Happy Halloween Guys! It has officially been two years since I started writing and posting here on this site, or any site, for that matter, and I wanted to celebrate it with a bit of timely fun with Jonathan. It is a short piece, but I think it is effective, and since I've been so swamped, it isn't very long. (Though it gets to the point, and sort of leaves things up to the reader's interpretation and imagination.)

This Jonathan can be any Jonathan you chose, but for this story, I based him more on his comic counterpart than anything else, since he has a full costume and better character development there, in my opinion. Also, for this costume, I'd like to say it is a mix between his Tim Sale costume and a previously drawn costume from a comic of your choice, though in my head it is brown, not black, but the designs as similar, and he has the rod t his shoulders and witch's hat.

Also, seeing as I've had Swine Flu, aka H1N1, I can sort of say that it sucks, takes forever to recover (I took up to three or so weeks, personally, and it was Hell.), and the vaccine may or may not help you in the future. I'm not giving any medical opinions or advice in this story, or any soap boxing, for that matter. Some people get Swine Flu from the vaccination, just like you may or may not get Chicken Pox from getting the booster. Jonathan was just unlucky enough to get it after being given his shot. And his whining is based on my father, who recently got the shot and got sick. (You'd think that he would suck it up and just rest, but instead he's whining and moaning about how awful it is. Trust me, Dad, I've been there, done that, had the chicken noodle soup.)

He could have auditioned for the role as Dr. Jekyll as opposed to sneaking in the side entrance to replace their flimsy scarecrow when no one was looking. He could have done a lot of things, things which hadn't pertained to his alter-ego as much as they seemed to now, but he hadn't. He hadn't because on top of the ridiculous background checks these people were performing on their employees and hired hands, he had also sort of…forgotten it was Halloween this week, and that he had plans.

Well, perhaps forgotten wasn't really the proper word for it, since forgotten implied he had been in his right mind upon not remembering the most important of days in the year.

He, Jonathan Crane, had not been.

He'd been sick.

With what he thought was the Swine Flu.

God damn Arkham sadists… They'd given him the shot against his will, which wasn't really a huge surprise, since that was how they administered all of their drugs to their patients, but that they'd given such a shot to him on top of all the other medications he was receiving, which made it hard for his immune system to keep up. On a normal day he probably would have been able to fight off the vaccination shot, but not after being worked over by the Batman, and most definitely not after being given such poor drugs as those that were given in Arkham.

So he'd spent a good three weeks or so fighting off the dreadful flu bug, only to wake up one crisp fall day to realize that Halloween, His Holiday, was only a mere two days away. This, along with the fact that he still didn't quite feel all the way up to snuff, was enough to force his hand, so to speak, with his plans concerning this year's festivities.

And so here he was, tucked away in this little nook room at one part in the annual Gotham Halloween Maze, his Scarecrow costume blending perfectly with the fake field and other farm props that one of the geniuses of Gotham City had decided to decorate their section with. This room, no bigger than any of the others in the maze, was completely closed in, and covered at the top. Perfect, in his opinion, since when he got to do his part, the screaming wouldn't be questioned, and no one would see the clouds of noxious toxin clinging to the fall air. Oh yes, this maze just kept getting better every year, and he had it under good authority that each patron had to sign a waiver before entering the maze itself, just in case they got "hurt" while on the run.

This wasn't what it was for.

Jonathan knew better than to think that the waiver was just for those few clumsy people. It was, in fact, for the okay for the other haunters within this long and winding maze, to touch and be touched, by the patrons walking along the dimly lit rows and walk ways. They had given their permission to touch and be touched, by anyone or anything within the maze. Not that he was complaining, or anything, since this really gave him an easier way to pull of his version of Trick 'r' Treating, but it was a bit…stupid. Naïve, even, but none the less, stupid beyond all shadow of a doubt.

Which, if Gothamites were anything, they were, above all else, most definitely, imbeciles.

This of course, also added to the Fear that would reach through the night to take hold of unsuspecting victims' souls and lead them into trepidation and damnation. It would effectively seal the deal, so to speak, and give him a running home stretch, whether the Bat and his spawn were out looking for him or not. The covered top of the maze would hide them all from view, the other screaming patrons would lend no notice to other screaming guests, and no one knew that the Scarecrow within division nine of the maze wasn't as stuffed as the one they'd put in their this morning had been.

Oh yes, regardless of how the week, or even this month, had started out, Jonathan Crane was positively sure that it was going to end with a bang…and most definitely a chorus of well planned screams.

Fear, oh how doth thee caress my face.