The Killing Joke

N°3

From that evening onwards, thing generally speaking began to look up for you quite a bit. Well, mentally anyway. You finally had someone to actually talk to that wasn't your father, your chambermaids, or the uppish girls from blue-blooded kinships surrounding your kingdom. And as you quickly learned there really was no better distraction from imminent doom via marriage then a good humoured jester keeping you company in those free hours in which you would have usually cried your eyes out over the fear what the future promised to hold for you.

And well, Jamie turned out to be one hell of a special zany. That man had probably more stories to tell in his brain then you had books in the entire spacious library, each fabel more fascinating than the next, and each myth from a different part of the world you could have only imagined in your keenest dreams. You found yourself in that whimsical wonderment you had so often felt when younger when he spoke of those anecdotes, and it felt good, you did love good stories after all.

Out of graciousness for his amity and the undoubtable predilection you had left for Rat, you had quickly made sure to acquire the room beside yours as a place for the jester. Even if it took quite a bit of argumentation and persuasion on your behalf since your father still disliked him and didn't wish to have him in the house at first. You still had to lock him up there, and could only let him out in your accompaniment, but at least it was a lot more civilized than the damn stables; and always a short way if you needed someone to make you avert your mind when you trepidation got worse again.

And you did end up spending more time with him than you ever had intended or guessed when you had first met Jamie, sometimes engaging in conversation that lasted you from dusk till dawn. On rare occasions, when some upper class visited the estate for social events, he would just played the casual court fool, juggling, giving off a few impressively clever witticisms, and even performing a few fire tricks like spitting fire; which he was staggeringly good at. And with that, he was in good graces with pretty much the entire court, to your alleviation after the less than pleasant introduction. He was just such amiable company.

Well, for the most parts that was. There were a hand full of prominently concerning feature you soon found to be profoundly grisly about your jester. Normally, throughout most of the day, we would be the cheerful, overly enthusiastic man that you adored so much. But there were moments, just fleet, eerie moments when he tended to act strangely. From uncontrollable, rather creepy, giggling to himself for no apparent reason, arbitrary twitching impulses, unreasonably cruel, or even frightening jokes, which were sinister enough to make you uncomfortable; and that demonic grin he sometimes wore while zoning out.

Especially at night, when you heard his cackling from the neighboring room, it never failed to give you the creeps. It wasn't anything too concerning, you still adored the Aussie for all the good he did for you, but you couldn't help but have the gut feeling there was something sinister about him. Perhaps a secret or two from the bygone time that he deemed too bloodcurdling to whisper to you in those long nights you spent militating. 

-

 It had been a few weeks, a few of the most content weeks you had spent in years as a matter of fact, the summer now reaching it's hottest, longest days. It was so pleasant, simply attending to your chores as you were ought to do, however spending every free moment you could catch with Jamie, outside of continuing your studies, and political affairs anyway. Normally either by roaming about the lush park, speaking of adventurous in far off lands, chatting comical nonsense, and taking turns in uttering fables that came to mind.

You had never dared to guessed that communication alone could be such an epiphany, every story he told made your lust for escapades and adventours swell, you would have given anything to travel the world and seven seas in Jamie's accompaniment. You had no idea how a simple jester would know so much about the world as Rat did, there was no way he was so well traveled as he so brashly claimed to be at times, but even if he tended to hopelessly exaggerate his tales; you were hooked on every word, you believed ever impossible little detail.