pedestrian pass and then to travel when there was no one else to see him.
From the rhythmic clicking of heels on the pavement, he could tell it was a woman and for some strange reason, he almost had the compulsion to escort her, realizing how late the hour was and how lonely the street had become.
Jonathan, how strange you’ve become since you’ve discovered the city is about to be destroyed and this woman most likely will die.
But then the clicking stopped and Jonathan, who was waiting in silence beneath the overhang, was tempted to peak out and gaze at who this woman was.
“Jonathan,” whispered a familiar voice and he felt he was imagining things.
“Jonathan, is that you?”
He nearly dropped his books at the voice and slowly moved out from beneath the overhang.
“Emily?”
As he looked out down the lonely street he saw a woman in her late twenties with brunette hair and chocolate brown eyes gazing back at him. Never did he recall her looking so lovely, surprised and sad all at once.
“Oh, Jon!”
She raced up to him where he stood, threw her arms around him and suddenly he felt the books and papers slip from his grasp and fall to the ground as he held her soft body close to him and their lips met in a passionate kiss. For a moment all time stood still and fears and cares fell away in her embrace, but then her sweet, soft lips parted from his and he gazed into her eyes.
“Jonathan, why did you leave? Why?”
“I – I’m so sorry. I –”
Momentarily he looked down the streets to see if the ever-present shadows were watching them. At the moment they appeared to be gone.
“Please, Emily, it’s cold. Let’s go inside.”
Emily frowned a moment, but then nodded. Jonathan scooped up his books and crumpled papers, and they went into the small waiting area of the apartment building. Emily looked at Jonathan in disbelief, caressing his cheek.
“I searched all over Gotham for you. I didn’t know where else to look. Finally I searched for your address in the phone book. I went to all the Cranes in the area.”
“On foot?” Jonathan nearly laughed.
“No! My car is just down the street. I needed to get out to check on the street address.”
“But Emily, it’s so late. And I don’t deserve this – not after what I’ve done to you … I didn’t want to leave you.”
His hand drifted through her soft brunette hair and she seemed close to tears while he fought a lump in his throat.
“Then why did you leave,” Emily asked.
“I was afraid the police would think you were involved with what I had done – with all of this.”
Jonathan looked down at his papers and books, which were harmless in and of themselves but held bits and pieces of his research into psychiatry and the Fear Toxin he had created.
“But you could have talked to me instead of running out – instead of leaving me. What was I to think? Left alone with just that horrible news story saying you dumped some poison into the water supply! Jonathan what have you done? What trouble are you in?”
He gazed at her, longing to tell her while she desired to hear what he had to say, but then he closed his eyes.
“More trouble than I could have imagined now – and I can’t drag you into it. I care for you too deeply.”
“At least tell me what trouble you are in,” Emily said. “I might not be able to help, but don’t be so quick to drive me away. Quit sheltering me. I’m not some delicate flower you have to keep protecting.”
Outside the ninja had moved closer to the apartment like an ever creeping black shadow that surrounded the complex. They gazed at the windows with watchful eyes and saw the young woman who talked with Jonathan. A ninja slipped out a cell phone and called the van, telling the driver to come by the apartment soon, for Jonathan had company.
“Now that I’ve told you, do you believe any of it,” Jonathan asked.
“It seems so unbelievable. And this Ducard, do you think he’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t know. He’s told me so many lies. In my heart I don’t want to believe him. I wish this were all a lie, maybe a twisted test to see what I’ll do. How I wish this were a lie, Emily! But what if it isn’t?”
Emily lapsed into silence, her eyes downcast and Jonathan felt sorrow settle into his heart. He put down the papers and books, and gently clasped her arms.
“If it isn’t a lie – if I don’t see you again.”
“No, Jon, don’t think like that.”
“I must do something. I can’t let him do this. I can’t sit by and let this happen – let you die,” he said.
“Shhh,” Emily whispered.
She was so close their lips nearly touched again, the warmth of their breath upon each other. Jonathan ached for her and wished to stay, even thought of escaping with her in her car, escaping from Ducard and even the doomed city. But no, the ninja were watching, they might kill him or Emily. And even if they escaped he’d blame himself for the rest of his days for choosing a coward’s fate while millions of lives perished and he might have prevented it. He felt like he now stood at the edge of a cliff, feet still on the earth but behind him a dangerous precipice and beyond the endless black void; the only one holding him in place, keeping him from falling from the brink was Emily.
“I must go,” he said. “I’m being watched.”
Emily gasped when she heard this, her eyes growing wide.
“By Ducard? Here?”
“Yes, and I must go, now. I am sorry”
“No more apologies, Jon. If this is to be the last time we see each other, I wanted to tell you something. Before you left, I was about to tell you that – that I love you.”
“And do you still feel this way, Emily?”
She paused, before tenderly kissing him on the lips and whispering, “I do, Jon. I do.”
“And Emily there is one last thing I must tell you. Long ago you asked me what I feared. I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want to let my guard down then. So many people have hurt me in the past and are still hurting me now, but I want to tell you this. What I fear is the people I most love will leave me.”
Emily smiled. “Jon, this is nothing to be ashamed. Everyone has this fear.”
“But I can’t afford to have any fears. For the longest time I was the master of fear. I was impervious to it. I wielded it like weapon over others.”
Emily shook her head in disbelief.
“I don’t understand. Jon, what are you saying?”
Jonathan paused, his eyes filled with longing and sadness.
“Just I don’t want to lose you. If I did, I think he at last would gain control over me.”
“Who? Ducard?”
“No, the master of fear.”
“Jon, why the riddles, you know I’m no good at them!”
A shadow stirred outside and Jonathan looked through the window as though it was the seal on his fate rather than just the restless movements of the ninja.
“Emily, I must go.”
He embraced her hard as though he would never feel her in his arms again or the sweet caress of her lips of the gentle touch of her breath.
“Know that whatever happens, I love you,” he whispered. “And in two day’s time leave the city!”
Hungrily they kissed and embraced one last time before they parted. Tears streamed down Emily cheeks as Jonathan hurriedly scooped up the papers and books, and ran out the doors and into street. Emily covered her face, trembling, not seeing as the ninja surrounded Jonathan and the black van came by and spirited them away. When she looked up again he was gone like a dream and she burst out the doors into the street, angry and sorrowful. After so much searching and heartache, in her moment of joy and triumph at finding Jonathan at last, she was all alone again. All alone on the cold, dark street – alone with the knowledge Gotham City soon would die.
Slowly Jonathan got out, his feet feeling unstable upon the pavement after the cramped quarters and bumpy ride within the van, feeling ill at ease surrounded by assassins with no faces and no names. Quickly the ninja followed, jumping out of the van and as Jonathan turned to see the ninja behind him they were gone, which made him feel even more sick to his stomach than if they were at his back.
For my protection? They are nothing more than Ducard’s spies.
As Jonathan stepped back from the van, the vehicle quickly sped away from the curb and disappeared out of sight down the street. He imagined the ninja had some communication device to signal to the van when he was done with his affairs. Jonathan began to walk down the lonely, cold street and his breathed in the icy air, hoping it would invigorate him in some way.
No longer were just his hands trembling, he could feel it had to spread to his body but had masked it by what he did best, sitting and standing rigidly, but soon he knew it would become so noticeable even he could not hide it anymore. What was worse than the shaking was Scarecrow, growing stronger, his voice sounding clear and beating at Jonathan’s consciousness like a hammer.
The grinding of wheels on asphalt approached and Jonathan, to his surprise, saw it was a Gotham police car patrolling this backstreet.
How tempting to run out into the street and tell him that he’s in danger. That this city soon will be in ruin!
Jonathan turned around and saw a brief black shadow before it disappeared again around a corner.
You are such a fool. The ninja would kill you before you could speak a word to any cop – and the city will be blown up by a madman.
Jonathan heavily sighed in despair as the cop car drove by, unaware of the terrible danger the city was in and the heavy secret he now bore within his heart. A familiar building approached, a red brick structure with gray stone lining the windows. The sight in some ways was a relief – he didn’t know if he would ever see this place again. Slowly he approached the entrance with a small gray overhang roof and took a deep breath as he removed his keys, passing through the room people wait in as they are buzzed into by the occupants of the apartment, and using his key, he unlocked the door to reach the elevator to the upper level.
The lights remained on in the hall but everything was silent, which didn’t surprise him at this late an hour. As he approached the door with the brass label reading 407, he paused and took a deep breath before he slipped the key into the lock and turned, hoping it would work. To his amazement it clicked open – the locks hadn’t been changed or perhaps it was too soon still.
Or maybe this is a trap.
But Jonathan had no time for caution or subtlety. Already he felt perspiration on his forehead and felt his will growing weaker as Scarecrow’s grew stronger. More and more Jonathan’s thoughts were being replaced by Scarecrow’s in his consciousness and he was becoming too weak to fight it. He threw open the door and gazed inside his apartment. What he saw resembled little of what he remembered.
Instead of the immaculately organized and clean apartment Jonathan left it in, everything was in disorder and looked as though barbarians had ransacked the place. Cushions had been thrown off the foundation of the sofa, books toppled from the bookcase and papers scattered everywhere on the floor. Jonathan’s heart sank as he saw the chaos and what was left of his home. It reminded him far too much of what had happened to his second home – Arkham Asylum and like his beloved asylum, this was the consequence of the deception of Ducard. The police obviously had raided his home for information on the release of the toxin – if he hadn’t made his deal with Ducard, he’d still be head of Arkham and not hunted by the police.
No, now things are worse than the police or the destruction of Arkham and you know it. The death of Gotham City.
Jonathan honestly didn’t know if he could find what he was looking for in this destruction now. He ignored the papers and books, and began digging through the drawers, sifting through its contents, frantic as his hands trembled and his perspiration grew.
Damn! Where is it! It must be here somewhere!
“Jonathan, why fight it?”
“Shut up!”
“Why do you fear me? It’s the fear of others I desire. Jonathan, we are friends.”
“Friends don’t try to destroy the other’s life,” Jonathan spat as he rushed into the washroom, frantically searching the medicine cabinet behind the mirror.
“This won’t happen again – I promise. I was driven mad – mad by the toxin. But Ducard, we shall destroy him. Let us fight him together, Jonathan. Let us make him taste his own Fear. Let us make him pay for how he’s wronged us!”
“Scarecrow stop!”
“Look at what he’s done to us. Taken away your life, your future. Arkham is gone. Your psychiatry career is over. Emily no longer loves you. Let us break his spirit, then destroy his soul through madness!”
Jonathan pressed his trembling hands to his face, gasping, unable to make Scarecrow stop, realizing now he no longer spoke in his mind but with his own voice.
“Jonathan, Gotham City is ours. You know this. It always has been ours. We must take it from Ducard!”
“Enough!”
He slammed the mirror closed and a long thin crack ran down the glass, splitting his image in two. For a moment Jonathan gazed at his image, weak, pale and haggard before it suddenly changed as Scarecrow smiled back at him.
Jonathan staggered into the bedroom, exhausted and sick, and saw even the bedroom had not been spared. The sheets had been ripped off and the pillow thrown aside. Jonathan for a brief moment fell upon the bed, enjoying just the familiar feel and softness of it, but fought dozing off, even as Scarecrow continued his tirade in his mind. Jonathan grabbed something soft, pulled it to him to cover him briefly and closed his eyes.
“Jonathan, don’t you dare fall asleep on me!”
As he pulled it to his chin something rattled and suddenly he no longer felt sleepy. Jonathan realized what he held in his hand – a robe, and quickly dug through its pockets and found something, a pharmaceutical bottle. He barely remembered the night so long ago when he first argued with Scarecrow and threatened to up his dosage of his schizophrenia medication. Then he had shoved the bottle in his robe pocket and had forgotten about it since he kept medication at work as well, which he usually took in his office. There weren’t many pills left, but Jonathan thought grimly there might not be much time left anyway.
Scarcely an hour had passed since he first had entered his apartment, but Jonathan didn’t want to linger too long in his beloved home or else arouse suspicion – or worse, the ninja would come looking him. Jonathan had a few books and some papers in his arms to look like that was what he truly came for and was about to step out onto the sidewalk and down the street when he saw someone approaching down the street. Jonathan thought it would be safer just to let this pedestrian pass and then to travel when there was no one else to see him.
From the rhythmic clicking of heels on the pavement, he could tell it was a woman and for some strange reason, he almost had the compulsion to escort her, realizing how late the hour was and how lonely the street had become.
Jonathan, how strange you’ve become since you’ve discovered the city is about to be destroyed and this woman most likely will die.
But then the clicking stopped and Jonathan, who was waiting in silence beneath the overhang, was tempted to peak out and gaze at who this woman was.
“Jonathan,” whispered a familiar voice and he felt he was imagining things.
“Jonathan, is that you?”
He nearly dropped his books at the voice and slowly moved out from beneath the overhang.
“Emily?”
As he looked out down the lonely street he saw a woman in her late twenties with brunette hair and chocolate brown eyes gazing back at him. Never did he recall her looking so lovely, surprised and sad all at once.
“Oh, Jon!”
She raced up to him where he stood, threw her arms around him and suddenly he felt the books and papers slip from his grasp and fall to the ground as he held her soft body close to him and their lips met in a passionate kiss. For a moment all time stood still and fears and cares fell away in her embrace, but then her sweet, soft lips parted from his and he gazed into her eyes.
“Jonathan, why did you leave? Why?”
“I – I’m so sorry. I –”
Momentarily he looked down the streets to see if the ever-present shadows were watching them. At the moment they appeared to be gone.
“Please, Emily, it’s cold. Let’s go inside.”
Emily frowned a moment, but then nodded. Jonathan scooped up his books and crumpled papers, and they went into the small waiting area of the apartment building. Emily looked at Jonathan in disbelief, caressing his cheek.
“I searched all over Gotham for you. I didn’t know where else to look. Finally I searched for your address in the phone book. I went to all the Cranes in the area.”
“On foot?” Jonathan nearly laughed.
“No! My car is just down the street. I needed to get out to check on the street address.”
“But Emily, it’s so late. And I don’t deserve this – not after what I’ve done to you … I didn’t want to leave you.”
His hand drifted through her soft brunette hair and she seemed close to tears while he fought a lump in his throat.
“Then why did you leave,” Emily asked.
“I was afraid the police would think you were involved with what I had done – with all of this.”
Jonathan looked down at his papers and books, which were harmless in and of themselves but held bits and pieces of his research into psychiatry and the Fear Toxin he had created.
“But you could have talked to me instead of running out – instead of leaving me. What was I to think? Left alone with just that horrible news story saying you dumped some poison into the water supply! Jonathan what have you done? What trouble are you in?”
He gazed at her, longing to tell her while she desired to hear what he had to say, but then he closed his eyes.
“More trouble than I could have imagined now – and I can’t drag you into it. I care for you too deeply.”
“At least tell me what trouble you are in,” Emily said. “I might not be able to help, but don’t be so quick to drive me away. Quit sheltering me. I’m not some delicate flower you have to keep protecting.”
Outside the ninja had moved closer to the apartment like an ever creeping black shadow that surrounded the complex. They gazed at the windows with watchful eyes and saw the young woman who talked with Jonathan. A ninja slipped out a cell phone and called the van, telling the driver to come by the apartment soon, for Jonathan had company.
“Now that I’ve told you, do you believe any of it,” Jonathan asked.
“It seems so unbelievable. And this Ducard, do you think he’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t know. He’s told me so many lies. In my heart I don’t want to believe him. I wish this were all a lie, maybe a twisted test to see what I’ll do. How I wish this were a lie, Emily! But what if it isn’t?”
Emily lapsed into silence, her eyes downcast and Jonathan felt sorrow settle into his heart. He put down the papers and books, and gently clasped her arms.
“If it isn’t a lie – if I don’t see you again.”
“No, Jon, don’t think like that.”
“I must do something. I can’t let him do this. I can’t sit by and let this happen – let you die,” he said.
“Shhh,” Emily whispered.
She was so close their lips nearly touched again, the warmth of their breath upon each other. Jonathan ached for her and wished to stay, even thought of escaping with her in her car, escaping from Ducard and even the doomed city. But no, the ninja were watching, they might kill him or Emily. And even if they escaped he’d blame himself for the rest of his days for choosing a coward’s fate while millions of lives perished and he might have prevented it. He felt like he now stood at the edge of a cliff, feet still on the earth but behind him a dangerous precipice and beyond the endless black void; the only one holding him in place, keeping him from falling from the brink was Emily.
“I must go,” he said. “I’m being watched.”
Emily gasped when she heard this, her eyes growing wide.
“By Ducard? Here?”
“Yes, and I must go, now. I am sorry”
“No more apologies, Jon. If this is to be the last time we see each other, I wanted to tell you something. Before you left, I was about to tell you that – that I love you.”
“And do you still feel this way, Emily?”
She paused, before tenderly kissing him on the lips and whispering, “I do, Jon. I do.”
“And Emily there is one last thing I must tell you. Long ago you asked me what I feared. I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want to let my guard down then. So many people have hurt me in the past and are still hurting me now, but I want to tell you this. What I fear is the people I most love will leave me.”
Emily smiled. “Jon, this is nothing to be ashamed. Everyone has this fear.”
“But I can’t afford to have any fears. For the longest time I was the master of fear. I was impervious to it. I wielded it like weapon over others.”
Emily shook her head in disbelief.
“I don’t understand. Jon, what are you saying?”
Jonathan paused, his eyes filled with longing and sadness.
“Just I don’t want to lose you. If I did, I think he at last would gain control over me.”
“Who? Ducard?”
“No, the master of fear.”
“Jon, why the riddles, you know I’m no good at them!”
A shadow stirred outside and Jonathan looked through the window as though it was the seal on his fate rather than just the restless movements of the ninja.
“Emily, I must go.”
He embraced her hard as though he would never feel her in his arms again or the sweet caress of her lips of the gentle touch of her breath.
“Know that whatever happens, I love you,” he whispered. “And in two day’s time leave the city!”
Hungrily they kissed and embraced one last time before they parted. Tears streamed down Emily cheeks as Jonathan hurriedly scooped up the papers and books, and ran out the doors and into street. Emily covered her face, trembling, not seeing as the ninja surrounded Jonathan and the black van came by and spirited them away. When she looked up again he was gone like a dream and she burst out the doors into the street, angry and sorrowful. After so much searching and heartache, in her moment of joy and triumph at finding Jonathan at last, she was all alone again. All alone on the cold, dark street – alone with the knowledge Gotham City soon would die.
