Scaring The Crows

Chapter Ten

I braced myself for the anger that awaited. But that anger never came. With a long sigh, Jonathan turned to walk back down the flights of winding stairs down to the bottom floor, grabbed his keys and walked outside after unlocking the door. I ran down after him and stood in the doorway, watching him walk out into the rain and collect the papers. He was silent. Just silently picked up the papers that had landed in the puddles outside the asylum. Years of work, ruined. I figured he was too angry to talk to me, that his frustration levels were too high.

When he had collected what he could salvage from the puddles, he cradled the papers close to his chest and stood up from the ground. It was eerie how quiet and calm he was. "Jonathan? Are you ok? I'm so sorry" I frowned, looking at him. He never made eye contact with me, he didn't even acknowledge I existed. He just walked back in with the soggy files in his arms. Rain had clouded his glasses.

The halls fell silent as he walked through them. Every inmate, normally loud and outgoing, were now quiet. You could hear a pin drop between the Rogue Gallery. A few asked if the good doctor was ok but he failed to reply. He just walked, eyes fixed on the floor, and quietly walked into his office. A part of me expected him to slam the door or scream but no; he shut it gently and there was no residue sound.

I sniffed and walked outside, shivering at the cold air. In one of the puddles, untouched by Jonathan, was a lone file. It looked dirty and worn, not one that had been looked at recently. I cautiously picked it up but the name label ha been torn off and the file itself looked ruined by the rain.

"Hmm" I sighed, flicking the cover open to look at the pages inside. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just some medical records, patient doctor therapy sessions, a police custody warning and some more hospital admissions. Nothing unusual. I picked up the file in the hopes of returning it to Jonathan when a picture fell from it; not just any picture dropped, it was a photograph.

"Wait" I frowned, looking at the photograph. One of the corners was singed off and the photo itself looked as though it had previously been scrunched up or burnt. Maybe both. I recognised it from somewhere. It was a black and white photograph of a woman holding a baby I assume as she was cradling some blankets. She stated directly into the camera. I knew those eyes. "Mum?" I blinked.

The medical record only confirmed this. The file belonged to that of a 'Gemma McFair' and I knew that was my mother's name (before she got married. Her family was half Scottish so that explained the last name) and I felt my eyes grow watery. She's never told us. I scanned the page for any more information. 'Birthed a daughter whilst in Asylum care'. I was born here.

I ran back inside with the file held tightly in my hand. Why was it so quiet? Usually I'd hear things like "HARLEEEEEEEY!" from the Joker, mumblings from Ivy as she watered her plants or some sort of fight going on. But no. Something was wrong.

The large red message was still fresh on the wall, but other inmates had added to it with their messages of hate. It was almost like a hate shrine, and no matter how mug I knew I should've felt bad for it, I didn't feel guilty at all. Some of the messages even brought a smile to my face or made me laugh.

"You know, Jonathan's been in his office since what you did, and we haven't heard a thing since then, he's been really quiet" Edward nodded, looking at me. "He's not as bad as you make him out to be. Well, he's a bit on the psycho side but he's a genuinely nice guy. What you did was simply out of order Kristie" he sighed.

"But holding an entire city for ransom is completely ok? You must be so right, considering you're an angel and you never do anything wrong" I mocked. "Jonathan has hurt everyone here its obvious, Edward"

"Just…you owe him an apology. Do you know how long it took him to make all of those files? Years, Kristie" Edward sighed.

"That's not my problem though, is it" I sighed. "I wasn't thinking straight when I decided to throw them. I didn't know that they'd end up in the puddles"

It was then that I remembered about my mother's file. "Edward?" I asked, looking at the ginger haired boy. He wasn't much taller than myself really, but he sure acted a lot older. Plus he was about five times smarter than I was. He acknowledged me with a nod.

"Mm? What do you want Kristie?" He sighed, looking up at me as he cleaned his glasses with his sleeve.

"Say if I were to drop all of your puzzles, just like I did with Jonathan's papers, and you picked them up, but left only one out,what would it mean?" I frowned, holding the file in my hands as I looked up at him. "If it meant anything at all, that is"

"Well" he sighed, putting his glasses back on. "Maybe I would leave one with the intention that you would pick it up. Maybe it was something special that you needed to find, or read, or maybe I would use it against you. Maybe to make you upset. I would never purposely make you sad though, Kristie, believe me" he smiled, hugging me. The sad thing is I guessed that Jonathan left it knowing I got upset.

Jonathan smirked from his office.