Chapter 6: The Jester is Mental, Literally and Figuratively
Richie
Out of the darkness rose several random colors; red, white, blue, and green floated around making little orbs or splatter marks against the darkness. A pattern began to emerge as the red solidified and the other colors dissolved. Soon I was in a room of red and black diamonds. The walls, the floor, and the roof were all red and black diamonds. Curiously, I wondered around and to my despair, found no clue to where I am or why I am here. I must be tripping out! What did the doctors give me?! The diamond suddenly began to shift; turned and moving around to form words.
"Weak, small, and stupid" crowded the walls.
"Well that's not very nice." I said frowning as the words become more visible, crowding the walls, ceiling, and floor.
Voices murmured from undisclosed places. "Failure", "unimportant", and "futile" filled my head.
I began to be too much, all of the voices clouding my thoughts. I quickly stuck my fingers in my ears to block out the sound, but that was exactly what not to do. The voices were in my head, literally. I sat on the ground, still unclear of what was going on when the voices suddenly stopped. It became oddly silent, only my heart beat and breathing filling the empty room with sound. My hands quickly flew to my ears just in time before the scream shattered my ear drummed. A loud, female scream filled the air, blowing all the color off the wall. The room suddenly became plain white, like a mental institution. I scooted into the corner and stuck my head between my knees, trying to block out as much sound as possible. The screams quickly turned to laughter. Laughter so infectious I had to fight back a smile, but there was also something off about it, something ominous, but not only ominous, insane. The room began to fill with color again. Green, red and purple shapes flew around, above, and through me. They plastered themselves against the wall in front of me to create a silhouette. As it formed more and more, I could piece together what it was, but it made no sense. The giant Renaissance style jester silhouette began to move and speak, her thoughts filling my head just as the voices did previously.
"Small, weak, insignificant child. Do you really think you can defeat me? Your team is divided, their leader injured, and poor Headmistress can do nothing about it".
The shapes moved to form a maniacal smile, growing larger and larger as time passed.
"Who are you?" I shouted, nearly deaf from her deafening voice.
"I, my dear, and your worst nightmare. The combination of brilliance, ingenuity, and, of course, humor".
She let out another set of loud insane laughter. Her laughter seemed so familiar, but I knew it couldn't be.
"Jenna?" I asked.
Her smile quickly changed into an angry sneer, so ugly and full of hate, I knew I was wrong.
"Even the smartest member of the group still couldn't be brilliant enough to know me. Don't worry Richie, you will know me soon enough, but it's okay, I'll make our meeting fun".
She said fun so evilly, that I knew that couldn't be good.
"Okay, well, I'll leave you to do that, and I'll just go back to my friends".
She laughed once again, "I honestly don't know how you are the smartest, you are already with your friends, in fact, you'll see them in just one second. Before I go, however, let me say this, why did the chicken cross the road?".
The corners of her mouth rose to a smile as if she was making a joke.
"To kick your butt", I answered.
She giggled again, "To get hit by a car", she quickly answered back.
She suddenly exploded into laughter, quite literally too. The shapes blasted outward in all directions. Several purple, green, and red triangles blasted towards me, pinned my shirt to the back wall. I was stuck high above the ground, my shirt and shorts punctured and pinned into the walls by the points of the triangles.
"Aw, poor little Richie, helpless and confused in his own mind. Well, ta ta little hero, I have some more evil business to tend to".
The colors began to fade just as I pieced everything back together. The colors, the jokes, the laughter, the silhouette, it all made sense now.
"The Jester", I murmured.
"What?" she answered back.
"You're the Jester, the enemy Jenna mentioned!", I asked back.
The triangles that still pinned me to the wall melted away and I fell to the floor. I walked closer to the silhouette, growing more and more angry and confident.
"I don't know who you are or how you're doing this, but I will defeat you and this evil plan you say you have will be over".
The Jester's face began to contort into a form of thought and surprise.
"Well, well, it looks like he does have some intelligence".
She smiled again, but this time there was nothing happy about it.
"You will soon know about my brilliant plan, but understanding it, I'm not so sure. But it's ok Richie, don't be afraid, let's have some fun instead", she sneered back, clearly determined to beat me and my team.
"There's one problem with your brilliant plan, though, Jester", I answered back, a smile now growing on my face, but not from laughter or the Jester, pure mania.
"You're in my head now, and only I control my thoughts, especially as a prodigy of intelligence".
I thrust out my hands, thinking hard about getting the Jester out of my head. Thinking of my team, the academy, and my family. I have no idea what the Jester's maniacal plan is but I know, no matter what, no one I care about is getting hurt. Thoughts flew around in my head, random facts and knowledge, memories, but most importantly, my determination to get rid of The Jester. I screamed, louder than the voices, louder than the Jester, and louder than I ever have before. The Jester exploded once more, but not from her laughter, my control forced her out of my thoughts. The colors and shapes melted away, now I was falling into an endless pit of black, still screaming, suddenly a blinding light rose up towards me and my eyes flew open.