Pain, pain, excruciating pain. Hit, slap, pound, thrust, hate, hate, hate. I hate his face, I hate his face, I hate, hate, hate it. I hate you, you hate me, yet you care enough to hurt me. Why, why, why? What I do? What she do?
Glare, snarl, stare, smile. Smile, smile, smile, smile, smile…Scream.
Gill woke up shrieking, Mayor Hamilton was working overtime at the Town Hall, no one heard him.
~TOSO~
"Gill, you should go take a break," Elli said. "You look tired."
"I'm fine," Gill growled. "Get back to work." The brunette sighed, but did as she was told. Heading back to her desk, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder to see Gill scribble on his paper, literally. The closer the day got, the less capable of forming a sentence Gill became. Elli knew what had happened, her grandmother had told her. Gill probably knew that, but she wasn't sure, and she certainly wasn't going to ask him. Instead, she sat down, smoothed her skirt, and got back to work. It wasn't long until the most frequent Town Hall visitors arrived.
"Gillly-Gill-Gill!" Said boy groaned in response. Luke and Angela threw themselves through the door, followed by Toby and Chase, who entered in a much more normal manner. "Come on, Gill, let's go have some fun!" Luke and Angela pranced around each other, seemly in the middle of Ring-a-Round.
"Gill doesn't feel well, today guys," Elli said sweetly.
"I'm fine, Elli!" Angela cocked her head, a few strands of caramel hair falling in her face. She giggled at this, brushing them out of her eyes.
"Yeah, he does look a little down, let's just leave him be."
"But, Angela," Luke whined. "I want to bother Gill!"
"I don't"
"Nobody cares about your opinion, Chase."
"Shut up, Luke!"
"Make me!" Angela jumped up and down, clapping her hands.
"Oh, let's go outside and have a race!" She declared, and just as soon as they arrived, they were gone, and back again.
Luke burst into the building as obnoxiously as he did before and shouted, "Mayor, there's a guy here with a briefcase!"
"Thank you, young man," the man muttered, obviously not grateful. He wore a standard black suit, and dark shaded sunglasses. Also, like Luke so shouted, he carried a briefcase.
The rest of the "hooligans" (as Gill often kindly put it), peered in around the stranger, they did not like the aura that this man was giving off. The mayor of Waffle town hurried out and ushered the man into his office, casting glances to his son.
"We spoke on the phone, Mayor Hamilton," the man reminded.
"Yes, yes, I know; Mr. Carter, correct?" Hamilton continued to direct the man, now identified as Mr. Carter, into his office, but he seemed against the idea of keeping the conversation private.
"This quite a secluded island, Mayor."
"Yes, beautiful isn't it?" Hamilton reached out as if to nudge Mr. Carter, but he drew back at the last moment. He was slightly daunted by the suited male; he towered over Hamilton by a meter at least. Carter looked down at the Mayor, and proceeded into the office. Mayor Hamilton nodded in approval, entered as well, and closed the door behind him.
"Who was that, Elli?" Toby asked, coming into the building.
"I don't know, a lawyer for a possible buyer?"
"Someone's gonna buy the island?" Luke yelped. "Are we gonna be slaves?" Elli huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"No, Luke, not the entire island," she explained. "Just a part of it, a piece of property, like Angela did." Luke crossed his eyes at the secretary in response.
"Angela didn't buy her farm, she got it for free!" Elli huffed again.
"You don't suppose somebody would buy out the island," Angela spoke. "Do you, Gill?"
"Who knows?" Gill replied (muttered, more like). "I'm sure father wouldn't sell the island. He might sell you, though, Luke."
"I certainly would."
"Shut up, Chase."
~TOSO~
Hamilton folded his hands on his desk, unfolded them, rearranged some things, and refolded. He was about to repeat the process for the third time when Carter interrupted him.
"Mr. Hamilton, I am growing irritated with your avoidance."
"That's Mayor Hamilton to you, and I'm not avoiding anything that needs to be addressed!" Carter pushed up his sunglasses with a sigh.
"You have been dodging my phone calls, e-mails, letters, faxes, and, my god, I even sent you a text message!" Carter coughed afterward, running his hands through his slicked hair. "I apologize."
"You are forgiven. Now, kindly leave this island."
"Mr. Hamilton-"
"Mayor!"
"Mayor Hamilton, if this continues, you will lose this custody case, and this I am certain!" Taken aback by the thought, Mayor Hamilton was suddenly speechless. "Look, I realize how difficult this is for you, and I feel for you, but if you refuse to participate in court meetings, and if you do not testify, you will lose custody of young Gill. My client just wants to give you a fighting chance, so-"
"That bastard just wants to see my losing face," Carter pushed his sunglasses up again. "But I'm not going to lose; Gill is my son, damnit, no matter what.
"I was there for his birth, I was the one who raised him, and I was the one who fed him, clothed him, and kept him physically and emotionally well! He cannot just swoop in here with his biological relationships and call it even; I'm his father because I love him, he is only a genetic donor!"
Mr. Carter took his leave after the mayor's speech, not because he gave up, no; he had already done his job by convincing the plump man to come. The Mayor's theory was right, his client really did just want to strike fear into the hearts of whomever he laid eyes upon. It didn't bother Mr. Carter though, as long as he got paid and remained alive. He could be aiding a murderer and he could care less. As long as he lived and got paid.
~TOSO~
"Chasey, why are you so grumpy today?" Angela asked this in a sweet manner, despite what he had just said to her (she'll get him back for it later).
"I just… I'm not having the greatest of days."
"Well, you're not making our days any greater!" Luke snapped.
"What happened?" Toby inquired.
"You guys know, how I'm an… Orphan, right?" The nodding of heads was his answer.
"Well, Julius said something, and it really irked me." The violet-eyed boy paused to scratch his head. "It was about parents, family, the whole shebang, and how he left them, and how annoying they were. He wasn't even talking to me, I was actually kind of eavesdropping, and I sure he didn't mean it to hurt or anything, but…I don't know. I guess it was that I would give anything to have even a dysfunctional family like Julius' and he doesn't even appreciate it.
"And then I got to daydreaming, then yearning, and now I'm depressed 'cause it's just stupid dreams, never to be reality." He paused again: this time, to stare into space. "I sound like a whiney little bitch, don't I?"
"Not really," Toby said, taking a swig of water out of a water bottle before offering it around. Nobody took up his offer. "My parents are divorced, but I really think of Ozzie, Pascal, and Paolo more like my family than I do my own flesh and blood." Another drink. "I feel real bad about it sometimes, but when I actually get in contact with either Mom or Dad, all they do is complain about each other."
"What does that have to do with my situation?" Chase said, watching as Toby drained the rest of the bottle.
Toby smiled and laughed, "I guess it really doesn't, but now that we're on the subject, what's your story, Angela?"
"Eh, me?"
"I don't know any other." The only female in the group tapped her finger against her chin, deciding where to begin.
"My family gets along well, I believe," she stated. "My parents are still together, and I have a brother. My brother was thrilled for me when I left home, my parents; not so much." She twirled a strand of hair around her finger, swaying as she walked, as if a soft tune drifted its way into her skull. "I just hope they don't take out their frustration with me out on him." Her finger stopped twirling, satisfied with the little curl it left behind. "Your turn, Luke!"
"Okay, my Mom's a deadbeat and Bo has lived with us as long as I can remember."
"That it?"
"Yep."
"Gill doesn't have a mother either," Chase observed; more to himself than to anyone else.
"She was shot and killed," Toby explained.
"Oh, god, really?" Angela was morbidly surprised, as was Luke.
"I never heard that," he murmured. "Here, on Waffle Island?"
"Yeah, I was just a kid when it happened, though. So I don't know much else about the matter," Toby said this in a low voice, explained by his next line. "Don't talk so loud, we're right by his house now." Angela halted, cupping a hand around the ear closest to Gill's house.
"Do you hear that?" She whispered. "It sounds like someone's crying." Everyone in the group had thought that maybe it was the ghost of Gill's mother, saddened by the way she was being talked about, but no one said anything about that. A ghost wasn't the reason for the loud sobs anyway, the wails came from a person very much alive, though, but he felt as if he was dying at that moment.
~TOSO~
Well, started up a new HM fic. This idea has actually been in my head for a while, but I've been lazy.
Gill, Angela, and others are around 16-17.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harvest Moon saga. If I did, I would make it so you could marry people of the same gender.
Reviews are appreciated, criticism is welcome, and Flames will be loaded into my flamethrower and used against the Flamer (that's a lot of fire).