Biography: The Scarecrow

Biography: Johnathan Crane AKA The Scarecrow

I never really knew my parents... my mother died when she gave birth to me, and my father dumped me on the doorstep of my Aunt Beatrice's farm house. My childhood was a long and dreary one filled with religious rantings and getting beaten when I didn't do something perfectly. While all the other kids were outside playing ball or something I was inside either sweeping, shining my Uncle's Ash Urn to the nth degree, or practicing the violin. When it was time for schooling I went to bible school, I felt rather relaxed there, my Aunt was nicer in church and seemed to bring her at ease.

I could certainly see why, the ambience of the candles the great cross at the front of the room with our savior on it. Every time we prayed I found my eyes wandering around the churh, all of these people looking up to this man on the cross, thanking him. I was raised to understand why and respected it. One day in autumn I remember I gazed outside of the church's open window to see another man on a cross... a scarecrow as I recall, such a fasinating symbol of rich tantalizing feilds. The crows fear it and we use him for a bountiful harvest. When I was allowed outside to play with the other kids they never wanted to play with me, they tended to just throw rocks at me and laugh, calling me a sissy. My real friend was the same scarecrow out in the feild close to the church. Out there I sat and read under him, his shadow formed a cool spot in the heat, my own little paradise.

As I grew older and was still not one with the other kids I still went out to my old faded friend to do my homework... until one day in the spring... I came to find my friend gone, the cross he was on still there, I lost my only friend that day, and my classmates at school seemed to depress me more and more each day. In high school the social awkwardness got worse. I was the top of my classes and was praised by teachers but taunted by the other boys and girls, nerd, geek, teacher's pet, you name it, I was called it. Until one day... close to my 16th birthday as well as close to the Halloween Prom a girl came up to me, her name was Katy, she was a cheerleader, a very pretty girl, the envy of every other girl in our school.

She came up to me and asked if I could be her date to prom! I was so happy I nearly cried tears of joy. I dressed up in my sunday best for prom, she told me to meet her at the church on prom night. I drove out in my Aunt's pickup to find her there waiting on me. She was in a beautiful red dress, with an opera-looking mask covering up part of her face. She leaned in close to me and said to close my eyes, I did so being the fool that I was only to be blindfolded and knocked to the ground... her supposed "ex-boyfriend" was hiding in the bushes with his pals, what an ignorant fool I was to think it was all true... her boyfriend and some more of his jocks tied me up to the very cross the scarecrow was on and covered my head with a burlap mask, punching me repeatedly in the stomach, telling me what an idiot I was to fall for their trick. I eventually blacked out after the 7th or 8th punch, I remember dreaming, a savior came to me from the church garbed in a ragged trenchcoat and an old farmer's hat.

It was my old friend. His stitched up smile came to greet my own burlap stitched up smile, he unloosened the ropes around me and I fell down. I woke up as I hit the ground. I must have been out for an hour or so. I had no other explaination of what got down on that cross, none except for the dream. I wasn't really looking for an explaination though at that moment, I was looking for revenge. My Uncle's old shotgun was still behind the seat of the pickup when I got back in. I drove to the school, the burlap mask itching my face a bit, but I kept it on as I saw the school, and out in front... the jocks and Katy. I waited for them to all get loaded up in their cars... I remember some of the jocks saying they would have an after party after the prom. It was just my luck though that Katy and her big stupid boyfriend decided to stop the car halfway there to have a makeout session. The terror on their faces as they saw a scarecrow walk up to their car with a loaded shotgun... I shot Katy's boyfriend first before turning it on her.

Her makeup was running down her face already, crying... the fear in her eyes, the pleads for help... aroused me... then she said something that I'll never forget as long as I live, the thought of it now still haunts my very dreams "Johnathan... I... I'm sorry" through her tears I could feel my anger slip away... but not before my finger slipped on the trigger... her face flew all over the drivers side on the door. I stood there for a few minutes, savoring the screaming and the pleads for mercy... I had none to give... they killed me that night and made me the new savior... the new messiah to the holy land. Fear is the key I found that out that night. It felt almost heavenly to feel it especially after the first shot.

I went back to the cross I was taken down from and slept, the shotgun was cast away down a local river, never found. I was found though, right where the mindless people left me. I was questioned by the local autorities, I told them I didn't even know they were killed, the last thing I remembered was them tieing me up and beating me into a blackout. I was never questioned again, they never found the killer... my Aunt died the next year... it was Mother's Day as I recall...she died in her sleep, I moarned for her of course, and come graduation I got my diploma and moved to Gotham City for my doctor's degree for fears and phobias.

While at Gotham University I expiramented with my Chemistry as well as my Psychology to come up with a rather potent tool in my arsenal of inducing fear into people, I only created it in capsule form at this time. Mixing some rather harmless medicine and them mixing them with some hallucinagents to make it. I decided to make my final research paper about the Fear Toxin I had created... I passed with flying colors, they wanted me to stay and teach a few classes, but I declined. Sure psychology and chemistry is a wonderful thing to teach to young budding minds... but I was on a secret mission... to spread the word of fear into this polluted city.

It was rather easy to get myself a top job at the local mental Institute called Arkham Asylum, the old goat running the place didn't seem to know what he was really doing though, he came to be the successor of his father to be the warden of this place, I decided to work closer with him to gain his trust, while I was working with patients I created a liquid and gas form of my toxin. I wanted to use it so badly... but I couldn't, the fear of being found out and fired is what stopped me, I was too close to acheiving my goal. I suffered in silence until one day I found my entryway to becoming the next Warden of Arkham, I slipped a nice little dollop of the liquid toxin into the Warden's afternoon tea, he went completely bonkers in a matter of minutes and had to be restrained and put in a cell. He kept talking of hearing the voices of his dead father as well as seeing demonic hands clawing at his ribcage, my first human subject for the toxin was a complete success it would seem.

I celebrated my victory in the silence of my apartment until I got the opporutne phonecall... I was now Warden of Arkham Asylum. After the first few weeks I had applied new rules and more security, making sure our patients were safe as well as making sure they had a lesser chance of escaping. Since the former Warden, Jeremiah Arkham, was already under the influence of my drug, I decided to enlighten him of the good word. He spat and jibbered out nonsensical things before blacking out and going into a coma. I guess i gave him too much, either that or he just couldn't contol his fears... On many other subjects it was almost always the same, a select few have been successful though fully, three of them girls... seems the feminine gene has a certain chemical that makes their endurance to the fear toxin more balanced.

I decided to help these three women find the way to the light, above reality and into bliss. I kept the three of them in a room they were quite stable and coherent, ready to be enlightened. I spoke to them and they listened, I cried to them and they comforted me, when I shouted out my wrath they did the same with equal amount of passion and bloodlust. My work that day was done, secretly I created a rouse in the asylum and let them be set free to give the good word onto the people of Gotham. They came back with empty canisters of toxin and smiles, they conformed a few more to the cause and have found a home base in a sunken part of the city, underground amidst an old subway station and buildings that have survived an earthquake.

My days off from work consisted of rebuilding this place with my followers, we found an abandoned church right above our sanctuary to make as the entrance. Me and my followers created the Cult of Fear on the night of October 30th... my 31st birthday, they named me their messiah and we spent the rest of that night they took more of the toxin willingly... to my surprise, and they even asked me to consume it with them... I was reluctant at first but their chants and swoons got the better of me and I drank from the Grail.

The last thing I remember is how bitter it tasted but how enlightened I felt, I could hear the screaming of Katy again, I could see her dead body rise from the ground and dragged me down with her, she kissed me, at first I was afraid... but I rememberd my place and embraced the fear... I closed my eyes as she slowly unbuttoned my shirt, I vaigly felt lips kissing and hands rubbing my exposed skin... the rest came in flashes and I woke up in our church on top of a makeshift  bed made out of pews and tapestries.

A girl on either side of me rubbing their skin against mine, becoming one with the Master of Fear... they all whispered in unison "Scarecrow... Scarecrow... Scarecrow..." I finally acheived my place in the world... and would spend the rest of my days reaping more of the harvest to conform to our doorstep. Embrace fear and it will embrace you, love fear and it will love you back, I am fear, the Master of Fear, I am the Scarecrow.