This is the part where I look away. The part where Joker carves into my skin while Scarecrow gets a mask ready behind him.
It amazes me how much pain I can take before falling unconscious. What also amazes me is that pain doesn't keep me asleep but wakes me up seconds later to witness it all over again.
I don't know what was happening but I know pain and how it felt. Joker had blindfolded me and after he cut my arms up I sorta stopped feeling things after that. I felt pain but I couldn't figure out what part I was feeling.
I think at one point barbwire was involved and maybe a bat against my bones but I don't know. I came in and out so many times that Joker soon got bored.
He did say at one point. "To be honest with you, I don't care about the money or what you have, I just wanted to beat somebody up and then there you were! A beacon of innocence! So naive to pain."
Scarecrow's gas was everywhere so getting beaten up by Joker after he took the blindfold off was horrendous. Things crawled out of his smile and into me. The world flashed and memories got disorderly. I was just screaming as my mind scared itself.
One time when I blacked out and woke up again, the Scarecrow gas still looming I was alone with the cold terrifying world. Shivers and sweat, pain and creatures that shouldn't exist swarmed me. I got up and made my way to the door.
It was dark and fear was so heavy in my mind that I couldn't concentrate. I stumbled out of wherever I was and walked.
"Hey!" I turned and saw a man before it turned into a creature.
My heart almost died as I gasp ans stumble away. It's fangs turned into a creature similar to Batman but a mixture of Joker and something evil.
It started to prowl towards me.
I ran and slipped. I fell and it almost ate me. I was up and running again. Rain poured and teh dark sky screamed at me.
Thunder struck and lightning came out like a demon.
Everything was caving in on me.
Hold it together. I'm just hallucinating. I run into an alley and force myself to breath. It's a hallucination! I blink and for a second the creature is gone and it's gone before it changes and it's claws reach for me.
"Liam?" A voice asks.
I gasp and spin around to see a demon with a red head.
"Get back!" I scream as I stumble backwards but the jaws of the monster behind me snap at my skin.
The demon roared at me and I heard my name before the demon pounced on me and stabbed me with something.
I couldn't move before suddenly the world cleared. The monster was gone. I stumble forward and the walls and sky are normal.
My chest pounded as it heaved up and down.
"Liam, what happened?" It was familiar.
I turn and see Red Hood. He reaches up and pulls his helmet off to reveal his face only covered by a simple eye mask.
"Jason?" I ask under my breath.
His face is staring at me in horror and question, and confusion.
I stumble towards him, relief getting mixed up with the leftover fear and pain I had.
I trip over something and throw my arms around him in a hug. I bury my face in his stomach and a sob escapes my throat. I didn't even know I had started to cry but I was now. I was crying so hard my lungs couldn't keep up.
My eyes were squeezed tight before Jason wrapped his arms around me and leaned down.
I can't believe he even recognized me. Bat Woman didn't and I saw her right before I left for school.
I can't believe he would care enough to hug me.
I can't believe he was even here.
"What happened?" He whispered into my matted wet hair.
I would have answered him. I would have liked to unpack all of this weight on my shoulders and feel light for one second of my miserable life but my tongue was heavy in my mouth and all that came out was sobs.
He didn't push it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stood in the shower, warm water slapping my face. I couldn't move much after my adrenaline crash. Pain would have taken me out if Jason hadn't forced me to take a heavy pain killer that made me even more tired. He told me to shower and then he'd fix my injuries.
There was a knock on the shower door.
"You okay? You didn't pass out in the shower right?" Jason asked.
I open my eyes and turn off the faucet.
He took that as a sign I was alive and said. "I put clothes on the counter. Probably took big for you but we'll have to make do.
I climb out of the shower and grab a towel. My arms were still letting out a little bit of blood after Jason had stitched them up. I was stitched up everywhere it felt like. My bullet wound was miraculously clean, my burn on the side would heal after apply salve everyday, ribs heal, broken finger heals, and cut up arms and beaten with a bat heals.
I find the clothes he's left me and pull on the sweatpants and shirt. I cant dry my hair off. Now that the painkillers were slowly wearing off I could actually feel my arms ready to kill me if I move them too much.
My hair was soaking wet and dripping. I open the bathroom door and Jason was sitting on a chair getting medical tape ready. He looked over at me and I swallow my embarrassment.
"I can't dry my hair" I say quietly.
Jason smirked. "Not the worst thing in the world. Come here." He said.
A shiver ran through my body as I walked over and he grabbed a towel. I sat down across from him and he used the towel to roughly dry my hair. When he pulled the towel off my head he almost laughed.
"What?" I ask.
He shrugged and smiled "You just look like how you did the first day Bruce brought you home."
I bite the inside of my cheek and look away. "Right" I mutter.
He frowned and reached for my arm.
I flinch but he stops and frowns at me. "I'm just wrapping it up. Having it open like this is dangerous and weird to look at."
I nod at him as he starts to wrap my arms up individually. Jason than wraps up my entire stomach and there's an awkward silence.
After I told him what happened and how this whole thing went down he got quiet and angry before ordering me to take a shower. Ever since than it's been quiet.
A shiver went through my body again and I tried so desperately to make it stop but Jason noticed.
"You're sick." He states.
I fight a cough that was rising rather than an answer. "Well, I was in the rain during winter for a day and slept on concrete after getting electrocuted, also in winter." I say. "So it's possible."
He smirked at me as I fought the urge to shiver again. "Kid, you don't have to hide the shivering from me. You were out for two days during a brutal winter version of Hide N Seek without any sleep. Being sick is a side effect of that. Now, is it chills?"
I nod and he gets up then returns with a hoodie and helps get it on me. He tossed a blanket on me and got up.
"Well I'm starving. You?" He asks as he pulls out a pot.
"Yes please" I say before sneezing.
I was glad he brought me to his safe house but it made me wonder how far away the manor is seeing as I often blacked out during the motorcycle ride on the way here.
"So, where did you stash the Serum thingy?" Jason asked as he started to cook.
"Crime Alley" I say. Jason gave me a questioning look and I frowned. "Batman visits it a lot so I guessed that if I died before finding him he would at least find it before Talia."
I sneeze and Jason nodded like it was a good idea.
I knew it was because Batman's parents died in that alley so he naturally visits it whenever he gets nostalgia.
Jason changed the subject to something else I didn't like.
"Enlighten me. Why did you want to go to a boarding school?" He asks.
I blink at him in confusion. "Want? Ha, how did that game of telephone take a turn like that?"
"So you didn't want to?" Jason asked.
"No!" I basically spat the word out, angry that that was even a suggestion but I force myself to calm down. I frown at the memory. "I messed up during patrol. Someone died while I was on watch and Batman didn't like that."
Jason paused then snapped his head around to stare at me in horror. "He sent you away because you couldn't save someone?!" He yelled.
I don't like thinking about it and look away. "Yeah" I say with a quavery voice. "Three days later he sent me to the boarding school."
Jason cursed under his breath and went back to stirring whatever he was making with fury.
"He already had you walking on eggshells and cracked just one and he freaks out!" Jason muttered under his breath. He seemed to be doing math in his head and didn't like the answer. "You were fourteen when that happened! How does he expect you to save everyone!"
My head started to throb and my stomach turned. I haven't given it anything these past few days. I was starving!
A few minutes later Jason handed me a bowl and I looked in it to see creamy potato soup.
"Thanks" I say before starting to eat. The first bite was heavenly and thick but the second bite was better.
Jason plopped down on the couch next to me and started to eat out of his bowl.
"You want me to call Batman tomorrow or tonight?" Jason asked.
I frown, tired of handling Batman. Well, last time I guess. Give him the serum and leave again. Maybe I won't go back to my boarding school but heal and move somewhere. I'll be eighteen in two years, moving out age!
"I'm tired" I respond.
Jason nodded "Tomorrow than" He said.
There was furious knocking on the door and Jason groaned and leaned his head back.
"Who is that?" I ask.
Jason got up and walked to the door. "Well, I'll call Batman tomorrow but I called Dick thirty minutes ago when I first sent you to the shower."
He opened the door and Dick burst in looking frantic.
"Liam!" He exclaimed when he saw me.
I set my bowl down to stand but the movement hurts.
"Don't move I'll come to you!" He said before running towards me and hugging me...hard.
I grunt as I feel the stress on every stitch in me.
"Whoa, whoa, let's not rip out my hard work!" Jason reprimanded.
Dick let me go and looked at me, worry and relief in his blue eyes.
"Jason told me what happened!" Dick said "Are you okay?"
"I also told you the answer to that question" Jason grunted as he sat down again, picking up his food.
I frown at Dick. "I'm not in the best of shapes but you know, beggars can't be choosers."
Jason propped his feet on the coffee table and frowned. "Hey Dick, did you know Liam got shipped off to boarding school against his will? Ain't that just the Bruce Wayne thing to do?!"
Dick stared at him in surprise. "What?" Dick asked.
Jason nodded "Can't say I'm surprised, when Bruce has a problem he doesn't want to deal with, he just kinda gets rid of it."
I feel a heavy wave of exhaustion hit me. My body is shutting down. I fight the urge to close my eyes, knowing that there is going to be a conversation I should be listening to but I'm not listening anymore. There's a quiet hum in my ears that turns my brain off.
My head starts to sag to the side and I can almost hear my heart slowing down to a steady rhythm.
I'm out and wake up a little when Dick picks me up and carries me to a bed.
"I can't believe would do that." I heard Dick say.
Jason growled. "From what I heard not even Bat Woman recognized him! Heck, I almost didn't!"
"He does look different." Dick muttered. "I just wish I looked into it a little more. Could've saved him two years of loneliness."
Yes, two long cold years.