Thanatophobia | VICTOR ZSASZ [DISCONTINUED]

fifty nine | mandatory brunch meeting

Before he could say another word to her, she was gone and the next thing he could hear was her screaming at Jerome again.

With a sigh, he slammed his front door shut and let out a quiet groan.

He had a feeling that, from that day forward until Jerome's plan was finished, he wasn't going to get a decent amount of sleep, while they slept inside of his home.

* * *

While sitting beside Victor Fries and sitting closest to Oswald, Annabelle silently watched as one of the men that was putting food on their plates kept dropping some of the food.

From what she could tell, he was most definitely nervous to be in Jerome's presence.

But then again, her unblinking stare at him probably wasn't helping either, so that was something.

However, she soon stopped staring at the man when she heard the clinking of glass and looked over at Jerome, while he said to them, "Hear ye, hear ye! I'd like to officially welcome you all to our first ever Mandatory Brunch Meeting. Now, I know what you're all thinking. Why have I gathered this legion of horribles?" He was silent for a couple of seconds before he said to himself, "That has a nice ring to it."

Then he turned to one of the men that was standing in the room and said to the man, "Write that down, will ya?"

The man in question simply patted his chest, while Jerome told them, "Well, back when I was in Arkham, I came up with a plan to turn this city into a madhouse. Now I am on the cusp of making that happen, but I need help from all of... Put all questions on ice until the end."

Victor slowly lowered his hand and Annabelle merely patted his arm, while Victor quietly sighed to himself.

Then Jerome said to him, "Danke schön." Then he looked over at Oswald and said to him, "Mr. Oswald. Thank you for doing your part in hosting us today."

Oswald simply closed his eyes for a couple of seconds before he slightly shook his head as he replied, "Anything for an old friend."

Then Oswald glanced over at Annabelle and saw her merely raise her eyebrows in response, while Jerome turned to Jonathan and said to him, "Crane. Where are we with the... You know what."

Jonathan told him, "It's coming along dreadfully."

Jerome replied, "Oh. Pun-worthy. Excellent." Then he looked back at Victor and said to him, "Freeze, Ice Man, you're our science guy. We're gonna need a lab. Big one."

Victor replied, "Easy enough."

Then Jerome looked at Annabelle and said to her, "Anna, you know what I need you to do, so there's no point in getting in specifics."

Annabelle merely raised her eyebrows in response as she plastered a grin on her face before he told them, "Now, all we need is Mr. Tetch to return with some very important information, and..."

Then he hit his hand on the table and yelled, "Use the tongs, Carl!"

Carl stared at Jerome with wide eyes before he slowly walked away, while Bridgit said to Jerome, "You still haven't told us how you're going to take over the underworld."

Jerome replied, "Ah. Who says I wanna do that? I'm an artist. I just wanna paint the town crazy. Once that happens, I could care less how you horribles rip the city apart."

Bridgit smiled before she looked around at the others sitting at the table and said, "I'm in. Let's do this."

Jerome said to her, "Well... Not yet. Nothing can happen until we have our one last essential ingredient."