The sound of screams reverberated against the glass of the cells, the way the guards looked in making him feel like he was trapped in a zoo. The screams only once and a while bothered him as he sat there lost in his own tormented thoughts. Edward wished he had a window to look out but none were allowed on the inner compound of the asylum. Many thoughts had come to his mind when the days passed into nights. He remembered things that he hadn't thought about in a long time. The picnics in the park he used to have with his mother before she died when he was a child, his brother pushing him down the stairs when he was a teenager, the children teasing him in school. Oh, how he had hated the other students that jealously used to smack him around as he cowered by the brick wall, or trying to take refuge under the bleachers at Gotham High School. Everyone was always trying to bring him down and make him suppress him being himself. Breathing hard he felt he might faint as the memories assaulted his mind. Reaching under his bed he hastily picked up the diary from between the mattress and the metal frame. As his fingers grasped the red leather bound book he heard a familiar voice closing in.
"You would think you would learn your lesson along with Miss. Isley after being captured so many times" the deep voice of Batman caught Edward's attention.
"Yeah yeah" the high pitched voice of Harley Quinn said as she slowly passed Edward's room, hands in front of her handcuffed, blonde pigtails bouncing. Placing the journal aside he approached the glass and stood feeling like a voyeur. As if instinctively knowing that she was being watched the young woman turned her head and gave him a wide smile.
"Hey Eddie-Spaghetti!" she cried causing even Batman to stop. Edward almost wanted to laugh though the nickname annoyed him like crazy(ha excuse the pun). Allowing a faint smile to grace his lips he merely shook his head at her. Edward felt that she did not belong here. No, she wasn't truly crazy and twisted like the rest of him. Harley Quinn had been a doctor here until the Joker took his clawed hand and turned her mind into absolute madness. She didn't have to be here. Slowly he knew the clowns grip was loosening on her as Harley more and more stayed like a younger sister to the former botanist, Poison Ivy. Letting out another sigh he turned and plopped down on the bed. Retrieving his pencil and opened the diary upon his knee he started to write.
June 29th Arkham Asylum
I am started to feel the weight placed on my shoulders when it is supposed to be removed. The treatment here in Arkham is nothing but a way to conceal the dirty laundry of the city. You would think that they want us to be better, no its all a trumped up illusion. Many of those who are here can easily be cured if the time was taken. I know that I will never be well. My obsession is too great to even imagine. The Batman who brings us in like a scolding and abusive mother brings us in to pay for our crimes. Does that make any sense at all? A man who dresses up like a bat is allowed to beat up people and no one ever questions the sanity of that? Going along with that train of thought, What is sanity really? The people here are painted as the bad guys yet things seem to be placed on their head. Perhaps this is all a dream like Alice in Wonderland, at least that is what the Mad Hatter would want us to think. Now I do think I am prattling a bit. Another riddle to be spoken and sooner or later solved. I don't know how long I can stand the screams and the doubts assaulting my brain.
Edward Nygma.