OZ

α нυηтεя's нεαят

Reacting quickly, the Scarecrow stopped pulling Dorothy, pushing her instead and jumping into her place. The ax met his face with a sickening thud, embedding itself in his cheekbone and splitting the threads on his mouth. Finally able to speak, the Scarecrow's voice came out raspy with only one word, "Run." Dorothy backpedaled as Scarecrow collapsed and Tinman attempted to pull the ax from Scarecrow's face.

She ran as quickly as possible, looking back long enough to see the ax leave Scarecrows face and the Tinman reach down, thrust his hand through Scarecrow's chest and pull out his heart. He then opened the little iron door on his chest and dropped the heart inside. She kept running and didn't look back.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dorothy ran for hours, tears making tracks in the blood on her face.  First Toto and now Scarecrow! Everyone was dying in this cursed land and now the Tinman, who had cried so much when she had left Oz, was trying to kill her. She couldn't handle anymore death! All of those years wishing to be back and now all she wanted to do was go home.

Soft footsteps sounded behind her and she felt the now familiar sewn fingers of the Scarecrow on her shoulder, stopping her from running. His face now had a gaping wound that was still bleeding, coating the side of his face. Part of the bone had splintered, giving his face a spiked look. His shirt was coated in blood and there was a large hole in his chest where the Tinman had shoved his hand through.

Scarecrow hugged Dorothy as she began to cry even harder. "I thought you were dead!" His voice, still raspy from lack of use, was barely even a whisper-- "I can't die, remember? I'm a Scarecrow. Sure I have skin and bones now, but that's just magic designed to make me feel temporary pain. These wounds, why, they don't even hurt anymore. I don't feel a thing!"  He smiled down at her, the stretched smile gone now that there were no threads sewing his lips shut.

Dorothy smiled back, and wiped her face with the back of her hand. "Can I ask you a question?"

He nodded and she frowned. "Why didn't you get someone to cut your threads? Or why didn't you ask me somehow?" He sighed and the buttons on his eyes dulled for a moment. "I couldn't. Only the Tinman could have cut me free." He looked at his still sewn hands.  "And he never would've done it willingly."

The Scarecrow and Dorothy sat down on the side of the road, a brief moment of calm; the first one since Dorothy had arrived in Oz yesterday. After a long silence Dorothy finally asked, "What's wrong with him? Why is Oz this way and why are you like this?" Scarecrow stretched and stood up, rummaging through his pockets.

"Well, as I told you earlier, the Wicked Witch did this. She never did die like we thought. That explains the way I am and the way Oz looks." He pulled a piece of red thread from his pocket, the same thread that had sewn his mouth shut hours before.  

"As for the Tinman, well the same thing is wrong with him too. Except I wouldn't really call it wrong. We were fixed after the Wizard left in his balloon. A woman came and fixed us."

Dorothy stood, nervous now, as the Scarecrow took a step towards her, the thread held tight in his hands.  "Who? What's wrong with you two?"

He paused, the stretched smile back on his face even though it was not sewn.  "Wrong? Like I said. Nothing's wrong. We were just fixed is all. Now we work for her."

Dorothy's face crinkled in confusion. "Work for who?"

"Why the Wicked Witch of course!" He said with a smile. And with these last words he lunged forward, grabbing her neck and choking her until she passed out.