grace under pressure • jerome valeska

CHAP.63: Maze

  "I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it!" I mutter-yell to myself as I hit the wheel hard with the palm of my hand. I knew something was going to go wrong as soon as I got that feeling. That same goddamn gut feeling. Why do I always ignore it? It seemed like a thing for me to just ignore my obvious gut feelings that were always right. 

  I had been driving for a straight hour with that black van. I had to stay far away enough for that women not to notice me. Even though it was getting harder and harder to keep my anger contained at the very concept that this women had caged and stuck Jerome in the back of her van. It took every part of my being to not ram my car right into her van. But she was taking Jerome  somewhere. Somewhere I did not know. 

  This was most likely the proxy. And that meant she was most likely taking Jerome to his brother. Which is what he wanted all along. If this was true, then I needed to follow her and figure out a way to get to Jerome and get him to his brother. And that meant I needed to keep my anger down. But not so much as to where I didn't the hit the top of the car and wheel a couple of times. 

  Hatty and Baggy where in the back ,trying to plan out what we were going to do once we got to wherever we were going. My mind of course didn't really think in that way at the moment. I was driven by anger and confusion at the moment. Anger at the fact Jerome was stuffed in a cage and confused as to how he had gotten that way. She must have knocked him out or something. Taken him by surprise. That meant she was skilled in fighting in some way or just very resourceful. 

  As time continued on and I continued to follow her, night time was starting to come fast. And when even more time passed, we were out of Gotham or at least the very outskirts. I saw a lot more trees and a lot less road. I kept my head lights off of course but saw her's up in front of me. I stayed at a good speed that did not let my car make to much noise. The last thing I needed right now was for her to notice me. 

  I didn't notice that we were starting to loose almost all of the road. She was heading towards a forest. I raise a brow as I see the black van cross right off the road and right through the trees. I growl and realize I needed to stop the van. I grind my teeth as I pull away onto the other side of the street and park the car. I take the keys out and the open the door, getting out and feeling the cold night air pierce into my face. I don't care of course, looking past my car and into the fading headlights of the black van. I hear the other two get out of the car. 

  Jervis walks up next to me and looks in the direction of the black van as well. 

  "What do you suggest we do?" He says simply as Baggy comes up on the other side of me, breathing heavily through his mask. I start to think wildly. Many plans raced and passed through my head. I nodded.

  "We need to follow that van into those woods. She's obviously hiding Jerome somewhere and we need to figure out where the hell that is." I say then point out into the distance of the woods. "We need to find that out and then bust Jerome the hell out of there." 

  "How do you plan on doing that?" Baggy questions. I make a face. 

  "I'll figure that out when I get there." I tell them then start forward, walking into the forest. I take my dagger out of my holder and hold onto it tightly, gripping it with force. I try to minimize the crunching of the leaves I stepped on, trying to not make noise. Making noise in situations like this was your enemy. The other two followed behind me, seemingly trying to hide their footsteps as well. 

  After a short time, I saw headlights. I growl softly and crouch down a bit when I spot the van parked in front of what looked like a large concrete box with a door. I narrow my eyes as I see the women walk out of the van and head towards the back. I hide behind a small hill while Hatty and Baggy do the same. I watch as she takes Jerome out of the car, heaving it a bit. When she dropped him to the floor without care I had to stop myself from jumping from my hiding spot and running up to kill her. I really had to try to stop myself.