Jerome Valeska was crazy. There was no doubt about it. Sick, sadistic, evil. But, he wasn't always like it.
"You're crazy," Sam whimpers, trying to push herself away from me. The handcuffs don't exactly help her.
I press my lips against her cheek, s...
"Sam," a loud voice whispers into my ear, clearly worried.
My eyes flicker open, and look over at Vicky.
Something is still going off in my ear, but I can't make out what. I'm too tired.
"What's happen-" I begin, but then I realise that the bus is stopped.
"There's something going on. I don't know what, though."
My ears finally make out what the background noice is. Screaming.
I stand up from my seat, looking ahead of me.
There's a bunch of the cheersquad crammed onto one side of the bus.
They're looking at something, but blocking my view of it.
"What the hell is happening?"
"Like I said, I don't know," Vicky replies, "I was just about to sleep, when the bus just... stopped."
I hear a quiet tap up front, and more screams echo to the back. I can't see what's going on, though.
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That's when everyone crammed at the front surges back, moving away from something.
Me and Vicky are squashed against other people.
"The hell?" Vicky shouts, and she's replied with a sound I've heard before, since it is Gotham.
A gunshot.
I look, to see the driver at the front fall sideways on his seat, and hit the floor.
Someone steps through the door to the right of him.
Vicky sees who they are before I do, because her eyes widen in shock.
Before I get a look at them, she pushes me even further back in the surge of people.
"Go to your seats," a muffled voice says. I can't hear them well due to the screaming in my ear.
Nonetheless, the horde of people I'm stuck in doesn't move an inch.
"Ah. I see. You need some more persuasion. Pretty please go to your seats?"
No one moves.
"Eh, fine."
Another gunshot goes off, and people scramble to their seats, and so do I, hoping to be well hidden in the group of people. Obviously Vicky doesn't want them to see me.
I sit down next to her.
"Don't say anything," she warns.
I don't understand what she means, until I look away from her and towards the person who spoke.
The first thing I see is their flaming ginger hair. Then, the sadistic smile spreading from ear to ear.
"Oh my God," I whisper quietly, almost cursing my extremely bad luck.
"Baldy," Jerome turns around towards a strong looking guy, "would you be a dear and handcuff 'em?"
The bald one nods, dragging what looks like a bunch of shackles along the floor.
Oh. They are shackles.
Jerome still hasn't spotted me, so that must mean he isn't here for me.
I don't realise the strong one is standing in front of me, shackles in his hands, until he speaks.
"Pretty girl?"
He says it almost like a question.
I don't reply to him, and just stare blankly, confused. I can't let Jerome see me, so I can't bring attention to myself.
"Pretty girl?" He asks again, while Vicky is shaking next to me.
"Gee, thanks," I whisper sarcastically.
I notice Jerome, looking at the driver who he shot. He's facing away from me.
"Boss," The one beside me, the inmate called Aaron, speaks.
Crap, crap, crap.
Jerome turns around, a smile on his face, "That's my name don't wear it-"
He stops when his eyes lock onto mine.
"Sammy?" He says to himself, but I see his mouth form the nickname.
He grins again, after a few seconds, the look in his eyes making me want the earth to open up and eat me. I bet the cannibal Jerome is with will do it first.
Jerome takes a few strides towards me, and I start to wonder if I'm shrinking into my seat, because that's what it feels like. When he's about a metre away from me, Vicky stands up next to me. She hasn't been handcuffed, and I haven't either. Not yet, anyway.
She glares at Jerome, "Just leave us alone, and don't fucking touch her."
He just laughs, his eyes still on me, and then leans so that he's only a few millimetres away from my face, "Watch me."
Jerome takes me from my seat, grabbing my wrist, standing me up, and dragging me away from Aaron and Vicky.
Vicky looks like she could start a fight.
"Don't," I say to her, just before Jerome has completely pulled me out of the bus.
