Twelve hours ago I dreamt of pain, murder and rape and I was glad. Jo the mechanic lived in the suburbs of Gotham, a smallish district called Elliot Avenue, named after one of Gotham’s richest families who had funded much of its construction. It was far away from the cold dark alleys and crime ridden streets at the centre of the city. The resident’s were happy, they thought themselves safe but two hours from now a child will be found dead; bound by barb wire and discarded in a bin outside an abandoned warehouse, another will be found weeks later, in pieces, posted to members of his family that lived throughout Gotham, the third child will never be found at al. All Jo the mechanics handwork; people that knew Jo would say he was the nicest guy in the world, he was always willing to help you if you were in need, sometimes he would even fix the cars for free and do it all with a smile on his face but what the people of Elliot Avenue didn't know was that Jo the mechanic had a darkness inside him, one that he had been hiding deep down and tonight it was about to overflow. I dream of pain, murder and rape and I am glad, because when you tell yourself it's only a dream you can change the ending.
Gravel crunched under my feet as the rain pounded on my shoulders, the air reeked of ozone and there was lightning on the horizon. My breath was coming out in hard puffs as a sped across the rooftops, pushing myself to the limit. A flash of lightning made the abandoned car storage warehouse look like an angry fun house raising out of the ground, paint had chipped and faded from its walls, the windows were boarded and the entrance had been chained shut.
I had to get my timing and balance right for what I was going to do next, I leapt from the rooftops adjacent to the warehouse and aimed for a second story window, squeezing my arms and legs in tight as I impacted through the old wooden boards. Jo the mechanic had been sitting in the dark preparing himself for the sick perverse things he would do this night. The man squealed in fear as I came crashing in to the room but with only the occasional flash of lightning to see by I disappeared before he could even see me.
“Who…Who’s there?” his quivering voice full of fear, a coward just like every man that prays on those who are smaller or weaker.
My voice echoed from the shadows
“There is no land beyond law,
Where tyrants rule with unshakable power!
'Tis but a dream, from which the evil wake,
To face their fate, there terrifying hour”
“Oh g-g-god, please....” Jo the mechanic words came out in a splutter as fear gripped him, his body was shaking as he raised a long bladed knife with which to defend himself with. I stepped out of the darkness and the man gave a shrill cry, he then lunged at me with his blade and buried it in my chest but the knife passed clean through my body and I felt no pain.
“What the hell are you?”
“When the night is dark and full of terrors I am the one that comes for you when you sleep, I am the Sandman”
I raised my hand and placed it on the man’s face, puffs of dark green gas emerged from my fingertips, Jo the mechanic will dream tonight, it will be sleep filled with horrors that he could never imagine, ones that he will never awake from. In the dark of the night I turn to dust and sift through the floor boards, I free the children and tell them to run home, run and don't stop for anyone.
I make my way home, the rain slows from a thunder to a patter as I enter throw the window to my apartment, I discard my gasmask and coat and head for the bedroom, I know I will not sleep, not properly, but every night I must try because with it comes salvation. As I lay my head on the pillow the world swirls around me, flashes of images come and go, a bat, a rooftop, a gun then voices, one I know and one I don't.
“What are you doing here?” a gruff voice, forceful and angry.
“In the kings court only the fool may speak the truth” this voice sounds just as angry but also unhinged.
The shot echo’s through the night, the bullet catches him just below the jaw and arches up snapping his head back violently, his body crumples to the ground in a bloody heap.
I gasp for air as I wake from the dream, my body covered in hot and cold sweat, someone has killed The Batman.
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