Things only got stranger the next day.673Please respect copyright.PENANAmxmaWbEwYL
"Please, lady, they're eating me! They'll kill me if you don't make them go away!" a female patient pleaded. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAto2z0zIXGi
"Shh. It's alright. We'll make them go away," Julia reassured her patient soothingly, despite the fact nothing was on her. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAARZEGR7pXc
"I'll get her a tranquilizer," one of the other interns said. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAtjEGFbojAN
"That would probably be best," Julia replied. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAEZsWQt9MWX
"Will it make these things get off me?!" the patient asked frantically. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAEXJsv8Ts4H
"Yes, it will," Julia reassured again. "They'll be gone soon. Now I want you to look at me, nothing else. I'm right here." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAaNQP2eidqf
The patient quieted down eventually, but she kept looking frantically around her cell, from side to side, until finally the tranquilizer did what it was supposed to, and her eyes slowly closed. 673Please respect copyright.PENANATuUGHenLan
"Something's wrong," Julia said, shaking her head. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAbp2x7cFr1j
"We all know that," a male doctor in the group, named Dave, said. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAQ75vKTeD1y
"I'm going to try again," Julia said. "Maybe I can get Crane to change their prescriptions." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAsHWgjxrp0u
"I think you should wait until break time to do that," he cautioned. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAvuCecXe0pw
"Well, this is kind of important," she said. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAEZFGyEPv4t
But when she hurried up to his office, he didn't answer her knocks on the door. Maybe he's finally off doing something about these recent events, Julia thought, but something prevented her from turning away and re-joining her co-workers. 673Please respect copyright.PENANA2a1BykgPMW
She looked both ways, and when she saw the hallway was clear except for her, she silently opened the door and stepped into the empty and surprisingly cozy office, complete with a velvet rug, an organized desk and a shelf full of books. The books were mainly works by Edgar Allan Poe, plus a few by Shakespeare--not as many psychological non-fiction books as she'd expected to see, though there were some on the bottom shelf. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAKY75k9bYap
Now I'M the one acting twelve. I should really be helping those people, Julia thought as she moved on to his desk. Harleen was wrong, though; she didn't "like" him, she just wanted to know more about him, things that she could never ask him herself but things she had to know, like why he was so into fear but yet had such a calm demeanor about him. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAKAUV2WByTL
Something suddenly caught her eye when she looked down at his briefcase under the desk. She bent down to touch the odd material sticking out of the closed briefcase, and saw it was what looked like worn burlap. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAPS4LJFlvoV
No, Julia, no... But yet she still stubbornly unlatched the briefcase to find it was some kind of...673Please respect copyright.PENANArcFAraoKTw
But she didn't have a chance to finish her thought about what it could possibly be. "Can I help you?" 673Please respect copyright.PENANAXGMkGw94dV
Blood rushed to her face, and she made herself get up and turn around to face him. "I can explain this," she said, while trying to make her heart slow down to its normal pace. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAKb7alVBAsk
"Oh, well, please do then," Dr. Crane said, eyebrows raised. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAKT9MSqDdiT
"I'm...I'm..." Oh, real smooth, Madison. "I know I shouldn't be in here, but..." Suddenly, a good answer came to her, even if it was a lie. Right now her job could be on the line. "I thought one of your books might have some advice to help our patients," she said quickly. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAiFXLog5ZGQ
"And you thought my briefcase might have something as well?" 673Please respect copyright.PENANA81DsM4mDzo
"Oh...well, when I looked away from the bookshelf I couldn't help but notice some material sticking out of there and..." The back of her head and the palms of her hands tingled furiously. "Please don't fire me," she said in a near whisper. "I'm sorry." 673Please respect copyright.PENANA83of8RmsXq
"Curiosity is a normal thing," he replied, going around his desk and closing the briefcase back; she noticed how he was extra careful this time to make sure the rough cloth didn't stick out. "And you may have a slight neurotic problem yourself," he added with a small laugh. "I won't fire you." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAkCmCxujyoL
She couldn't have been more relieved. "Thank you...I promise I'll never do it again." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAToQCO0xc5x
Dr. Crane smiled. "I know you won't."673Please respect copyright.PENANAun8Aiv4jFZ
Even as she hopped from patient to patient after catching up with her peers (and Harleen asking her with a smirk why her visit to the office took so long), desperately trying to calm each of their patients down and assure them that the things they saw weren't real, she kept thinking to herself, Why did I have to be so stupid? I really got off lucky this time. 673Please respect copyright.PENANA3nyms7KBn4
Her stomach fluttered even more during break when she got to the table where she and the others usually sat, and she saw a note waiting for her. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAy0sDlvwrkz
Ms. Madison, 673Please respect copyright.PENANAqgwz8KEOp1
Meet me at the coffee shop when your shift ends, and I'll tell you everything you need to know. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAsCzdseCHqu
-Crane673Please respect copyright.PENANAjyuK49RXjT
Julia knew there were tons of coffee shops in Gotham City, but knew which one he was talking about. Many times she'd driven past the one nearest to Arkham where employees often liked to go after work for one more burst of energy when they weren't quite ready to turn in for the night. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAY5iNVaHUW8
She quickly pocketed the note, thinking she was still alone, but Dave and Velonda, a friend of hers at Arkham, saw anyway. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAoyP6shvc3t
"What was that?" Velonda asked. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAS1174Ckx0e
"Please don't let Harleen see," Julia said with a half-hearted smile. "Just because I went to the library last night to ask Crane about the patients' behavior, she now thinks we're lovebirds." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAe9TpLem1i4
Velonda just laughed, but Dave shuddered. "Well I'm glad you're not, because sometimes I don't know about him." 673Please respect copyright.PENANA5HNLQgsesd
"I'm sure he's a good person," Julia said, waving away his worries. "I mean, I think they check people's backgrounds and records before letting them become chief administrator of a place like this." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAiEUFrS5jAF
"But what did that note say? I mean, if you don't mind telling us," Velonda said carefully. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAdtjBjjrS9M
"Oh, he just wanted to meet me at the coffee shop tonight after work." She wouldn't bother telling them about her little adventure inside the office or what she saw in there. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAhyhZNXmEyl
Velonda and Dave shared glances. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAg2LFvUzQ2F
Julia sighed. "Please, not you too. I assure you it's a business meeting, not a date." 673Please respect copyright.PENANAFxclmy9tZR
Harleen waltzed in not long after Julia had said that, and she put a quick finger to the lips to signal her friends to say no more on the matter. 673Please respect copyright.PENANAEu8kKvMJbk
But still, Dave whispered across the table, "I'd take a weapon of some sort just in case. Something about this just doesn't seem right." 673Please respect copyright.PENANALVQU2w81kX
He sounded just like her father, but then again, Dave's words were none too comforting to think about. Maybe she would, maybe she wouldn't.
673Please respect copyright.PENANA1DgmlSOXu3