FREAKS || Jerome Valeska¹

08 || Beautiful Madness

Six days.

It's been six awful days since that night. Of me feeling numb. I've been procrastinating my return to school only because I was afraid. Afraid of going back to everyone who made me feel like hell. I was grateful Ed understood and had not made me go back so soon. I was sure the moment I stepped foot inside the school, I'd be ridiculed again.

It's the night before I returned. I was waiting for Edward to get home from the GCPD. He had called earlier to let me know his shift was longer today. So, I had gone ahead and made dinner for us both.

"Ready to go back to school?"

I paused while gathering the ingredients and looked behind me. She was sprawled across the sofa. "What do you want?" I hissed, turning away and ignoring her as she began to whistle.

"The same as always. To persuade you."

I scoffed annoyedly. "More like you want to torture me." My head turned so I could glare at her. She grinned. "You confuse and overwhelm me. I don't even know who I am anymore."

She raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side, "How can I confuse you when all I'm doing is telling you the truth?"

"What truth?"

"That you're like me."

"I'm not." I countered. She rolled her eyes, not believing what I said, "Can you just leave me alone."

She huffed, "Can we stop this? We are killers. You are rooted in denial because you're afraid of being like dad. But we're not. We are so much better than him."

"How do you suggest we stop this?" I questioned, running a hand through my hair.

She smirked and sat up, "Kill Evelyn."

My eyes widened. "Are you insane? No. I can't do that."

"Yes, you can! Stop making the wrong choices!" She yelled in annoyance. I crossed my arms, huffing. "Reese, aren't you seeing what's going on? We've never fit in anywhere if you keep denying what's been in front of your face." She stood, walking over to me, the serious look still on her face. My body tensed slightly, "Killing someone might not be morally correct, but it'll set you free. No one will hold you down again. Plus, revenge is sweet, and you can move on without her in the way. No more pain."

I frowned, thinking about the outcome of doing something as cynical as that. Going to Blackgate or Arkham was at stake. Yet revenge sounded great. No more pain? And even if I did end up in those nasty places, the satisfaction of killing someone who hurt me would be enough to feed my pride. The corners of my lips began to twitch, wanting to curl up. I tried to force it away.

"Ah, come on! I can feel it coming!"

A smirk came to my lips. "Fine. Maybe deep inside, I like that idea."

Snickers came, "Evelyn is going to pay for every single thing she's done. And won't even see it coming."

"Oh, that poor girl." I joked. "She's gonna beg me for her life."

Loud laughter left her mouth, and for the first time, I wasn't afraid. I began to laugh, too... with the same amount of insanity and fullness as well. Something seemed to snap inside of me tonight, and as much as it was wrong not to care, I didn't care. All of the bad things didn't matter because I was a different person.

I gasped for air, holding my stomach.

The insane girl smirked widely. "Oh, look at you. The start of beautiful madness."