In|sane and in love / Scarecrow Fanfiction

Fresh flesh

Jonathan Crane, the head of Arkham Asylum, was sitting on his desk in his minimalistic garish white office, down in the basement of his asylum. Watching the news on the small old TV next to his notes, Jonathan wrote down various reasons for the deaths of his patients. "Death from cardiac arrest... death by ingestion... hmm..." Jonathan sighed from boredom and disappointment. Why is every human so weak? Not a single person had survived the latest invention of his. "Morons, I should show them how it's done". Dong... Dong... the bell rang. It was half past midnight. "Now or never." he mumbled and jumped of his seat.

Walking straight to the bridge in the black suit he wears almost every day, Jonathan's loud piercing steps were drowned out by the noise of the midnight traffic in Gotham City. "There you are" he said into the darkness, looking at the helpless homeless lying under the bridge with no way out of their misery. Walking closer and closer towards the freezing wet and dirty people, Jonathan counted them as usual. "One, two, still this old hag, three, four and..." he hesitated. "Five." A newcomer. A girl around his age was sitting on a wet torn blanket. Her hazelnut brown hair was spread in all directions, partly matted and full of dirt. Using her bare hands, she fished moldy chunks of tomato out of a bulging can and hastily devoured her food. Jonathan walked closer to them. "If it isn't you, who else pays us beautiful people a visit?" The old hag cried with a rough voice caused by too many cigarettes, sitting on a stone as big as her to supervise the group out of a corner. Wrapped up in a musty blanket she took out her arm and pointed a finger on him. Her bones were all visible, giving her the look of a skeleton. Jonathan ignored the hag's usual screaming and continued going to the last person of this group, his new pray. The other three old men didn't seem to care about his appearance and were chatting as he was not even here.

"Hello." Jonathan said politely and crouched down to the girl. She gave him a quick look but didn't stop eating her tomatoes like a wild animal. "My name is Mr. Crane. What is yours?" He asked carefully while trying to make eye contact. "You have only been for a short while under this bridge, haven't you?" "This rogue sneaked to us two days ago and won't go away!" The hag intervened loudly and stumbled towards them. Jonathan looked at her and raised his eyebrows. She replied with a nod. She will be mine. "You, girl, you should go with Mr. Crane." She cried. "I can help you." He continued. "There is no other way people can become a someone in this city, in this society. Especially young girls like you. Don't throw your life away and come with me." He said calmly but also with the tone of an order. The girl stopped eating and glanced at Mr. Crane with anxious big eyes. Her mouth was closed in shock and she made no appearance to give him an answer. "Go with him, go with him!" The hag teased her. "Go or I'll burn your dear shitty clothes!" She cried and held her lighter right in front of the girl's paranoid face. "Shut it, heartless idiot!" Jonathan yelled and pushed the skinny woman away from them. You already did your part!

"Why... why would you want to help me?" The girl now whispered fearfully. He crouched a little closer to her, put his left hand on her shoulder and almost touched her nose with his. "You need to get out of here." Jonathan replied quietly. "You should live a life." She looked into his crystal light blue eyes and felt the warmth of his breath. "What is your name?" He asked her again softly. "Ann." The girl replied and didn't move a tiny bit. Silence was amongst them and they could only hear the old men chatting on the other side of the bridge and the old hag mumbling on her stone about life. Ann interrupted the silence between them. "You don't know what I've done." The traffic lit up the scenery and Jonathan saw clearly how her eyes turned red, small tears sliding down her cheeks. "Everyone deserves help." He whispered and whipped her tears away. "Now let's stand up and bring you to a safe warm place." Ann let him help her to stand up and together they went back to his asylum, Jonathan holding her arm to support her steps. Walking past the others, the men started laughing in secret and the hag posed like a winner when they were out of sight.

This was not the first time Jonathan walked to this bridge. And it wasn't the last time for sure.