Dim The Circus Lights (Book 2 of Beneath The Circus Lights)

Chapter 29

There was a time, at one point when Jerome loved his brother more than anything. Protecting Jeremiah from Lila and her boyfriends was his duty and he was proud to do so.

   He took most of the beatings and Jeremiah cleaned him up, they'd been inseparable. But as the years went by, they grew distant, finding activities that suited their diverse interests as most children do. But they would always be there for each other.

   If one got the opportunity to leave, he wouldn't leave the other. It was a promise they'd made to each other when they'd been seven years old.

  But, it was when they were fifteen did things change. All because of a girl.

  Katarina.

Jerome found her harmless at first. Just another girl to join the group of circus kids, but this one oddly took a liking to his dorky quiet brother.

  Now at fifteen the twins had grown into handsome teenagers and Jerome had no problem finding a new girl in town to hang off his arm to flirt shamelessly with (never going any farther) Jeremiah however was too busy drawing or reading to even give a girl a chance.

So when Jerome saw the foreign girl giving his brother attention, he was all for it.  

  At least, until he heard their plans.

  Being an advent thief allowed Jerome to be able to make himself scarce and unseen, particularly within trees.

  Now this particular day he'd been lounging in an apple tree just to escape from his mother's nails on a chalkboard like voice.

  He hadn't expected to see Katarina and Jeremiah run beneath the tree, faces lit up in excitement.

Already formulating how to surprise them and hopefully make his brother piss himself, Jerome was curious to hear their odd conversation.

  "You must come with us Miah. My father is so close to having enough money saved and my aunt has a restaurant in New York, father says that there is room for you." Katarina beamed at the freckled redhead, holding his hands in hers.

"Rina, I can't just up and leave.... Hayley's is all I know..." the boy shook his head and Katarina's eyes softened.

"This is a good opportunity. You can get out of this dirty place. Start over with me. This is your chance to be free!" She stressed, face falling as Jeremiah looked conflicted "do you not love me enough to come with me..." she looked down and Jeremiah quickly turned her chin up.

  "Of course I care for you, so much. But I can't just leave my family so suddenly. What about Jerome? I can't just leave him...." Said boy perked up upon hearing his name, moving down a branch discreetly to hear better.

"Jerome .... I don't know why, but he scares me. Evil, there is evil in his soul..... he is also talented. He will make it by himself. You are not responsible for him. If you cared at all for us you would come with me. Please Jeremiah.... I love you too much to lose you." Jeremiah froze and Katarina blinked her large eyes hopefully at him.

"I-I love you too Rina....give me some time to think about this okay," she nodded dejectedly and Jeremiah's face softened.

"Hey, I promise everything's going to be okay," He kissed her left cheek and than her right, bringing a smile to her face before he pulled her in for a deeper kiss.

  All too soon however, their names were called from the circus a few feet away and the couple raced off, unaware of the seething redhead in the tree.

Jerome glared at the retreating forms of the couple, palms digging into the branches, ignoring the developing splinters.

  After everything, Jeremiah was actually considering leaving him alone. With the circus, with their mother and uncle? All for some girl who'd they'd known no longer than six months.

   No.

  Jeremiah couldn't leave Jerome so easily. There was no way in hell Jerome was going to let some little bitch take anything that belonged to him.

  And if Jeremiah thought he was too good to stay in the circus and leave Jerome behind than the little son of a bitch had another thing coming.

Sometimes it got really annoying that everyone always referred to Jeremiah as the smart brother. When actually, Jerome was just as smart.

He had planted the condoms in Katarina's trailer, made mention to their mother how much his brother spent time with the girl and how her family was planning on leaving soon.

It was too easy.

Sure Jeremiah would hate him, but he'd be stuck with Jerome regardless.

  And than came the Katarina. That little bitch had showed her face in Gotham looking for his brother after gaining wind of the attempted blimp attack.

  Jeremiah had tried too many times to take Elsie from him, it was only fair Jerome return the favor literally.

  But things had a funny way of coming back to bite ya in the ass.

  Jeremiah confronted him about Katarina and the set up, Elsie always said Jerome was a terrific actor and he played Jeremiah like a violin.

The dumbass actually believed that their abusive, alcoholic bitch of a mother was intelligent enough to setup the whole scheme and scare Katarina's family off!

  It was too perfect.

And Jeremiah was still none the wiser.

  As much as Jerome would kill too the see the look of betrayal and disbelief on his twin's face if he ever discovered the truth; the secret self satisfaction of knowing that he, Jerome Valeska had truly won was all the more better.

  As they said in that age old game,

  Checkmate, broski.

  So I wanted to give a little more backstory to the whole Katarina affair because I felt like I gave it a shove off as to exactly WHY Jerome really had to kill her.  

Bet you didn't see that coming at all huh? I'm really trying to get Jerome and Jeremiah as canon to the show as possible.