In the Mind of Madness

On Monday Kenna walked into Arkham repeating the word ‘confidence’ over and over in her head. Sheila smiled at her from her desk, but Kenna was heading right for Dr. King’s office.

When she opened the door King looked up in surprise, then smiled at her. “Kenna! I didn’t expect you to be here so early. I have your new case right here, it’s -”

“I want my case back. The Joker’s.”

For a few seconds King gaped, then he recovered himself. “I don’t think I understand your logic, Kenna. Just two days ago you were ready to be done with it for good. You burst in here demanding I never put you in the same room with the man again.”

Kenna sat down, making her eyes pleading. “Sir, I’ve thought about it. If I give this up I’m giving up all the ideals that I came into this line of work with.”

“Did your ideals include losing your mind?”

Blinking, Kenna stared at her boss. She knew him fairly well, since her childhood. He had never spoken so harshly to her. “You have to trust me when I say I can handle this.”

“Dr. Archer, I don’t want you to think that I’m going to give you any special treatment because I knew your father. I will not play musical chairs with cases because of your indecision.”

Kenna felt heat rush to her face. “I’m sorry, sir, but I never asked you for any special treatment, and frankly I’m offended. You put me on The Joker’s case, so you must have some amount of faith in me.”

King glared at Kenna across his desk. “My answer is no.”

Resisting the urge to throw a childish fit, Kenna nodded. “Okay, sir.”

Standing up and exiting with a slight nod, Kenna went for the front desk. Sheila saw her coming and looked bemused. Kenna‘s jaw was set and her stride was purposeful. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Who has The Joker’s case now?” Kenna didn’t bother with pleasantries right now

Sheila typed something in on her computer, then looked back at Kenna. “That new girl. Becky Young.”

“Thanks.”

Kenna waved at Sheila as she went. Her blood was boiling by then. King took the case and gave it to another intern! So he thought that The Joker only responded to the shrinks if they were interns? Kenna shook her head and smiled grimly. She didn’t know what The Joker wanted, but she knew that her being an intern didn’t mattered very little. He was twisted, and something about Kenna entertained him. Probably how he could get her riled up so easily.

Kenna knocked on the door with YOUNG written on it in bold letters. ‘Come in’ said a quiet voice. Kenna opened the door, her eyes widening as she looked at the young girl sitting down at the desk. She was very short with cropped brown hair, and her eyes were wide and innocent. But what Kenna noticed right away, was that she had very recently been crying.

“Hi. I’m Kenna Archer.” said Kenna gently, feeling bad for barging in on her while she was emotional.

The girl’s mouth dropped open. “You had The Joker before me!”

“Yes, I did, and that’s actually why I came to talk to you.”

Becky Young stood up, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “I was going to come to you, too. Take him back!”

Kenna stared at her, her big desperate eyes were shining again. “Why don’t you want him?”

“Dr. King wanted me to go in this morning, so I did. For a little while he wouldn’t even say anything to me, then -” her face crumpled and she burst into tears. “He was so awful! Vulgar, and just m-malicious!”

Kenna resisted the urge to smirk at that. “Well, I talked to Dr. King and told him I would take it back, but he wouldn’t give it to me. He’s sure you can handle it.” Kenna said indifferently, surprised at herself. She was manipulating this poor girl.

Becky grabbed onto Kenna’s lab coat. “N-no, I can’t! Please, take him back!”

Kenna shook her head at the girl and pried her hand away. “I’m very sorry, but I can’t go against his wishes. If you ever want to talk about The Joker feel free to come to my office.” Then she turned to leave.

“Wait!” Becky cried, pulling Kenna back. “You could…come with me and we could switch places.”

“That won’t work, Becky.” Kenna answered matter-of-factly, though she was smug her plan had worked. “Dr. King will see the video from the surveillance camera.”

“I…we can switch the video every day with the one from this morning. I bet he won’t pay attention anyway, and there’s no audio so he won’t know it’s the same thing.” Becky offered, starting to smile.

“It might work.” mumbled Kenna, pretending to be unsure.

“If he catches us I’ll take all the blame. Please, I’ll do anything.”

Kenna sighed. “Okay.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Kenna! Thank you!”

Kenna let Becky hug her awkwardly, and wondered what the hell The Joker had said to this woman to make her ready to lose her job so she could be done with him.