Supernova ━━ Bruce Wayne

𝟬𝟭. stranger things

CHAPTER ONE
i can't tell if my body belongs to me

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     𝐉uliana Valeska couldn't remember the last time she felt at ease with her surroundings. Now she was alert, paranoid, always on the lookout for something that was yet to come. Her young, fragile mind, always thinking of the worst before it even happens. As if it was engraved into her skull. A deep wound that healed badly. A reminder of something that has now passed, but left a scar so terrible and so clear it seems so hard to ignore.

     Her eyes were wide, stricken with fear. Terrified of the unseen. The voices of monsters, beasts, with taunting laughter, and gibberish words they tend to whisper. They were always there when she was conscious or asleep. It never really left no matter how much she tries and begs to make them leave.

     But right now, there was only silence.

     A silence so deafening it was almost terrifying. Juliana wasn't used to the quietness, the tranquility. It was scarce for the young girl who'd only heard yelling, screaming, and chaos around her all her life. The silence does not dwell around nor inside her head and right now, it wasn't the ease of silence she'd felt.

     Because standing outside a local café around town and looking through the glass windows, the breaking news that flashed on the television inside was something that sent a jolt of fear through fourteen-year-old Juliana Valeska. Fear that she hasn't felt since a certain person got out of her life.

     Her hands trembled as tears started gathering in her eyes, blurring her vision as she stared right through the eyes of the murderer of her mother on the television screen. His eyes weren't the same azure as hers, but he did have the same features, the freckles, and the obvious crimson hair that she could never seem to get rid of.

      Everything about herself reminded her that she was related to the person on the news, and she hated every part of it. She hated that she allowed herself to succumb to this self-loathing just because she couldn't do it to the people who hurt her anymore. 

     Lila Valeska was dead. The woman who spat careless and hurtful words at her every time she made a little mistake. The woman beat her senseless with anything she could get ahold of just because that was the way she showed her love. At least that's what she used to tell her as her skin split open from each blow of the metal part of the belt her mother grasped in her rough hands.

    Jerome Valeska had been gone. The older brother who was supposed to take care of her, and protect her from the evil of the world. He was supposed to be her safe place when their mother and her sick boyfriend would hit them until their skin bleeds and they could no longer stand on their feet.

      But he was the devil. He had always been the evil in her world, and Juliana had been too young to realize neither of them had ever really cared or loved her. 

     And now he was back, and Juliana wasn't sure if he was the one she should hate in the first place. Maybe it was her to blame alone. For being the victim. For not fighting back and running away when she could've done those anytime back then.

     Then again she was also a child. And Juliana had been so stubborn to leave the animals she had trained for the circus they used to work at. Maybe they were her safe haven. The innocent and pure animals that shouldn't have been entertaining humans in the first place just for their amusement. Maybe she connected with those voiceless creatures more than the people around her.

     "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." Juliana swore her heart almost stopped. She froze, hearing the same sickening voice that constantly disturbs her in her nightmares and that laugh. Oh, God. His laugh.