Haly's Circus ~ Jerome x reader

23: Back from the Death

"Y/n? Are you in there?" Jeremiah asks.
"Yeah, what's up?" I answer, trying to stay calm as I turn off the downpour of the shower to hear his voice more clear. "Are you okay? I heard a loud noise." He stops talking, but it seemed as if he was about to say more.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I lie. But that thud didn't come from here. I've grown a bit more to this place, and since it's the only safe place I can be, I should accept it.

I've been here for the past two weeks.
It's quite warm in here, I wouldn't say it's hot but walking around in a top and shorts has been normalized for myself. I've read everything Jerome has written in his diary, I've seen every little doodle every little sketch every little dot and every little line. I've read it 7 times. Just to make sure I didn't miss out anything. It took another piece of my heart, which is beating hard now, by the way. The TV is glitching, but I hear a familiar voice bragging.

"And we basically are the most iconic cult in the history of the universe. Team Maniax forever!" Luna exclaims, and she shouts something inaudiable as Jeremiah turns off the TV, and buries his eyes into the palms of his hands, tilting his head back over the edge of the couch.

I can't help but grab the remote, and turn it back on. What to see next is unbelievable. I starts hyperventilating, seeing that Luna and three of those lunatics are carrying the huge metal box with Jerome's corpse in it, I can only see a glimpse from his face and the tears starts streaming over my face. I'm screaming, at the top of my lungs as I break down. Fall to my knees, catched by Jeremiah before they hit the floor. "Shh... It's okay, he's still dead, don't even think about it."
As if that would make me feel any better.
"With this I hope you will come home, Y/n. I told you I had a surprise for you. Dwight can bring him back to-" Jeremiah shuts off the TV once again and as much as I'd like to rip his eyeballs out I wrap my arm around his.

I squael, burying my face in the fabric of his sleeve. All to reflexively hold on to the mug he was drinking out, twisting my arm around his and he groans, aggressively. "You won't keep me here anymore. Don't even try." To make sure I had an edge, I pour the yet hot tea in his eyes and break the mug into a thousand shattering pieces on the side of his head, his skull leaving a nice sound, almost harder than the thud from before. "Y/n! You won't get far." He warned, though I'm pretty sure he wouldn't either, considering he can't see.

I paid attention. The door handle finally goes down once I entered the correct code which I saw Ecco enter. Believe it or not, it's the date Bruce Wayne was born. Isn't that strange?

-

I reached the Maniax building faster than I left it, because apparently there has been an easier way to cross town. Little did I know I guess. My ankle still hurts, but I can walk on it slightly by now. Jeremiah took care of it, he knew things I didn't. He's smart, formal and used words I hadn't ever heard of half of the time I spent there.

The building's quite remote compared to the busy town. A group of boys are standing just outside of the door, chatting until one of them catches my attention. He turns to me and smiles. "Good afternoon, Miss Valeska." He bows with only his neck.
"Hey, do you have any idea where Luna is?" I review.
"She's downstairs, probably in the cellar prattling." I nod as respond.

Step by step I go down the stone steps to the basement. At first, I don't see Dwight and Luna yet, I only hear them through the sound of the currents. All over the floor and in the racks around me are machines and wiring, and there is a huge metal-cylinder-shaped box. Jerome's eyes are closed, though his mouth is still frozen in a wide smile. Something I once learned from my mother was that when you almost want to cry but can't in the situation, you have to smile. Your face then sends a kind of signal to the brain to tell it that it is okay. Even though it looks crazy, I'm going to do this more often from now on. "Y/n..." Dwight looks past Luna searching for my eyes, which are again focused on Jerome.