Things only got stranger the next day.894Please respect copyright.PENANAWq4kxGfhe2
"Please, lady, they're eating me! They'll kill me if you don't make them go away!" a female patient pleaded. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAzaEgI5mnTV
"Shh. It's alright. We'll make them go away," Julia reassured her patient soothingly, despite the fact nothing was on her. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA0ykq94gGyX
"I'll get her a tranquilizer," one of the other interns said. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAHkr3TmA2L7
"That would probably be best," Julia replied. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAvMwej3cm11
"Will it make these things get off me?!" the patient asked frantically. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAxyW23JfeH1
"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." 894Please respect copyright.PENANA1D0trn3FKa
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAHCpeRb1Z0T
"Something's wrong," Julia said, shaking her head. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAzoF7rQ3pct
"We all know that," a male doctor in the group, named Dave, said. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAeKObCn5NXy
"I'm going to try again," Julia said. "Maybe I can get Crane to change their prescriptions." 894Please respect copyright.PENANAaiwm4hus22
"I think you should wait until break time to do that," he cautioned. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA4Q733gIUzL
"Well, this is kind of important," she said. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAv8O4LwRi2J
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAEj7gFf5zlq
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAR19J0wklbg
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAmyjKIh4a5Y
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAmPpqwGItSg
No, Julia, no... But yet she still stubbornly unlatched the briefcase to find it was some kind of...894Please respect copyright.PENANAdUNQ8jdo4J
But she didn't have a chance to finish her thought about what it could possibly be. "Can I help you?" 894Please respect copyright.PENANAWqJ88WDHnK
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA4AaHFDijT9
"Oh, well, please do then," Dr. Crane said, eyebrows raised. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAvOyqttLXXd
"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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAXMv86055kb
"And you thought my briefcase might have something as well?" 894Please respect copyright.PENANAkgeb4M2ndC
"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." 894Please respect copyright.PENANAQUwh6ofCFH
"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." 894Please respect copyright.PENANA8RexKwLVJJ
She couldn't have been more relieved. "Thank you...I promise I'll never do it again." 894Please respect copyright.PENANA3wXbmu32cH
Dr. Crane smiled. "I know you won't."894Please respect copyright.PENANAchUuNLRagX
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAQPI9YTNjpV
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAXad2OkjxCo
Ms. Madison, 894Please respect copyright.PENANAVq4ilQD61x
Meet me at the coffee shop when your shift ends, and I'll tell you everything you need to know. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA5rM8uEdoab
-Crane894Please respect copyright.PENANAim0QWfISM6
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA4GnqQMfs0J
She quickly pocketed the note, thinking she was still alone, but Dave and Velonda, a friend of hers at Arkham, saw anyway. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAJbxcIc8NmD
"What was that?" Velonda asked. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA2DFJUEyoQM
"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." 894Please respect copyright.PENANAR1y2tYOnbU
Velonda just laughed, but Dave shuddered. "Well I'm glad you're not, because sometimes I don't know about him." 894Please respect copyright.PENANASK8mOQCDmm
"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." 894Please respect copyright.PENANAiTor9tJ3yL
"But what did that note say? I mean, if you don't mind telling us," Velonda said carefully. 894Please respect copyright.PENANA1y4Z4UJbBi
"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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANATinYBQkLtM
Velonda and Dave shared glances. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAyJhBKGVcsd
Julia sighed. "Please, not you too. I assure you it's a business meeting, not a date." 894Please respect copyright.PENANAkaT5Byl5UR
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. 894Please respect copyright.PENANAl5wlh79QmS
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." 894Please respect copyright.PENANApHgaHAIQOq
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.
894Please respect copyright.PENANAVRm1whc4lX