Chapter 3 – A Walk in the Park
Angela Crow's POV
The door opened to reveal Dr. Crane, or should I say Jonathan, with his briefcase in hand, "Hello Jonathan. Nice to see you again."
"You too Angela. I see you're still reading that book," Jonathan said, while looking at the cover with interest.
"Why yes. It's truly a fine piece of work. It talks all about the different kinds of diseases discovered before and now. It also talks about its origin and how it affects each part of the human body in detail," I said.
Jonathan entered and closed the door and sat down in one of the chairs in front of me, placing his briefcase on the table.
"How were your interviews with your new patients?" Jonathan asked me.
"They were good. At least each patient was different, otherwise it would be tedious and my job here will not be that very interesting when working with patients who all have a similar diagnosis."
"That's true."
We were both silent for the next 10 minutes so I continued reading my book, until Jonathan broke the silence by asking me a question, "Which of your patients do you find interesting?"
Without taking my eyes off the book, I said, "Edward Nigma. He really is something. I admire his intelligence and wit, though his anger needs to be sorted out a bit because he tends to have temper tantrums; mostly whenever he talks about the Batman and how he 'cheated' when solving Nigma's riddles and puzzles. He is a genius I will give him that. What about you?"
"I would say Victor Zsasz, since he's one of my mentally insane patients and my first one. I'm sure you must've heard of him through the papers."
"Yes, I have. He is a serial killer who kills with his knife and then carves a tally mark, for each victim he killed, on his skin. He seems interesting to me," I said, still not taking my eyes off the page I was currently reading.
"If you like, I can introduce you to him when we start our shifts together at 6," Jonathan offered.
"Thank you," I said, then we ended our conversation there. Until then, I had an idea, "Jonathan, would you like to spend some time with me at the park? We only have 1 hour and 35 minutes left of our break to get to know each other more and gain our trust between us."
Jonathan looked like he was thinking about it, judging by the calculating look in his eyes. I wonder what he would be thinking, but I'm not going to enter his mind and find out straight away; time will tell when it's the right time to do so.
3rd Person's POV
Jonathan was thinking about what Angela had just told him and took this as the right time to get to know more about her and somehow find her weak spots, for his plan to work; find out what she really fears the most and use that against her, somehow be able to break through that monotonous façade of hers and see her true colours.
"Very well. Why don't we go to Gotham Park? There's not much people there today," Jonathan replied after several seconds of thinking.
"That's fine," Angela replied. With that, they both grabbed their briefcases and went their way to Gotham Park by taxi, which took them nearly 15 minutes to get there.
They've arrived at Gotham Park. Like what Jonathan said, there were not a lot of people. Both walked together, with a few people in the surrounding area giving a few glances here and there. They ignored them and just kept walking all around the park. During their walk, Angela began to hum a song which, for some reason, nerved Jonathan quite a bit. This is because, what Angela was humming to was not just any simple song; it was a church hymn. Jonathan started to feel uneasy with Angela humming that church hymn for it made him trigger something inside that made him remember things he tried to forget a long time ago.
"You do realise you are breathing quicker than normal," Angela said breaking the silence, at the same breaking Jonathan away from his thoughts. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. How did you know I was breathing quickly?" Jonathan asked, for he knew that he didn't make any sound when he was breathing.
"Simple. Your chest was heaving up and down faster than usual. I don't have to hear to know that you are breathing quickly."
Jonathan regretted asking that question. Not only did he make a fool of himself in front of Angela, but he slowly started to lose his strong ego one chip at a time.
"You don't need to feel like a fool when asking me such a question like that. Besides, I'm a neuropsychologist and I know my job." Angela said without hesitation and emotion. Wait, how did she know I made myself feel like a fool when asking her that question? I'm supposed to be the one asking her that, but she didn't make any sort of reaction since we came here, Jonathan questioned in his mind.
Until they found a bench, they both sat down, putting their briefcases underneath them. After sitting there for 5 minutes in silence, Angela decided to break it, "So, Jonathan. Other than your job, what do you do in your free time?"
"I pretty much do more research on the Psychology of Fear and apply that knowledge to finding out what my patients' real fears are," Jonathan replied, hiding the fact that his fear toxin is the reason behind all this.
"Interesting. For me, I just find cures for certain diseases that are very hard to cure; I have my own methods," Angela said, putting emphasis on 'own', which made Jonathan even more curious about her.
Before Jonathan was going to ask her the No. 1 question, that kept bugging his mind, which was, "What do you really fear?", the sound of sirens blared right behind them. Jonathan turned around to see what was going on, only to see that a couple of police officers were dragging along some criminal, who looked to be in his mid-40s, into the police truck. Angela didn't even take a glimpse of what's going on for she wasn't all that interested. While Jonathan was distracted, Angela can smell something coming right from underneath; it was Jonathan's briefcase.
Jonathan turned around to see Angela still sitting with her head facing forwards, in her straight posture and her gloved hands folded on her lap.
"You were going to say something, Jonathan. What was it?" Angela questioned him.
"I was going to ask what you really fear, since, well, your answer didn't seem clear to me," Jonathan answered.
"I see. Well, to be honest, I really don't have a fear of anything. Some fear things because they've had a bad experience with them, while some are scared because they don't want to know what will happen. In my case, I don't see what there is the fear in this world, even if this world is cruel yet somehow beautiful in its own way; without man-made things." Angela answered truthfully, no lies given away in her eyes, as Jonathan could tell (much to his displeasure).
Out of nowhere, a crow landed in front of the two doctors. Angela didn't even flinch once the crow landed and made a 'caw' sound, however, Jonathan flinched only a bit. Inside, he's feeling uncomfortable and felt the need to get out of here for this crow made him relive more of his memories of what happened on that day.
"You're flinching now. Are you sure you're alright?" Angela asked, already aware of what's inside Jonathan's mind and why he's flinching suddenly. Angela concluded why, but she's not going to tell him now…not yet.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just work and all. Working in Arkham Asylum for 7 years can get you frustrated," Jonathan lied, trying to hide his growing anxiety which he hated.
"Why don't we go to a café and have a nice cup of warm green tea? It can help you," Angela advised to him. Jonathan nodded at that, then they both got up from the bench, picked up their briefcases and made their way to the café nearby.
I don't own the Dark Knight Trilogy or the Batman comics. All of them belong to their rightful owners. Thank you. ~ Miyako-san
