Batman 3 - Batman Forever Read Free

until now because they were waiting for something. For some thing. And that thing, whatever it was, had now arrived.
    He retreated further until he stumbled against the mound of dirt. And there he froze as the thing pursuing him climbed up and into the small cavern with him.
    He could make out nothing of it, for it seemed clothed in darkness, as if it were pulling shadows from everywhere within the cavern and wrapping them around itself. It stood there for a moment, as if contemplating the young man. And at that moment, the young man wanted nothing but to be as far from this place as possible. To run from it, fly from it, forget that he ever saw it . . .
    That’s not the way it will be, came the voice once more. He couldn’t tell whether the obscured form shambling toward him was the source, or whether it was from within his own head.
    “Let me out,” said the young man as the thing came nearer, nearer still. It seemed to be limping sightly, as if walking was an alien practice.
    Let me in, came the response, and the creature lifted its head to gaze at him. Its eyes were burning red, its ears tall, and it was covered with dark, matted fur. It spread its wings and they just seemed to keep going and going, encompassing the whole of the cavern, leaving no place to run.
    The rest of the young man’s thoughts were a torrent, and it would not be until years in the future that he would be able to pick out any of the individual notions tumbling through his mind. A bizarre cascade of images, past, present, and future, all leading toward something greater than himself . . . something less sane than himself.
    There was fire in the creature’s eyes, fire in its heart, a massive bat image that was enveloped in flame, and it surrounded the young man. And finally, finally, after everything he’d been through, the young man did emit a genuine, wholehearted, unstinting shriek of pure undiluted terror. “I’m in Hell!”
    You’re home. Same thing.
    The creature drew the struggling young man to him as the moonlight held steady.
    Everywhere now, the bats were shrieking, as if roaring approval . . . or joining in a song of celebration.
    And then the young man’s straggles ceased, and suddenly the world made sense again.
    Bats flew through the light from above, their shadows cavorting against the walls, like some sort of flapping signal to the future. Hundreds, thousands of screeching voices came together in unison.
    And with the cries of the leathery creatures providing an ungodly orchestral tone, the young man danced with the devil in the pale moonlight . . .

II.

    “H ey, Eddie . . .”
    Edward Nygma looked up at the hulking lummox and his snickering cronies who stood nearby. The eighth-grade lad blew air impatiently from between his lips. It was library study hall, and he was working on his fifth crossword puzzle in the last fifteen minutes. Edward had thick brown hair that he was constantly pushing out of his eyes, and an expressive face that didn’t seem to be made of flesh so much as rubber. Behind his eyes there was a fiery intelligence that did not suffer fools gladly. “Got something on your mind, Raymond? A thought, maybe? And you’re afraid it’ll die of boredom?”
    “Got a riddle for you.”
    “A riddle, Raymond?”
    “Yeah. That’s right. You’re always doing puzzles and stuff. A riddle.”
    Edward glanced around, but there was no teacher anywhere in sight. Typical for this dump. He put the puzzle down and sighed. “Okay. What’s the riddle?”
    “What has four wheels and flies?”
    Edward looked at him pityingly. “A garbage truck,” he said.
    Raymond’s face clouded. “You heard it.”
    “Just a wild guess. A shot in the dark which, by the way, I wouldn’t mind taking at you.”
    “Is that supposed to be funny?”
    “No, this is. Wanna hear a knock knock joke for morons?”
    Raymond glanced at the others, who shrugged. “Okay.”
    “Fine,” said Ed. “You start.”
    “Okay. Knock knock.”
    Ed