A/N
Please feel free to leave any comments if you are enjoying the story. I have a couple more chapters to go but appreciate any and all feedback as I am new to writing.
Chapter 8- Give Me a Reason
The women on the corner of Jepson were different to those working Olga square, they didn't wear heels or make-up, some were in stained dresses or boob tubes but most looked dishevelled homeless, their heavy set eyes and sunken cheek bones a clear indication of severe drug dependency and malnutrition. The area itself was the most run-down Jerome had seen so far, comatose bodies were laid about in doorways, smashed glass and used needles seemed to carpet the pavements and the stench in the air was suffocating a mixture of garbage and stale urine.
Jerome pulls up his hood and creeps into a doorway stepping over a shallow breathing body with a pipe still clutched into one hand. He has a good view of the group of women and the factory building on the far side of the street from his position. He studies the women, each one a clear depiction of rock bottom, each face a lost soul. One women stands out, early thirties, painfully slim, but it is her hair that draws Jerome's attention, the blonde tone of her messy bun a signal shining out through the grease and dirt, although filthy it is the exact white blonde that Jerome remembered of Sadie's messy mop. He watches her for a while and his suspicions are confirmed when a John shouts her by name from across the street 'Penny!', it's her, it's Sadie's mother.
Jerome watches Penny disappear with the man into a side street returning some thirty minutes later tucking some cash into the pocket of her dirty jeans. She hurries down the street towards the old factory building and Jerome finally leaves his position in pursuit. He follows the women into the building keeping enough distance not to be noticed.
Penny climbs to the first floor and knocks on a battered door coated in graffiti, when no one answers Penny starts to hammer on the door with her trembling fist, her whole body fidgets with the desperation of addiction. Finally the door swings open, a scrawny shirtless man stands inside, his pale grey skin adorned with scars and homemade tattoos. The man holds out his skeletal fingers taking a handful of screwed up notes from Penny and throws a baggy at her slamming the door in her face. Penny scrambles on the floor retrieving the baggy clutching it tightly as she ascends the stairs further into the building.
Jerome tracks her to a door on the third floor, he hangs back on the stairs until Penny has vanished in to the apartment, he moves to just outside and listens at the door. Inside he hears muffled voices, Penny and a male, they begin to shout and soon objects are being thrown until a stereo is turned on and heavy music blasts. Jerome waits and waits until the voices have stopped, the music still blasts covering the noise of him pushing down the handle and the click as the door is released. He pushes a little, just enough to allow him to peek around the door, it opens into a little dark hallway, exactly as Jerome had hoped.
Jerome squeezes through opening the door as little as possible and gently presses the door closed behind him keeping his body tight against the wall. The hallway is narrow and the lights are broken, this will help him he thinks, at the end of the short corridor is a dank looking kitchen, dirty pots and pans piled high, he can smell the rotting food from the front door. There are two doors on each side of the small hallway, he hears a dripping from the first on the right so determines that must be the bathroom, the second on the right is closed and a heavy padlock hangs holding the door securely shut. The music blasts from the last door on the left.
Jerome creeps past the first door on the left, he flashes a quick look into the half open room, a stained mattress covers most of the floor, a thread bare blanket slumped at the bottom, the minimal remaining floor space is littered with ashtrays, old beer cans and the odd needle. Jerome stands back pressed against the wall next to the last door, slowly he angles himself to look through a gap as the door stands slightly ajar.
Inside is a living room of sorts, a battered old couch, a couple of beer crates upturned are being used as a coffee table and the stereo sits in the corner blasting away under a small lamp with no shade, the bare bulb the only light in the room. Penny is strewn across one side of the sofa passed out, the needle still stuck in her arm. A dishevelled male lies next to her, he is wearing a ripped T-shirt and stained grey sweatpants, he also seems to be passed out, he dribbles from the corner of his mouth into his dirty stubble. Jerome knocks the door just an inch releasing a loud creak, he grimaces waiting for a body to move but nothing happens, the pair just lay there motionless. He releases a sigh of relief as he scans the room, there is very little decor, just cracks in the plaster and a few old blankets pegged up as curtains. There are CD's littered around the floor and lots of rubbish everywhere, then Jerome spots it, a sign, hanging out of an old pile of magazines next to the sofa is a drawing, a clown.
Jerome braves a further move into the room but he doesn't find what he is looking for, Sadie is not there, he turns and looks at the locked door behind him, he contemplates why there may be a lock on the door and anger starts to build within him. With light feet he edges across to the door, kneeling down he tries to look under but the room is dark inside, he knocks lightly whipping back to make sure Penny and her friend have not stirred. He knocks again just a little louder.
"Sadie?" He whispers into the wood of the door "Sadie are you in there?"
"Jerome?" A weak voice crackles barely audible above the music next door.
Jerome gets out a lock picking set from his pocket and quickly starts work on the padlock, he wiggles and pulls the little tools until he hears a click, the heavy padlock releases with a loud clunk as it hits the wood of the door frame. Jerome looks round, he sees the man's leg twitch a little through the crack in the living room door but he seems to still himself once more. Jerome carefully removes the padlock and places it on to the floor, he pulls open the metal latch and pushes the door open casting a rectangle of dim light into the dark little room.
The room is very small with no windows, a pile of old blankets for some sort of bed, but not much else makes this a bedroom. A slim figure sits motionless huddled against the wall, skinny white legs pulled into her chest scraggy hair cascading over her knees as her head rests face buried, she weakly lifts her raggedy mop and Jerome sees her face for the first time in five years, it's Sadie. Her pale skin is dirty and her expression is pained, she starts to uncurl from her seated position and her discomfort is obvious as she winces and staggers getting to her feet slowly using the wall for support. Jerome goes to her aid but she bats him away.
"I'm fine J, let's just go." Sadie starts to speed up as her joints and muscles warm up, she scurries about in the blankets retrieving items and stuffing them into the old suitcase Jerome remembers from the circus, he chortles a little at the sight of it. Sadie pulls on a pair of army boots and throws on her old leather jacket that fits her much better now her frame has filled out a little. She pushes past Jerome as he still stands in the doorway and marches for the exit, Jerome falls in line after her, she wears cut off denim shorts and a loose crop top made from a ripped up Metallica shirt under her Jacket allowing Jerome to clock every bruise on her ivory skin as she passes him, a detailed story of what her life is like.
Sadie reaches the front door going to push the handle down but before she has chance to walk through to her freedom a shout forces her to freeze in fear.
"Hey! Where'd ya think your goin Bitch!" The trampy man from the sofa is stood in the hallway outside the living room, a gun hangs loosely in his right hand "And whose this Jaffa? She's mine kid, so you best just fuck off."
Sadie stands paralysed, unable to turn and face the man, Jerome's skin prickles with adrenaline as he can feel Sadie's hate and fear emanating from her fragile body, he senses her tensed muscles and panicked breathing. The young redhead turns with cockiness, a huge grin upon his face, he opens his arms wide and takes an elaborate bow allowing him to flick the knife hidden up his sleeve discreetly into his hand, keeping his hand turned to shield the weapon he straightens up.
"I'm Jerome Valeska, and who are you?" He asks with defiance, the man laughs with an over confidence obviously designed to unsettle.
"Ziggy, I'm Ziggy and this is my place, I'm the King around here you see, it's my building and I own everything and everyone in it you see? And Sadie there... well she lives here and so she's mine too." Ziggy rubs his face using the pistol hand with false ease "So I suggest you just send her back over here and go find your Mommy."
Jerome smiles even wider, he squeezes the knife tight in his grip helping to fuel his confidence as he speaks. "Sadie doesn't live here anymore...Zigg-y." He allows his disrespect to be obvious beyond a doubt as he spits the name.
Ziggy laughs sarcastically moving suddenly to point the gun at Jerome, but Jerome's senses are sharp and he has been waiting for this action, before Ziggy's arm has time to fully extend Jerome has hurtled the hidden blade. Ziggy screams as the knife lodges itself firmly into his wrist with a satisfying slicing sound, he drops the gun and clutches at the wound as blood starts to flow through his fingers. Jerome bursts out laughing, manically he dances up to Ziggy with gleeful skips as Ziggy struggles with the wound, Jerome tuts and grabs Ziggy's injured arm forcing the man to cry out in pain and drop down to his knees. Jerome mercilessly rips the blade from the wound, forcing another shriek from Ziggy. Jerome keeps a tight clasp around the wound making his victim compliant as he wipes the blood from his knife on the shoulder of Ziggy's ripped T-shirt. The boy then pulls the arm backwards lowering Ziggy even more as he holds the blade up to the man's throat.
"Give me a reason to kill you Ziggy, I've just been waiting for a reason to really hurt someone." Jerome is looking straight into Ziggy's eyes and the whimpering man sees he is speaking truth, pure evil lurking in the deep pupils of the boys green eyes. This boy is not afraid, not of Ziggy, not of violence or death, Ziggy realises in this instance that he can't threaten or scare him, this boy has nothing to lose and is therefore the most dangerous type of enemy.
"Fine, take her, she's a waste of space anyway, good riddance, little bitch!" Ziggy tries to achieve some sort of dignity in his surrender, but Jerome just laughs and releases the man allowing him to slump into a bloody mess on the floor. With that Jerome is satisfied and turns to leave, Sadie has moved from the door and is close behind him at this point, a look of shock on her face as she stares at Ziggy the defeated mess on the floor, Jerome simply winks at her with a smug shrug and takes her by the hand leading her swiftly out of the apartment and into the night.