Roberto Dennis returned home after a long day of internship at the Gotham Art Gallery. He placed his book bag on the dining room table and trailed up the stairs to his bathroom. When Roberto reached the upstairs a strong flowery smell hit his nose. His sister, Jan, must have bought a new perfume. She always loved to douse herself in too much of it.

When he flipped his bathroom lights on, he stared eyes wide in his mirror. He was sure that he saw a figure behind him in the entrance. He didn't dare turn around. He remembered this pattern. His mind usually played these games with him, whenever he was spooked.

Roberto was a visionary creative; he could see his imaginings in front of him clearly and vividly. It made drawing easy but sleep was often impossible whenever his anxiety riled up.

The figure was that of the dancing man, an old nightmare that hunted him as a kid. It started after one night at his sister's dance practice. He was curious to see what was behind a door at the back of the dance hall. After sneaking through it he, to his disappointment, only found a hall lit with a dim light at the other end of it. Before Roberto could return through the door he saw a tall pale lanky figure in a purple sparkly suit slide inhumanly into and out of the dim light. Roberto sobbed and ran.

Even after, his family proved to him that the man he saw was one of the dance students at hall, Roberto still suffered nightmares from the incident. To this day he would occasionally see the dancing figure at night in his home watching him. If he ever allowed his anxiety to build up too much the dancing man would animate. His mind would show him the figure moving in his peripheral vision, it gliding across the floor with rhythmic grace; or it creeping closer to him as he would try to focus on his work. If he'd turned his back to open air his nerves would tell him that the figure hovered behind him. Whenever he heard a sudden noise his eyes would place the figure near the source of the cause.

Now here it was again, he stares at the man standing in his bathroom doorway in his mirror. Its grayscale skin in contrasting its sparkly purple dance outfit, its hollowed eyes leered at him. The nightmare seemed taller than usual which Roberto initially found odd, but he quickly dismissed it as his brain playing tricks on him. The figure smiled at him playfully. Roberto refused to turn around, least his mind prompts the figure to behave in a way that would cause him lose sleep for weeks. No, he will remain where he was, no matter what it does.

The figure lumbered toward him stopping inches behind him. Roberto felt the hairs on his back raise. His eyes widen in awe at the height of the figure. Normally, the dancing man would be around his height, a detail that stayed consistent even as he grew up. Now, it looms over him, his head barely reaching the figure's chest. Roberto for a second questioned the heat source on the back of his neck. It was his nerves, right? If not…

Roberto swung around thrusting his fist toward the figure. The towering giant bent out of his way. Why would it dodge? It's a hallucination. Right? As he observed the figure he noted how elongated its proportions were. It was more lanky than usual. Roberto thought back to how the figure moved, he noted its grace. It not the same grace it normally has, it lack the ethereal nature of its norm. In fact the movement was human enough...

"Who are you?" Roberto asked

Roberto jumped at the man's chuckle; it reverberated against the bathroom walls. He admittedly was not expecting a response, but he quickly gathered his bearings and ran. He dove past the figure down the stairs and out of the front door. He cursed himself for leaving his phone on the dining room table as he dashed across the street to a neighbor's apartment.

Roberto understood there was a 50% chance that he imagine the whole thing , but this would not be the first time Roberto's brain has hallucinated over what was actually there. His brother, Tom, used to prank and tease him for being easily startled. Until one night, Tom surprised him in his room and he screamed and ran as his brother chased him. Even after the chase ended and Tom was trying to calm him down, Roberto could only see his brother as the dancing man. He could not comprehend the world as it was until hours later after his anxiety settled.

Besides, in Gotham it was always safer to call the police then ignore the possibility of danger.

Jonathan Crane stood on an apartment roof next to the home of Roberto Dennis. The chaos at the scene taking place blow tickled him. He left no evidence of his presence there. Regardless though, the mysterious spooking of Mr. Dennis will raise red flags. The police will likely have the Scarecrow at the top of their suspect list for a while; which was not an issue for him as he has business to complete out of town. It would be a while before he would return to Gotham.

Jonathan always enjoyed his mini-adventures. They were his side hobby to train his intellect and to study the many different ways the human mind can observe, patternize, and function.

21 year old Roberto Dennis was a sophomore college student majoring 2d Illustration and VFX Art at Gotham's Art Institute. He possessed a strong gift to visualize his creations as if they are real and replicate them as an illustration. In addition to this, Roberto suffers from phobophobia the fear of fear or rather the fear experiencing a symptom of fear, specifically a hallucination that he sees.

The hallucination according to Dennis's mental health records, personal journals, sketches and paintings, was that of a lanky ghostly man dress in a glittery purple suit and black dance shoes. The boy's predisposition and ability to convey his mental images made him an excellent subject to teach Crane more about the mind.

So, as his first experiment Crane used a light enough dose of fear toxin to only heighten Roberto's emotion of fear. He theorized that due to Dennis's history, in a state of hyper anxiety the boy might struggle with discerning fiction from reality. Crane revealed his presence to the Dennis to gage how severe the boy's anxiety would affect his perception of the world. Crane was surprised when Dennis failed to immediately realize he was real. Roberto should have still been able see an actual threat, but his anxiety seemed hyper focused on his imaginary demon.

Crane was positive that Dennis did not visibly see him in his bathroom; he was seeing the dancing man. Interestingly, it seemed that Dennis did notice his height. Perhaps, the figure took Crane's physique in Dennis' head? Crane also found it impressive, that Dennis was able to determine from analyzing his movements that something was off. It seemed the boy was so intimately familiar with the form and behavior of the imaginary dancing man that he can recognize when something about it was not 'normal'. A fascinating detail revealed about Dennis's gifted mind in tonight's experiment.

Crane anticipates continuing his study when he returns back in town.

A/N: Here is story 2. It may or may not have a part 2, I'll see in the future. Other than that chapter 3 will be around sometime in the next 1- 3 weeks. Sorry for the big gap I am unsure of my schedule at the moment.