Things only got stranger the next day.671Please respect copyright.PENANAB2PyPA2edl
"Please, lady, they're eating me! They'll kill me if you don't make them go away!" a female patient pleaded. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAZzEvt8zOuC
"Shh. It's alright. We'll make them go away," Julia reassured her patient soothingly, despite the fact nothing was on her. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAbQsxtTGbm9
"I'll get her a tranquilizer," one of the other interns said. 671Please respect copyright.PENANApxKXZ6oU73
"That would probably be best," Julia replied. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAhzJbHdGBZC
"Will it make these things get off me?!" the patient asked frantically. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAxH71tq3rK1
"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." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAM0vYGwbspl
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAijv0hAELfH
"Something's wrong," Julia said, shaking her head. 671Please respect copyright.PENANA4dZ4xBHrmx
"We all know that," a male doctor in the group, named Dave, said. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAaPb4jrlmzo
"I'm going to try again," Julia said. "Maybe I can get Crane to change their prescriptions." 671Please respect copyright.PENANADQu4Wj2XZ0
"I think you should wait until break time to do that," he cautioned. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAZtg3yvH86c
"Well, this is kind of important," she said. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAq4b2fgRYTu
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANA3pfobAmkE5
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANA3jWbU61I0Z
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAbVdQXt1fsd
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAo6AWTyjTwZ
No, Julia, no... But yet she still stubbornly unlatched the briefcase to find it was some kind of...671Please respect copyright.PENANADkXTbM27cK
But she didn't have a chance to finish her thought about what it could possibly be. "Can I help you?" 671Please respect copyright.PENANAaYMMq5u4ER
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAQYCLP3nTjG
"Oh, well, please do then," Dr. Crane said, eyebrows raised. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAWDhNuHknDj
"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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAYvyxkfePEz
"And you thought my briefcase might have something as well?" 671Please respect copyright.PENANAjXeanLZNLb
"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." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAVx1H9mwYX1
"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." 671Please respect copyright.PENANA1ageSlrTvK
She couldn't have been more relieved. "Thank you...I promise I'll never do it again." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAxOj3uUZjDa
Dr. Crane smiled. "I know you won't."671Please respect copyright.PENANAEpygEaEubw
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANA09HaRn2h5u
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAP51GuImx2t
Ms. Madison, 671Please respect copyright.PENANAuAYz4sGQBJ
Meet me at the coffee shop when your shift ends, and I'll tell you everything you need to know. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAXknkbfShQt
-Crane671Please respect copyright.PENANAEYkjAnEXnL
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANA6Nh54unboS
She quickly pocketed the note, thinking she was still alone, but Dave and Velonda, a friend of hers at Arkham, saw anyway. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAm8niXDET2g
"What was that?" Velonda asked. 671Please respect copyright.PENANACXdfEsh7HP
"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." 671Please respect copyright.PENANARNARoT1VYM
Velonda just laughed, but Dave shuddered. "Well I'm glad you're not, because sometimes I don't know about him." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAWrYnn1o38Y
"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." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAguhp4h4bYJ
"But what did that note say? I mean, if you don't mind telling us," Velonda said carefully. 671Please respect copyright.PENANArd829hsvjD
"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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAdCWcqErbVJ
Velonda and Dave shared glances. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAIA30JBvtl7
Julia sighed. "Please, not you too. I assure you it's a business meeting, not a date." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAdELp4Paac0
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. 671Please respect copyright.PENANAjGhzuZktl9
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." 671Please respect copyright.PENANAmtMZkTmI3y
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.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAyyWuGjcHGj