Age of Clowns

Late at night, at home.

The shouts outside the window gradually died away. The demonstrators were finally swallowed up by the coming night and dispersed. The streets once again returned to the silence of the past.

The shirtless Arthur stood on the sink, his head lowered, and his dull eyes quietly looking at his reflection in the water.

"Bee. beep. beep. beep... beep..." After a long time, light phone rings rang at home, breaking the silence at the moment. Arthur turned around and didn't pay attention to the phone. I opened the refrigerator on the side and threw everything in the refrigerator on the ground bit by bit...

The phone turned on the automatic message, and a man's voice came from it:

"Hello, Mr. Frank, I'm Detective Garrity. We met at the Gotham City Hospital that night. You should remember me. My partner and I have a few questions for you. "

“We went to your house today, but you are still not at home, so please contact us as soon as possible after hearing our message. Again, I am Detective Garrity, and my phone number is 212.… .99.….….….….”

Arthur still showed no emotion. He just blindly flipped through the contents of the refrigerator and threw everything on the ground.

Looking at the empty refrigerator, Arthur got in bit by bit.

"Bang!" With a soft sound, Arthur gently closed the refrigerators and lay down inside.

Perhaps, for Arthur, the outside world is even colder than inside the refrigerator.

"Kakakaka..."

The silence of the night gradually passed, and the early morning sun once again shone on Gotham City. Along with a burst of phone messages, this peaceful early morning was disrupted.

"This is a message for Mr. Arthur Frank."

"My name is Shirley Woods."

"It's a staff member of "The Murray Franklin Talk Show." Mr. Franklin recently played a segment of your talk show on his show, and we received praise from many people."

"Mr. Franklin asked me to contact you to see if you can..."

After saying this, Arthur's ears slowly perked up. Hearing that it was Murray's invitation, Arthur walked slowly to the phone and picked up the phone with his right hand.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked the woman on the phone.

"Oh, hello, I'm Shirley Woods. I'm the invitee for "The Murray Franklin Talk Show." Are you Mr. Arthur?" said the woman on the phone.

"It's me." Arthur nodded towards the phone.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Arthur, as I just said, we have received many calls from people who are asking about your performance. The response has been really good. Murray asked me to contact you and wanted to ask Asking if you would like to come to our place as a special guest, Mr. Arthur." The woman on the phone said calmly.

"Murray, do you want me to be on "The Murray Franklin Talk Show"?" Arthur scratched his head and asked in disbelief.

"Yes, that's right, isn't it great! Murray wants to talk to you about your story. Maybe you can also perform and tell some good jokes. Do you think that's okay?" the woman on the phone asked. road.

"Okay, I think it's really great..." Arthur picked up a cigarette in his left hand, took a deep drag, and said with a smile.

"Can we set a time now? Are you available on Thursday next week?" the woman on the phone asked...

"Okay." As he finished speaking, Arthur's eyes once again showed a trace of sadness and loneliness.

. . . . . . . . . .

A dilapidated bus was driving slowly on the road. Most of the people sitting on the bus were people at the bottom of the class. The clothes they wore looked extremely shabby and the color was washed gray. Their complexions looked a little yellow and their faces were worn. Looking indifferent.

Arthur was sitting upright in the middle of the bus, with a windshield covered in graffiti behind him.

After passing through several crowded streets and a long time, Arthur finally arrived at his destination. He looked at the scenery outside the window, slowly opened the bus door, and looked at the tall building in front of him. The gray-white memories of the building kept flashing in my mind, as if they were traveling through my mind.

Arthur stared blankly at this slightly dim building and walked slowly towards it. There were almost no pedestrians around this dim building, and few people came here. Some crows and bats often flew by not far away. , several letters towering over the threshold.

arkham-state-hospital

Gotham City-----Arkham State Hospital.

Maybe we should call it Arkham Asylum

An ambulance drove slowly in front of Arthur, and Arthur followed the ambulance into Arkham Asylum.

The ambulance stopped at the door of the lunatic asylum, opened the door, and two men walked out, one wearing a black police uniform and the other wearing a white doctor's uniform.

The man in black police uniform took out a key from his waist and carefully opened the trunk door. A man whose hands and feet were tightly tied to the cart was exposed in front of Arthur.

The man frantically tried to break free from the ropes on his hands and feet, and there were light blood stains on his wrists and ankles. His mouth was wrapped with tape several times, and he could only make a "wuwuwu" sound... .