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

Chapter 14

I ask them all what they want, then quickly run in and grab all the drinks. I take them all back to the car and we start driving around Gotham.
I'm about to say something when a high pitched ringing sounded in my ears and a bright flash of light hit my eyes. I blink for a few seconds and then look around me...

I wasn't in a car, I wasn't with anyone, I was in a monochrome cell, a very familiar monochrome cell.

"Sorry about that, it was the only way to wake you up." A man said, walking closer to the glass. "Since we increased the radiation earlier we believed you were dead, but you seem to have adapted quite well..." He starts scribbling down notes into a file.

"What happened? Where's...? How am I back here?" I ask, confused but also angry.

"Did you think we wouldn't find you, really Ash, you ran off to a circus, it's the most obvious place to have gone to, and it's not hard to track down a 15-year-old when you have eyes everywhere, sure it took us a few years just because the circus kept moving, but you're here now and we can continue the tests... Did you meet anyone in the circus?" I ignore his question and think back through my memories, trying to decide which was real and which was a dream.

" Well, based on the look on your face you seem to no longer be sure which is real or fake, must have been quite a dream you had, we'll have to do something about that, do something to ensure that you know which is real or fake so that we can work out... " He continues talking but I try to block it out. Were Jerome and Jeremiah even real? I was no longer sure. I stared at the wall for a few moments, lost in thought. A picture lands on the floor next to me so I pick it up.

"We found this in the clothes you were wearing, it might help you remember." He says as he walks off. I stare at the image then look at the cell around me. Memories of the past few years resurfaced.

I was currently 15, at the age of 10 I had managed to escape this facility for a bit and joined a circus, where I met some twins, Jeremiah and Jerome Valeska, with who I quickly became friends. We were the same age, but they didn't pay much attention to me. They probably didn't even notice that I'd been dragged away from the circus, and now I was stuck here, being used for tests, having to sit in a room full of radiation all day and night.

The dream was pretty similar to my actual life, however, it didn't involve me getting stuck in here again. I wish the dream was real, but dreams are dreams, no matter how hard I wished it would never come true, and psychic abilities wouldn't change that. I had left some parts out within my dream, in the dream I could only move objects, whereas I can actually also read minds and see into the future slightly.

The longer they left me in this cell, the more my abilities would improve and grow. It was still absolute torture though, of course. Especially whenever they changed the levels or type of radiation, since each time they did I would have to adapt to it, which was quite painful, but I would soon get used to it. Most of my time was spent either performing random tests for Hugo Strange or sitting in the cell, staring at the wall.

I looked at the picture in my hands, it was a picture of Jerome and Jeremiah that I had taken while I was at the circus. I wasn't in the picture, but I still liked looking at it. At least it was better than staring at the same grey slab for the rest of eternity. I stroke my fingers through my long, brown hair, staring at the picture of the two of them...

The next 3 years go by quite fast, I sort of lost sense of time after a while and the only way I knew that time still existed was from Hugo Strange, who would always announce the date whenever he started recording tapes during the random tests he performed. I was allowed now to wander about the asylum and talk to the inmates if I wanted to, but half the time I just watched them from afar. However, as I was wandering through the halls, I notice the guards pushing a red-headed boy into one of the cells, a new inmate. I walk over to the cell and look in at him.

"Hey, you, I haven't seen you here before, why are you in here?" I ask, he keeps his head down.

"Oh, you know, this and that, I murdered my mother after I got tired of her drinking and sleeping with others... Just normal things." He said, looking up. I froze, it was Jerome, the same Jerome I'd met in the circus, he looked the same as he did in my dream, wait, did he just say that he murdered his mother... Was the dream more than just a dream? Was it part of my abilities? Did I see into the future?

"Oh, I remember you, it was Ash, right? You were at the circus for 5 years, but you suddenly disappeared, just like my brother. Why'd you leave, did I scare you off? Did you murder someone?" He asks.

"Oh, no, I didn't murder anyone, I would try and explain it to you but I doubt you'd understand..." I say, moving closer to the bars, the guard nearby looks over at me. "Hey, you, open the door for me, I wanna go in his cell for a bit."

"And who says I should listen to you?" The guard asks.

"I say you should let them in, I thought I explained to all the guards that they were allowed to go wherever they wanted as long as it wasn't outside." A familiar voice says from behind the guard. The guard instantly turns around, then quickly searches in his pocket for the keys.

" Yes, Dr Strange sir, sorry, I didn't realise." The guard says, opening the cell door for me and locking me inside once I'd walked in.

"Just remember to let them out again." Strange says, walking past the cell and disappearing deeper down the corridor.

"So, are you related to him, do you work here?" Jerome asks. I start laughing.

"Not at all, I don't work here and if I was related to him then something's gone wrong. You better be careful around here, who knows what his plans are for you..." I say.

"What do you mean by plans?"

"I guess I should tell you, he uses all the psychos here as lab rats, that's what I have been since I was younger. He's had me sitting in a cell full of radiation for the past 3 years alone, that's why I disappeared from the circus, I'm surprised you even noticed... "