grace under pressure • jerome valeska

CHAP.53: Strange Place

  Limpy had denied Jerome and I. But not for long. We knew for a fact he would come back. Like we said. He would come around. We just had to wait. But that time, we didn't know. It could be a few weeks. A month. A year. We just knew he would come. But now he wasn't really our main concern. The time to escape was closing in fast but we still had to plan things out. It all had to do with planning.

  We were thinking of a bomb. The bag headed guy we talked into helping us seemed to know how to do that so that is what we were leaning to. Hatty was gonna hypnotize some guards. Distract people to get Jerome and I out of our cell. We didn't know exactly how yet but we were thinking up things real quick. I couldn't wait to get out of this dump. And when I mean can't wait, I meant Could. Not. WAIIITTTTTTTTTTT TO GET OUT OF HERE! It felt like I was going to explode from pure and utter excitement whenever I thought about it.

  At the moment I was running over the plan in my room, sort of pacing while biting into a red apple. Despite this place being horrible, it for some reason had really good apples. I chew on a piece of the apple and swallow, half way muttering the plan out loud. I lean my head back, looking at the ceiling. I take another bite. 

  I was getting kind of bored of my room so I decide to take a little stroll, licking my lips of apple juice. I watch as guards wrangle inmates. I watch as guards sit on chairs near entrances, asleep. I see inmates walk around freely and jump around like idiots. Just a normal day in Arkham Asylum.

  Over the screams of the inmates, I started to sing to myself a bit. 

  "There's a strange place. There's a strange place. Let's go. Fine lets go. There's a strange place, la la la." I sing under my breath. I sigh, turning a corner and biting into my apple again. My mind starts to wander as I continue to sing. 

  I wonder what was going on on the outside world now. What was Jimbo was doing? What was that bearded friend of his was doing? I still didn't know the guy's name which was weird. Who else did I know? Selina. She was probably robbing people. Stealing things. The norm. Brucey was probably spending money. His butler was serving and walking behind him with his head bowed.

  I found it funny how they could send me here and think me crazy when they all did things similar to my crimes. Jim has killed people for sure. But did anyone send him to the looney bin? No. Because he was considered a "good guy". He served the good side so he was automatically a good guy too. I call bull. He had a bad side to him. An evil side. I had seen it. The first time I met him. When he interrogated me for the murder of my parents and brother. That little flicker in his eyes that showed he wanted to send me somewhere else other than Arkham. 

  That is how I knew everyone who said they were the purest of pure were really the worst of the worst. It had to do with the eyes. I could read people by what they showed threw their eyes. It was like a gateway to someone's true intentions. If someone was lying, they would reveal it. If they were faking. They would reveal it. Not intentionally of course.

  This is one of the reasons I was truthful. Even when I was being questioned for murder. There was no reason in lying. I would be caught sooner or later. So, might as well speak what I had done then and there than get caught later. People lie like breathing and don't fully realize how stupid that is. People are stupid. I realized that loooonnnnnggggg ago. 

  When walking, I turn another corner. I then spot someone limping down the hall. And could ya guess who that person was. I saw none other than Limpy going down the hallway, his hair still a messy pile of shit on his head and his prison uniform stilled stained and dirty. I smirk to myself and place both hands behind my back, beginning to skip up to him, throwing the apple in a nearby trashcan.