Now...this is a touchy subject...I'm doing my best to be careful with it. So please, if you have any problem/s, please, tell me and I'll correct it.

Just as the title says, it's going to be a little dark from here on out for the next short while.

Episode 31 - Darkness

"I can't fucking take it, uh!!" Clause took her pill bottle and threw it against her wall, it didn't shatter, but it was lost in the vanity beneath it. She held her head in her hands and sobbed. The pills for her illness were causing side effects that were undesirable, and she couldn't stand it any longer. She rubbed her forehead and felt a series of bumps, tiny bumps. The pills had caused an acne break out and it was spreading to her face, back and chest. Taking her hands, she dried her eyes. "No more."

Pacing the entire length of her room, she thought of any way she could avoid taking them. Clause didn't even taking into the fact those pills were the only reason Al was even speaking to her. 'I'll have to lie about most of it, but I could replace them with fake pills.' She thought hard. Remembering she mistook a 'no name' pain killer for her pill that past summer, she searched her vanity. "Yes!" She said to herself in a whispered hush so to make sure her mother didn't hear her. "Mmm." She poked a button on her stereo and turned her radio on low and opened the bottle of pain killers.

She made some room in the middle of her pile of makeup and other knickknacks and picked up the actual prescription and poured it out on the cleaned off spot on her baby yellow vanity. She pored the pills out and began counting. "21, 22, 23..." Counting twenty-three of them, she opened the pain killers and dumped them into her hand. She picked up the empty prescription bottle and began feeding twenty-three of the similar white pills into it. "Done and done." Clause replaced the cap and scraped the actual prescription into her hand and tossed them into an old empty lipstick container, closed it and tossed it into her drawer in the back.

The remaining pain killers went back in their spot in the front of the drawer. It was times like that in which Clause was glad she bought club pack sized things, pills being one of them. There were two-hundred pills from the start, several less since she used them for cramps each month last year, but still enough to replace her prescription in the coming months.

Izumi was very careful when Clause would take her pills, so it was vital that there was something in their place, because there was no 'taking her word for it' any more. She had tried that before.

She looked in the mirror to see tears making lines down her face. "Why am I still crying?" She wiped them away and left her room for the bathroom to rinse her cheeks.

Once again, their little town was bombarded with snow, and it was showing no sign of stopping. The wood stove in Aria's basement crackled away as they enjoyed one of the many final fantasy games.

Sylvia decided to strike up conversation while the group had some down time in the midst of Edward looking for a particular enemy. "I hate to ask but, how are you guys with your 'edge'? Are we straight edge here or what?" She said, her legs pulled up onto the armchair at the short end of the coffee table.

"Huh, well I don't smoke or drink." Aria said. "I know Leo doesn't either." She spoke on his behalf. "Ed?" She inquired as she watched him slay some phoenix like monster in the game he was playing.

"No, don't smoke or drink either."

"You did once." Al corrected him.

"Really now?" Russ was intrigued.

Edward huffed and shook his head. "Last summer we went over to Munich to visit family and I had a couple beer. There's no age restriction on beer in Germany."

"No shit?" Paninya was surprised.

"Yup." Al followed up, giving a large stretch and leaning against the arm of the coach, his feet on the cushion next to the one Paninya was sitting on. "The only thing there's an age restriction on is hard liquor, you need to be eighteen to buy it. But who cares, beer is great."

"You drink?" Sylvia asked Al.

"Not really. I did a few times here and when we visited Germany last year, but I don't make a habit out of it...and I tried pot a few times."

"Me too. Just a few times." Russell said, causing everyone turn around; it even made Ed pause his game and turn around. "...a few times a week! HA!" He laughed aloud, causing everyone to revert back to what they were doing. "I almost had you guys going."

"You did." Leo stated. "The thing that gets me is it doesn't affect you in school. It doesn't make scene. Most everyone I know who does it is a moron, but you're are on the gold honor role, you get better marks than most of us."

Russ cracked his knuckles and rested his arms behind his head. "I am just that awesome."

"And modest." Aria swiftly threw her bit in there.

"Yes. I am, aren't I. In fact, I think I'm the most modest person in this room." He joked.

Sylvia laughed a little. "I got high once, but it was only a contact high. My old friends back home had it in the car and I got hot boxed. It was pretty fun. I don't really drink though, maybe a sip here and there, I just don't want to lose my mom."

Again Ed paused his game due to confusion. "Lose your mom?"

She nodded. "I'm actually a foster kid. I was taken in last month by a really awesome person, and without a hitch, I started calling her mom. If I'm caught drinking or using drugs, she could get in a lot of trouble and I might get moved to another home."

"Oh, you'd never think it." Aria looked at her. "I've known a few foster kids and most of them were all forlorn and misbehaved. You seem really nice though."

Sylvia nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty tough getting bumped from home to home, there's a lot of sketchy people in this world. I guess I just learned from the mistakes I saw them make."

"It's good to see you've found a good home now though." Leo said. "Structure is a good thing."

Alphonse thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, one of the girls on the Cheerleading team is a foster child too. I don't know who though; I just heard them talking." He tried to recall. "Eh, I got nothin'."

"I FOUND IT!" Ed bellowed as a large white bird appeared on the television screen. "The Trickster."

"You know, I tried for a week and couldn't find it...and now I see I was just in the wrong spot." Aria hung her head down. "Stupid Chocobo. But he's so cute and fluffy." Aria swooned, hands clasped together.

"And he's huge." Paninya commented. "Does anyone remember the chocobo system in FF7?" This question was met with a nod. "Did anyone else find it was gross that you could inbreed them to get the gold chocobo?"

Aria laughed. "You know what? I went out of my way to have two separate families in the barn so I could avoid inbreeding."

Sylvia in turn laughed as well. "I did the exact same thing!"

"I didn't." Russ snickered. "I'm surprised mine weren't born with some strange mental retardation."

"It's because code doesn't have DNA, and DNA is the stuff that makes us what we are." Leo tossed out a little logic.

"True...but it would be a challenge to have a program written like that." Paninya mentioned. She was big on computers and coding. "Now I have to make it a mission to try and write a code like that someday."

"You're into code?" Sylvia asked, changing the position of her crossed legs because one was falling asleep.

"Yeah." She said with a wide smile. "I want to do Website design as a profession. It's easy and I don't have to deal with stupid people. At least not that often."

"My dad does it right from home, because it's hard for him to get around." Russell chimed in. "So yeah, that would be the perfect job for you, ya' misanthrope."

Bunny stuck out her tongue. "It's not my fault people suck."

Clause tore through her closet for something to wear. She was back in her right state of mind, as proclaimed by her, and was itching to go out and have some fun. It was Friday night, shortly past ten, so her parents were in bed and she was planning on sneaking out.

Opening her door, she turned the knob and closed it again, just to avoid that click at the end. She slowly turned around only to come face to face with her older sister. "Clause? What are you doing?" The taller, brown haired girl said with bite in her voice. Normally she was very docile and kind to her younger sibling, but she was becoming weary of her little sister's ways as of late.

"I'm going to a friends house for a little while. I'll be back before one." She clasped her hands together. "Don't tell mom or dad Sheska."

She peered down the hall to her other little sisters room. "Every time you do this, you drink. It's not good for someone your age, I don't think you should. I mean, it's bad enough you made me promise not to tell mom about the party."

Clause pointed a finger at her. "Hey, I let you invite your friends too. So you're just as much to blame."

She shoved her hands into her plaid pyjamas pockets. "Hmm...If you're bored and can't sleep, why not come play video games with me instead...I have Katamari." She did her best to try and change her mind, knowing full well that the last time they played that game, they had a lot of fun.

Clause immediately shook her head. "No. I'd rather have a life." She walked right past her. "I'll be sure not to wake the baby." Clause waived over her shoulder.

"Whatever." She turned and went back to her room.

Managing to slip the bouncer at the door a twenty at the door, he let her go in to meet up with her collage friends. Her sister's boyfriend, Vato, being one of them. "Hey guy! What's up?" She waved at him.

"Not a whole lot. What brings you here?" He talked loudly to make his voice sound over the booming music.

"Bored! Wanna buy me a drink?" She spoke loudly in return.

"Sure, what are you having?" He asked with a smile. He really liked Clause, he thought she was a really fun girl to party with, and knowing she didn't have a cash flow of her own, like he did, he didn't mind spotting her for drinks.

"Purple Haze-" She held up two fingers. "-a double."

"Comin' up." He waved through the crowd of people up to the bar.

The night was fun for Clause, she drank and danced right to her hearts content. Vato was infamous for his special 'dealings', so he was knee high in cash. From what she knew, the only thing that he sold that he touched was the marijuana, but nothing else, his sister was the same. Hard drugs were a big 'no' for her as well.

As the hours zipped on by, she found herself on one of the coaches that adorn the main hall of the club. "I think I should go home now." The underage girl said with a thick slur in her voice. It was then that she realized that she had overdone it.

"Sure, I'll take you home." A male voice said to her.

Trying her best to see who it was, she squinted. "What? Uh, sure." She said holding her hand out to get some help off the bar couch.

The rest was a blur, the shaky walk down the stairs, the trek though some snow, then, unknowingly, a feeling of cold. She assumed, with what little consciousness she had left, that she fell. But then, there was a rough feeling, and she wasn't getting up. The cold continued, and so did the discomfort. "What's goin' on? Vato? Are you there? What are you doing? Whas...wat...uh." She tried to push whom ever it was who was helping her walk away, because they didn't seem to be helping anymore, but there was no success. She felt her back be lifted off the snow and smash into a hard surface, the texture was similar to brick.

"Shut up!" The strange voice sounded like it was yelling down a long tunnel and was fading fast.

"Wha...I...." She felt it, her mind was fading fast, and she had this strange figure around her, causing her pain. Slowly, she shut her eyes and drifted off to solid black.

Like I said. Kind of touchy. But I think I danced around the idea enough.

This is going to be a tough arc, but we'll get through it.