Scarecrow Part-3

When Drystan breathed in fear toxin, the whole world around him seemed to change.

The school walls seemed to fade to gray as they were replaced by a large room filled with half finished paintings and empty canvases.

Looking down in front of him he sees a painting that he was forced to paint over a thousand times.

But Drystan already knew this place is where his worst fear took place.

He knew what his worst fear was the moment he appeared here, he was just hoping that some other fear would have overtaken this as his worst fear at some point, but it appears that he's still not over it.

"What a failure, the expression on his face is all wrong. Do it again." Drystans whole body became stiff when he heard the gruff voice behind him.

Turning his head he saw a tall, muscular middle aged man with a full beard standing there in a superman T-shirt scowling at him.

Drystan then he heard his younger high pitched voice sound out "But Mr. Clark, I have painted Superman everyday for the past year, can't we do something different?"

What answered him wasn't a yes or no however. What Drystan got in response was a punch to the gut that brought him to his knees.

"Your an incompetent piece of trash that can't even paint Superman right, and you was to move on? What a joke." He said with a laugh.

Then he kicked Drystan while he was down before he knelt besides him and grabbed a handful of Drystans hair and forced him to look him in the eyes.

"When you paint a satisfactory painting, then we can move on to something else. But now I want Superman so paint Me SUPERMAN!!!" He Screamed in Drystans face, spittle flying out his mouth.

Drystan once again heard his voice ring out "No, I don't want to pain anymore."

Mr. Clark froze when he heard Drystan then he took on a dark expression and looked down at Drystan with a menacing look and said "What did you just say brat?"

Looking up at the muscular man he could feel the tears in his eyes as he said "I'm not going to paint anymore, I'm done, I quit." in a defeated tone of voice.

Mr. Clarks expression became one of pure hatred.

"You want to quit boy?" He kicked Drystan for a second time.

"You want to give up?" He kicked Drystan for a third time.

"You refuse? You don't have the will anymore? Why? Why? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?! WHY!? WHYYYY!!!!?" Ending each why with a kick.

"Its because your trash, that's why." he said in a eerily calm voice "But let me tell you, garbage has no place in the world. No one wants a failure like you around, you useless sac of shit."

He then picked up a small tear ridden Drystan and heaved him over to the window.

He then grabbed Drystan by the scruff of his neck and hanged him the out the window.

He then said one single word to Drystan while given him one final look of disdain.

"Worthless"

Then he let go, and Drystan fell five stories and hit the pavement.

He then fell unconscious as the pain and fear overwhelmed him.

This all happened to Drystan in his previous life when he was eight years old and he suffered under this mans 'care' for almost two years before this day.

Mr. Clark from then on appeared in his nightmares at least once a week.

The ordeal injured him so badly that he didn't leave the hospital for almost two entire years.

He wasn't even supposed to be able to walk again after that incident, but he pulled through.

Since his rebirth he hadn't had any nightmares about Mr. Clark so he thought his fear was gone, but it was just overshadowed by everything else going on.

He bets that after this, his dreams will once again become haunted by his old mentor.

When he woke up he found himself no longer under the effects of the fear toxin, but he was also no longer in the school, but in an old steel mill.

He could tell he was in an old steel mill because of the giant blast furnace and the collection of rusted metal that's scattered around.

He was currently tied to a steel pipe by a rope around his torso with his hands separately tied up behind his back while sitting on the floor.

Sitting across from him was an unconscious yet familiar figure that was similarly tied up.

"Hey, wake up." Drystan said trying to wake up his fellow captive in a hushed tone.

He didn't know if the Scarecrow was around or not so he was trying not to make a lot of noise when waking him up.

But after a few attempts it was clear that he wasn't going to wake up for quite a while so he gave up and thought about his dream or hallucination or memory, whatever you want to call it.

That man, Mr. Clark, truly haunted Drystan.

No matter how powerful he was, he still couldn't shake off the fear that came with the two years of daily beatings that he was put through as a child.

*sigh* "I'm still as much of a coward as always, huh?" Drystan said in a self deprecating voice.

That one word 'Worthless' had been a weighing on him since the day he was dropped.

But its also the word that led him to become the most talented painter of his generation.

To prove Mr. Clark wrong he had put in an insurmountable effort so as to prove his worth.

And by the time he finished high school, his paintings sold for millions, proving that him for a day was worth far more than Mr. Clarks lifetime efforts.

Plus Mr. Clark was rotting in prison so even though he was still afraid of him, he didn't hate him as he was being properly punished.

After thinking about his fear trip, he started thinking about if he should escape or not.

But then he realized that he couldn't.

I mean he 'could', its just that he doesn't know if there are cameras on him and he doesn't know if his fellow captive has seen that he was here.

So if he escapes he has to take captive #2 with him or wait until he wakes up and see where things go.

In the end he decided to wait until they are both awake so that they can discuss the situation with each other.

After about half an hour Batman finally woke up.

Drystan seeing this adopts a grin and says one of the most infamous lines from his previous life.

"Hey you. Your finally awake."