Author - Mystic Rains
Rating - PG – 13, and I will earn it
Summery - Arnold's in an orphanage, only a shell of what he really use to be. The kids there are even making bets on if he'll be the next suicide. But when there's the person from his past who ends up in the same situation as him, will they be able to hang on together?
Disclaimer - Hey Arnold? If it was mine I'd probably have Helga introduce the five avengers to Spongebob.
WARNING – This chapter contains violence against a minor. If you don't like it, you're free to skip over it and it will be explained in later chapters.
I'm a dreamer.
Where does the light of dawn pour down?
I'm a dreamer.
Dimly white, that smile touched me somehow.
That sunshine doesn't touch this place,
This secret place where you can cry all alone.
As if I were screaming, I call out your name,
If you weren't here; if you were here.
Surely, I'll go to that place where the sunshine touches.
It can't end like this; we still have promises.
That far off path, that straight path,
If you weren't here; if you were here.
Kimi Saeireba (Ending Theme) – Love Hina
Flashback
"Olga, pick up the damn phone now!" Bob screamed over his football game, spilling chips from his oversized mouth and down his beer stained shirt. Ever since he had lost his beeper company, all he seemed to be able to do was scream and drink. Miriam couldn't even do anything to help, due for the fact that she actually had enough strength to pack up one day and leave him.
"H-E-L-G-A. Get it right B-O-B!" Helga screamed back, storming out of her room. She picked up the receiver within her parents room and raised it to her ear with a smirk. "City Morgue. You kill 'em, we chill 'em."
"Helga? Is that you?" The soft voice asked. She almost dropped her phone in surprise. "We had an appointment today."
"Dr. Bliss! I'm sor-..I couldn't make it, Doi! I have better things to do with my time than see a shrink!" Helga almost yelled into the retriever.
"Helga, what's happened? You sound different." Dr Bliss stuttered lightly. Helga was by far her favorite patient. She was full of life, and although she had many difficult issues in her existence, she was always the strong point. Most children would just cry and whine. She could never put up with those sorts of things. She took it all silently. Although it was sad, it was still an obvious ability of strength.
"I've grown up. I don't need your help anymore. Now, stop calling!" Helga cried, and slammed the phone down. She gazed at it with a hesitant look, and sighed.
I need to do this. All he'll do is scream again.
"Olga, who was on the phone?" Bob growled lightly, half slurred, half angry. He held himself up by the doorframe. He had gained so much weight from being home that he could stand in the middle and easily block the way through. His eyes grew cold and dark, and Helga felt a cool shiver travel down her spine. She ignored it however, and deepened her scowl.
"It was no one BOB. Now get out of my way, I gotta do some homework." Helga snarled and made her way towards the exit. Bob however shut it with a snap, locked it from the inside and put the key within his pocket. Helga looked fiercely at him, and through her side eye gazed if there was any other exit within the room.
"You're not going anywhere Missy. I heard ya talking to someone. And it's summer; I'm not stupid enough to think you have homework." Bob rumbled, stomping angrily over her. Helga didn't back down however, simply glowered back.
"You coulda fooled me Bob! Like it's any of your business who I do or do not talk to," Helga hissed at him. She was unprepared however, for his porky hand to grab onto one of her pigtails, and throw her across the room with all of his brute force. She tumbled on the hard floor, and hit back against the bedpost.
"I am your father you little brat." He growled, yanking her up by her other pigtail. She didn't cry out, though she winced. "And when I ask you a question, I expect it answered! You got it?" He threw her once again, upon the bed, on which she tumbled across the other side, landing painfully on her right arm. She slowly made her way to her feet, and defiantly stared at him, refusing to cave in.
"You were never a father. You were NEVER MY father! I have no family!" Helga shrieked at him. This time he did not catch her unaware. When he made his move to grab her, she lifted her foot up, and landed it heavily between his legs. He crumpled to the ground, holding his crotch in obvious pain. She ran to the door and yanked upon the doorknob fiercely. It creaked in complaint, but barely budged. She whirled around, and saw the key her father had dropped. In a rush she ran to it, and grabbed it within her clenched fist. Before she could make her step to the door however, she was grabbed by the shirt and whirled around, and before she knew it she was sprawled along the ground.
There was a huge fist mark upon her already bruising cheek. She could taste the faint copper begin to fill her mouth. She blinked to make sure that at least she could see okay. Before she could climb to her knees, she felt a heavy blow to her stomach, and Helga went tumbling across the floor, and into some furniture. Bob gazed down at his injured daughter, and hissed at her cruelly.
"Before you were so eager to fight! And now what, you're already giving in?"
Helga turned on her side, muffling any sound of pain, and before he knew it she had spit upon his shoes with the heavy colour of blood red.
"You're gonna pay for that." He muttered simply, and pulled her up. She watched him wind up his fist, and she deflected her face to the side, bracing herself for the known impact.
End Flashback
"It turns out she was there for more then two weeks in that little room. God knows how she escaped. She was found on the stoop of her therapist's doorstep. There was not one inch of her skin that wasn't covered in bruises or scars. The doctors said that over one-fourth of her bones were broken, and they had to remove her spleen and gull bladder for some of the bones had ruptured them. She's damn lucky one didn't go through straight her lungs." The civil servant sighed softly. "I'm getting too old for this job."
"I know what you mean." Sister Pucca sighed. "She's the worse case I've ever heard and I've heard of a lot, trust me. Who's luckier, the children who never had parents, the children who've had ones who didn't care about them or hurt them, or the children who had loving parents and then lost them."
"They are all sad, in their own way." The servant sighed. "Thank you for the cup of tea. It sure got some warmth into my bones. I've never seen such a rainfall before."
"Well that's what happens sometimes. You should have seen the flood not too long ago. Our basement is already taking too much. It's a good thing we moved everything up to higher ground."
Arnold sighed softly and took his ear away from the vent. It was true that the basement was taking a lot of water. It was already splashing up at his feet as he stood upon the stool to get to the main office vent.
So that's why she's here. I knew Big Bob was nothing but a jerk...
He leaned his ear against the vent once more, and listened closely as he heard her name being mentioned again.
"What about the sister?" The sister asked curiously.
"She died in a bus accident with some school children in Alaska not too long ago. It's said to be the reason why her father snapped."
"And the divorced mother?"
"When we finally found her, we read into her medical records. She was a known alcoholic in the past and has suffered through numerous nervous breakdowns. Not the best candidate, you know?"
"Oh Lord mercy. Sounds like she had a horrible life so far. Well, I do hope she'll be able to heal here, under God's ever watchful and healing eye."
There was a brief pause, before the shifting of the chair was heard.
"Well, I better be off. Thank you for everything Sister. May God be with you."
"And also with you," the sister replied, before shutting the door lightly.
Arnold slowly made his way out of the basement. His shoes squeaked through all the water it had collected and he shivered at the cold floor. The floor was always cold here, and he hoped he wouldn't get sick from it.
"I hope you're okay Helga…" Arnold whispered to himself, fingering the little locket with his picture within it. "I have to return this to you."
Author's Note - I really want this story to be successful, so if it doesn't hurt you, please review. It only takes a couple of seconds, and you can write as much or as little as you want. Suggestions are even better, because the better I write, the more people I hope to attract. (Yes, this means PLEASE REVIEW MY DEARS. I'M DESPRATE!) But besides that, I happily got some constructive criticism and I'd like to take the time to reply to the questions which were asked of me.
1.)"How old are they? You refered a couple as teenagers, and then called others kids, so I guess this is an orphanage for all ages. But how old are Arnold and Helga? 11...12...13?"
1) The simple reason I didn't add the ages of both Arnold and Helga is that I'm not sure what age I want them to be yet. I have ideas of each of the proceeding chapters, but not sure of the general idea of if and/or how I'm going to make a romance out of this. So to answer your question, they're obviously past the fourth year, but not too old. I'm going to say somewhere around 15ish. I hope that's okay for everyone.
2.) I was kind of confused when Jimmy popped out of nowhere. Was he sitting there with Arnold? Do they share a room? Or was Arnold's door open and he just walked in?
2) Looking back on it I see that you're right, I didn't actually give an entrance for Jimmy. I do have a reason for that though. Because I was more working towards Arnold's point of view then anything else, and he was so involved with looking out the window, I figured it wouldn't matter to Arnold how the boy entered the room.
3.)Lastly, the dialogue was a little drawn out and dry. It was like the English was too proper to sound realistic. That's perfect for regular narrative and description, but when it comes to actual speech... people just don't talk like that.
3)Yeah, I see your point about the dry remark. I'm into dialogue normally in stories, and in other places normally I never really had a problem with it. For some reason, I'd like to say the reason I made it sound so dry is because I've been browsing through other HA fanfictions when everyone sounded completely so off character and immature I forced myself to lean the other way too far. I will be keeping an eye out for this though, so thank you muchly.