Corruption

Chapter 4: Fallout

A/N: I'm going to leave what happened after the last chapter unsaid. I don't want to include anything that deserves an M rating and this fic will get pretty close as it is. But, I think that everyone knows pretty much what happened. I'll just fast forward ahead a little bit and continue from there.

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Karen found herself wandering aimlessly through the streets of Mineral Town. In her hand was a nearly empty bottle of some dark brown liquid. Tears of anger and denial racked her body as she stumbled underneath the dimming streetlights. The sun was coming up off in the distance, starting yet another day in which Karen wished she was dead.

The previous night was still vividly replaying itself in her mind, despite her efforts to suppress the memory. It was just another part of the horrible sequence of events that had turned her carefree life into a living hell. Karen took a swig from the bottle. She held the bottle out, staring at her painkiller of choice. Without even the slightest bit of hesitation, Karen smashed the bottle against the nearest lamppost, causing a shower of tiny glass shards.

Karen fell to her knees, letting her emotions take full control of her body. "I… I can't live… like this anymore!" She screamed out, scaring away a pair of birds perched atop the lamp. Karen looked up at the quickly disappearing birds, watching a single feather slowly drop down towards earth. The feather gently came to a rest sitting atop a large shard from the broken bottle. Karen's fingers twitched as she gingerly reached out, brushing the feather aside. It was the glass shard that had her interested.

A strange force seemed to cause Karen to become fascinated with the shard as it rested in her palm, glimmering from the rays of the rising sun. That fascination took a dangerous overtone as Karen's eyes followed a beam of light reflecting off of the glass onto the wrist of her opposite arm. She hesitated slightly, feeling the cold touch of the shard as she pressed it up against her skin. Then, with a violent sweep, Karen drew the glass piece across her wrist. She smiled, watching as red trickles of blood snaked along her arm eventually dripping to the ground at her elbow. Karen's head rolled back as she pressed her back up against the lamp post. Mom, Dad, I'm coming to see you…

Jack was having a terrible nightmare. Everything was dark, but there were voices everywhere. "Help us!" They cried. No matter where he went, the voices kept calling for his help. "But what can I do?" He had asked the spirits haunting his dream. The cries for help were growing louder and more urgent, ignoring his question.

He began to run, covering his ears from the overbearing demands, but the voices had invaded his mind. You're the only one who can help us! Jack shook his head, trying to remove the disturbing wails that followed him. "Just tell me what you want!"

Suddenly, everything was silent. The voices had stopped and the only sound was the echo of Jack's footsteps. Up ahead, there was a circle of light, cast by an invisible spotlight from some unseen perch. The light was not what was important though. In the center of the circle was the wilting flower. The light began to dim as Jack reached out towards the flower. Just as he would have grabbed the flower, the light died completely accompanied with a somber voice, "She needs you."

Jack jolted upright, drenched in a cold sweat. "Just relax, Jack. It was only a dream," he told himself as he got up to his feet. But, if it was just a dream, why did he feel like there was something amiss? He instinctually reached over to a nearby crate, where the dying flower rested atop of. As he enclosed his fingers around the stem of the decaying plant, the entire flower just seemed to crumble apart.

Somewhere, deep inside of Jack, he knew that there was something wrong. Jack was already outside, running into town. Almost instantly, Jack knew what he had drawn him outside. The girl that had given him the flower was lying on the ground, a small pool of blood forming underneath of her. Jack was at her side in an instant, noting that she was barely conscious. Seeing the laceration across her wrist and the broken glass everywhere, Jack had a good idea of what happened. He had already untied the bandanna from around his neck, using it as a temporary bandage.

"Daddy?" The girl asked groggily as Jack hoisted her off the ground. She wrapped her arms around his neck, not daring to let go. Jack unconsciously blushed a bit as he began running deeper into town, heading for the Clinic.

Jack reached the Clinic, desperately trying to push open the door, only to find it locked. With both hands full, Jack stared kicking the door shouting, "Open up! I've got an emergency here!"

"What seems to be the problem?" Somebody asked from nearby.

"I found this girl on the sidewalk and she's hurt pretty badly. She needs a doctor." Jack replied, still kicking at the door. He hadn't even looked over his shoulder to see who it was, but he was soon going to wish that he had.

A large hairy hand was placed on the door in front of Jack. "I'm afraid that the Clinic is closed on Wednesdays."

Jack now recognized the voice. Jack turned to face the greedy tycoon of Mineral Town, who had a removed look on his face. "Zack! Don't do this to spite me. Open this door for her."

Zack looked down at Karen's limp form in Jack's arms. He noticed the makeshift bandana wrapped around her left wrist and the red stains all along her arm and chest. "What did you do to this poor girl?" Zack accused, suddenly looking very appalled.

A crowd of other early morning risers had gathered around the Clinic, drawn by the loud shouting. Jack looked around at the spectators, who all shared the same expression as Zack. "No, I didn't do anything! I just found her like this! Please, help her!"

"Looks like we caught you in the act." Zack snarled, poking Jack roughly in the chest. "We all know that Karen's down on her luck. I cannot believe that you took advantage of her in the state that she's in right now. You probably raped her and cut her wrist so that it looked like she tried to kill herself, just to keep her silent."

Jack was taken aback by the accusation. "I would never think of doing something like that! Come on, does anyone believe what this man is accusing me of?" Jack looked around at the gathered spectators for support, but nobody stepped forward. They were all afraid of opposing Zack, even though they knew full well that he was probably the cause of this scene.

"Stay at your farm and don't you dare step foot into Mineral Town. Take that little slut of yours with you too. She's caused just as many problems as you have. Nobody wants you two here." There was obvious disagreement from the other townspeople, but they chose to remain silent. Zack was basically banishing Jack and Karen from the town, just to get rid of any opposition to his rule.

Jack straightened his back, taking a few steps towards Zack. The two glared angrily at each other until Jack stormed off down a path away from the scene. "Good riddance, I say. We don't want trash like that in my town," Zack commented, just loud enough for Jack to overhear.

Sure enough, the farmer stopped, and turned around slowly. A sly smile had appeared on his face. "Then it won't be long until the trash collectors come to get you, Zack. I'll be back."

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A/N: I can't wait until Jack steps up and kicks the crap out of Zack. It'll happen, I promise. Not sure when the next update will be, since I'm heading home this weekend. I'm hoping for Monday, if I can get away from visitors long enough.