Imagines // Jerome Valeska

#2 // Murderer

Song of the chapter:

Teddy Bear by Melanie Martinez

MURDERER

Summary:Jerome shows you where he killed his mum and vents to you, all while you're scared out of your mind.

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"What do you want, Jerome. " I said, staring down at my best friend standing in front of my trailer.

"I have to show you something." He said, frantically.

"Why? I was just making dinner, you know how dad gets when it's not made after his act." I said.

"I know. But it's really important." He said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the trailer.

"Fine, but at least let me get my coat so I don't freeze to death." I said, heading back into the trailer to grab a coat and closing the door behind me once I was out.

We walked for a bit before we came to a hill, striding up it.

"So what's so important that you have to show me now?" I asked, but my question was answered when we got to the top of the hill.

There laid Lila, Jerome's mother, in a pile of her own blood. I could just faintly see the stab wounds in her chest.

"Oh my god." I said, covering my open mouth with my hand.

"Jerome, I'm so sorry, I know you weren't close but still." I said, looking at Jerome who was quiet next to me.

There was a few seconds of silence until he started chuckling, lowly at first but it gradually got bigger until I detected something menacing in it.

"How the fuck do you think she ended up like this?" He asked, still looking down at his dead mother, with a smile on his face.

"Oh Jerome, you didn't." I said, suddenly not wanting to be standing anywhere near him.

He only turned to look at me with a smile on his face. But this smile wasn't something you'd ever seen on Jerome before. It was the smile of a messed up person, something only insane people could conjure up.

Scared for your life, you turned away from Jerome to run as fast as you could from where he stood.

You didn't get very far when Jerome grabbed you roughly from behind and stopped you in your tracks.

You were always envious that Jerome was faster than you, but now you despised it.

"Elena, please. Just listen to me." He whispered in your ear. You recognized this voice, it was the Jerome you knew, not the one that murdered his mother.

I stilled from my struggling at this, shivering at his proximity.

"Fine." I said, already regretting it.

I contemplated running again when he let me go but that didn't work out the first time and it wouldn't work the second.

He slowly let go of me and I let out a breath I had no idea I was keeping in.

"Promise you won't run again?" He asked, cautiously. As if he was the one who just figured out his best friend had committed matricide.

"I promise. But if you try to kill me too I will run as fast as I fucking can." I stated clearly, making sure to stay a few meters away from him just in case.

"Alright sorry, sorry."

Jerome's mood was changing significantly from angry to joyful to cautious.

"Okay Jerome, so tell what happened exactly." I said, trying to stop my racing heart.

"I was in the trailer when she came in, this time by herself, thank god. But when she came stumbling in, I could tell she was drunk and I was thinking to myself, 'oh great, I have to deal with this again.'

"Anyway, she went into her room and came out a few minutes later with a change clothes." He paused to clear his throat.

"Jerome, put the washing on the line outside. When you come back you can do the dishes and then go tell Grayson to come over." I nodded to show him I was listening, feeling sympathetic for him. I mean, my dad got pretty angry if I didn't have dinner made by the time he got back to the trailer after a show.

"So I hung out the washing and did the dishes but when it came to the last one, I went to knock on mums door and ask her why she couldn't go over to his trailer but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, she had the door swinging open and yelling how I was such an ungrateful child and how I should be more thankful for the things she does for me. I couldn't help myself. I punched her in the face, knocker her right out." He said chuckling a little.

"I felt powerful in that moment but I knew I had to do something. So I grabbed a hatchet just in case she woke up and starting fighting me, and then I grabbed her skinny body and hauled her out of the trailer and up the hill just 100 yards away. I popped her down there and just stared down at her. Angry tears kinda just started clouding my vision and I got this overwhelming urge to laugh. I started chuckling while grabbing a firm hold of the hatchet. Before I knew it, I was driving the hatchet into her unconscious body over and over. Until I had to stop because I didn't have the energy to keep going." He said, chuckling again.

I was really scared, the fact that the person in front of me stabbed his mother over and over and laughed while he was doing and then later when he was thinking about it. I didn't even know this person anymore.

"Jerome, I know you don't wanna hear this, but that's the kinda murderous, psychotic stuff that would land you in an asylum." I said.

He turned to look at me with those eyes that I've always loved, the same eyes that belonged to the kind Jerome that I knew so well, not this insane person who sat next to me who just told me about how he killed his mum and laughed about it.

"Please Elena. I know you're scared of me but please just help me clear this up." He said.

It took me a while to answer but eventually I nodded because I couldn't not help him. In a way, Lila did kind of deserve it.