Nightmare in Arkham
Chapter 31: "Letting Go"
-Ivy's car tore down the road at what a pedestrian would have thought to be the speed of light, leaving behind a powerful breeze in its wake that actually sent whole garbage cans on the side of the road flying as it zoomed past. Alice was sitting frozen in her seat with her eyes glued on the rearview mirror as she watched the dagger filled maw of the fast approaching monster widen and completely fill the mirror.
-"Must go faster, must go faster!" She said anxiously.
-"It won't go any faster!" Ivy shouted, "I've already got it floored!"
-"I told you not to move, to just turn the car off and stay-"
-"Oh Jesus Christ," Ivy exclaimed sounding both scared and annoyed, "That's just a myth, Alice! You really think an apex predator like that would rely explicitly on sight to find prey? This isn't a goddamn movie!"
-Alice's eyes turned back to the mirror and then Ivy's words seemed to spark something in Alice's mind.
-"You're right, this isn't a movie...but it's not reality either," Alice said with a smile.
-She unbuckled her seat belt and turned around to face the T-Rex.
-Ivy saw this out of the corner of her eye and said astonishingly, "What the hell are you doing? Sit back down!"
-Alice ignored her as she tried to clear her mind and focus directly on the enemy fast approaching. However, Alice found this to be much more difficult than when she had done it the first time. This was because, aside from the loud gunning of the motor and Ivy's shouts, Alice also had to overcome the erratic swerves of the vehicle, which would cause her to lose her physical balance and, in turn, her mental balance. Eventually, Ivy gave up trying to reason with Alice and put her attention back on the road while Alice continued to try and gain ahold on her own mind. Then, less than a mile straight ahead, Ivy saw their salvation.
-"Alice?" Ivy said turning to her. Alice's gaze had become hard and narrow and she had a hand reaching out to the T-Rex as if she actually thought this would hold it back. Ivy broke Alice out of whatever delusional trance she had put herself in by reaching up, grabbing a handful of her hair, and yanking her down.
-Alice gave a short, pained yelp as she was pulled down into her seat.
-"Ow! What the hell was that for?!"
-"Buckle up," Ivy said urgently.
-"What?"
-"I have a plan. Put on your seatbelt, it's not gonna be a gently ride."
-Alice saw the seriousness in Ivy's face and did as she was told.
-"Just don't kill us, okay?"
-"I'll try."
-The two women were about 30 feet in front of the dinosaur and less than 20 feet in front of them was the edge of the thickly wooded Robinson Park. Once the car was on the street running parallel to the woods, Ivy made a sharp turn that left skid marks tattooed on the street. In that moment, the T-Rex closed the distance between them and lunged its jaws forward. The car managed to speed out of the T-Rex's strike range but not before its jaws tore off a piece of the car's truck. Up ahead, Ivy could see the trail that cut through the woods.
-"Alright, sit tight!" Ivy exclaimed. Ivy made another sharp turn, though this one was more controlled, and the car swerved off the street and onto the dirt trail. Once the car was a fair distance off the road, Ivy adjusted the rearview mirror and watched with an anticipated smile.
-In less than 10 seconds the rampaging lizard appeared at the opening and sent a howling roar so powerful into the woods that Ivy and Alice actually felt the draft from the monster's breathe from inside their car. However, this would be the last roar it would ever make. When it took its first earth-shattering step onto the hollow ground, the T-Rex's 14,000-pound body smashed a gaping hole in the earth and the raging fire that was still burning in the cavern beneath the park swallowed the monster up.
-"WOOOOO YEAH BABY!" Ivy exclaimed with an overdose of pride. Alice just looked at her with an astonished smile. Ivy turned to her and, still experiencing a joy rush, exclaimed, "I told ya I had a plan! Didn't I tell ya I had a plan?!"
-"Yeah you did! ," Alice exclaimed with equal excitement.
-Alice enthusiastically slapped her five and the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.
-When the laugher died down Alice asked, "How did you know?"
-"Because I used to live in this park," Ivy said with a smile and pride in her voice.
-Alice chuckled and said "Oh Ivy, you're as brilliant as you are green."
-Ivy turned to Alice with her lips curved into a wide smile.
-"Dr. Johnson," Ivy said as she placed a hand on Alice's.
-"Yeah?"
-"From now on, just call me Pamela."
-Alice smiled back at Ivy...then the burning, disfigured head of the Tyrannosaurs erupted from out of the ground in one last effort to seize its prey.
-Pamela slammed on the brakes just as the wrath-filled mouth clamped down on the hood of her car.
-Both women reacted at the same time but it wasn't soon enough. By the time they had un-did their safety belts and made their leap out of the open roof, the car was already halfway submerged. However, before they were both pulled to their deaths, Alice managed to grab onto a thick root dangling from the hole and, with her other hand, she managed to grab onto Pamela's and she held on as tightly as she possibly could. But now their situation had become extremely dire. For now they not only were faced with the threat of literally falling into Hell, but the fire burning within had created a new threat. The underground enclosure had trapped a large quantity of thick black smoke inside the cavern. And now the hole that the two women where clinging to for dear life was now serving as a chimney from which the vast, breath-hindering smog was escaping. If they were not able to pull themselves out soon, then the smoke would either choke the life out of them or cause them to pass out and fall to the flames.
MEANWHILE...
-Bruce and Kristen walked for what seemed like hours through the dark recesses of Bruce's own psyche. Bruce, like so many other people, had always pictured the inside of one's mind to be vast and limitless like space. But it was limited to one long, unending path that stretched on for eternity. However, this path was not without change. In fact, it seemed to change slowly but surely with each passing minute. And with each change Bruce slowly regained a tangible sense in connection to his memories.
First, he began to hear the cries and screams of loss, anger, and fear:
-"NOOOOOOOOO! HARLEY!"
-"Nothing will! Nothing will!"
-"Oh God, what have I done"
-"I loved her more than anything!"
-"I know it hurts. You and I both know- No!"
-"it looks like you're it."
-"No more innocent people have to die!"
Then, he began to notice the ambient formations of the rocks and the shadows cast by them taking on more hauntingly detailed images:
-Four rocks lined side by side looked like a set of sharp fingers
-A Piece of vertical limestone with a jagged curve appeared as a severed spinal cord and rock above it and the shadows on its surface almost resembled the agonized face of a young woman.
-Faces began to appear in the walls, all of which showed languished, petrified expressions of what was unmistakably brought on by a bloody, violent death.
-With each memory that slowly materialized, Bruce began to show behavior similar to one experiencing a bad drug trip or suffering from schizophrenia: he began to breath heavily, jerk his head in all directions, feel uncomfortable in his own skin, murmur incoherently in response to the voices and images appearing before him, and seemed completely trapped within himself.
-"We're here," Kristen said. Bruce snapped out his trance with a startled gasp, feeling like he had just had something exploded right beside him.
-"Where?" He asked.
-"The center of your mind," Kristen responded. At the center of Bruce mind, the long, narrow cave had expanded into a massive cavern. At the four corners of the cavern there were four separate caves in the walls.
-Kristen saw Bruce glancing at these caves and she explained to him, "Those caves each lead to the four lobes of the brain."
-Batman was about to respond but he was cut off mid-sentence when he looked forward. On the wall, facing Bruce, between the two caves, there was a limestone formation that consisted of a multitude of giant stalagmites perturbing from the floor and ceiling. These stalagmites were so long that they closed the gap between them by interlocking between each other like a set of dagger like teeth.
-Bruce didn't know why, but this image troubled him and he turned away. It was then that he noticed something peculiar. Walking out of each of the four caves were four more children (the same two boys and two girls that always accompanied Kristen). Each of them was carrying what appeared to be a chunk of broken glass. The children all walked up to Bruce and stopped right in front of him. They stared at him with a mixture of what appeared to be amazement and urgency. Kristen took her place at the front of the group and then, as Bruce looked on confused, they all changed.
-Each of the children transformed from children into teenagers. But not just any teenagers; they were the very same teens from Alice's home video from Chapter 7 (all except the taller of the two boys). And Kristen was the blonde girl with baggy eyes. And now these same eyes were starring into the chalk white gaze of the Dark Knight.
-Eventually, fear and impatience took a hold of Bruce and he demanded to know who these people were and what they wanted from him.
-Kristen turned to her friends and one by one they stepped forward and introduced themselves.
-"Sheila", "Debbie", "Rick", the last of the teens to speak was the boy who was not included in Alice's video.
-"My name's Dan," said the boy from Alice's office photo, "And we all want the same as you: to end this nightmare once and for all."
-"And right now, you're the strongest weapon we have," Shelia said.
-"How?" Bruce asked, "I don't even know who I am anymore, or even who I'm fighting."
-Rick answered, "Right now, you're fighting yourself. That's what's caused you to lose your balance. And that is exactly how Freddy will be able to kill you."
-"It's how he was able to kill us," Debbie added, "And how he killed Jonathan and Harley and Victor and Selina."
-Bruce looked as if a dart had just struck him in the chest. He couldn't remember any of those people's faces but at this point he knew their names and remembered that they were very close to him, especially Selina, and now they were all gone. Tears started to fall from Bruce's eyes.
-Kristen walked over to Bruce and placed her hands on his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. "But you're different. You're a special case."
-"How?" Bruce asked.
-"Because the identity that you've created, this symbol that you've become, is so powerful that it's separated your mind from the person beneath the mask. That means Freddy won't be able to use your past as a weapon because he only knows your superficial weaknesses, not your deep, internal ones."
-"The problem is," Dan chimed in, "Your superficial weaknesses are tearing you apart right now. But if you can overcome them, Freddy won't be able to lay a finger on you and you'll have all the power in the world to fight him. And that's why we're here: we're going to help you overcome yourself."
-"How are you going to do that?" Bruce asked apprehensively.
-Dan and the others turned their eyes to Kristen. She looked at them, nodded her head, and then took out a large glass shard from her coat pocket. The teens all followed suit and took out their shards as well. Now that Bruce was closer, he could now see that they were not pieces of glass but pieces of a shattered mirror.
-"We're going to piece your mind back together," Kristen explained, "But when that happens you're going to come face to face with the most mentally-enduring challenge of your life. Are you willing to accept that."
-Batman was hesitant for a moment. Then his eyes grew stern and he nodded his head.
-Kristen gave a faint smile and said, "We knew would be."
-The four teens assembled the mirror and it gave off a blinding shine as the cracks where erased. Bruce covered his eyes until the light dispersed.
-When Bruce opened his eyes the five teens had vanished and he was left standing alone in front of the stalagmite formation. But now, looking at the entire display from a fair distance, Bruce saw the formation of what was undeniably a dark, satanic smile from an unseen face. But the image conjured a face in Bruce's mind that nearly tore a horrid scream from his lungs. It was the face of the Joker and when the Clown Prince of Crime's face was made visible to Bruce's eyes he heard the sinister cackle of his archenemy echo throughout the caves of his mind.
-Then the laughter changed. It grew deeper with a more sinister tone meant to induce fear rather than insanity. It was Freddy's laugh.
-The stalagmites parted like the jaws of a hideous beast and a black mist escaped from its maw. The mist took on the form of a demonic shadow with a face that consisted of a pair of red eyes and a mouth as green as the eyes of a cat. The mouth was wide enough to swallow a human, which is just what it did.
-The demonic mist lunged at Bruce and before he could react it devoured him and plunged his world into complete darkness. However, this darkness did not last for very long.
-A raging fire penetrated the black void and danced menacingly before Bruce's eyes. The flame was accompanied by the high-pitched screams of a female voice that Batman knew all too well. When Bruce finally brought his full gaze unto the fire, he saw, trapped within the conflagration like an animal locked up in a cage, the form of Selina Kyle helplessly trying to escape her prison. All the while, Selina howled in agony as she burned alive.
-Bruce managed to run about three frantic feet toward his tortured love before a gigantic Elm tree sprang up out of the ground right beside the fire. Looking up, Bruce could see on one of the branches that hovered directly over the fire, the figure of Poison Ivy. She was hanging by a thick noose made from a thorny briar vive that was tearing into her neck as she slowly began to suffocate. Bruce's already ravaged heart sank as he watched her extend a feeble hand toward him pleading for him to save her.
-As Bruce looked on helplessly, a dark figure wisped past him leaving a chilling breeze in its wake. The figure was a black shadow that began snaking its way up the tree, constricting the axis in phantasmal coils. When the shadow had slithered about half way up the tree it stopped and regarded the petrified Dark Knight. It was then that a Bruce saw that instead of a head, the shadow's upper half was actually a hand with four razor-sharp claws. The claws extended with a metallic shink and then the hellish blades began tearing at the bark of the tree. However, each time the claw tore off a hunk of bark, it left behind a bloody wound in the tree that literally bled crimson blood as though the claws were ripping away human flesh. But that was only half of the result of the claw's sadistic mutilation.
-With each wound made in the tree, the upper portion of a human body would peel out of the wound and hang suspended on the side of the tree like a tiny branch (or a broken bone sticking out of a human body). These human figures were all painted crimson red from the tree's blood but Batman could see clear as day that they were all the people Bruce had failed to save: Jonathan Crane, Harleen Quinzel, even Andrea Beaumont.
-Just when Bruce thought he had reached the limit of the unspeakable terror racing within his soul, the finishing touch was added to this macabre masterpiece. The dark blade extended one of its razor fingers and slashed a hole out of midair. Then Bruce heard loud screaming escaping from the hole; they were both male and female screams and Bruce gasped in cold-blooded fear as he recognized the voices.
-Dick Grayson came plummeting out of the hole followed by Barbara Gordon. As the two teen-heroes began to fall past the tree, the shadow jabbed one of its claws through the trunk of the tree and the edge of the top half of the blade changed from a smooth, broad surface to a serrated, saw-like surface. Dick Grayson was already beneath the blade when this action took place but Barbara wasn't so lucky. She landed sideways on her back right on top of the saw-blade edge with loud "CRACK" as the jagged teeth ripped into her back and snapped her spine like a twig. A set of shackles appeared on Barbara's wrists and ankles and the chains dropped to the ground like a set of vines and caught Dick Grayson in midair by his wrists and ankles, binding him to Barbara. Dick's weight slowly began to pull Barbara's still alive and conscious body downward causing the teeth of the saw to begin to slowly cut through her body.
-"WHAT IS THIS?!" Batman screamed with a fear in his voice that he had not felt in a long time. The voices of the teens answered back but they did not make a physical appearance.
-KRISTEN: "This is every nightmare that you've created for yourself. And this is everything that Freddy will use to destroy you."
-The agonized chorus of screams from the nightmare tree racked Batman's mind with pain.
-"Please! Make it stop! I beg you!"
-DAN: "We can't. Only you have the power to overcome this."
-"I can't!"
-DEBBIE: "Yes you can! This is what you've been fighting all your life."
-"Not like this! How am I supposed to save them?"
-RICK: "By letting go."
-"What?"
-RICK: "You've been using fear as your weapon all your life but you've allowed your own fear to control every choice that you've made."
-SHELIA: "You've always said 'pain never truly fades, but it gets better'. That's not true. ALL wounds heal if you let them."
-"What about their wounds?!" Batman snapped angrily with tears in his eyes while pointing at the tree of torture. "Will their wounds ever heal?"
-DAN: "Yes, they will. We know because they are with us right now."
-Bruce was perplexed. "What are you talking about?"
-DAN: "Freddy's taken all of us. But if he's destroyed, then the damage he's done to us will be mended and we can finally rest in peace."
-This information seemed to have a dramatic effect on Batman and he grew completely silent as he tried to digest the information. Kristen took advantage of this silence and spoke up.
-KRISTEN: "Listen to me, we know you've suffered great losses in your life. We've ALL lost something, something we can never get back. But you still have what was taken from us: you still have life. As long as you're still alive you still have a chance to make a difference. And isn't that what you've strove to accomplish your entire life? You've accomplished so much. In fact, you probably don't even know the full extent of your achievements. Very few people ever take a chance to make a difference in the world. But you've sought out and taken EVERY chance possible. You're more than a man; you're a cause. But you, of all people, should know that causes don't always succeed. In fact, the whole point of a cause is to try, to fight for what you think is right. And that's all you've ever done: you've always tried."
-Kristen's words evoked something in Bruce. He very slowly turned around and faced the nightmare tree. Now, the flames that were incinerating Selina Kyle had spread to the tree and they were now burning the bodies of Bruce's "failures". The saw had finally cut through Barbara's torso and sliced her in half sending Dick Grayson falling to his death. Then the fog retracted its claw from the tree and grabbed a hold of the vine that was still in the process of strangling Ivy. It hoisted the vine in the air and Ivy's neck snapped with a loud pop. However, as Bruce looked on he didn't feel quite so afraid anymore.
-As Kristen's words played in Bruce's head, Rick spoke up.
-RICK: "Sun Tzu once said, 'If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles'. You know your enemies all too well. But do you know yourself?"
-Bruce nodded his head and very sternly said, "Yes."
KRISTEN: "Then PROVE it. Tell us, who are you?"
-The tree had been completely engulfed in the flames by now.
-"I am vengeance…"
-The tree began to fall forward.
-"I am the night…"
-All of the Bruce's fears and failures literally came crashing down on top of him in a roaring blaze. A long moment passed and it seemed as though the flames had consumed the Knight. Then the flames were abruptly and violently departed as the Bruce, now once again in his Batman costume, flung his cape over his shoulders like a bat stretching its wings.
-"I…AM…BATMAN!"
-The shadow claw twitched and writhed in anger at Batman's strength and, in a last ditch effort to consume the Caped Crusader, it raised all four of its bladed fingers and lunged for Batman like a deadly cobra.
-Batman defied the nightmare's attack and when it was about to land its blow Batman struck it with a rage-fueled fist and the nightmare shattered like glass.
-Once Batman had broken through the barrier of his mind, he found himself standing inside of a massive control room. It was dark, silent, and completely devoid of any life. Knowing that none of these were good signs, Batman reached down and grabbed a mirror shard that had been broken into a considerable size to which he could use as a weapon if he needed to. Then he began inspecting the room. It looked abandoned, like no human being had set foot inside of it in decades. The floor was covered in dust and the air was cold and stank of mold, fungus, and decomposition. There was an armchair that sat in the center of the room that was completely covered in darkness and behind it was what Batman had first thought was a broken security monitor. Then, in the far corner of the room, Batman heard a faint scraping sound, like a rusty nail scratching against a piece of metal.
-Batman shot his head in the direction of the noise and took out a flashlight. When he shined the light, he saw what appeared to be very old, very ancient furnace. The door was open, swaying very slowly off to the side. He very cautiously approached the furnace and peered inside.
-The interior walls were pitch-black from years of collected ash and cinder and on the floor lay a great heat of greyish black dust with little chunks of rock and splinters of wood mixed in. But looking closely at the charred remnants in the furnace, Batman noticed something peculiar lying in the heap. At first glance it looked like an ordinary rock, but this rock had a definitive shape and was clinging to a tiny piece of burnt leather.
-Batman picked up the tiny pebble and held it in the palm of his hand as he closely examined it. It took him less than 10 seconds before he realized the horrible truth that this was actually Selina Kyle's cat pendent he was holding. And this realization lead to an even grimmer one: the "rocks" and "splinters" were actually fragments of human bone.
-Suddenly, the furnace door slammed itself shut and Batman found something attacked to the door that wasn't there before. Somehow a note had been attached to the door without Batman's knowledge. The note was inked in blood, signed with a tiny cat paw-print, and had only three words: "CURIOSITY WAS HERE".
-Growling through gritted teeth, Batman clenched the hand that held Selina's pendent into a tight fist and slammed it into the furnace causing it cave in. Then the monitor Batman saw earlier flashed on behind him.
-Batman turned to the monitor and slowly approached it. When Batman got close enough he saw that the monitor Freddy had been using was actually not a monitor but a mirror; a mirror that allowed him to see into the mind's eye of all the people he had singled out. But what sent a cold chill running through Batman's blood was what appeared inside the mirror.
-Lined up and crossed out with an "X" that looked as if it had been carved with a burning knife were profile pictures of all the people Freddy had killed. But one of these profiles stood out from the rest, and when Batman saw it the cold running through hia blood turned to boiling rage. Right above Batman's profile were those of Robin and Batgirl, but Batgirl's profile had only half an X burned across it as if the person keeping score had decided to mark her as "half dead" and that he would inevitably finish her off for good.
-"You bastard!" Batman snarled out loud to himself. He wasn't expecting an answer, but he got one.
-"Hehehehehahahahaha, what can I say? In here, you snooze..." Freddy flicked one of his claws up, "...you lose."
-Batman didn't turn around or even show any indication that he was at all surprised by the sudden presence. He just raised his head and awaited the evil in the room to reveal itself.
-The armchair in the room slowly turned around and Freddy rose his feet, his face gleaming with anticipation as he awaited the first glimpse of the legendary nightmare that had plagued the mind of nearly every one of his recent victims. He was expecting Batman to at least tremble knowing that his end was near but he remained standing with his back turned, ever silent, ever stoic.
-"Hey chief, the show's this w-" Batman spun around, his ghostly eyes stabbing into Freddy like a wooden stake through a vampire's heart. When Batman turned, Freddy felt something that he had never felt in his life. He backed away with a gasp as a cold feeling shot through his body and for the next few moments her stood paralyzed, unable to move, unable to take his eyes of this new adversary.
-Seeing Batman's face from the mirror was one thing, but to actually have this full embodiment of true terror standing right in front of him like a demon shadow with eyes that could stare into Freddy's soul (if he had one) was just chilling. Freddy had never felt more thrilled in his entire life, living or dead, than he was now.
-He let out a laugh so menacingly obscene that is would have stopped the heart of anyone else hearing it, but Batman stood unhindered. In fact, rather than scaring him, the laugh made Batman angrier because this wasn't the Joker's laugh of mindless insanity, this was the laugh of pure, unredeemable, unsympathetic, unspeakable evil.
-"The Dark Knight of Gotham," Freddy said with a horrid smile as he brought his hands in front of him and parted them to his sides. As he did this, he kept all eight of his claws pointed upward fully displaying the torturous weapons he had used to tear Batman's mind apart.
-Then Freddy tipped his hat his to his greatest adversary and said forebodingly, "Welcome to my nightmare, Batman."