Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Remembrance of a New Face

Valencia woke to the smell of cigarette smoke and the clatter of dishes. She sighed and closed her eyes again. She wanted to keep her interactions with Jonathan to a minimum. He was the one who started all of this. If he wasn't so obsessed with fear and all that, she'd be beating up Roman Sionis for blackmail purposes and be a couple thousand dollars richer. But no.

She rolled onto her side and and wrapped her arms around one of the surplus pillows in an attempt to get comfortable enough to fall back to sleep. She stayed that way for what seemed like hours but the elapsed time was only about ten minutes.

Jonathan knocked on the door before opening it, peering into the dark bedroom. He saw Valencia curled up and breathing slowly. Still sleeping, he concluded, retreating back into his kitchen. He took one last drag from his cigarette before stamping it out in a cheap glass ash tray. He moved to the living room and picked up a rather thick Arkham file. He thumbed through the papers, not taking his eyes off of them as he sat down on the stiff arm chair.

"Huh," He muttered, turning a page over to continue reading. "Buried alive. What an interesting way to go... Good morning, Valencia." He turned to see the woman fixing herself a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

"Are you reading my file, Herr Doktor?" She made her way into the living room and sat down on the love seat Jonathan had slept on last night.

"How could you guess?" Jonathan replied, returning to the file and turning over a page.

" 'Buried alive'." She restated. "I only know a fist-full of people who sat's happened to."

"Fist-full?" Jonathan raised an eyebrow and peered up at Valencia over the top of his glasses. "Don't you mean, 'handful'?"

"I guess so." She took a sip of coffee. "English is not my first language."

"That much I could tell."

Valencia shot Jonathan a weak glare and busied herself with her coffee. Too much sugar.

The two sat in silence. Jonathan reading and Valencia drinking her coffee.

"Who was your psychologist at Arkham?" Jonathan spoke up, closing the file and fixing his gaze on Valencia, who had finished her coffee and was now staring off into space.

"You read my file. You know who my psychologist vas."  She responded, looking at the mug in her hands.

"Tell me about him."

"You vorked wis him. You know more about him san I do."

"The Dr. Stange that I knew is not the same one you know." Jonathan set down the file and picked up a white legal pad, pulling a pen from his breast pocket.
Valencia watched him do this and sighed, electing to stare into space than answer.

"Valencia, I need you to cooperate, or you'll die-"

"-A painful death. I know." She sighed, closing her eyes to remember better. "Dr. Hugo Stange. He vas very good at his job. Got more out of his patients san any oser psychologist sat I know of. Most of our sessions vere silent. Sough, from se recordings, you'd never know sat ve vere in an intense staring contest." She paused to look at Jonathan pointedly, like how she would with Dr. Strange. "Ven I did speak, I only spoke in German. Se Doktor vould respond in English, urging me to do se same. I could only assume it vas so he didn't have to translate for se transcript.

"Eventually, he allowed me to speak in German, and responded in German as vell. He vould ask me se same questions for about a veek, sen se next veek, new questions. Almost as if he vanted to see if I vas lying, or to get an emotional outburst. Frustration, crying. He did not elicit any such emotion from me."

"What were some of the questions he'd ask?" Jonathan looked up from his legal pad, setting his pen down.

"Vhy did your father hit your mother? Who is your father? How did you meet your mother? How are you feeling?" Valencia looked away from Jonathan for a moment. "My father did not hit my mother. My father vas a circus freak. I met my mother on my birthday in se hospital like most people. And fine. I'm feeling fine. All questions easily answered. I never understood vhy he asked sem."

Jonathan hummed in reponce and picked up his pen, writing something down. "Anything else about Dr. Strange?"

"Nosing you don't know already."

"Well, I think that's enough for today." Jonathan set his legal pad under the file and stood. "Hungry?"

"Yes, I am." Valencia stood as well and followed Jonathan into the small kitchen.

"I can make just about anything, breakfast-wise," Jonathan said before turning around, watching as Valencia washed her mug in the sink. "what do you want?"

"Vhat do you vant?"

"I'm not hungry. I ate while you were still asleep."

"A sandwich? I'm not one for breakfast."

"Sure, coming right-"

"-Jonny!"

Valencia and Jonathan froze. Someone was at the front door.

"Jonnyyyy!"

Harley Quinn.

"Jonny! We wanna say hello ta the Shadow Lady!" Her voice tore through the walls like water on tissue paper.

"Damn," Jonathan clenched his jaw and went to the front door.

Valencia stayed in the kitchen. She'd only heard about Harley Quinn, never formally met her.

Jonathan cracked the door only slightly. "What do you want Harley."

"I heard all about this black bird and I wanted to meet her for myself!" Harley threw her hands into the air, hitting someone that stood next to her. "Oops, sorry Kitty."

"Listen, Jon. She's been going on and on about meeting Valencia for the past week. We're ready to throtle her. Just let her see Val. Please." Pamela sighed from behind the door. "Take this as the payment for healing her."

"She's not healed." Jonathan growled. "She's still very much ill. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to take care of her-"

Just then the door is kicked open, a shiny black platform boot sticking horizontally through the open doorway.

Valencia dashed over to help Jonathan stand back up. He had been thrown to the floor, the back of his head making contact with the bed frame.

"She doesn't look 'scary' ta me."

Valencia looked up to the doorway after she helped Jonathan stand.

Three women stood at the threshold. Selina, who was wearing tight black street clothes; Pamela, donned in her usual green leotard; and the last being who Val could only assume to be Harley. She had bright white skin and was decked out in alternating black and red...everything. From her half-red-half-black dress, her one black one red platform boots, and her black and red checkard purse, this gal had a definite coulour scheme.

"You haven't seen her with her shadows." Selina smirked and entered the room without Jonathan's blessing.

"Uh, yeah, I have. She broke us outta Arkham that one time." Harley trotted after Selina.

Pamela rolled her eyes and decided to let herself in as well. Jonathan slammed the door shut and stormed after the women, leaving Valencia in the bedroom still processing everything that just happened.

"You can't be here. You need to leave-" Jonathan started, but was thrown to a wall by a mess of vines.

"I'm just as much Valencia's doctor as you are, Jon." Pamela shook her head. She turned to Harley, who was sitting in Jonathan's chair, flipling through the television chanels. "Harley, I'm going to give Valencia a once-over and then you can talk to her."

Harley blew a raspberry. "Nah! She's boring-" a shadow wrapped around the remote and wrenched it from her hand. All eyes turned to Valencia, who's eyes were leaking black smoke.

The shadows disappeared and Valencia set the remote on the kitchen counter. "I'm not boring." She then turned and went back into the bedroom, Pamela following.