BATMAN || Automatonophobia || a fanfiction story

||CHAPTER THREE||

Solane swayed slightly to her music that hummed in her ears, Solane felt tears form in her eyes when she had pictured her and her father singing the song together on their way home from a friends house, the wind blowing their hair as they sang their voices out as they sang along in unison to it.

The tears brushed down her face as the memory of both her parents' funerals flashed in her head, the scent of her broken mother sitting motionless and with a blank emotionless stare on the creaky living room couch sent her brows in a sad curve.

Her mother attempting suicide had been the worst of it, at least their fathers death was quick and hopefully painless but Swan suffered for a good year before she had givin up.

In a low shaky voice Solane sang along some parts of it to calm herself, feeling her heart quicken but slowly dim down as she focused on nothing else but the music lulling her. She wasn't patting her own shoulder about it but in her opinion, her voice would be perfect in professional singing competitions, her middle school teacher used to tell her that all the time.

She turned the music up just a bit more on the computer, wiping her eyes as she opened her eyes and got to work on looking on NYU for anything that would catch her eye. So far it felt like it had been hours, the sun was peeking its yellow-orange glow over the horizon.

Solane sighed in impatience, scrolling past an old news article about two kids dying in a fatal car accident during a senior school prom night, she read their names as; Bo Griggs and cheerleader Sherry Squires, oh how unfortunate.

For a moment a wave of pity for them turned up in her mind, but at the same time she knew all too well teenagers drove out drunk under the table or they decided it was a good idea to go over the speed limit on a road that had experienced rainfall and had made the pavement slippery.

Solane thought boredly scrolling past it, but that boredness went away once she scrolled her mouse down to a recommendation, Gotham City University located in the neighborhood of Chelsea New Jersey.

Solane groaned, she was near that area but it was a twenty minute drive she wasn't too keen to take "awh man, now I gotta push around Sol for gas money till I can handle myself".

Well, Sol could plenty afford if he got the job Damian and the others where ranting on about, and sure she could get a part-time job during school, but she was the kind of person who got mentally tired easily, she still chittered her teeth in slight envy at the thought of that being the reason her brother had slightly better grades than she did.

"Solane! I got it!" a voice suddenly shouted across the apartment, the voice sounded slightly muffled because of her headphones and the door being closed but she was positive it was Sol.

She leapt out of her bed, tossing the headphones off her ears and rushing out of her room "got what? Did you get the job?" she stammered in a spark of hope.

Sol smiled wide, crouching slightly to be on his sister's level "sure did! The manager said all I have to do is fill a few of these papers out and I can get started on Monday". Solane hugged him "that's great" Sol's giggling stopped when he noticed her voice was a bit mellow.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Solane looked at him strongly with a hint of confusion she shook her head dismissively "fine, I just can't seem to stop having thoughts about what happened" she crossed her arms in an act of embracing herself.

Sol hugged his sister, he was a bit worried she'd start to starve herself and cut off her sleep schedule because of having strange nightmares about their mother and their fathers crash.

He had a hard time letting go of it too but he was at peace about it alot more than she was, he separated the hug, keeping his hands on her shoulders "tell you what, if it ever gets bad to the point I can't help, we can go get the things you need to get better" she nodded, not saying a word further, Sol kissed her forehead and rushed down to his room.

There he goes, that should keep him busy while I work on researching that university. Solane told herself sternly, trying to keep her focus as she marched off to her room.

She sighed as she put the soft headphones over her ears, she couldn't help but look out her window, the night engulfed the streets, the lights blazed like miniature stars that grew off the ground, she pondered what she would do, her hearing picked up the slight blaring of distant sirens.

Robber, murderer, predator, arsonist, some idiot driving over the speed limit. It could've been anything she thought absentmindedly. It made her sad that people in city's live in constant fear of the dark when it finally blanketed the largely populated area, even those who have lived here for a decade or two most likely still had a gun or knife hidden somewhere on them.

Her eyes furrowed, remembering that she would always get comments from people about her knowledge of psychology and it was the only class she always had beaten her brother in.

She remembered things that her mother would tell her about trying to work as a therapist to help heal people, and how she had friends who worked as therapists and nurses that described the feeling of knowing you had just saved a life was almost as amazing as her holding Sol and herself as babies for the first time. That's it!

Making up her mind she decided to note in an online application of her phycology, this city from what she had seen so far needed help, sure there were plenty of doctors, GCPD and other safety departments but she figured "the more the merrier".

The only place she could find really good money was Arkham Asylum, she swallowed at the thought, she had heard many stories about that place, about how the worst of the worst where being held there in petty hopes of rehabilitating them rather than just freeing the city of the burden of those awful people by execution.

Upon her further research, Arkham had been named after a woman by the name Elizabeth Arkham, mother of founder Amadeus Arkham. On further reading there had been a lot of foul play involved with the family who had owned the hospital and much later Amadeus had found his wife and daughter had been raped and mutilated.

The foul act was done by a serial killer under the name Mad Dog, but despite the tragedy of the incident the asylum had been opened that November, which had confused her a little. In her opinion if that'd been her she would've tore that house down along with the memories and appointed medical help afterwards.

She shook her head, closing the computer to try to get some sleep. However, the memory of her parents still seemed to taunt her, just as she came out of her room late that night Sol guided her to the couch and stayed with her through the rest of the night.