Chapter 13

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 "Right this way Daria," They had returned to his house and headed down to the basement. It was carpeted in scattered books, papers and other miscellaneous items. At one point Daria thought she saw a shattered antique alarm clock. Her captor led her through the room and into a brightly lamp-lit cupboard with a table and two naked book shelves. In previous ownership, it may have been a pantry where food was stored. "Lie down," he gestured to the table with the syringe he was still armed with. Daria didn't hesitate in following his order, scared that he would stab her with the fear toxin without warning. The adrenaline pumping through her brought nothing but aching pain throughout her body. It was a miracle she was still able to produce adrenaline and cortisol after how often she'd been exposed to the 'fight or flight' mode as of late.
"Oh look at you Daria, you're like a frightened little lamb," she sent him a glare while laying down. He chuckled "Shall we begin?"
"W-What are we beginning?" Scarecrow watched the fear melt into her eyes, and he grinned widely. He decided to scare her more by refusing to answer her question. There was an uncomfortable silence for the next few minutes while he purposefully knocked about sharp objects together to produce metallic scraping sounds while locating his pen and clipboard. Then he slowly began approaching the test subject.
"Normally I'd put on my mask for the others but you're a special case Daria, very special as you know. Also I also forgot my mask upstairs but no matter," He mumbled the last part to himself.
"Ok, fine, do what you want!" She sobbed. Her answer startled him, making him lower his hand armed with the modified toxin. Daria arched back her neck, stretched herself out on the table and closed her eyes tightly. Her whole body was shuddering in dread. Scarecrow couldn't stop himself from moving a hand to her sickly face, causing the shuddering to increase. Her green eyes locked onto his magnetic blue irises. He brushed her dark brown hair back from her face and then moved his hand down to her breast bone which he down gently while grasping her arm and injecting the almost greenish yellow liquid in the syringe. His eyes stayed firmly locked on hers, watching the smoky movement of the irises as her pupils expanded. He found the visual effect intoxicating.
The effects were approximately 8.8 seconds after hitting her bloodstream: a potent mix indeed. Jonathan would have to work on the efficiency. After not too long Daria began to writhe around in pain. Her first scream was high and hideously sustained and the professor grabbed a cloth to tie around her mouth to muffle it. However her next screams were completely inaudible. She would open her mouth in terror and look as though she was screaming, but no sound would come out. It was as though her vocal chords had suddenly been removed but she still had the capacity to scream in terror. She tipped the table over from her constant movement, falling with it and most likely, Dr Crane noted, giving herself a few bruises in the process.
Scarecrow crouched down to assess her after he'd taken notes of her initial behaviour and time stamped it as being 7 minutes in. He laced his long fingers through her hair on her scalp, holding her head still as she continued to open her mouth in terror.
"What is it Daria?" He asked her excitedly like a child at Christmas. The voice she heard in her delirium was a sinister growl against her ear. He turned her head to face him. The silent screams stopped. She continued shaking but the flailing had ceased. "What do you see, what do you feel?"
She didn't reply to him.

91 minutes in...
Scarecrow was ready to write that his test subject had lost her ability to speak while under the stress of the drug. She had not made a single vocal sound since her first scream. The shaking had started to slow down.

95 minutes in...
Scarecrow had gone back upstairs to retrieve his mask. It gave him more comfort to wear it while working. Daria had taken one glance at it and resumed her inaudible screaming much to his excitement. This reaction, however, did not last long.

102 minutes in...
"It won't stop, I keep getting buried alive, they think I'm dead, I'm alive I just can't move, I can't move," Daria talked rapidly, not breathing once while she was speaking. Her voice sounded raspy, perhaps she really had hurt her vocal chords in her first scream. Scarecrow wrote down her sentence, looked at his silver watch and wrote down the minutes since she'd been injected.
He wanted to know how many minutes her terror could be sustained.
He wanted to know if he could leave her on the edge of fear for days.
He wanted to know how long It would take for the mind to go vacant from particular doses.
Scarecrow had so much planned.

But he couldn't use Daria for all these plans.
She was special. She was unique.

"It's too hot... I'm on fire, and it's too hot!" Daria began to hysterically repeat herself. Scarecrow Dr Crane felt her forehead. She had definitely surpassed a typical fever temperature. "Jonathan come back, come back Jonathan!" Her eyes began to roll backwards in defeat.

The professor took a long deep breath and hoisted her over his shoulder. Then he headed to the bathroom in his bedroom where he ran the bath on cold. While he stripped Daria down to her sweat drenched bra and underwear he noticed how the bruises from the fall off the table were starting to display as purple blotches on her right thigh and right hip. Gently but clumsily she was picked up again and dropped into the shallow cool water where she then began to immediately calm down. Shocked by the drastic change in temperature. Her mind had to rapidly create a scenario to explain the change in temperature. Did the imagined fire go out? Did she suddenly find herself in snow? Was she even seeing anything at all?
All yours for now Jonny. I had a little fun.
Jonathan stroked her hair gently, pressing the top of his head against her lolling semiconscious one.
Jonathan wouldn't let anyone have Daria Morrison. She was something special.

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Professor Fear (Jonathan Crane x OC)Where stories live. Discover now