The Freaks Of Gotham (Jeremiah Valeska x OC x Jerome Valeska) (Gotham Fanfic)

Chapter 6

Jeremiah's pov:

The door opens and Ash walks in.

"Jer? Are you ok? I heard you mumbling to yourself..." They say, eyes filled with worry.

"I-I'm fine Ash, it's o-ok, I was just... I-imagining thing." I attempt to get up but a wave of dizziness causes me to lie back down again. Ash quickly placed the tray they were holding onto the desk and sat down on the bed next to me.

Ash's pov:

I could tell he wasn't fine, he looked even paler than he did when I left him. I sat down on the bed next to him and cuddled him. I had heard some of what he was mumbling about and heard him mention me and his brother. My mind flickered to the writing all over the board that I had looked at earlier.

"You know, I always had a slight crush on you when we were younger, the only reason I didn't instantly say yes to leaving with you was that Jerome had always been like a brother to me, so I couldn't leave him. And I guess I secretly hoped that I could help him and teach him to stop torturing animals, but we both know how that ended. I never liked Jerome in the way I like you. And he would never replace you, he couldn't have replaced you. You're so much sweeter and kinder and all Jerome did was creep me out. The only reason I reacted the way I did at his death was that he was like a brother to me and I'd just watched him be stabbed in the neck. It was shocking. But don't ever think that it means I don't love you, because I do Jer, I love you more than anything. I'm sorry I caused you so much stress over the past few days." Tears begin falling from my face as I think about how he must have felt, the pain I must have caused. He carefully sits up and holds my face in his hands, gently wiping the tears off my cheeks.

"No, it's not your fault, you don't have to be sorry for anything, I was being stupid, I should have trusted you more, I...." He's about to say something else but I could tell by the look on his face that he was too weak for this right now, I remove his hands from my face and help him to lie back down. He falls asleep after a few minutes, so I go into his office to try and tidy up a bit. While there, I notice that the computer was still turned on. I glanced over to see what he had been searching, only to find the name Hugo Strange plastered all over the screen. My whole body becomes numb. Blood and tears fill my vision and the screams of those I had always heard from the other rooms returned. I covered my ears as pain seared through me and the office around me instead became a monochrome jail cell. The pain reached the point of being unbearable and I start to scream uncontrollably. I curl up into a ball in the corner of the room, trying to make it all stop, trying to escape it all. The distant sound of a door opening and closing and my name being called is masked by the echoing sound of footsteps that ran through those halls every day. I close my eyes and continually bash my head against the wall behind me, trying to make it stop.

No, it's too early, you aren't ready, you can't handle it yet. An echoey voice sounds through my mind, then it all vanishes, all the pain, blood, tears, everything gone in an instant. I open my eyes to find Jeremiah kneeling in front of me, looking at me with worry laced through his brown eyes. He looks extremely close to passing out.

"Ash!? A-are you ok?" He asks, sounding breathless.

"What do you mean? I'm fine, anyway, why are you in here? You should be in bed... " I ask, slightly confused as to what had just happened. All I remembered was I was cleaning his office while he was ill. He shakily reached behind the back of my head and strokes my hair, only to remove it and look at it. His hand is covered in a thick layer of crimson. The world around me spins for a moment and everything becomes dull. I can see Jeremiah scrambling around to get his phone, but I can't sense anything. Everything felt like a dream, all seemed fine. I felt tired, extremely, overwhelmingly tired.

What had happened? Why was Jeremiah panicking so much? And why was their blood on his hand after he touched the back of my head? My thoughts become more and more cloudy, I could hardly make out any of them. All I wanted to do was close my eyes.

No, you can't, don't do it, stop, focus on Jeremiah, focus on something, anything, try to feel something.

I realise now that Jeremiah was saying something. He had his arms around me and he was talking to me, but I couldn't hear him. He was picking me up and carrying me outside. Where was he taking me? That question didn't matter though, the only thought that I could hold onto was, was he ok? He wasn't meant to be doing any of this, he was weak and he should be sleeping, so why? Why was he so worried about me when all he was doing was preventing himself from getting better? It wasn't like I was dying, it wasn't...