GOTHAM X READERS

[JEROME VALESKA DRABBLE]

Prompts: D14. Betrayal + D16. Hallucinations

Warnings: mentions of abusive behavior + death + angst

Word count: 701

You had put up with a lot with Jerome. You fell in love with that shy, sweet teenager all those years ago, when you were both 14 and bonded over abusive parents. He was sweet, bringing you flowers and charming you, but as you grew up, you started to see flashes of his opposite site. He started talking about wanting to hurt his mother back, while you wanted to run away together, settle in together to a nice town, but he wanted to stay, he told you that he needs to pay his mother. And during next months, he started to grow more aggressive and you saw pure hatred in his eyes whenever his mother slapped him.

But you loved him, so you stayed by his side. When he killed Lila, you covered it up with him. You loved him too much to end things, and you had tried to tell yourself that Lila deserved it as she was a terrible person.

But it had only gone downhill from there. Jerome got all meddled up with other criminals after he broke out from Arkham, he got unrecognizable and started killing people who hadn't ever hurt him personally. He was a hitman for Theo Galavan, aiming to be something bigger, to terrorize Gotham.

But you stayed by his side, desperately hoping that you could pull him out from his lunatic state. But deep down you knew he was too far down. And when he died, you mourned for him, but in a way you were relieved, because Jerome wasn't the same person who he had been before.

Then he came back to life, and came straight to you. His face was stapled on, scaring you at first since you didn't recognize him. He brought you to a carnival to watch his latest achievement. He had a delusion to kill that young orphan boy named Bruce Wayne and wanted you to watch, to be there to support him, and you didn't know how to say no. You still loved him, even when he was even deeper down, and it just became worse.

He got sent to Arkham once again, and you prayed that they'd know what to do to him, to bring him back. But when he broke out again, he was just worse. His face had been reattached surgically this time, and now he was after more people. He bragged about all his plans to you, believing you still were faithful to him, not guessing you actually feared him now. You were just good at covering your fear up.

But when he wanted to kill his brother and Bruce once again, you betrayed him, you told about his plans to the cops, crying hysterically, letting all your fears and the feeling of losing your old boyfriend to flow out. They managed to stop Jerome with the intel you told them, but your intel also killed him. He jumped down the roof, and ever since then... you had seen him in your dreams every single night, sometimes you heard his footsteps, sometimes you saw him sleeping beside you when you turned around.

But the worst thing of all was when he appeared to you in a form of that 15 year old boy, back when he was that shy boy who wouldn't hurt a fly, back when his mother wasn't as bad in drinking as she turned out to be. Back when he was still the boy who you fell in love with. He followed you, and with a broken voice, asked you the same voice over and over again.

"Why did you kill me? I loved you. We could have been happy together."

You never answered to him, hoping he would go away if you would try to make yourself believe he wasn't there. But there was always a part of you who felt immense guilt for betraying him, the love of your life who you had tried to turn back into being a good person for so long. There was always that little voice inside you, gnawing you and laughing, saying you didn't do enough, and that Jerome's death was entirely your fault.

And that thought would never leave you alone.