Carnations for Emily

Chapter 18: Im still here.

"Hey, you said you would keep me safe.
Til it was time for me to wake up."

"Huh?" Jack could only get the one word out.
He was in his mind again, unconscious from Nick's flurry of attacks no doubt.
Jack wasn't sure of where he was in his mind though.
Last time he came into a bed of white roses and left with them bloodstained red.
Now he was somewhere completely different.
A dark room he couldn't see, only the floor was a black and red checker pattern.
"Where am I?" Jack called out to nothing.
"You're where you've kept me." A voice called back.
"Joker?" Jack responded.
"Close, Though that figure you call Joker is or, move over at the time, was all that was left of me."
Jack was confused.
When the light in the room finally came on Jack saw who he was talking too.
It was Joker or so he thought.
The young man was sitting in a chair in tattered clothes, with chains around his wrists and ankles.
He hair was red, yet there was something different about him.
When he looked up, Jack could tell it wasn't Joker.
This person had two different eyes.
His left eye was red.
His right, was grey.
"Who are you?" Jack asked.
"You don't remember me?
I guess that would make sense, it has been almost two decades since we last talked..." the mysterious guy trailed off.
"I don't get it, why am I here?
And where is "here"?" Jack looked around the room.
"Jack, this is the inside of your mind.
The sleeping realm of which I lay.
Til one day it's time for me to wake up." The guy spoke again.
"Wake up?" Jack repeated.
The guy got up out of the chair and walked over to Jack.
With a sad smile he spoke.
"You haven't figured it out yet have you?" The guy paused.

Silence filled the room...

"This isn't your life."

"What?" Jack didn't completely understand what he was just told.
"What do you mean?" He said baffled.
"This life you live...
This body...
This mind...
This heart...
It's not yours..." the young man said.

In a sudden blinding flash, the young man turned into a little boy...
No older than six, his right eye was closed...
"It's mine." The boy said.
"You... are nothing more than a persona I created...
When I was adopted by Hellen...
She gave me your name and in turn I took that name and created you, so I could hide myself from the world til I was ready.
I didn't know it at the time though.
I'm thankful, but I've been ready to wake up for a while.
Yet you've ignored my call.
So over time I decayed away and all that was left of me was that persona "Joker".
He retained all my anger and hate for this world... and Harvey...
No.
My father was enough to break you and awaken what was left of me inside..." the boy said.
"Your father? You mean..."

Jack couldn't fathom what he was being told.
This little kid was telling him that he wasn't real.
That he was just a figment of this boys imagination brought to life...
"N-no way...
I don't believe it..." Jack's heart sank.
"Please Jack...
Give me my life back." The boy continued.
Before Jack could say anything, the room bled out as Jack woke to Nick punching him in mouth.
"Wake up brother!" Nick yelled.

Jack shook off the pain and looked around, realizing he was no longer in the sleeping realm of his mind.
"What was that?
A dream?" Jack thought.
Figuring his head was still in the clouds, Nick picked Jack up by the throat and tossed him through the air.
Before Jack could land, Nick leaped into the air and volleyball punched him back down to the floor.
"Gah!" Jack cried as his blood spewed from his mouth.
He couldn't move.
His mouth was aching, the pain surged through his spine and burned in his chest.
This wasn't anything like what Harvey did though.
As painful as it was, nothing compared to it.

"Get up!" Nick shouted.
"Fight me!" He picked Jack off the ground again and kneed him in the stomach.
"I know you're in there brother.
Wake up!
Or I'll beat you to death.
You owe me this much for stealing my life away!".
As Jack collapsed to the floor writhing, a part of him understood why Nick was in such a rage.
Unsure of what happened to his mother, he did know that Joker killed Nicks father...