One Night To Change It All

Chapter 16

Past

It was summer, and Bruce would go to the circus more often than usual. It didn't leave Gotham that year, some accidents stopped them from going on their usual tour. It was a bad thing from the circus, which would try to organize events and all to make up for that loss, but at least he could see his friend. Jerome was very happy of that, he told Bruce the tours were kinda boring and repetitive in the end.

Jerome was filling the horses' drought when he found him. "Need some help?"

"Nah, it's not much. Although...Yeah, come over here."

Bruce approached with no wariness when Jerome turned the hose to him and splashed him. Bruce yelped in surprise and backed away. "Jerome!" The redhead just laughed at this.

Trying to splash him once more, he didn't react in time when the younger boy took an empty bucket, passed it through the half-filled drought and splashed his friend with it. Jerome stilled for a short instant, mouth open in a silent laugh. He huffed and Bruce laughed and was about to fill the bucket again when Jerome splashed him once more. They ran round, laughing and splashing each other. At a point, when they were soaked in water and almost out of breath, Jerome dropped the hose and rushed to Bruce. Before the boy could react, Jerome had grabbed him, hoisted him a bit and took him toward the drought.

"No!"

The boy struggled, still amused though he had no wish to end up in the water. He freed himself from the redhead who tried to grab him again and started to run. He looked behind and playfully yelled: "Come catch me!"

"You bet I will!" Jerome started to run after him, people around looked them with amusement or annoyance but neither boys would care. The brunet was faster than Jerome; he ran toward the little fair going along with the circus and saw the mirror house was open. Without thinking, he went inside and realized it wasn't enlightened. It wasn't working at all, the door had probably been left open after cleaning, or something. He could smell a product, they probably left it open to let it all dry faster.

Bruce regained his breath and looked at the inside. It wasn't like in the movies; the sun would be reflected, but the rays of light would grow dimmer and dimmer at each mirror. So darkness was slowly invading the whole place. Bruce advanced a bit, the atmosphere was a bit scary but also fascinating...

"Ah!"

Bruce yelped in surprise as Jerome suddenly jumped on him, catching him by the shoulders. The redhead was laughing heartfully: "Tag, you're it!"

Bruce pushed him away playfully but laughed as well. When the laughter died, Bruce looked again at the room and Jerome understood: "Wanna go explore? It's pretty exciting!" Bruce nodded and they started to venture inside. It was kinda weird, in the daylight this was probably very ordinary but there was something weirdly mysterious in here right now. Bruce was breathing silently, looking at everything around...What if he got lost? Wait...Where was Jerome?

"Brucie..."

The way Jerome was calling him send shiver in his entire body. It was playful but kinda spooky too...A bit like this house. He sounded like some kind of boogeyman.

"Where are you...?"

"Stop trying to scare me!"

He heard a giggle and right now he wanted nothing but scare him return. He looked around; maybe that semi-darkness would play in his favor. He had worked on his stealth and managed to learn how to walk silently. He watched attentively around and spotted Jerome moving through one of the mirrors.