Freak is an Ugly Word

The next day came all too soon for Jessica. She had hoped that time would stand still so that she did not have to face the moment she would that day. Greg would be there that day, he had visited her every day since her fall down the stairs and that day would be no different. No matter how badly she did not want him to show at the same time, she wanted to get it over and done with. There was no beating around the bush for her; she was going to tell him what happened. If she had any hopes of him understanding, they flew out of her head faster than lightening traveled from cloud to cloud. There would be no understanding from him. He would leave her and she would never get to lay her eyes the face crafted to perfection.
Anticipating Greg’s arrival Jessica sat in the Rec Room nearly banging her head against the table. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have let a thing happen? All these questions and more filled her head to its capacity. They never relented and just piled one on top of the other like an unsteady stack of books ready to topple over at any given moment. What was worse was the knowledge that even after she talked to Greg those questions would still plague her along with some new ones. The “what ifs”. What if she had not done what she did? Would Greg still be with her? Would they have been happy and lived out their days together?
All the answers would forever be unknown to her. She had not even talked to Greg yet, but she assumed that he would leave her. And why would he not? He had told her he would do such a thing. Greg was not the type of man to go back on his word, another thing his pride would not allow him to do.
Not a happy thought could come into her mind. Even when Joker came limping into the room a smile would not form on her face. When he had went in search for her he had found her in a random room hiding in a corner crying. Laughing he caught her attention. It all resulted in Jessica attacking the man with all she had, something he had not expected. She did not come out of the scuffle unscathed, but she did not receive the majority of bruises or blows. Joker laughing uncontrollably at her rage might have been a part of the reasoning for her winning the fight.
Groaning Jessica leaned her head against Mad Hatter’s shoulder. He and Riddler were the only ones that dared to sit near her. The other, Joker included, had decided to get a different table across the room. “How could I have been so stupid?” she asked him for the dozenth time in the past hour.
“You were not stupid,” this from Riddler. “You just let you animal urges take over. It happens. We are all animals, though we’d like to think otherwise, and must submit to those urges. If we did not submit to our sexual urges we would submit to others.”
“Like what?” Jessica asked knowing the answers already him having told her numerous times before. Was it a sin just to ask a question to hear his voice? It was not her fault that she liked it. It was not the same as Greg’s voice, smooth and comforting. Riddler’s was more along the lines of cold and informative. But he did not talk down to her. Did not act as if she were stupid. Just answered her questions in that informative voice on his.
Before he could answer Mad Hatter interrupted. “He’s here,” he informed her with a flat dull tone.
“I think we should go,” Riddler said a trace of panic in his words. “He’s mad. I think someone already told him.”
Sure enough when Jessica turned her head to look at Greg he was absolutely livid. It seemed he was having a hard time in containing the anger and was ready to burst. With the force of a sledgehammer Jessica’s heart beat against her chest. Someone had told him before she could. She was confused about that prospect considering it had only happened the day before. As far as she was concerned, only she, Joker, and those she trusted, Hatter and Riddler, had any clue as to what truly happened between the two. Was she mistaken? Had someone other than the Healer seen them?
Before she knew it Greg was in front of her. With the coldest eyes she had ever seen on him he gazed down at her. No, looked down at her. His eyes told her that he thought her a lowly creature, that he hated her at that moment more than he had ever hated anyone. “I don’t care who it was or why,” he stated his voice cold and biting. “I don’t ever want to see you again. I don’t ever want to talk to you again.”
When she opened her mouth to speak he turned and walked away. That hurt more than any harsh word he could have said to her. What pained her the most was that she did not get to say those three words that she had never said to any man before. Not being able to stand the sight of his retreating back she buried her face in her hands and sobbed harshly. Tear after tear streamed from her with unrelenting force. Never had she felt so much pain as she did at that moment.
Mad Hatter stood up from the seat he had taken at the other table next to Joker. “I hope you’re proud of yourself,” he hissed icily at the man. “You just caused the heartbreak of a very unstable woman. She’s going to come after you now.”
With a grin so large and mischievous even the Cheshire Cat would be jealous Joker glanced up at the man. “I look forward to it.” Five plain simple words with nothing but truth to them. To him another game was just starting.
Clicking his tongue with disapproval Hatter went to the girl. When he was close enough he took her into his arms, forced her to stand, and led her away. Though she was in much pain, Jessica would be embarrassed about spilling her tears in front of the other patients. She would want privacy and he was going to take her somewhere where she could get just that. His room.
No one would dare bother her there and if they tried, he would just chase them away. Unfortunately before they could step two feet out of the door to the Rec Room, Reece cut them off. At seeing the girl’s tears she had a smug look on her face. Hatter narrowed his eyes knowing the woman had been the one to tell Greg and ensue such pain in Jessica, who he thought of as a daughter. “Jessica,” she started the smugness transferring to her words, “you have visitors. They are in the visitors lobby and would like to you badly.”
“Who is it?” Hatter asked for the girl.
Reece’s eyes turned cold when she looked to the man. “That is none of your concern!” she answered tartly. Gripping Jessica tightly by the upper arm she ripped the girl from his grasp. “Hurry up now!” Her tone was over demanding and impatient like a mother yelling at her child. “We don’t want to keep them waiting.”
With a vice like grip Reece dragged Jessica through the halls of the hospital still sobbing. Once they reached the visitor’s room she practically threw the girl into the room ready to be rid of her. Gazing up with tears staining her cheeks Jessica looked to see who was visiting her. A man and a woman were next to each other seated in front of one of the many tables. Jessica had no clue as to who the couple was, but it seemed that they knew who she was by the way they stared at her expecting her to join them at the table.
Mustering all the courage that she could Jessica did just that. When she sat in the chair before them on the other side of the table the woman, tall, lanky and considerably older than Jessica, shifted uncomfortably while the man, who looked to be many years older, glared at her with an intensity Jessica had never seen before. Eyes red and puffy from her previous crying fit Jessica looked at the two waiting to hear what they had to say to her.
“You don’t know us,” the woman started and all Jessica could think was, no duh, “but we know you pretty well. Well, not personally.”
The man rolled his eyes at the timid woman. “You killed our son,” he stated flatly. Jessica felt her heart give a shudder. So, the two people she was looking at were Andy’s parents.
The woman looked up at her husband with terror filled eyes and then turned back to Jessica. “I-I just wanted to know why? Why did you do such a horrible thing?” Tears started to spill from the woman’s eyes and her bottom lip quivered. Jessica almost felt bad for the woman, almost.
Glancing at both of them Jessica stated, “I had my reasons and I don’t have to explain them to you.”
“I think you do,” the man stated tersely. “I think you owe us more then an explanation, I think you owe us an apology.”
Jessica glowered at the man. A dislike for his tone and attitude toward her. He spoke to her as if she were a creature lower than himself. A tone she was all too used to given her position in life. Many she had met had talked to her in the same way. It was something she was growing sick of. Something that had to stop. The only was for that to happen, she knew, was if she made it stop on her own. “An apology,” she spat. “I don’t owe you a goddamn thing! If anything, you owe me,” she indicated to herself jabbing her forefinger into her chest, “an apology for raising a prick for a son.”
The man’s eyes narrowed dangerously, trying to intimidate the younger woman. Jessica was having none of that and simply rolled her eyes at him, a gesture he did not take too kindly to. “You little cunt!” The insult echoed across the room and the orderly standing guard at the door visibly winced. “There was nothing wrong with my son! It was you who was the problem.”
Eyes widened in shock Jessica stared at the man incredulously. “Me?” she asked insulted. “Your son beat me, drugged me, and raped me, and I’m the problem? What fucked up planet did you come from?”
The woman sobbed. “How dare you say such things about my son? He was a good boy. He wouldn’t do those things to you. He wouldn’t even hurt a fly.”
Jessica scoffed. “Really? He couldn’t hurt a fly?” Standing up, she lifted up her shirt to reveal the long scar on her right side traveling from the bottom of her ribs all the way down to her hip. “Maybe he couldn’t hurt a fly, but he sure as hell could hurt me.” Tracing the scar with her forefinger she glared at the woman. “You know what he said to me after he did this. ‘Look at what you made me do?’”
“Well,” Andy’s father began, “what did you do?”
In shock, Jessica’s mouth hung open in a gaping hole. Gaining her composure she closed it and glared at the man. Now, she knew what he was all about, where Andy had gotten from. The way he talked to her, the way he looked down on her like she was a lowly creature, she hated it and hated him just as much as she had hated Andy. She wanted badly to wipe the smirk that was firmly planted on his face. “I don’t know.” Her voice was even as she could make it in her anger. “What could a fifteen year old girl drugged out of her mind do to deserve something like this?”
“Margret, go to the car,” he demanded his wife. Without hesitation the woman stood up and did as she was told. “You too,” he indicated to the lone orderly standing guard by the door, and he complied as well. Jessica figured that would happen. The man probably paid the orderly off. Money got people wanted in this world. She had no idea how much Andy’s parents had, but she was sure whatever they paid the man would be sufficient enough to get what they wanted.
Lowering her shirt, Jessica glowered at the man as he started to move to his feet. When he took a step toward her, she took one back wanting to keep as much distance between them as possible. This process was repeated several times until he grew sick of the game and lunged at her. Jessica tried to make a run for it but was not quick enough. His large hand wrapped firmly around her upper arm and he gripped it so tightly she knew a bruise was already forming.
Struggling in his grasp she screamed, “Let me go, you prick faced cock sucking son of a bitch!”
The knuckles of his right hand met hard with her right cheek as he back handed her. If he had not been holding her she would have fallen to the floor. Instead, she was left in a dazed state. “What a filthy mouth you have. I guess that would be expected from a two-cent whore.” Jessica spat on the man’s face and mustered a “fuck you”. Expecting him to hit her again she flinched when his hand raised to wipe the salvia off that was now running down his face. “That was disgusting,” he chided her as one would do with a child.
“Go fuck yourself and your dead bastard of a son.”
Andy’s father chuckled mirthfully. “Andy always told me what a filthy mouth you have. Told me all the nasty things you could do with it as well. Why don’t you get on your knees and show me?”
“Why don’t you get on your knees and beg me, and then maybe I’ll think about it.”
Angry at her remark he gripped her hair tightly with his free hand and forced her to look up at him. Her storm gray eyes met his devilishly dark ones. “I don’t see what he saw in you.” His voice was low and dangerous sending chills up her spine. “How could my son lower himself enough to love a whore?” He put enough sting on the last word that it made it feel as if he drove a knife in her chest. “And believe me, he did love you,” the man stated in disgust. “I could tell by the way he would go to his mommy crying about how much you hated him and how he had hurt you. Then, you had to make things worse by choosing that freak over him.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed at the man. “Freak is an ugly word,” she hissed.
“You only think that because you’re one of them.”
Loud clapping filled the room startling not only Jessica but Andy’s father as well. “Nicely put,” Joker’s all too familiar voice. When relief washed over her Jessica became slightly disturbed. The fact that she would find comfort in the presence of the psychotic clown was not a good sign of mental health.
Andy’s father turned his full attention to Joker, his hand still tangled in Jessica’s dark brown mane. “I guess you’re here to stop me or something?”
“No,” Joker began shaking his head, “no. I’m just here to see the, uh, show.” As if to prove his point he leaned heavily against the wall to the left of the door.
“Look at that,” the man said to Jessica, “even the biggest freak of them all doesn’t want to help you.”
Anger boiled deep within the pit of Jessica’s stomach. She really did not like that word. Raising her leg in a quick sharp movement she kneed the man in the groin. When he doubled over, Jessica gave him a nice hard shoved sending him into the table. If looks could kill Jessica would have dropped dead with the heated glare he sent her. The retort to the look was a smirk from her and a kick to his ribcage. “Prick,” she muttered under her breath and turned her back to the man walking away.
A large grin spread across Joker’s face. “I just knew I would like the show!” he gleefully proclaimed.
Ignoring the man Jessica walked out of the room. The orderly that had been standing guard stood outside of the door and was pleasantly shocked to see her walk out unscathed. When Joker exited the room shortly after the orderly made sure to avert his eyes to the ground like a child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Joker frowned at his henchman. “You’ve been a bad boy, Mar-k,” he put heavy emphasis on the “k” making a sound that resembled a whip cracking. “I’ll just have to deal with you later.”
Turning his back to the shamed man Joker traversed down the empty halls. Strange how quiet they were. Abnormal. The norm would have been nurses frantically running by, laughter spewing out of every door that he passed, and doctors leisurely making their way to their patients. But none of that was happening. There was only silence. The only thing he could hear was the flopping of his own bare feet as they hit the cold tiled floor as he shuffled forward.
Lost in his own thoughts of the abnormally quiet hall he ran into Jessica who had stopped walking. “Something’s wrong,” she stated in a whisper. Making a sharp left on her heels she entered the Rec Room.
Pushing open the swinging doors she came face to chest with a large orderly. Another stood next to him and both were looking down at her with indifference. From behind them Reece’s sadistic smiling face appeared. She strutted from around the overly large male and stood in front of Jessica, her smile growing even larger and more malicious. Keeping her face as neutral as she could Jessica just stared up at the woman. “What do you want?” she asked the silver eyed woman keeping her voice even and clean of all emotions.
Reece just continued to smile that sadistic grin of hers never opening her mouth to speak. With a simple gesture of her right hand she ordered the two behemoths to grab Jessica. They obeyed all too willingly and gripped both of her arms bruisingly tight. “What the fuck is this?!” Jessica spat struggling within their grasp trying to get out but to no avail.
“This,” Reece started causing Jessica to stop her struggling and meet the woman’s eyes with a heated glare, “is me putting you in your rightful place. I, along with Arkham’s board members, have decided that you are too dangerous to live amongst the other patients. You are to be immediately placed in a room in the lower levels amongst our more prestigious patients.” Leaning in closely she whispered in the younger woman’s ear, “You’re going to have a lot of fun where you’re being placed, Angel.”
Gray eyes growing wide with horror Jessica struggling ensued once more to a much more drastic level. She kicked, bit, and screamed but nothing came of it. Her fighting only seemed to enrage the men holding her. One of them, finally getting sick of it, hit her hard on the back of her head in the crook where spine met skull. Jessica’s eyes fluttered, opening and closing rapidly, until they opened no more.
No longer needing two men, Reece signaled the one on the right away. The remaining man through the petite woman over his should as if she did not weigh more than a sack of potatoes and carried her off. Joker, still standing in the hallway, watched the man take her away with his head cocked to the side curiosity and confusion crossing his features. When Reece exited the room shortly after he come to a conclusion of what had happened.
Being the jealous woman that she was, Reece would have her competition removed in any manner possible. The direction the man had walked in, Joker inferred that she was being relocated to the lower levels. Jessica would be trapped in the utter darkness she so feared, most likely with the man that had attempted to “save” her.
Hm, this put a little damper to his game. Not that it mattered. He could easily work with it. All he had to do was change his direction a little bit. Just a little detour. Swiveling to the left he shuffled into the Rec Room lingering at the entrance. Making eye contact with the fivesome sitting at a round table he smiled mirthfully. “One week!” he announced before leaving the room and traveling to his own.
The others smiled knowingly at each other. Just one more week and they would all be out of that hell hole and back on the streets. One more week and they would be living “normal” lives once again. That is, if they played their cards right and everything went according to plan. But everyone knows that the dealers cheat and not everything goes according to plan.

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Another chapter out for you guys. Hope you all enjoyed it. Just let me know. This story will be coming to an end very soon. I thought you all might want to know that. So, if you have anything, comments or concerns, just let me know. You can contact me via email or just leave a review. Depending on how many questions are asked, if any, I'll probably post a Q & A after the story is over. Well, rate and review please, and thank you to all those that have done so.