Schooled [Laughing JackxReader]

15

From then on Laughing Jack let you walk along with him. The clown still seemed jumpy, though. He walked very close to you, so much so that his sleeve kept brushing against your arm, and his claw-like fingers brushed against the back of your hand every now and then.

You weren't sure exactly how it happened, it just did. When the clown's fingers brushed against yours, they intertwined and locked together. Laughing Jack was put at ease by the contact, and squeezed your hand. His wrappings felt like silk against your palm.

You walked in silence for a long time. It was so dark that you weren't sure how Laughing Jack knew where he was going. Evidently he could see just fine, because every now and then he would warn you about a rock or root in the path that might trip you. Along with the darkness, it was freezing cold. The air stung your skin, and Laughing Jack gave off no warmth at all.

Jack had explained that he knew of a small hunter's cabin out in these woods. You were pretty far from your town, practically in the middle of nowhere. He also mumbled something about not being able to teleport with you, and that he was taking you to the woods because 'the last place it'd expect was the woods.'

You decided not to ask any questions just yet. Laughing Jack didn't seem willing to answer anyways. Just when you thought you were going to die of hypothermia, you finally arrived at the cabin. Laughing Jack teleported inside in a poof of smoke and unlocked it. The inside wasn't much warmer, but Laughing Jack quickly went about making a fire in the small fireplace. You found a sweatshirt in your suitcase (Laughing Jack had packed as much clothes and necessities from the hotel room he could into a single suitcase, and done an impressive job of it too) and bundled up to stay warm.

Once the fire was going, the two of you settled on the floor in front of it. Laughing Jack didn't let you turn any lights on, leaving only the fire to cast its glow over the small cabin. You shifted a little, adjusting your position to get more comfortable.

"So...are you going to tell me what this is all about?" You asked, dying for at least a glimpse at why Laughing Jack seemed so paranoid, and why he'd dragged you all the way out here.

"I can't tell you." The clown replied. He poked a smoldering log with an iron poker.

"Why not?"

"Because it feeds on human thought. It gets in your head and then it can find you. And once it finds you, you can't shake it. But you don't know what it is, what it looks like, what it's called....we should be pretty safe." Laughing Jack flashed you a reassuring smile, but you were pretty sure he was more scared than you were.

"Okay, then.....but why's it after us?" You tried to look him in the eye, but he cast his gaze back at the fire. He grunted in response, but didn't answer. "Laughing Jack." You persisted. Another grunt. "Laughing Jack."

The grunt turned into a whine, but you didn't waver. You gave him your best scolding look, and he caved.

"Fine." Laughing Jack huffed. "It wants Brian back. It can't get to Brian where I've put him, so now it's mad at me."

That explained Laughing Jack's reluctance. He hated talking about Brian. But now you knew that Brian was at least alive, which relieved you. "Where is he?"

"He's in my Carnival. You've been there yourself." Laughing Jack grumbled.

You shuddered at the memory of the demented carnival of your dreams. "So he's...asleep?"

"No no. He's physically there." Laughing Jack shook his head. He waved his hand and a pencil and sheet of paper appeared out of thin air. The clown took the pencil and drew a venn diagram on the paper. "Let me explain. Only myself and ghosts can enter my carnival. The kids you saw mulling around are the spirits of my...playmates." Jack wrote his name and 'Ghost kids' in one side of the Venn diagram. "The living can't enter, usually. When you visited the Carnival in your sleep, that was me projecting your consciousness there. All of your senses and conscious thoughts were there, but the rest of you wasn't. To me or the ghost kids, you just looked like a little flicker of light hovering around. That put you somewhere between living and dead, like a coma patient, so you were an exception to the rule." Jack wrote 'Living' in the other side of the diagram, and put 'Sleeping (Y/N)' in the middle.

"But...Brian's living. How can he be there? Unless...." You wondered aloud. This was all so confusing.

"Brian's a different kind of exception." Laughing Jack wrote 'Brian' in the middle section as well. "Brian's technically alive, but he should be dead. It won't let him die. So dear ol' Brian, and people like him, fall into this weird grey area, allowing him to exist there, if I let him in."

You nodded. You didn't understand it, but it made sense. "So Brian's in the Carnival and it can't get to him there....but why'd you put him there in the first place? And can't you just give him back?"

"I put him there to keep him away from you. If I let him out, he'll just try to shoot you again."

"But....why?" You asked. Everything was so confusing, and you had a million questions, but there was only one that felt really important to you. "Why are you protecting me?"

"Because you're my friend, (y/n)." Laughing Jack said. He slowly lifted his arm, just a little, and hesitated. Then he wrapped it around you and pulled you to his side. The clown struggled with his words, "Because I l.....ike. You. I like you."

You rested your head against his soft, feathery shoulder. Suddenly you felt very sleepy. Your eyelids were heavy as lead, and you didn't feel like lifting them. "Yeah....I like you too." You yawned, and let the warmth of the fire carry you into sleep.