"Scarecrow?" Amber said in a high-pitched tone. Crane smiled coldly at her.
"No. Far from it. Come on." When she still didn't move, Crane glared at her. "Amber, this is your last warning."
"Th-that was the voice that wanted me dead, wasn't it? The Scarecrow." Her voice shook with fear.
"Yes Amber. That was it." He replied coolly.
Amber's mind was screaming at her to move, to run, to do something, but her body remained frozen in place with shock and horror. So this is really why she was locked up here, the Scarecrow didn't want someone breaking his story. How stupid she had been all this time, acting up and being obstinate when at any moment, Crane could have used the toxin that he doused the Narrows with. Her thoughts of all the things that could have happened to her were stopped by Crane's grabbing her wrist roughly and dragging her along to her cell.
"Ouch! Let go!" She said loudly to him. His hand was unnaturally cold and Amber tried to pull her wrist from his grasp. She had little success as he tightened his grip. All this time and I couldn't see it… Amber thought as Crane unlocked the door to her room and pushed her in.
I'm stuck in an asylum run by a psychopath. Amber thought grimly as she watched Crane stalk back to his office from her small window.
Dr. White thought back to her session with Amber while she was sweeping up the shards of the plates. She had mentioned something that was definitely worth looking into. Amber, despite being persistent and at times, extremely immature, seemed to be perfectly sane. Her story could quite possibly be true, and if that was the case, Dr. White knew that she could use it finally blackmail Crane into leaving Riverside Asylum and even New York City. Of course, she would also free Amber, after all, she was bound to get out one way or another, and Dr. White definitely didn't want any parts of this involving her in the New York Observer.
After she finished cleaning her office, Dr. White made a few calls to the hospital that Amber had been admitted to after her supposed suicide attempt, and the story checked out. Crane had insisted upon bringing her to this asylum. Amber never had any history of suicidal tendencies, and didn't show many of the symptoms either. She had a job at the New York Observer which meant that she obviously graduated some kind of college, and although Dr. White didn't know anything about Amber's family, she assumed that Amber couldn't have had a terribly awful life. Tomorrow, Dr. White decided, she would bring the story to Crane, and finally take control of Riverside Asylum.
The next afternoon, Dr. White was waiting for Jonathan outside his office. Trying to hold her joy inside her, she knocked briskly on the door. "Come in." Jonathan said in a bored tone.
"Is there some other problem with Amber you wanted to discuss?" He asked her when she stepped in.
"Yes actually." She smiled triumphantly at him and he felt the beginnings of apprehension. "She has this story she told me. Something about you pushing her in front of a taxi, then locking her up here. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you Dr. Crane?"
"…What do you want?" He asked after a long silence. There was no point in trying to fool her now, Jonathan was sure that she had researched this before blackmailing him with it. How stupid could he have been? Of course Amber would tell Dr. White this, now he would have to leave the asylum, and with Dr. White as the new Administrator, she could get out. It would be exactly what he would have done. He sighed as she sneered at him.
"I want you gone, Crane. Out of the asylum and out of New York. There's something in your past that I haven't found yet, but Amber Larks obviously has. And I get the feeling that she would tell me everything if promised her freedom." Dr. White told him in a cold tone. He looked down, knowing that there was nothing that he could do aside from killing both Dr. White and Amber that could cover this up. He knew that he could kill Dr. White easily, but there was the small problem of her family noticing her absence. And then, there was Amber's murder that he would have to deal with as well.
"Okay then. I'll need an hour to get my things out of the office." He said quietly. This life that he had worked so hard to build here was now ruined; and the amazing thing about it was, the only thing it took was Amber's mentioning something to this horrible woman. Dr. White walked out of his office humming to herself with pleasure. He felt like breaking something, perhaps throwing his chair out the window, but he didn't want Dr. White to do something in revenge for anything stupid he might do. He walked out of his office and down the hall to fetch a large cardboard box to put his belongings in from the office.
Amber looked up from the novel that Crane had given her to read when her door swung open without so much as a knock. Dr. White was standing in the doorway, looking quite happy.
"Do you want something?" Amber asked her.
"Don't speak to me in that tone; you sound just like Crane when you do that!" Dr. White said in an annoyed tone. "Do you have any personal items here? If so I'd advise packing them up, you're leaving."
"What?" Amber said in disbelief.
"Do you have anything here that's yours? I tend to doubt it, but bring it with you when you leave." Amber was shocked. Finally, after being trapped by the walls of this wretched asylum, she was going home.
"What about Dr. Crane? Doesn't he have to say this is okay?" Amber could help but be slightly mistrustful of this new, although wonderful turn of events.
"Dr. Crane is not Administrator of this hospital any more. He is resigning and left the post for me to fill." Dr. White said glowingly. It made Amber slightly nauseous to see her happy, but she couldn't help but be ecstatic herself at the prospect of finally leaving Riverside Asylum. Amber followed Dr. White out of the room, taking the novel with her. As she was walking towards the exit though, a thought struck her, and her excitement faded. Dr. Crane had to know that she told Dr. White something. It would certainly make her mad, to have this wonderful life that she had put together destroyed, and she wondered with dread what was going to happen to her in return.
As she walked out the doors of Riverside Asylum, she saw a big yellow taxi waiting for her in the parking lot. Dr. White waved to her from the entrance, but Amber didn't wave back as she looked around the lot. There wasn't a Mercedes, or any other expensive car sitting in the parking lot she could see as the taxi pulled out; that meant that Crane had already left the asylum. She started to tell the driver her address, but instead gave him the address of a popular restaurant near her apartment complex. She was finally going to have something decent to eat.
Luckily, Amber found that her credit card was still in her pocket, and after she was finished eating the overly-expensive meal, charged it to the card. She walked out, feeling very full and happy. She decided that she would worry about Crane tomorrow, because he couldn't possibly have had enough time to plan anything against her just yet. She walked into the apartment building, and took the elevator up to her apartment. She hopped to get the spare key that she left above the door frame, and unlocked the door.
Sighing with happiness at finally being home, she flicked on the light in her living room.
"Hello Amber." A voice said behind her. She felt pure dread as she turned around and saw Jonathan Crane sitting at her small table. She had walked right past him without knowing he was there.
"H-hi Crane…" She stammered. He smiled coldly at her and lifted up one of her martini glasses in a toast to her.
"An excellent brand. I'm surprised that you have Grey Goose in the house." He said, taking a sip of the vodka.
"How did you get in here?" She asked him cautiously.
"The same way you did. Honestly, key on top of the door frame; so predictable."
"How long have you been in my apartment?" She ignored the predictable comment. Slowly she backed up to her silverware drawer.
"I've been here for about…" He looked at his Fossil watch "Two and a half hours now. Went out to dinner I suppose." Crane said in an offhand manner. Quickly Amber spun around and whipped open the drawer. She felt her fear triple when she saw the item that she was looking for gone.
"Missing something?" A cold voice asked her. She turned around slowly and looked up at him. He held the long knife up, the lamplight glinted off the polished steel edge. "It's a nice knife. Amber, you look rather afraid. You shouldn't be. I'm not going to kill you with this. Whenever you stab someone, it always turns out to be messy; you know, blood everywhere…" He set the knife down and looked at her with those vindictive blue eyes. "I personally prefer to strangle."