"Really? Oh no. How awful. My ass isn't at all used to trouble." Edward said it drily, looking out the window and just letting things go by. Gave him that short-lived fantasy that he was actually going somewhere. Actually leaving this place. "My family wouldn't want me hanging out with you, true. But that's nothing personal. Not against you, at least."
Honestly, Edward didn't know whether in this particular case it being Jonathan would make much of a difference. It was the boy-thing that was the issue. With what he knew of his mother's boyfriend by now, he assumed he'd rather have a step-son get murdered by the creepy neighbourhood kid than a queer one.
"Good to know it's not personal, makes it better, don't it?" Jonathan joked as he pulled off the main street and into the back streets, hoping to get off road and towards his own area. He lived further out than most people, their family had a lot of land and while a lot of it was useless, it was still impressive how much they had around them. It really helped their isolation. Jonathan quite liked that, honestly.
"If you change your mind, you should say. You can leave any time. I ain't asking you to be here but I wouldn't complain." A free test subject? Perfection. He needed more of those. "Just keep in mind that I warned you. Don't feel slighted afterwards like I didn't."
"Yeah, yeah." Edward moved his hand to indicate that Jonathan could move on from that, because he had no intention of leaving. This was the most interesting thing he had going on in his life right now. "Your family has an interesting history, you know? Your house must be amazing, though I imagine it's a bit in disarray by now."
He had been doing research. Of course. Hell, he had even done some more research on the crappy computer they had at the diner in the time that Jonathan needed to finish his food, which admittedly wasn't long. "There's so many stories and rumours about your family too, I'm sure you know. Must have had money, back in the day. They make up all those stories, but no one's asking the right questions. That's always the problem. People are so dumb."
"My great grandmother is quite the woman. Not popular, not even a little. Her kids neither or her grand kids. Guess there's just something about us, we never seem to win people over. Maybe it's a legacy thing." Jonathan was sure Edward knew something by now, that was why he was so intrigued. And he could probably figure from the direction where they were likely going. Only one farm was this direction, they were out of bounds in some ways - never really part of town.
"Great granny Keeny doesn't like to hold onto money. See, that's a sin. Having it, using it, making it. Then again, what isn't a sin? Even living is sin." It was hard to win with her in that respect. No one was worthy. It was hard to speculate on what money that bitter old bitch had but Jonathan had theories. "You enjoy prying into my life?"
"Yes." Edward felt that honesty might be best in this situation. Why bother lying? "I do. Your life is interesting. You are fascinating. I like to learn things and it's not as if this place has much else to teach me."
Other than what all was a sin, as it turned out. "I walked into church and didn't burst into flames, to I've learned that all of that shit can't be true. As you know." He didn't really see Jonathan as being a big believer. Now, someone raised to fear God, probably still hard to shake that off, but still. Jonathan was intelligent. He loved that.
"I worked it he wasn't true when he didn't strike me down for thinking impure things in church. Then doing them. I had to test." He was 13 and unable to control himself, riddled with a want to sin and angry at his family for his life - it was worth the gamble. And here he was, even now. Maybe he'd go to hell still but he wasn't so sure. Seemed unlikely there was a hell and if there was, it had a lot to compete with out here.
He pulled out into a dirt road and the car rattled as he gunned it up the steeper parts of the road. It was mostly uphill from here. "I'm not a sideshows freak so don't get too interested in me. I don't like to play for an audience. My life is my life, my business and it ain't yours."
And today he was going to teach Edward to stay away from him.
"And there's no way I could possibly be interested in you without you turning it into a negative? Oh, Jonny. Work on your self-esteem!" Edward chuckled and shook his head, trying to relax so the rattling would bother him less. "I'll be thinking impure things in church. I'll be thinking about you doing impure things. That will keep me occupied nicely. Might think about that alone in my room too."
"Me and negative go hand in hand." He didn't believe for a second that Edward did this for a good reason or because he was actually interested in him as a person. He was bored and he wanted quick amusement - he wanted to entertain himself with a mystery. "You really like to flirt with danger, don't you? You should seek therapy."
Rolling his eyes, Jonathan got onto a more stable part of the road and the rattling eased off. He gestured his side, tapping the window. "What do you think then?"
There it was, his granny's house. A gothic horror if ever there was one.
"Huh." What did he even say to that? Edward raised his eyebrows, then tilted his head, then smiled to himself. "It fits you." That was what he thought. "Very American Gothic. Southern Gothic. I like the aesthetic." At least this was definitely going all out. Damn. Creepy in every way. "Seems as if there should be a storm going on or something. Not that I'm complaining. Don't really care for storms."
"Oh yeah, gonna rain like hell tonight. Whole damn place is gonna leak." Jonathan laughed at the idea as he drove past the house and the fields around it, heading past the house he currently lived in. "It's a big property. We had a lot once, my grandfather wanted to basically just build his own fucking town away from everyone else. Of course, when the market crashed, he blew his brains out in that shed over there."
Jonathan gestured idly in the direction as he kept on driving. "Luckily his daughter married well, my dad has his own .... ways. His own career. He thinks beyond the country life." He was sure Edward knew most of this. He had researched them, after all. "We don't have people up here much. Most folks stay away."
"So I hear. Although you are so inviting." Edward looked at Jonathan from the side, even if he had to look around every now and then too. It all made sense. Seeing Jonathan here, it felt a lot like putting together a puzzle and of course that had him enthralled. Maybe he did like taking risks, there was that too. Of course he liked taking risks, else he'd never have ended up here in the first place. "Is this where you wanna stay, Jonathan? Godforsaken farm by yourself one day?"
"Here?" That was a good question, Jonathan didn't actually know. He didn't want to be here forever but the idea of finding a way out of here was also too difficult to even comprehend. To leave was so hard to fathom, it gave him pause. "It's home, I guess."
Maybe he'd be here forever. Maybe he'd die here. With the way his father got these days after everything in the past few months? He was pretty sure he'd never make it out alive. "You see that ahead? That's the family chapel." He changed the topic swiftly, not wanting to linger. "That's where we get off. You sure you fancy coming? I'd drop you off back at the entrance, if you want?"
"Think I'll take the risk." Edward looked at him, thoughtful. Of course, he was just about always thoughtful, but right now he actually let it show on his face. "You could be in Gotham, you know? Gotham is the place where the strange become extraordinary."
The place he would return to, sooner or later, one way or the other. He waited for Jonathan to stop the car, feeling how the atmosphere had changed. Tension, apprehension, that talk of danger and all the warnings... He'd have to be stupid to be unaware and he was not stupid. Chasing risks, however? Guilty as charged.
Leaning forward, he suddenly kissed Jonathan's cheek and let his lips linger for a moment. "Thanks for the right, Jonny."
That said he pulled away, undid his seatbelt, and got out of the car. Better to fake bravado before his own anxiety could kick in.
Jonathan paused in the car for a few moments, just stunned and unsure, his heart was racing and he felt a swell inside of him that he could do nothing with. He didn't know what he felt at being kissed on the cheek like that. It felt like needles and warmth. He hated when idiots were right but he still had hoped they weren't. It wasn't men. Just Edward. Edward was the devil, sent to tempt him.
Getting out of the car, he pocketed his keys and walked along, wondering what the fuck Edward was doing? Why did he want to do this so badly?
"You're fucking insane." Just saying. "I'm angry over your lack of survival instincts."
"I've survived with them so far, so who knows? Maybe I'm just really lucky." A possibility, honestly. But he had grown up in a city where the air was toxic and the water poisonous, so perhaps a certain readiness to accept risk came with the territory.
He walked next to Jonathan, once more seeming amused more than anything when he watched him from the side. "Do I really make you angry, Jonny? I kind of like that. I like the idea of getting to you."
"You piss me off something wild." Jonathan admitted as he opened the door to the chapel and let Edward go in first. "Stay in the center, the sides aren't very sturdy. It's an old place, you could fall through." He headed along with confidence, knowing where to stand and where he was going, walking up to the stop of the chapel where the candles were lit. His father was still lighting them every day.
"Are you scared yet, Edward?" He moved around the stuff on the alter, pulling a wood box forward that he had stashed away here, in plain site, for the right opportunity. "Do you have a lot of fear? Any phobias? Just curious."
"I don't have any phobias." There was that. As far as he knew, anyway. Fear, that was a different matter. "You're making me regret I didn't get done speedreading your father's published research, because of how you gulp down your food."
Not quite scared, but there was something. His heart beating fast, his hands in his pockets, him chewing on his bottom lip, which tended to suffer when he felt anxious. Often bloody. But he wasn't even conscious of that right now. "What do you worship here, Jonny, hm?"
"My father's research is simple, I wouldn't worry. I can give you the abridged. My father believes that fear is the worst weakness in mankind, it is something to be conquered. The reason people hold back and avoid so many things in life is fear. The reason he didn't save my mom was fear. Too scared to go into a burning building." Jonathan opened his box and slowly started to assemble what he had in his hands, not turning around to Edward as he worked. "Personally, I think he's a hack and not just because I've been his subject since ... well, birth. Perhaps I'm bitter, maybe that's my bias but I simply disagree with his assessment. Fear is a good thing, we need it or we'd end up dead in a fire after running inside, drowning in a lake or leaping off cliffs with no caution."
Turning around suddenly, he sprayed something in Edward's face and kept going until the cannister ran low. No time to be sentimental, he had to know. He tried to warn him. "Fear is a gift, Edward. And I will prove him wrong. I just needed a guinea pig."
Edward held his breath and did his best to shield his face with one arm, while using the other hand to try and punch Jonathan, because he was clearly asking for it. He had to breathe eventually, however, ending up coughing and staggering back a few steps. His head was spinning and he looked around, tried to keep his eyes focused on Jonathan.
What had he expected, really? The worrying thing was that he wasn't even that surprised. Now, the effects? Those would have been impossible to ready himself for. He heard someone's breath hitch, than realised it was him. Great. Hyperventilating. Panic attack. Seemed about right. He tried to calm himself, the way he had done often before, calculating in his head to find a pattern for his mind to latch onto.
"Careful, Edward. Breathe." Jonathan instructed as he came closer and grabbed Edward harshly, knowing that now was not the time to be gentle. He didn't want Edward to die from this, he just wanted to see how he'd react. He wanted to scare him off before anything happened - anything that involved another kiss. He was definitely not going to get any more of those.
"Lower your head and breathe from the diaphragm, not the chest." Jonathan manually moved his head low and checked his pulse at the same time, mumbled to himself about what it meant as he finally tilted Edward's head up, looking into his eyes. "Fascinating." They were fully dilated. He licked his lips, excited. "Edward, tell me what you see. The hallucinogenic will start up soon or perhaps they already have. It's vital you tell me when you start seeing things."
"Fuck you," Edward said helpfully, not feeling very cooperative. It wasn't easy to be surly while increasingly terrified, however, when he had to bite down on his lip to keep from making sounds. He moved his hands up to Jonathan's throat fairly purposeful, but before he could start squeezing he let go, giving him a shove instead and throwing himself on the ground. He'd definitely heard something, right? He looked around, eyes wide with fear, pressing his hand down over his mouth to keep himself quiet. Not the first time he had had to hide out.
He flinched, tried to get even closer to the floor, whispering with a shaky voice. "Call them off. Alberto?"
Alberto? Interesting. Jonathan didn't stay down, he got himself back up and hurried across the chapel, looking around for what he needed and pocketing the medical supplies he might need to bring Edward down - if he wanted to. Strong if. He hurried back over to Edward but kept distance this time, just studying the effects as they came. He was so scared - God, what a turn on. He had to compartmentalise that part so he could focus but... also noted.
"Edward? They're coming." He wasn't sure who they were but he wanted to encourage the fantasy, to see where it was going.
"I know!" It was not Alberto's voice, he knew that. Or was it? Maybe it was. Either way, being afraid clearly didn't keep Edward from sounding fed up with people saying stupid things, not that that was a surprise. "They'll kill me. Not you."
A laugh came out like a sob and then sounded more desperately fearful still in the end, as another wave of fear hit him. "Keep me safe! Please!" His face was wet. He touched it, his fingers trembling. Tears? Damn. He shouldn't be pathetic. But he could only whimper when he thought he saw a shadow move again. "Please, please, please, no!"
Jonathan came closer and crawled on top of Edward, pinning him down as best he could and feeling the beginning of resistance, knowing that he didn't have long to act before Edward knocked him off. He tilted his head to the side and manually stuck a needle into his neck, something that ought to reduce the panic and shift the effects to a more moderate experience. Well, hopefully. Time to see how effective his father's 'fear cure' actually was.
"There we go, see. It's going to get better. Keep breathing." He reached out and wiped Edward's tears off his face, wanting to calm him down come. "Tell me when you're back in Georgia."
The needle was not helping him calm down. He looked up at nothing, his eyes terrified, grabbing Jonathan and wrapping both arms around him as he pulled him close, for comfort or as a shield. He felt a lot like Alberto, there was that. Too skinny. He kept his voice low, because they could be heard. They were right there. Assassins, killers, Victor Zsasz, all these people loyal to Falcone. "I'm yours. Don't waste me. Don't use me. I'm yours, I told you. Please."
His breathing was calming down, but still came out shaky. It wasn't easy to get out of this. He pressed his face against Jonathan's neck, trembling and trying to quiet his sobs.
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icebergloungers2021-02-13 09:10 pm
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Honestly, Edward didn't know whether in this particular case it being Jonathan would make much of a difference. It was the boy-thing that was the issue. With what he knew of his mother's boyfriend by now, he assumed he'd rather have a step-son get murdered by the creepy neighbourhood kid than a queer one.
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"If you change your mind, you should say. You can leave any time. I ain't asking you to be here but I wouldn't complain." A free test subject? Perfection. He needed more of those. "Just keep in mind that I warned you. Don't feel slighted afterwards like I didn't."
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He had been doing research. Of course. Hell, he had even done some more research on the crappy computer they had at the diner in the time that Jonathan needed to finish his food, which admittedly wasn't long. "There's so many stories and rumours about your family too, I'm sure you know. Must have had money, back in the day. They make up all those stories, but no one's asking the right questions. That's always the problem. People are so dumb."
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"Great granny Keeny doesn't like to hold onto money. See, that's a sin. Having it, using it, making it. Then again, what isn't a sin? Even living is sin." It was hard to win with her in that respect. No one was worthy. It was hard to speculate on what money that bitter old bitch had but Jonathan had theories. "You enjoy prying into my life?"
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Other than what all was a sin, as it turned out. "I walked into church and didn't burst into flames, to I've learned that all of that shit can't be true. As you know." He didn't really see Jonathan as being a big believer. Now, someone raised to fear God, probably still hard to shake that off, but still. Jonathan was intelligent. He loved that.
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He pulled out into a dirt road and the car rattled as he gunned it up the steeper parts of the road. It was mostly uphill from here. "I'm not a sideshows freak so don't get too interested in me. I don't like to play for an audience. My life is my life, my business and it ain't yours."
And today he was going to teach Edward to stay away from him.
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Rolling his eyes, Jonathan got onto a more stable part of the road and the rattling eased off. He gestured his side, tapping the window. "What do you think then?"
There it was, his granny's house. A gothic horror if ever there was one.
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Jonathan gestured idly in the direction as he kept on driving. "Luckily his daughter married well, my dad has his own .... ways. His own career. He thinks beyond the country life." He was sure Edward knew most of this. He had researched them, after all. "We don't have people up here much. Most folks stay away."
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Maybe he'd be here forever. Maybe he'd die here. With the way his father got these days after everything in the past few months? He was pretty sure he'd never make it out alive. "You see that ahead? That's the family chapel." He changed the topic swiftly, not wanting to linger. "That's where we get off. You sure you fancy coming? I'd drop you off back at the entrance, if you want?"
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The place he would return to, sooner or later, one way or the other. He waited for Jonathan to stop the car, feeling how the atmosphere had changed. Tension, apprehension, that talk of danger and all the warnings... He'd have to be stupid to be unaware and he was not stupid. Chasing risks, however? Guilty as charged.
Leaning forward, he suddenly kissed Jonathan's cheek and let his lips linger for a moment. "Thanks for the right, Jonny."
That said he pulled away, undid his seatbelt, and got out of the car. Better to fake bravado before his own anxiety could kick in.
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Getting out of the car, he pocketed his keys and walked along, wondering what the fuck Edward was doing? Why did he want to do this so badly?
"You're fucking insane." Just saying. "I'm angry over your lack of survival instincts."
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He walked next to Jonathan, once more seeming amused more than anything when he watched him from the side. "Do I really make you angry, Jonny? I kind of like that. I like the idea of getting to you."
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"Are you scared yet, Edward?" He moved around the stuff on the alter, pulling a wood box forward that he had stashed away here, in plain site, for the right opportunity. "Do you have a lot of fear? Any phobias? Just curious."
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Not quite scared, but there was something. His heart beating fast, his hands in his pockets, him chewing on his bottom lip, which tended to suffer when he felt anxious. Often bloody. But he wasn't even conscious of that right now. "What do you worship here, Jonny, hm?"
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Turning around suddenly, he sprayed something in Edward's face and kept going until the cannister ran low. No time to be sentimental, he had to know. He tried to warn him. "Fear is a gift, Edward. And I will prove him wrong. I just needed a guinea pig."
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What had he expected, really? The worrying thing was that he wasn't even that surprised. Now, the effects? Those would have been impossible to ready himself for. He heard someone's breath hitch, than realised it was him. Great. Hyperventilating. Panic attack. Seemed about right. He tried to calm himself, the way he had done often before, calculating in his head to find a pattern for his mind to latch onto.
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"Lower your head and breathe from the diaphragm, not the chest." Jonathan manually moved his head low and checked his pulse at the same time, mumbled to himself about what it meant as he finally tilted Edward's head up, looking into his eyes. "Fascinating." They were fully dilated. He licked his lips, excited. "Edward, tell me what you see. The hallucinogenic will start up soon or perhaps they already have. It's vital you tell me when you start seeing things."
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He flinched, tried to get even closer to the floor, whispering with a shaky voice. "Call them off. Alberto?"
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"Edward? They're coming." He wasn't sure who they were but he wanted to encourage the fantasy, to see where it was going.
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A laugh came out like a sob and then sounded more desperately fearful still in the end, as another wave of fear hit him. "Keep me safe! Please!" His face was wet. He touched it, his fingers trembling. Tears? Damn. He shouldn't be pathetic. But he could only whimper when he thought he saw a shadow move again. "Please, please, please, no!"
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"There we go, see. It's going to get better. Keep breathing." He reached out and wiped Edward's tears off his face, wanting to calm him down come. "Tell me when you're back in Georgia."
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His breathing was calming down, but still came out shaky. It wasn't easy to get out of this. He pressed his face against Jonathan's neck, trembling and trying to quiet his sobs.
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