AN: Yes. Continuing THAT storyline. Why me?
Voodoo-Mutant-Child-I'd like to think that she'd kill me quickly. I would, I promise. That was not at all reassuring. Sorry. Oh, so you would kill me? Why, do I have reason to? No. Then why are you asking? Um...actually...never mind.
SwordStitcher-Worse? I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt... You have horrible music taste. SO SEXY, IT HUUUURTS! God, why?
Just-Me-and-My-Brain-You want to know what's happening? Next chapter, I will perish horribly. THERE. Suspense over. I'm too sexy for my hat...perish? Yes. I don't remember that. You weren't there. Oh.
Jasmine Scarthing-I missed everything. Be grateful. I will not. Really? Really. Fine. Next time I-HEY! Spoilers! Traitor. What do you mean? Going over to...HER side. Oh, stop being a baby. It's only one more chapter. Thank god.
He lets his breath out in a long, slow whoosh before he opens his eyes. They've been lying on the couch for the past hour or so. He doesn't want to go to bed.
"I wish you'd tell me what's wrong, love."
"Nothing's wrong."
"You're a terrible liar."
He shrugs and closes his eyes again. Maybe he is a terrible liar. That doesn't mean he's going to tell her the truth.
"It's nothing. Just a bout of insomnia."
"A bout of sleep paralysis, more like."
"Mm."
He can hear her walking up there, up and down, up and down, just waiting for him to come within grabbing range. He can hear fluttering up there, too, and sometimes he can hear her voice calling his name.
He misses Scarecrow, as strange as that sounds. Scarecrow would protect him. But Scarecrow has been gone ever since this all started.
"Maybe you should take something to help you sleep."
NO. No, he is not taking anything that will make it easier for her to get him.
"I'm fine."
She sighs and ruffles his hair before getting up. Where is she going? Why is she getting up?
"Kitty?"
"I'm just going to get in pyjamas, okay? Relax."
How can she not hear the noises upstairs? He knows she's up there, just waiting…watching…
But she won't believe him. He can do nothing but watch her go and hope she comes back down.
He shivers and gets up to get a cup of tea. He won't be going upstairs tonight, he decides. He'll tell Kitty he has to work or…something. Anything to avoid going up there. Not that it really matters…
The kettle's just going off when the noises stop. That is either very good or very bad.
"Kitty?" he calls. She doesn't answer. "Kitty, are you all right?"
The silence is starting to get to him. Why won't she answer?
"Kitty!"
"Yes, what is it?"
He jumps and spins around, one hand pressed to his chest. She's standing behind him, giving him a very strange look indeed. He slumps back against the counter.
"Jonathan?"
He opens his mouth, intending to reassure her that nothing's wrong. He'll just say he heard a noise and thought she'd walked into the doorknob again. What actually comes out is, "I think I'm going crazy."
She doesn't say anything. She just looks at him and he can see her running through her mental checklist-fever, injuries, lab accident-and coming up blank.
"What's going on, love?"
He can't get out of it now, no matter how much he'd like to.
"Either I'm going crazy or she isn't dead."
"Your grandmother?"
Right on cue, the wind picks up outside. When did his life turn into a gothic novel?
"Yes."
"Jonathan…"
"I mean it. I told you she'd never let me leave, and now…"
"Shh." He reaches for his mug and wraps his icy fingers around it. "She's dead, I promise. You checked, remember?"
Vaguely. He remembers finding a skull, but who's to say it was her skull? And what does it matter? He knows what he's been seeing at night, in the shadows…
"But…"
"Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"The couch." Good. "You're going to tell me everything that's going on." Not good.
"Kitty…"
"It's for your own good."
Maybe. But he doesn't think so.
"Sounds to me like you're having a bout of sleep paralysis."
He shakes his head and burrows further under the blanket. Sleep paralysis is a nighttime thing, and this is happening all the time. Besides, he's had sleep paralysis before. It was nothing like this.
"I mean it. It just isn't possible for her to be here." Since when did Granny ever care about possibility? "You're overtired, that's all."
He shrugs. It doesn't matter now. He's comfortable right here, and here he will stay until morning.
"Come on, love. Up you get."
What? No! He's comfortable! Doesn't she want him to sleep? Earlier she was telling him to take something, for heaven's sake!
"No."
"Yes. You'll get a crick and so will I."
Humph. He'll just go down to the lab, then…hey! Where is she taking him?
"Kitty?"
"Come on. Bedtime."
No. No, no, no. He's not going up there, no matter what she says.
"Kitty, please…"
She sighs and turns to look at him. Something's not right about her eyes.
"Come on, Jonathan."
"No."
Her grip on his wrist tightens and he tries to pull back. Her nails were never this long before…
"I said come on!"
"Granny, please…"
She was always strong for a crippled old woman. Death hasn't changed her much.
"I didn't…"
"I could have left you outside to die, and I didn't! And this is the thanks I get?" One wizened old hand gestures towards her bloody eye sockets.
"I'm sorry, I didn't…please…"
She shoves him into the room and slams the door.
"You can rot here, for all I care. Like me."
He can hear her cackling outside, but that's far less interesting than what his room has become.
It's a rotting, circular room with a dirt floor and a heavy wooden cross where the window was. And sitting in the rafters are his old friends, the crows.
He just has time to curl into a ball before they come spiraling down on him.
THE END