Unwanted Allies- Dr. Jonathan Crane Story

Meet The Scarecrow.

Lilah's eyes fluttered opened, the smell of mold filled the air and a cool breeze kissed her neck and face, sending a chill up her spine. From what she could tell, her hands were bound behind her back and she was sitting on a chair; as Lilah's vision focused, her eyes fell onto Dr. Crane who was leaning against the brick wall, the same burlap mask in his hand. Upon seeing her eyes focus on him, he smirked, 

"Let me go..." she tried to cry out, but her words came out as no more then a whisper, "You psychotic bastard..."

"I told you that I'd show you my work." Crane replied, pushing himself off of the wall and walking towards her, "I assumed you would be... intrigued by what I do... apparently not. So, I thought a more private room would suffice for the remainder of our conversation." Lilah laughed lightly,  her neck still stinging from whatever was in the syringe Crane had shoved into it. 

"If you're going to kill me, kill me." She spat bitterly, not caring that it was probably the most cliché thing to say in her current situation. "Just leave my brother out of it."

"My interest is with fear, not murder." Crane replied, "You work for me. It would be stupid of me to kill my own employees and your brother is a bigger nuisance than you are... so his life means nothing to me." He said, causing Lilah to glare at him. 

"So, you're telling me that if I was more annoying, you'd have just left me alone?" she asked, the smile on Crane's broadening, which was an answer in itself. "Well now I just hate myself. So your plan is what? Bondage with a side of scaring me to death?" She retorted, struggling against the bounds with no luck. Crane moved towards her, placing his hands on her knees as he knelt down in front of her, his mask still in his left hand. Just having the mask touching her jeans made her skin crawl. 

"You clearly just don't understand... and I went through all that trouble choosing you." He trailed off. Lilah remained silent, the time for fun and games were over. She was dealing with life and death. Jonathan Crane held her life in his hands, whether he intended to end it or not and making jokes wasn't going to win over any favors when it game to bargaining for her life.

"Then help me understand. You told me you wanted me to understand. So help me." She whispered, attempting to make eye-contact with Crane whose eyes were still locked onto the mask, "What are you afraid of?" She asked. Crane chuckled lightly, his eyes flicking back to her,

"I fear nothing and no one." He answered, every word suggesting he believed what he was saying. 

"How is that possible? Everyone is scared of something." Her brow furrowed as Crane stood, towering over her.

"Not when you're the Master of Fear." He replied, moving behind her and running his hand along her shoulder blades. 

Master of Fear? This dude's definitely a wack job. 

Lilah was still and she could have sworn she felt Crane inhale the scent of her hair before letting his hands fall to the rope that bounded her hands. As he cut her loose, he leaned towards her so that his lips brushed against her ear, keeping her frozen. "Try to run away from me again and I'll make you wish I had killed you." Lilah flinched, which seemed to have pleased Crane as he moved back around to face her with a small, satisfied smile, "Do we have an understanding?"

"Yeah, I understand." Lilah nodded, if his plan was to scare her, he had succeeded. If she had only been able to see the monster beforehand, she would have stayed far, far away from this man. Rising from the chair slowly, Lilah placed her hand on her neck, feeling the puncture wound that Crane had left behind. "Where are we going now?" Lilah asked, her eyes fixated on Crane like he was some sort of wild animal. 

"You'll be staying here for awhile" He said. Stepping forward, Lilah took a hold of Crane's jacket, pulling him around to face her, her face close enough to his that she could smell the cologne he wore.