"Fear is what keeps us in line. It's what keeps our deep, dark impulses under control- in order. Without fear, we could conquer the world. We could do whatever, not be afraid of the consequences. Wouldn't that be nice? To not be afraid?"

"I'm not afraid of anything." A smile flittered across my lips as I whispered to him, knowing that my words would irk him some. As if on cue, his brow creased, lips pursing slightly.

"Even if you don't think you are, there is fear haunting your every step. You're scared that you won't feel accepted, so you keep within the boundaries of society- wear the clothes they put into stores, eat the food they lay out in front of you. You work and you play as they please, scared that if you don't you'll be alone, vulnerable. Mocked and hated. You are scared. And so am I."

I watched as his eyes brightened, heard his voice dip an octave as the passion seeped into it, more and more with every word.

I leaned forwards in the comfy armchair I was situated in, my body focused towards his own, which was positioned in a straight-backed chair; half towards his desk, half towards me. He gripped a pen tightly and scrawled some words onto his paper.

"What are you scared of?" The curiosity in my voice was poorly concealed. My eyes met his and I refused to let them go until he gave me an answer.

A silence filled the room then; it seeped in slowly and carefully consumed the air, gnawing away at it as my amber orbs and his bright blue ones collided in slow motion.

"A lot of things." His voice was carefully deadpan- he was trying not to allow his voice to waver or break, something he was good at. He kept it steady and low, intoxicatingly stoic.

"Being slowly and brutally murdered is probably my top one- not very original, but there are certain conventional fears that even the best of us cannot escape.

Alas, I am not exempt from the social fears, much as I try. I am scared of bullies. A problem I acquired when I was younger. I am scared of shame, therefore I strive to do my best in everything. A filthy, yet fulfilling habit. There are more, but I do not wish to bore you."

I smiled at that. Boredom was never a part of our sessions; I was as interested in him as he was in me, and I found myself beginning to look forward to our time together. But the more time we spent together, the more I became hooked on what he was saying. The freedom that lay at the end of all of his laborious thinking was intoxicating. I wanted to be a part of it. I didn't want to be scared of anything anymore.

"If you could choose…would you let everyone defy fear, or just a select few?" He pondered my question, eyes narrowing in thought.

"Power…is a dangerous thing. Everyone is controlled by it, even those who think that they control it. Too many people with too much power would result in pure…chaos. People need something to idolise, and without fear we would lose those idols, because no one would be afraid of the consequences of becoming one. It would be one massive power struggle. So I suppose…only a select few. But it depends on the scale of how much they do not fear."

I nodded at his words, understanding.

"So you want people to be free of social restrictions and conventional fears and strip them down to who they truly are? So that we can all be free?" He nodded, the shine in his eyes telling me that he was pleased that I'd taken everything in.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEP

I jumped in shock, and he smirked at me. I threw him a quick glare before pressing the button on my watch to stop the alarm.

Rising to my feet, I smiled at him.

"Well Jonathan. I believe today's session turned out quite well. You may want to return the pen and paper to my desk; the guards may see it as a threat."

His lips twitched up at the word 'threat' and he nodded, standing up.

"Did you learn anything about me today?" Amused, I studied his face for any ill motives. Deciding to share, I began to speak.

"Not any more than usual. I found that you create a detached persona when lying and that you have self-idealisms when it comes to power distribution." I shrugged and smiled as his eyebrow rose curiously.

"I understand how you got the power distribution- I would be lying if I said that I was exempt to the lure of power or completely selfless. But lying? When did I do that?"

The wicked glint in his eye and smug twitch of his mouth told me that he knew exactly what I was talking about.

"For somebody trying to break the boundaries of fear, you have very conventional fears yourself. And you paused for longer than necessary."

He smirked, and the guards entered the room. Aaron Cash, head of security, shook his head when he saw that Jonathan no longer had his cuffs on.

"You're supposed to keep him cuffed at all times- you seem to forget he's a high security prisoner."

I tried not to roll my eyes at the disapproval in his voice.

"We've been through this before; I am trying to instil trust in my patient. Keeping him cuffed and locked to his chair somehow doesn't really help that. Besides, it's done at my own risk and I'm willing to deal with any consequences that may come from it."

He sighed and shook his head, moving back towards Jonathan.

"Whatever. As soon as he does something crippling to you I'll be the first to say I told you so."

I shrugged and pretended to look at my notes, hoping he'd leave quicker. As soon as I heard the door close I let out a sigh of relief and flopped back into my arm chair.

That was my last session with Jonathan Crane, before he escaped the next day, using the spring from my pen.