Chapter 5:
Old Friend, Old Enemy
I looked around and saw nobody in sight. I touched my finger on the appropriate numbers and the door opened. I stepped inside and found the lights in the large cell were off. I walked up to the glass and looked inside. I couldn't see anything in the cell so I stepped over and flipped on the dim lights, hoping it wouldn't anger Croc too much. I stepped over to the cell waiting for the lights to click on, the lights didn't come on right away they were on a timer. When the first light clicked on I nearly fell backwards, Croc was standing up straight right in front of the glass. "Jesus! You scared the crap out of me, Jones," I laughed grabbing my chest.
"What are you doing her so early in the morning, doc?" Croc asked with a hint of anger in his voice.
I stood up straight and said. "I wanted to talk to you again. I wanted to let you know, personally, that our next interview will be tomorrow and I wanted to see if you were ready for it." Croc's small eyes narrowed making the hard to see. He growled loud enough for me to hear clearly.
"Why did you really come doc? You have a few guards out there to check whether or not I'll try to attack you? What are they waiting for? Why haven't they come to beat me yet?" He growled again.
"Because I haven't told anyone about our little collision the other night. No one knows about it but us." The confusion in his face was obvious but I didn't continue on the subject. "I want to apologize for last night by the way. I shouldn't have been so eager to enter your cell, I realize now that it probably seemed like I was mocking you but please know I wasn't at all. At the time my naivety was at an all time maximum, I thought you had started to trust me. I didn't realize til later that you were clearly mocking me." I laughed quietly. "Look, I admit that I was probably acting weird when it came to our interviews. I was trying the nice way to get you to like me, but I realize that, in your views, that's just mocking you. So, I'll stop acting like a worried parent or teacher and be more like a friend than anything else."
Croc obviously didn't know what to say but I didn't let him. "I'll see you tomorrow Croc. Take it easy." I went to walk out of the holding room but when the door opened Gorian and Stone stood before me with looks of rage on their faces.
Gorian grabbed my shirt collar and hoisted me up off the ground. "What the fuck are you doing here?" He roared. "You are not to be anywhere near the convicts after hours unless your a guard! If this lunatic got out he could fucking kill you!"
"If you wanna know how we knew?" Stone asked pointing upwards. "Video cameras set up in here dumbass." He leaned his back against the wall with his arms crossed and smiled.
"I have half a mind to fire your ass here and there, but unfortunately I can't, that's Lilly's job. Let's go, we're going to talk to her right n —"
"Get off of me!" I roared back. Gorian and Stone both stared at me. "Get the fuck off of me Gorian!" I grabbed his wrist and wrenched it away, which wasn't easy at all. "Listen to me now! I am not in need of your protection! I can handle myself just fine without you two, Lilly, and Rex constantly breathing down my fucking neck! If you people would leave me alone once and a while I might be able to earn Croc's trust! As I've always wanted to do! But no you guys always have to stop me from getting any closer to him! The only thing I wanted to do was get close to Croc and win his friendship but you guys keep thinking he's gonna hurt, maybe he will, maybe he won't! Who cares? If he does I'm willing to overlook it, I want him to finally have someone he can trust in his life because he's been tortured and tormented all his life, like me! If you'll give me a chance I could probably get him comfortable in his own skin! So stay out of it!"
I didn't even think about Croc, I walked straight out of the door and headed for my room in the Mansion. I walked through the halls of the penitentiary thinking only about what was said. I couldn't believe I had shouted at my brother like that! I never shouted at Gorian like that! I wasn't walking long before I passed by a cell with an all-to-familiar voice.
"You smell like fear…is there something wrong?" I turned and saw him, tally-marks etched into his skin, bald head, beady eyes with no soul, it was Victor Zsasz, the psycho of my nightmares. "Let Uncle Zsasz cure what ails you…just let me make a nice…clean…incision." I was speechless, I had always tried to avoid his cell. All the memories of Victor Zsasz started flooding back to me in a wave of pain and suffering to the point where I couldn't even breath. "Oh, the fear is strong in you, why so afraid my dear?" I managed to say.
"I-I'm n-n-not af-fraid of you-u…Zsasz…"
"Oh I disagree entirely," Zsasz chortled. "You positively reek of it!" I couldn't stand it anymore, I ran through the halls with Zsasz's laughter trailing behind me. The pictures flooded through my mind. Pictures of the aftermath, the therapy….and her….
I was cramped in my room that night, boxed into a little corner with my arms wrapped around my knees. Silent tears streamed down my cheeks as I breathed sporadically, trying to get myself together. "What's wrong with me?" I asked myself aloud. "I should be able to face him, it was nearly eight years ago…and yet it was playing so vividly through my head like it had happened only a mere second ago.
I sighed and stood from my bed. The waterworks had stopped so I went into the kitchen of my apartment/hotel room in the mansion to get something to drink. I had downed have the glass of soda when I heard a knock at the door. Without my know it, the glass fell from my hand and shattered on the floor right next to my foot. But I didn't feel a thing. I was terrified, I looked at the clock, it was one in the morning, who could it be? I had a feeling I hoped was wrong, Zsasz, Victor Zsasz had broke out of his cell to come after me, to finish what he started eight years ago. I tiptoed over to the door and looked out the peephole, it was too dark to see anyone, so I spoke.
"Who is it?" There was no reply. "Hello?"
"Open up, believe it or not its bloody cold out here in the hallway," the voice said in an articulate English accent, not heavy, but there. "Damian, are you going to let me in or not?" I couldn't believe my ears, it wasn't Zsasz, it was someone I hadn't seen in too long. I slung open the door.
"KAINAN!" I wrapped my arms around the matured, European Psychiatrist and said. "Where were you?" I released my grip and said. "How was your vacation?"
"Ugh…fine, now get off of me, I told you not to hug me like that, you're so gay," he said. I frowned.
"What is it gay to hug my best friend after so many months of not seeing him?" I asked.
"Kinda, yeah," he said with a hidden smile. "How have you been? How are you liking the job so far?"
"I love the job, and I've been fine," I replied with a smile. He was the dream-guy for many women ever since he was younger. Kainan Fall was a genius when it came to medical and psychological practices. He was shorter than my be almost a head and a half, he walked with a slouch but he had a very athletic body, with salty gray hair kept in a short ponytail in the back. He wore a button up white shirt, a gray argyle sweater vest over it, and a black tie. He wore a pair of gray khakis that complimented his thin legs. He was dressed nicely, he was what many women would call sexy, even for his age, thirty-seven, and could whoop your ass in a fight, drinking game, or card game. "Where'd you go for you vacation, Kainan?" I asked.
"I went to Ireland. True they don't very much like the English, but most of them were to bloody drunk to tell the difference," he said sitting down on the couch. "I didn't go for the people anyhow, I went for the magnificent scenery that Dublin had to offer."
"You want some coffee?" I asked. Kainan nodded excitedly, he loved coffee and tea more than anything else in the world. I got the coffee in the pot and started it so it would be done in about three minutes. I walked into the living room with Kainan. "So when did you g—"
"Damian, my god man your foot," Kainan said calmly. I looked down and saw my foot was tattered from the glass I had dropped, I was so excited and full of Adrenaline that I hadn't noticed.
"OW!" But now I did and it hurt like a bitch. "Shit, I forgot I dropped a glass when you knocked." I hobbled over to the chair in the living room and sat down and lifted my foot. Kainan rolled his eyes and grabbed my foot. He took a pair of tweezers out of his pocket, I know its weird he carries around medical equipment and the sort but it's Kainan you'll get used to it, and started pulling out shards of glass. I twitched and struggled from the pain but most of it was exaggerated. When all the pieces were out he took out some bandages from his bag he'd brought and wrapped my foot up quite professionally. "You wanna go ahead and shove a railroad spike in my heel while your at it? That hurt you asshole!" I said sitting up.
"My god you are a child aren't you?" He stood up and walked into the kitchen to get his coffee. Get some sleep, take a nice hot shower, and take a couple of pain killers in the morning, you'll be fine," he said pouring his coffee and drinking it straight black. He walked through the living room and to the door. He turned to look at me as he opened it.
"Don't let the inmates here get the best of you, in a job like this you have to completely stable, mentally, before you can even hope to survive in a job as fast-paced as this one. If you show any hint of mental frailty, you'll regret it direly in the long run." And with that he shut the door. I sighed and looked down at my foot.
"What am I going to do?" I asked myself twitching it. I stood up and limped to my room tiresomely. "First things first, sleep…" I blacked out as soon as my head hit my pillow.
"You wanted to see me Lilly?" I asked stepping into her office the next day. I looked around but she wasn't at her desk. I cocked an eyebrow and looked around her office. It seemed bigger than I remembered and her desk had a weird feeling to it, like it was warmer than usual. I opened the door and poked my head out. "Gorian where's Lil—Gorian…?" I looked to both sides of the door but neither Stone nor Gorian were anywhere in sight. I began to feel weird; they were just out there when I walked in. I didn't know what to think. I walked into Lilly's office again, shrugged off the weird feeling and sat in her chair, cautiously. I spun in the chair and laughed as the vertigo and dizziness kicked in. I spun again then stopped to get on her computer. I was going through the games that she had, seeing she had the high score on many of them, and finally decided to look something up on Croc. It was going to get me in trouble but for some reason I had to know something about him. I opened his dossier and the picture of Croc was weird. It was distorted like plastic left out in the blazing hot sun. I read the words on the folder but it didn't make sense it read: "Killer Croc was let out of prison today by a rambunctious, stupid, indecisive young man today, he doesn't know what to think and will probably be dead within the hour. Why did you go out for that job? Why didn't you leave your brothers and sister alone? You just had to get involved didn't you, Damian?" I was officially freaked out. Was this some kind of joke my sister was playing on me? Did she know I'd sit down at her desk? What's going on? Suddenly the picture of Croc morphed into a creepy arrow that pointed down. I cocked an eyebrow again then the words "LOOK DOWN STUPID FUCK!" appeared in big bright letters. I looked down and saw Lilly tied up under the desk with a large chain. Her mouth was bound as well and her eyes were empty. She was dead! She had lacerations all over her body. "LILLY!" I screamed diving from the chair and cradling my sister's corpse. "What have they done to you? NO!" I couldn't scream loud or hard enough. I wanted to die at that moment alone when I heard the same laugh that I had heard in the penitentiary the night before. I turned and saw a weird man with green scales on him and a bald head and tally marks etched into his skin all over his body. It was some mixture between Zsasz and Croc. It was a monster I'd only see in my nightmares. The beast grabbed a large bone and plunged it into my eye…then I woke up…
I shot up straight in my bed screaming at the top of my lungs. I looked around unsure of what was real. I got out of my bed and stumbled into the kitchen for something to drink. "What was that?" I asked referring to the dream. "What was that dream?" I finished off my drink and slept on the couch for the rest of the night.
I sat in the cafeteria at a table alone. I poked at my lunch but never stuck a piece in my mouth for the whole time. I was thinking of the dream when a metal tray slammed down on the table. I looked up and saw Stone sitting in front of me. "Hey," I said poking my food again.
"What's up?" Stone asked sitting down with some gross-looking slop on his tray.
"Are you eating the food they serve the convicts?" I asked with cocked eyebrow.
"Yep, it's not fair that we guards get all the good shit when those guys have to eat this." He started prodding at some green mush that gave off a strong odor I'd rather not talk about. "Plus, I've heard from reliable sources that this is the reason their so strong in the stomach and mind." I laughed.
"Who told you that?"
"Eh...Great White." He started scarfing the food down his throat and didn't show a single sign of repulsion, unlike me. "So what's bothering you? And why you eating alone?"
"Nobody here likes me," I said with a nervous chuckle. "Duh, I got this job because my brother's the chief of the guards, my best friend is head of engineering, and my sister's the fucking warden. Aside from that I only have one interviewee aside from Quinn and I doubt I'll be seeing her again, not after our last little situation." I sighed. "And I had a dream last night...a nightmare, actually. I don't wanna go into details but...I don't want to think about it as a vision or a premonition...but it was disturbing...I'd rather not talk about it right now."
"'Kay!" Stone said with a mouthful of slop. "Oh, Lilly wants you to know that you're interview with Croc is today." I nodded. We barely talked the rest of the time.
I walked through the corridors of the penitentiary with Rex. We walked from cell to cell until we got to the one I couldn't wait to get to, no not Croc's, Mr. Nigma. "Hello Edward," I greeted him. The Riddler stood up with the same finess and stepped up to the bars.
"Hello doctor," he said with a smile. "Here for another riddle?" I could tell he was excited by the anticipation in his voice.
"Of course, Mr. Nigma, please, let me hear it," I replied with a small smirk.
"Of course, but not just one, three today my good man. We'll start with an easy one, first." He cleared his throat and gave a toothy grin.
"Thirty white horses on a red hill,
First they champ,
Then they stamp,
Then they stand still."
"What is it, doctor? This is simple for one with intellect such as yours." I smiled at the complement then began to think. The answer came almost instantly, I'd read that poem in a book before.
"Teeth," I announced.
"Yes! Very good doctor, but it wasn't challenging enough for your intellect, that one was at the bottom of the endless treasure chest that is my mind."
"You got that one faster than I did," Rex said scratching his head. "I'm terrible at these." He laughed and continued his inspection on the wiring in his cell.
"That is because your intellect is far inferior to mine and the good doctor's here," Nigma stated bluntly. Rex gave him a nasty glare and continued his work.
"Next one, Edward, please I do enjoy them," I said getting gittier than I'd initially entended.
"Of course doctor. A bit more challenging this time."
He pondered for only a moment then stated his next riddle.
"I am the beginning of the end,
and the end of time and space.
I am essential to creation,
and I surround every place.
What am I?"
"I'm especially fond of this particular riddle, can you guess why?" I didn't say anything, I was too wrapped up in my thoughts to do so. I pondered on it for awhile. I had to becareful because I knew that he would be disappointed and perhaps even angry if I guessed wrong. I thought about it logically, I thought about what could be at the end of time and space, a few thoughts crossed my mind. Stars, Vaccum, Nothingness, but that wasn't at the beginning of "end". Nothing seemed to fit, then I thought about "creation" and "every place". Then it dawned on me but I didn't want to say it at first only because I wasn't sure if it would even be relevant to the answer. I took a breath and said. "The letter 'E'?"
"Excellent, Doctor!" Nigma announced excitedly. "Very well done. I thought I had you for a moment."
"You're not going to fool me that easily Edward," I said with a sly smirk.
"Oh, we'll see about that!" Nigma said with exciteded enthusiasm. "Last one and this one will be difficult, the most difficult of the three. You seemed to have trouble with the last one, let's see how you do with this." He smiled and said:
"I give you a group of three.
One is sitting down, and will never get up.
The second eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry.
The third goes away and never returns."
"Let us test your intellect with this difficult little riddle, doctor," Nigma gloated. At this point Rex was staring at me waiting for an answer, which wouldn't come to me. I sat there for what seemed like forever. I searched all possibilities. Sins, humans, animals, structures, women, weapons, items, and everything else I could think of. Suddenly I thought of elements. The second part of the riddle came to me. I just had to figure the other two parts of the riddle. I took my time and thought about what the second part's answer could relate to, I discovered the answer to the third part.
"C'mon Damian, you can figure this out," Rex encouraged quietly. "Just think about it, it'll come to you I know it."
The thoughts that entered my head made since but I knew for a fact that it wasn't the right choice. I wanted to just blurt out the answers that popped into my head but I knew better. I could only ponder. 'Sits still...', 'never stands up...'. I pondered for only a second more when it hit me. The first section of the riddle.
"In the order named: Oven, Fire, and Smoke," I announced with a bit of enthusiasm in my voice. Edward's face lit up almost instantaniously.
"Very well done Doctor! You are of great intellect! You are higher than even the batman himself! He himself, the one with the greatest riddle of all, 'Who is the Batman?' I want so much to figure out the answer to that riddle. Do you know the answer to the riddle, Doctor?" I laughed and shook my head.
"Unfortunately not, I myself have wondered the same thing, I think everyone has. If I find out, I'll let you know," I told him with genuine truth. Rex's stare was that of shock and a hint of suspicion, but Edward's was that of sheer joy.
"Oh I know you will doctor! I know you will, I trust you all the way!"
Later on Rex and I walked down the corridor. "Damian, you...were you serious when you told Nigma about Batman's identity?" I thought about it, I was serious! I honestly meant what I had said about that, I would've given Nigma his identity had I've known it at that time.
I didn't know what to tell him exactly. I couldn't tell him I was serious, but I've never lied to Rex. I opened my mouth but before I could speak a voice came from next to us.
"You smell like distress and fear..." my spine began to tingle. I knew the voice. "I can hear your heart skip a beat...I want to see it..." I turned to face Zsasz. "The fear is blatant in your eyes. I love it, it excites me. Have you seen my work? I'd love to pose you. Maybe with your friend there, although he wouldn't make that much of a trophy. But you..."
"Stop it Zsasz," Rex demanded with the dark voice he always took when he protected me from bullies back in school. "I will personally come in there and beat your ass, I don't care if it costs me my fuckin' job. Now cool it or I'll cool it for ya'!" Zsasz smiled and chuckled.
"Please do, I've been itching for-"
"Is Mr. Victor being unruley again?" Came a voice from behind. Zsasz's face turned from amusement to sheer terror. I turned to see Kainan, the Psychiatrist that came to my room last night. "Now, Mr. Zsasz, I've told you about your little problem haven't I? About how if you don't quit tormenting people that there would be severe consequences towards your actions...remember?" Zsasz cowered from Kainan, which gave me great joy. "Damian, I'd like a word with you, alone if I may?"
Rex nodded. "Sure thing, I gotta go check on Fries again, make sure his AC won't bug out anytime soon. I'll catch you assholes later." And with that Rex took off. Kainan gave one last glance to Zsasz, which freaked him out. I smirked and walked along the halls with Kainan.
"You seem to be doing well in your interviews with Croc," Kainan said walking with his hands behind his back. "Lilly's told me you've made satisfactory progress, more than anyone's ever made with Jones. Honestly, I'm impressed with your psychological capabilities. You should be careful not to lose them." I nodded listening closely to what he said. "That being said, you mustn't treat Jones like you would a child, it pisses him off even more. You must treat him like an equal. You're trying to show him that you wish to be a friend, this I understand, but if you want to reach him you need to treat him like a person he'd be friends with. Blunt, fiesty, and possess a sick sense of humor, exactly how he is. But don't try to hard or you'll come off fake and that's the last thing you wanna do." I nodded again. "I heard about your little tussel with Quinzel, that was unfortunate but you took necissary percautions and I respect that, however, you can reach her the way you did on the tapes, complement her prowess as a Psychologist, her independence, and of course her appearance. It's easy to connect with the inmates if you get into their heads and figure them out. Trust me." He smiled, showing the attractiveness in his face even more.
"Thanks Kainan," I said. "You've been a good friend and mentor these past few years, it's good to have a friend like youself. Thank you." Kainan smiled and nodded then walked off. When he had turned a corner and was out of sight I sighed and started shaking. I looked around and saw the cells around me were empty. I sat with my back against the wall and my face in my hands. Once again I was freaking out about Zsasz and I couldn't control my shaking. At that moment I wanted to put a bullet through my head. I couldn't stop thinking about "her". Her face kept showing up in my head and every time it did it wasn't the pretty face I wanted to remember. It was...disgusting...I just sat there for almost half an hour before realizing my interview with Croc was coming up. I sighed, wiped the tears from my eyes, then stood up. I walked through the halls of the penitentiary with only two thoughts on my mind, one: my interview with Jones, and two: the mental images of my torturing Zsasz until he was begging for death. And as I thought about the latter...I could feel a smile on my face...and then a small chuckle exited my lips...