“Alright boys, word is that Two-Face was captured earlier today!” The Joker's voice comes over the intercom, full of static. “I want him here. NOW!! We'll see if we can't fix him to make both sides match....HAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” He laughs a lot. You get used to it. Me and the rest of the boys set out. We figured he'd be near one of the processing centers if he hadn't been released yet. We take the long way around, so we don't have to go near that sunken chunk of the city. It's dark out, the only illumination is from the bright moon, and far off in the distance, the Bat's sign in the sky. At least he'll be too busy to come nosing around in here...The snowflakes seem to catch the moonlight, adding a little more white to this city of grey and black. I look up, letting the flakes hit my face, allowing the cold to settle in my bones, make its home...then nothing.
What...where...where am I? Did I escape? I did! I'm back in my bed, I'm 9 years old. I feel my face...smooth, no stubble, no scars...it's over. I got outta Arkham. I run downstairs, my mother is in the kitchen, the morning sun giving her golden hair a shine that accentuates her youthful beauty. She turns around, holding a frying pan of scrambled eggs (my favorite). But...something's not right. I scan my mother, looking for the imperfection. Her hair is there, her lips, her favorite earrings, her floral dress, but...oh God...her eyes are gone. My heart starts racing. She opens her mouth, to reassure me that everything is okay, but her words turn to maggots as she speaks and they spill all over the spotless kitchen tile. The scrambled eggs turn into bubbling gore in the frying pan, and the roaches...they start crawling everywhere, like they'd been there the whole time, watching and waiting. I feel them on my skin...oh God....they're inside me...I can feel them crawling around my insides...I try to scream, as bile makes its way up my throat. All of the sudden, I'm awake. Or is this just another dream? I'm sitting in darkness, slowly rocking...am I on a boat? I look around to see cases of roaches...but they're trapped behind glass...I'm safe, I'm safe. Yellow eyes float in front of me, my vision getting blurry again...am I still dreaming? A laugh...Joker? Is this all just a gag? No, this laugh is different. This laugh doesn't tell me that there is something funny going on. This laugh tells me I'm trapped, that I will die here, that all hope is gone.
The sinister laugh that is getting louder and louder, its sound piercing my brain like a thousand daggers. The eyes get closer, I feel sharp points enter my arm, and I am getting colder and colder, my sweat turning to ice on my skin. The yellow eyes, the center of a burlap face, stuck in a stringy and mocking smile...my heart pounds my chest like a sledge hammer. I never thought I'd come face to face with the Scarecrow. His laugh encompasses me, and I feel the darkness inside me rising. The stale stench coming off of his burlap skin and his ragged noose is almost too much to bear. I wonder if I am dying. I always thought it would be peaceful. But this is pure horror. My saliva is thick, turning to glue. I can barely swallow. My eyes are begging to be closed, but if I do, I fear I will never open them again. My heart is hitting my chest so hard it hurts. The darkness fills my open eyes, and I fall into the abyss, lost forever. Lifetimes pass, generations come and go, but a black hand yanks me out of my eternal slumber. My eyes open, as if they haven't been used in a hundred years, my bones creaky from their rest. For a brief moment, I've escaped the darkness. But then I see him. The fluorescent flickers give him an otherworldly outline, his ears like demon horns. Has he come to take me back to the abyss? The blackness pours from him, the darkness, the fear. He is a monster, carved out of the night sky itself, an eternal gargoyle. He watches me squirm, my throat tightens...the darkness has found me. It grips my throat, I manage a choked scream, and I plunge into the darkness for the last time.
congrats to all the runners up too; all the winners stories were great XD
