Howdy-hey my loyal readers. So yeah...year and a half, huh? Time rolls by so fast I hardly take note of it. I finally graduated from high school and started taking up a job, which is pretty much where most of my free time has gone along with some...personal family problems. But all excuses aside and such I will let you all know right now I am NOT going to give up this story. However long of a gap it may be between updates I am never going to let this story go. I plan on finishing it, and I plan on doing Arkham City AND Arkham Origins, and I may have an idea for after that as well But enough about my personal life, you're probably all waiting for the chapter. Well here you are, finally. Please enjoy and don't forget to leave your reviews, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Which by the way, I CANNOT believe I hit 59, that's like...wow. You guys are really great though, so thanks for all your patience. And now without further adue...
Chapter 12: And at the End of Fear
For the moment, nothing seemed real, and for the most part it wasn't. But the atmosphere, the sounds, the smells. It messed with my exhausted mind. That's what the gas did, it twisted your fears into what you believed for the time to be a reality. I scanned the area to notice the scene was a crumbling Arkham, the lights were little to nothing and flickered at random moments which added onto the unpleasant vibe the area was giving off. The air was heavy and damp yet cold and bitter. The walls around me, or what little there were, seemed to be enclosing me in, trapping me like a prison. I ran a trembling hand through my damp and knotted hair as I decided the best thing to do was move forward. Each step echoed against the walls along with each shaky breath that I took, I watched it appear in front of me in a wisp before evaporating into the air. That made me realize how cold it was actually was, colder than the normal Arkham, if you even wanted to call Arkham "normal". The air bit harshly at my exposed skin, causing goose bumps to paint up and down my arms, a shiver ran through my body as I bit my lip, wondering what exactly would happen with the gas taking over my thoughts. I tried not to dwell on it, it wouldn't be in my favor if I had decided to panic, I needed to remain calm, it was the only thing that could help me at the moment.
"Amber!" I flinched harshly at the piercing sound splitting through the stale air, I quickly attempted to regain my footing and turned around in the general direction of the scream. My dilated eyes scanned the area in front of me hastily, yet all I saw ahead of me was a hallway that was engulfed in darkness. I attempted to swallow the dryness in my throat while also seeking to decrease the speed of my pounding heart just behind my chest. The scream was to that of a woman's, very shrill and it stung at my ears, it was difficult at the moment for me to figure out if I recognized the voice or not. Part of me assumed I possibly did, if the voice knew my name.
"Amber!" I took no time to hesitate at the second scream, my feet took off in a sprint as I bolted down the hall with all the energy I didn't have. At the moment it didn't matter if I knew the owner to the voice or not, all I knew was that someone was screaming in pain or trouble, and they were screaming for me. As I attempted to keep my pace up without tripping over my own feet I squinted through the darkness attempting to get some kind of vision, but I was blind, it was pitch black. My pace finally slowed down when I realized I couldn't aid the voice if I couldn't see them, I gazed over my shoulder briefly to see the darkness had taken over where I had just stood. It was silent again, excluding my ragged breaths, I attempted to steady them as my walk halted completely.
"Amber..." A whisper drifted through the air, I tensed and looked forward as my heart stopped for a moment as well as the sounds around me, it sounded right in front of me. My body jolted a bit and I jogged in front of me to reach the voice, but I collided with something that blocked my path, I grunted lightly at the impact and suddenly felt a tight grip grasp my wrists.
"Always the little hero, Ambsy! Coming when someone calls!" A sharp laugh pierced my ears and I immediately attempted to pull away as I pieced together what I had run into.
"Let go! Let go!" Was all I could shout at the top of my lungs repeatedly, I felt tears stinging at the corner of my eyes as the Joker let out another high pitched cackle, it would have been more comforting if I could see something, anything. But I couldn't. I felt the grip around my wrists release yet before I could even sigh in relief I felt the floor under me disappear and I was falling, I screamed as I tumbled and turned through the abyss, my mind was burning, my lungs collapsing. I don't remember landing or crashing, I opened my eyes to find myself on the floor, the tears were streaming down my face freely as I made no attempt to stop them. I pushed myself off the floor rather quickly and stood shakily on my feet, I surveyed the area to find myself back in a lit part of the asylum. I swallowed and wet my dried and cracked lips, I began to walk forward and clenched and unclenched my fists. I knew none of it was real, it was all Scarecrow's gas, but that unfornuately didn't mean I knew how to stop it. I furiously wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand, the gas was causing me to overact, it had to be. I knew my exhaustion didn't help, I also knew I had probably passed my mental capacity and was working on a dangerous strain.
"Run little girl..." Scarecrow's voice echoed around me, I didn't stop, not this time.
"You're in my world now." He continued, I kept looking around to make sure nothing would jump out at me, this world was made to frighten me at any possible opportunity. I rubbed my wrists gently at this, I didn't want to admit that the interaction with Joker scared me, that's the last thing I was going to admit. I was shaken out of my thoughts as the whole asylum began to shake and bits of the roof began to crumble, I tripped over my feet and would have tumbled and crashed into the ground if I hadn't used to the wall to catch my fall and support myself.
"Shit, now what?" I hissed as I pushed myself away from the wall and took off in a run down the hall, I needed to find a door and hope I wasn't in an endless hallway. I skid to a stop when the ceiling in front of me collapsed completely and blocked the path in front of me, I swore and turned around but didn't get far as the ceiling behind me collapsed as well. I looked up and quickly crouched and covered my head as the ceiling above me crumbled and crashed down on me. I wasn't hit with anything, this caused me to open my eyes and slowly stand up straight, I squinted a bit at the wind that hit my face. It didn't take me long to notice that the scene around me had changed, there was hardly anything left of the asylum, yet what was around me didn't look anything like outside. It was difficult to explain what exactly it could have been or where I even was. I began walking, not a clue as to where I was going, but I knew going forward was better than nothing. The rubble from the asylum crunched under my feet, I looked down at it for a moment before I looked back up and around. It felt like it could have been outside, but I didn't bother trying to guess anymore, it was just some distorted world that Scarecrow had created for me. This made me question as to where Scarecrow was and if he'd physically show up through this episode I was having, before I could continue the thought the ground under my shook me again. I stopped walking and attempted to steady myself, rather suddenly a giant figure of Scarecrow rose up, my eyes increased in shock more than fear and I quickly pressed myself against the wall desperately so I wouldn't be seen. I swallowed again and didn't dare to come away from the wall, I took in a deep breath and inched towards to edge of the broken wall, I would be stuck in the same spot if I was too cowardly to move now. With a shaking body my gaze reached just around the wall and I took in the massive size of Scarecrow in the middle of this illusion of a world.
I could see every rip and tear in his clothing and the fabric of his mask, his ribs were visible under his skin of his boney figure and the needles attached to his gloves made a wave of nausea consume my body for the quickest of moments. My gaze locked with his for the quickest of seconds and I noticed his gaze was glowing and by the looks of it he was searching for something, searching for me. I came away from staring and pressed my sweating back against the wall once more, I blinked my stinging eyes and tried to make sure my harsh pants emitting from my lips wouldn't give away my location to him. Part of me wasn't sure why Scarecrow had appeared at such a massive size, though it was quite intimidating, it just made me question. Scarecrow was surprisingly never one of the villains that frightened me as a kid. I paused for a moment at that thought before it continued, that's when I was forced to remind my exhausted self that things were drastically different now then from when I was kid. I had to be cautious of everything, because now I wouldn't be able to tell which could actually take my life. The other part of my brain began to process that it was possible he was much bigger because I was always afraid of being physically outnumbered. His size was supposed to intimidate me, not scare me.
I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand and tried to take in my surroundings a bit more, this is when I caught onto all the little things the gas was making my mind reproduce. Everything my eyes saw in the asylum, everything I absorbed already was here, certain equipment I had seen were displayed and the all around atmosphere I had been experiencing was still present. I shook my head to remind myself what I was doing and where I was and bit my bottom lip while taking in a deep breath as an attempt to console my beating heart, my clammy fists clenched as I turned to look back around at the fear demon. As soon as I saw his back turn to me I sprinted off from my hiding spot and jumped over a gap, I tumbled and rolled along the ground and quickly managed to get back onto my feet, my shoes sliding along the dirt. I hid behind another wall and pressed my back against the bricks while counting out the seconds in my head of how long it would be before he turned past my location, once I hit 15 I took off again and slide myself into a sitting position behind a small patch of wall that remained from the crumbling asylum. A cold cackle from Scarecrow caused me to flinch against the wall and echo through my brain, I clenched my eyes shut as the cackle changed and slowly transformed into Joker's, my eyes snapped open at the sound of it and I found myself forgetting my fear and peeking around the corner to see if anything had changed. Nothing had. I relaxed my breathing and retracted my head back behind the wall, I swallowed the dry lump in my throat and pushed my exhausted body to stand up, then dusted the dirt from my hands onto my pants. I took a slow step towards the edge of the wall and peeked ahead of me, that's when my eyes locked on with something and my frantic heart almost skipped a beat of what I thought was joy. At the end of a cliff like structure was the Bat signal shining brightly, the gears in my heads clicked furiously as to why it was there. It must have been a symbol of escape from this weird hell, did my mind come up with that or was it a part of the game? I wasn't sure exactly how it would help me at all at the moment, but what I knew was that I had to get to it. Having a goal and some form of direction in all of this clutter was the slightest relief and I felt this wave of energy hit me, I stood up straight and felt the lightest of smiles playing on my lips, feeling a boost of confidence and possible cockiness I hurried out from my spot, completely disregarding to count for the seconds.
"There you are, little girl!" My feet slid across the ground and I almost tripped completely at his voice, whatever trace there was of a smile or any confidence was obliterated as I turned up to look at Scarecrow who had obviously spotted me, I hissed a swear word and saw him lift a hand. My heart stopped a moment as I saw it come down on me but luckily my feet moved without my brain's consent and I rolled out of the way, one of his needles had hit a nearby wall causing bits of it to crumble off and make me yelp at the explosion of a noise. He raised his hand again and my brain finally decided to work along with my feet as I pushed off the ground and didn't give my footing enough time to comprehend they were taking off in a run, his hand clamped down on the spot behind me as soon as I had moved from it and I ran as fast as my legs would take me down the stretch I had to the bat signal. I looked over my shoulder as I ran to see if I could locate where his hand would strike next, when I didn't see anything for the quick second I looked back in front of me just in time to see it crashing down in front of my path, I tripped but didn't stop. By eyebrows furrowed and I picked up my pace, just as I was about to hit his hand I jumped and hurled myself over his hand, my foot hit the last needle attached to the glove and I felt his hand start to lift up, I yelped as I was partially thrown through the air, luckily it wasn't high enough to lose my footing completely when I landed and I stumbled forward right into the bat signal. I gripped onto the cool metal so I wouldn't fall and looked over it for answers of what to do next. Without much warning, Scarecrow appeared in front of the cliff structure and I looked up at him while taking a defensive step back.
"Give into the madness, child." My whole world stopped for a moment as I comprehended his words, my eye twitched and my body shook ever so lightly, but it wasn't in fear. No.
I was pissed.
Everything came crashing down on me all at once in a wave, drowning my senses and my thoughts hotly. Every little thing that made me afraid through this whole experience flicked and ignited into anger, pure anger, a fire burning throughout my body. Piled along with the anger from my time at Arkham was all the anger from my past, as a child, as a teen, it was all rushing towards me and I felt as if my body would collapse right then and there from the strength and weight of it all. I felt my blood boiling and my nerves tingling dramatically, my teeth clenched harshly as I noticed myself moving over to the bat signal. I gripped onto the symbol I recognize since I was a child for a brief moment before looking at Scarecrow.
"I...am not...a child!" I growled as I pushed forward the bat signal towards his direction, it fell into place and the shine from it hit directly with Scarecrow, he suddenly cried out in pain and panic as he attempted to block it with his hands, he tumbled back and fell back into the abyss as the white light from the signal expanded, covering the whole area. My whole vision went white and I closed my eyes, letting the floating tingling sensation overcome me as I heard Scarecrow's high pitched shrieking echo in my ears.
Well I hope you all enjoyed. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it was gonna be but if I waited to try and fix it to perfection you guys would never be able to read it. Hopefully I can hop back on track with this and bust out chapters in less than a year...if my inspiration returns to me I'll hopefully be able to go faster. I hope you all enjoyed this though and I will see you all in the next chapter.