Chapter Nine
Another day, another chapter of Memoirs of Viva Rock up for the reading.
Fayt- Good...all those day jobs I had to do were really starting to wear me out.
Kizzle- What day jobs? You were right here the whole time!
Cliff- Yeah, can I order a large pizza with everything on it?
Fayt- No I wasn't, remember when I had to leave the house to get dog food?
Kizzle- Umm...dog food? We have a hamster Fayt, not a dog.
Cliff- 30 minutes or less? But I'm hungry now!
Fayt- Then what's with the Chihuahua then?
Cliff- I can't wait that long!! 30 minutes is just way too long! I feel like I'm gonna die over here!!
Kizzle- That was the neighbor's dog...
Fayt- Cliff, can you stop yelling?? Kizzle and I are talking over here!
Cliff- But my pizza! It's...aww dammit, they hung up on me...
Kizzle- Another attempt to get a pizza go down the tubes?
Cliff- Yeah, something like that.
Disclaimer- I still own nothing of the Star Ocean franchise...
"Ugh, Nox, what the hell do you want now??" Kokoro asked in a disgusted manner.
"Silence Maggot, I'm just here to arrest the two nurses who stole the ambulance from the Second Shinee Medical Hospital, destroyed a vast portion of our town, and broke into this prison asking for marijuana," Nox hissed.
Kokoro and Cierra blushed.
"You're them? Humph, I should've known before. Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your backs!"
"Just one minute Albel, I believe I can give them the proper punishment myself," a familiar voice responded.
"Nel? How did you find us?" Cierra asked.
"And when did you move back to Pot Junction?" Nox asked.
"And how do you two know each other?" Fayt asked.
"Your name's Albel?" Cliff asked.
"Everyone, I'll tell you everything once we get back to the hospital. Albel, let the two men out of their cell," Nel ordered.
"O-of course." Albel stuttered. He reached for the key he kept in his back pocket and let Fayt and Cliff out of the cell. "Just don't say a word. Grandpa will have my ass beat if he finds out I released you two."
"Grandpa?" Kokoro asked.
"The old shirtless guy you saw before. His name's Adray, but everyone on the force calls him Grandpa."
"I see. You're real nice, you know Nox?" Kokoro replied.
"The name's Albel. Don't wear it out Maggot."
"Right. Now that we're all re-acquainted, shall we go?" Nel said.
The five followed Nel out the door to her car.
"I'll drive the ambulance back to the hospital. Fayt, can I trust you enough to drive my car back?"
"You can count on me."
"Shotgun!" Cliff sang.
"Sometimes Cliff, you can be so childish," Nel said.
"No he's not, he's just wasted out of his fucking mind," Kokoro followed up.
"Whatever, let's just go," Nel said.
The five got into Nel's car, amd Nel got into the ambulance. The way back to the hospital was rather uneventful, except Cliff was performing his usual drunken antics and caused Fayt to almost crash Nel's car into a tree. Within a matter of minutes, the two vehicles reached the hospital. When Fayt got out, he should have prepared for the worst.
"Fayt, that's the last time I let you drive my car!" Nel screamed.
"But Nel, I swear! Cliff jumped in front of me to tell me to be careful, because there was a chipmunk in the middle of the road!"
"Uh huh, that's what they all say," Nel said before she slapped Fayt in the face. "You did know that 'chipmunk' was really a Kelsey's bar and Grill wrapper that the car in front of us threw out, right?"
Fayt said nothing.
"Exactly as I thought. Now let's get everyone else out."
As everyone got out of Nel's car, Kokoro said,
"Come on Cierra, let's go!"
"One second! I have to get Cliff out first! Cliff, Baby wake up, we're here. Cliff? Aww, dammit, he's passed out."
"He'll be feeling that one tomorrow morning. Fayt, can you carry him to Cierra's room please?" Nel asked.
"Fine, If I have to..."
Fayt proceeded to take Cliff from his seat. To everyone's surprise, he was a lot stronger than he looked. After some time, they all made it to room ICU-208 of the hospital. Nel opened the door to Cierra's room.
"Lay him right there," Nel said pointing to the bed next to Cierra's. "Cierra, get back into bed. You must be exhausted, and you're still severely injured."
"Yes ma'am. I feel like I'm about to drop dead anyway."
"Please, have a seat everyone. I'm sure you all have a lot of questions to ask me," Nel said.
"Yes, as a matter of fact. How do you and Albel each other so well?" Fayt asked while trying to find the nearest chair to sit in.
"Yes, about that. Well, I can't really find an easier way an easy way to put this, but..."
"She's my ex-girlfriend," Albel cut in.
"Woah, since when did this happen?" Kokoro jumped up.
"Calm down maggot, I said she was my ex. As in we used to go out, but we broke up."
"Albel, can you shut up for a minute and let me explain?"
"Hmph. Sorry."
"Anyway, it's like he said. He used to be my boyfriend."
"When did you guys break up?" Cierra asked.
"I'm getting to that part. Anyway, I grew up in a house with only my father and my sister, Reena. Life was very hard for us. My father had a severe drinking problem and refused to get a job,so Reena and I had to work multiple jobs at minimum wage after school, just to keep the house up and running. We didn't know he was using the vast majority of the money to buy more alcohol."
"I'm sorry, that must've been rough for you," Fayt interrupted.
"But wouldn't it be obvious if your dad was using all that money to buy more booze?" Kokoro asked.
"That's true, but that's not the whole story. Anyway, we also tried to get home from work as late as possible to avoid our father. Hell, we were lucky if he went to a bar that night. Most of the time, he would get drunk at home. He would beat us for being late, but he would beat me even more because I was the older sister, and I should have known better."
"But why would you stick around in a place like that if you knew how harsh it was?" Fayt asked.
"It was all we have known. My sister and I have considered living on our own many times, but we were afraid my father would track us down."
"So how did you meet Albel?" Cierra asked.
"I got fired from one of my jobs because my boss was being a hard ass. I signed up for the police force hoping I could learn to defend myself against my father. That's when I met Albel."
"I thought she was just another worm at first, but I found her interesting when she told off that preppy maggot, Welch."
"Woah, wait up. Welch? Join the police force? Talk about being a fish out of water! Why did she even waste her time?" Cierra asked.
"I think it was because she liked Albel, and she wanted to win him over by proving herself to be the best recruit out there."
"The maggot did a lousy job. She's think it was one of her stupid cheerleading practices. She made me sick."
"Don't worry Albel, me and Kokoro hit her on the way to the prison!" Cierra said.
"You ran her over?"
"Hey Cierra, who do you mean 'we'? You were the one driving for crying out loud!" Kokoro blurted out. "But yeah, we ran her over."
Albel had never been happier in his whole life at that point in time. Nel felt as though she should continue on with her story.
"So anyway, Albel and I started talking for a month or so, then one day, he asked me out. I thought he was pretty cool, so I said yes. Albel was the only thing I had to look forward to during the day. He was my everything, so you guys would say. This of course, made my father go off the wall. I had school, then three jobs. One of those jobs took up much of the evening. That was the police job of course. Then I went to Albel's house for a few hours each day to hang out. This made the beatings worse every time I came home."
"Why didn't you say so? I would have let you move in in a heartbeat!" Albel shouted.
"I didn't want to worry you."
"Worry me? I knew something was up when your body was covered in bruises every other day!"
"That's true. But then my father found out about us, so he made us move all the way across the country. Then I had to break up with Albel because I knew long distance relationships never worked out well. We did agree to be best friends forever. A few months later, he graduated from the police academy, and our new house in Nevada burned to the ground."
"Did you have something to do with it Nel?" Kokoro teased.
"No, that was all Reena's doing. She came home from work and told me to get anything that was really important to me. We got out of the house and hid in some bushes just in time for my father to get home from the bar. Then Reena took a match and burned down the house with him in it. We made a run for Pot Junction before she could get arrested."
"Serves the worm right," Albel said.
"Where's Reena now?" Fayt asked.
"Unfortunately, she got kidnapped by a band of thieves in Colorado. I did everything in my power to stop them, but to me, it was either escape, or die. I wanted to see Albel again, and I still had my own life ahead of me."
"How did you end up all the way here?" Albel asked.
"A nurse was driving by and saw me walking, and she was kind enough to drive me all the way here. She said she was going that way anyhow. Then she drove me here and nursed me back to health, for she said all my bruises were pretty bad. That's when I decided to become a nurse. I wanted to help others, just as the nurse helped me."
"Nel, that's so awesome! I'm just glad you made it here safely," Cierra said. "But I still have one question. How did you know we were all at the prison?"
"How did I not know? One of the ambulances was stolen, you weren't in your room when I checked on you, and half of the city was destroyed. Ah! This leads me to your punishment."
Fayt, Kokoro, and Cierra groaned.
"I'm not going to have you spend time in prison, but you need to help me in this hospital for the next five years."
"That shouldn't be a problem. We like helping other people out anyway!" Fayt said cheerfully.
"Let me be the first to inform you, it can get pretty ugly sometimes."
The five of them could hear moans coming from Cliff's bed. Cliff got up with a start.
"Oh shit, where the hell is the toilet???"
"Out the window Sweetie," Nel said. "See what I mean? It can get pretty ugly around here."