Animal ||Edward Nygma|| [3]

Chapter Eleven || Control

"They don't tell you about days like this - the days that feel like hell has made a home in your chest. Some days, you swear you feel wildflowers blooming from the darkest parts of you; you can almost taste the sunlight letting them breathe. You're free. Then a day like this comes from nowhere, or everywhere, and the hellfire that you play host to burn those flowers to ashes, it pulls them from their roots and swallows them whole. Smoke fills up your lungs and you're left shaking from the absence of the sun and the ghost of a person you've become. They don't tell you how exhausting housing hell is. They don't tell you how to breathe when your oxygen is stolen. They don't."

- S. R. W.

Charlotte was having a nightmare. She turned her body from side to side as her mind showed her one of the worse nights of her life, the night Professor Pyg stabbed her on the shoulder and made her eat a people pie. In her nightmare, she was shown the moment he stabbed and when he stuffed the piece of pie in her mouth, but then the scenario suddenly changed.

She was being dragged across a hallway. Charlotte tried to move but she couldn't. She looked down to see she was strapped to an upright gurney and two large men dressed in white uniforms were dragging it.

"You're insane," she heard someone say. It appeared to be Professor Strange's monotone voice, but she couldn't see him anywhere. She heard his laugh and it sent chills down her spine. After that creepy laugh, he spoke again. "Professor Pyg broke you. I am going to fix you here in Arkham Asylum".

Charlotte heard him laugh again and she turned her head to look at the guards. "Where are you taking me?"

One of them looked at her and grinned. "Professor Strange is gonna take good care of you".

"No, no, no, no, no," Charlotte struggled against the restrains and tried to break free. However, they tightened themselves even more around her body. "Please, no!"

Charlotte woke up with a start and stood up from the bed in less than a second. The problem was that at the moment, Charlotte wasn't herself and she grabbed the gun she always kept under her pillow during the night.

Ed woke up after hearing a scream across the hallway where Charlotte's room was. He jumped out of the bed and ran to her room as fast as he could. He found her pointing a gun at one corner of the room, her hands were trembling and she was crying. Ed couldn't be more confused and worried.

"Charlotte?" He called in a sleepy voice. "What are you do-"

Ed was interrupted when Charlotte pointed the gun at him and fired. He ducked and fortunately, the bullet missed him and got lodged on the wall beside the doorway.

"I won't let 'em take me back!" She exclaimed as she continued pointing the gun around the room with a terrified expression.

After hearing the loud gunshot, Lee came running into the room. "What's going on in here?" She asked and then she noticed Charlotte with her gun in hand while staring at random places around the room with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Charlotte? Lower the gun".