Goodbye Sanity, Hello Headlines

Chapter 9

The voices were gone for now. Selina and I had been living together and Oswald even came to visit after being released from Arkham. I felt horrible for Ed, the two of us had left him at the mercy of the Asylum alone but he can probably handle himself.

Since Oswald had been out him and I had grown significantly closer, he allowed Selina and I in his club without a problem, much to Jim's dismay. Jim had fallen off the radar slightly, he wasn't trying to hunt me down so I was good with that.

That left Oswald and I sitting at his grand table, him sipping wine and me sipping water. I may be crazy but I'm still not a drinker. We conversed about the usual things before Selina joined us, propping herself up on the back of a chair. She always ruined our furniture at home like that.

"Now that both of you are here I'd like to discuss something." He begins and I lean forward giggling playfully.

"This is sounding super serious! Am I a spy or something." Oswald shook his head with a small smile.

"No Katerina." He sighed, looking slightly anxious it's about Jerome." The smile dropped from my face as I tilted my head. Selina doing the same.

"What about Jerome?" I asked. "Did you find him oh my god Ozzie I knew I could count on you!" I stood up to hug him but he interrupted me.

"Not quite my dear." I sat back down. "It seems Jerome has acquired a fan base of sorts, they've been causing trouble for Gotham's underground and you know I can't have that." His tone was still friendly but I was confused.

"What do you mean?" Selina asked, thinking the whole thing was a joke.

"It would seem like Katerina wasn't the only one Jerome... Influenced." The two were now talking amongst themselves and leaving me completely out of the conversation.

"Where are they?" I questioned wanting to find them and know what the hell they thought they were doing.

"Kat I don't think-" I cut Selina off before she could say anything.

"I wanna see them." I snapped at her, Oswald and Selina shared a look before he cleared his throat.

"They are in a warehouse on the edge of Gotham, you would know it." I knew where he was talking about and wasted no time in getting there.

"Thank you, Ozzie! Don't you worry they won't be bothering you anymore." I kissed him on the cheek and skipped out of his fancy club, waving goodbye to Butch on the way out.

"Kat wait!" I turned to find Selina behind me. "Are you sure you are ready to go through with this? I mean they could be dangerous!" I rolled my eyes.

"Come on Lina!" I groaned. "I'm dangerous too, remember?" I giggled again. "Now let's go!" She groaned but came with me anyway. The warehouse wasn't too far from the club so we got there in a decent amount of time, it was almost nightfall by the time we reached the entrance.

The first thing I noticed was a graffitied smiley face, this had to be the right place and if that wasn't enough proof the voices inside really sealed the deal. I grabbed Selina's arm and pulled her into the warehouse, looking around and finding that there were at least a hundred people here, all dressed in the same uniform Jerome wore when we met.

It was the man on the stage that really caught my attention, he stood tall and proud as he announced his ideas to the group. Selina looked skeptical as he began to project a video of Jerome during the bus incident. Someone from the Gazette must have taken it.

Before long my face showed up on the screen and when it did there was a mixed reaction. Some cheered and screamed while others groaned. I furrowed my eyebrows but an idea popped into my head.

"You can go, I'll meet you at home." I told her but she looked hesitant.

"Are you sure?" She asked and I nodded reassuringly. She left through the back completely unnoticed as I turned my attention back to the speaker, a smirk on my lips.

"As most of you know this is Katerina Ferdine!" He announced and the mixed replies continued.

"Aww here I thought this was a joint fandom! I mean I ship us!" I called from the back and all eyes turned to me. Looks of adoration and disgust clear on all their faces.

"Is that THE Katerina Ferdine." Someone mumbled to their friend.

"Would you look at that I'm famous." I giggled and walked through the path they had created for me until I reached the stage. "Thank you!" I mock bowed. The man on the stage looked at me incredulously.

"This is the only living remnant we have of our idol, Jerome Valeska!" He announced and I did a twirl for the audience before giving them a playful wink. He handed me the microphone and I pushed him away from the podium.

"Hi there Jerome's fan club! Do you guys have a name for the group? No? That's lame then, anyways a little birdie told me. Well a little penguin actually but that's not the point I head that you guys are causing trouble for a friend of mine and I just can't have that." I laughed but my tone was threatening. "So I'm going to have to ask you all to stop doing that."

"Who do you think you are? Walking in here thinking you own the place cause you spent some time in Arkham? Why the hell do you think we would listen to you?" Some obnoxious guy in the front row called out and I pursed my lips.

"Would you look at that! Honey you think you are so courageous being in some fan club? You've never even met Jerome! Let me tell you something." I drawled, taking the microphone with me as I stepped off the podium and into the crowd. "I'm a lot more than Jerome's hostage, in fact I'm a lot more than a silly Asylum patient." By this stage I was standing right in front of him. "Only a couple of months ago I shot my own father, right through the chest." I dug my finger into his chest. "I watched the life drain from his eyes and loved it." His own eyes held discomfort and I smirked at him. 

"You couldn't do anything." He spat and I tilted my head slightly, snatching the knife from the girl standing beside him.

"Oh yeah?" I plunged the knife into his thigh, my lips pulling into a smile. "Watch me!" With that I plunged the knife into his neck giggling all the while. "Anyone else wanna go?" I offered and they all stepped back in fear. So much for being Jerome's fan club.

"I don't think that's necessary, I'll show it to you if you don't murder anyone else." I turned back up to who I'd heard was 'Dwight'.

"Show me what exactly?" I left the crowd, bloodstained shoes creating marks all the way back up to the podium.

"That's why your here isn't it? To see his body? We are almost done the resurrection process." My face a mixture of surprise and excitement before returning back to a smirk.

"Well no, but now that you mention it. I would love to see you bring my baby back." I jumped on top of the podium, sitting on it. "Now you are going to show me that and you guys." I looked out at all of them. "And you are all going to scram before I kill the lot of you." They all looked frightened and I waved them off.

"It's not really ready yet-" Dwight tried to frantically explain.

"Oh it isn't? Well you are going to make it ready." I smiled sweetly and stroked his cheek before gripping it painfully. "Otherwise you will have to deal with me angry." He shook under my touch and I hummed before letting go. He nodded frantically and lead me upstairs to an ominous room. "That's what I thought." He continued leading me until we found a capsule at the end of a row of them.

"Here he is, our savior." He showed me the capsule and I looked up to see his face, the face of the very person I'd been longing for.

"Oh Jerome." I gasped. "I knew you'd come back." I turned my attention back to Dwight. "Get him out." I replied simply.

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Well isn't this a surprise! You know who you can thank for this update?

The lovely robbiemonaghanx and GothamRat because I am having the best convo with them rn and I feel so good about this story now.

Jerome is back next chapter ayeeeee!

~Mikayla