Heart

The Tinman turned, an axe on his hands and a wicked smile upon his otherwise benevolent metal face.

"Go? Go to the Wizard? Why would I go to him? After all, I have all I need right here." He pointed the axe towards her, over her heart. "After all, I am the Tinman."

She backed away slowly, not knowing what has gone into him, she turned around, looking for an escape but only to find the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow standing behind him, all wearing the same wicked expression upon their faces.

"I…I thought that you were going to help me." She muttered.

"Oh sweet, innocent Dorothy," said the Cowardly Lion, a fake sympathetic look on his face, "Who thought the three strangers in need were going to help her, you don't really think that do you?"

Dorothy shook her head, eyes cast downwards towards the yellow bricked road, which all of a sudden doesn't seem so inviting.

"Why do you think the Wicked Witches locked us up in the first place? Don't you think we were once like you, once long ago? Or maybe it wasn't that long," The Scarecrow stopped and pondered for a while, "I can't tell, I don't have a brain." He smiled and raised a saw, "But that will all change soon. Bright little thing, aren't you, I can't wait to stuff that brain of yours into my head, I can't wait to think again." He twisted the saw, playing with the handle, "Do you know what a genius I was before this," he gestured his surroundings angrily, "Do you know who I was before that bitch stuff me here!" He spat.

Dorothy cowered, pressing against herself in a pathetic effort to appear smaller, "Please…I don't mean no harm, ju…just let me go…please." She whimpered

The Tinman laughed, "Of course, you mean no harm to us. Sweet Dorothy, how could she mean harm. After all, she's just a farm girl, nothing more." He raised his axe and swung hard against her leg, she screamed and fell on to the ground sobbing, the blood rushed forward from the place where the axe entered and formed a pool around her leg. Pain, pain again when the Tinman ripped the axe out and stuck again and again and again, hacking her legs to bits, her eyelid felt heavy and she felt lightheaded, she wondered if that's what it felt like to die, she couldn't keep her eyelid open again longer, in the distance she thought she heard Aunt Em and Uncle Henry again, calling for her. She felt one last blow on her chest, she can feel herself slipping away, she heard the saw being sharpened and knew where this was going. I'm sorry Aunt Em, she thought one last time before the darkness took her.

The Scarecrow looks at the brain in his hands, blood drips through his straw hands, "Now I have a mind."

The Lion looked down his paws and saw blood, she licked them off carefully, bit by bit. "Now I have courage."

The Tinman looks down on the throbbing heart in his hands, "Now I have a heart."

And they set off again down the yellow bricked road, after all, they were off to see the Wizard.