ASC: Chapter 11

An hour has passed since the events that happened near the beach in Sunflower Shoal. Ed and Reese were beside Double D at the hospital along with Eddy's parents with Alice, who was still in critical condition. Evan, Rebecca, and Jade's mom were still at the site where Eddy and Jade were stuck, patiently waiting for the rescue crew to arrive to help the two teens. Jade's mom continued to talk to her daughter, texting her a few times to ask her if they were okay. Jade replied to her mom that they were fine and to stop texting her so much just in case Jade's phone ran out of battery life.

"Mrs. Yoshida?"

Jade's mom perked her head up to see Evan and Rebecca coming over to her, "You're Jade's mother, right?"

"Y-Yes, I am," she replied with a nod, "Clara is my name."

"It's, uh, nice to meet you. My name's Evan McGee, and Eddy is my little brother," Evan began to say before scratching the back of his neck a bit, "Though I'd wish we could've met under different circumstances."

"And my name is Rebecca Fair," Rebecca stated before she began to chuckle a little, "I'm the one who helped this Dork with his job in the past before he was promoted."

"H-Hey!" Evan retorted a little to Rebecca before making a sigh, "Anyway, my job is working for the police department here. I was promoted to go undercover as a member of the Corvin Family to help bring them to justice… That started about a year ago but was recently put into play."

"The Corvin Family…?" Clara questioned with a gasp, "T-That's the local mafia, isn't it?!"

Evan nodded his head, "Yes."

That was when Evan and Rebecca explained to Clara what was going on, about the events that had happened before and the reason that led to Eddy and his friends being taken along with Jade. She was extremely shocked, to say the least.

"I wanted to apologize to you that this happened to Jade," Evan stated with sadness, "I should have been there when they showed up. But I…"

"Don't blame yourself for this, dear… You know none of this is your fault," Clara stated to him, "What's important is that they're both still alive after all that's happened, even the people who did this to them are behind bars. Thank you for helping Jade," she glanced away back toward the ledge of the cliff, "She's been through so much already. I don't know what I would do if she was gone…"

Clara looked back to Evan and Rebecca, "I don't know if you looked at her records or not, but something happened to the two of us about six months ago that involves her father, though I don't blame him for what happened, and neither does Jade…"

Clara was about to say more about what she was talking about until they heard Evan and Rebecca's boss walk over to them, telling them the rescue crew had just arrived.

"Oh, thank goodness…" Rebecca sighed with relief, "We should step away while they get to work."

Meanwhile, back with Eddy and Jade, the two of them continued to sit next to each other, with them both looking at random videos and things on the internet from Jade's phone to pass the time. Thankfully, her phone was fully charged when she left her house today, meaning they could sparingly watch a few things before stopping to save the battery life.

It was after they stopped watching videos that Eddy noticed the preview image for her photo gallery on her phone. He could see a man there with Jade and an older woman, smiling together like they were in a family picture; the photo looked like it had recently been taken within the last year. Jade noticed that he was looking at it and tried to hide it by swiping to another tab.

"… Jade?" Eddy started to ask, "Why were you trying to hide that?"

Jade was silent at his question, "… That's my mom and dad," she finally said, "I'm only living with my mom right now, because, umm…"

Jade raised her left hand to feel around her chest, collarbone, and neck, rubbing it like she was remembering something, "About eight months ago, my dad was diagnosed with schizophrenia after having his first episode. He thought a burglar broke into our house and tried to fight them back with a frying pan, but it was a coatrack and not a person."

Eddy looked at Jade as she continued to explain, "Everything was fine for a while after he started taking some medication to help him. But it wasn't enough to help him the second time it happened, about two months later," she could feel herself becoming nervous before continuing, "One night when everyone was asleep in my house, my dad got up to go downstairs and was walking by my room when the second episode started to happen. He ran into my room, a-and he…" she raised her hand to her shirt collar again, pulling it down slightly to show a nasty scar on her left side that went from her lower neck to a bit of her upper chest, located along her collar bone, "He attacked me with something sharp, cutting me around here and giving me this scar. I don't remember what he had in his hand, but it was… It was very painful. I was lucky that the attack didn't kill me, b-because it could have easily done so; it was more of a bad scratch because the wound wasn't deep enough. When I woke up from the pain, he started to physically attack me, thinking I was a burglar or someone who was after him. I ran to my mom's room and locked the door; I couldn't think straight afterward, but I could hear my mom calling the police as my dad was trying to break down the door…"

Eddy was stunned at her story, "Jade…"

"When my dad finally calmed down from what happened, he was mortified at what he did; he was scared to be near anyone after that, including us. Afterward, he booked himself into a hospital that could help him if he ever had another bad episode. He also went there to avoid charges for what happened, even though my mom was not going to press anything like that onto him. She knew he would never hurt me like that on purpose…" Jade lowered her head, "We still visit him to make sure he's okay, and it does seem like he's getting better. But he's still far off from leaving the place, which is why my mom and I decided to sell our old house and move here to Peach Creek about three months ago. The hospital he's at is closer to here than where we used to live, so we thought it would be best for us to live here in Peach Creek when he finally gets better, just in case something happens again when he returns home… And to just be near him for visits if it happens again."

The two teens sat there in silence after Jade finished telling her story, "I don't like to bring this up, and the only ones who know about this are you and Reese, s-so… Can you keep this to yourself? Please?"

Jade could feel Eddy begin to hug her, trying to comfort her, "Yeah, I won't say anything. Promise."

Jade smiled at him, "Thank you."

The two teens then heard a ping go off on Jade's phone; it was a text message from Jade's mom, telling them that the rescuers were finally here and were beginning to set up the equipment to help them.

"Thank goodness for that," Jade stated out loud before replying to her mom, telling her okay and giving her a thumbs up in the text.

It took a few minutes for the rescuers to set up their equipment before finally getting to work. A single rescuer began his trek, slowly hopping down the cliff to the spot where the teens were stuck. It did not take him long at all to reach them, "Are you two hurt anywhere?" the rescuer asked.

"N-No sir," Jade replied, "We're not hurt."

"Good to know," the man stated as he started to prep to bring one of them with him, "Sorry, I need to carry one person at a time. That's the limit."

"… Gotcha," Eddy stated before looking to the girl beside him, "Go on and get to safety, Jade."

Jade widened her eyes, "But…"

"I'll be right behind you!" Eddy replied with a smile, squeezing her hand tighter to encourage her, "Go on!"

Jade was silent to Eddy before nodding her head. She turned to the rescuer in front of them and reached out her hand to him. He took her hand and began to pull her to him, carefully trying to put her in a safety harness, fastening it tightly before signaling his rescue partners above him that she was secure and needed to be pulled up. Jade could only look on in sadness as she and the rescuer were being pulled up, leaving Eddy behind. She saw that he had a smile on his face before losing sight of him, 'Eddy…'

About a minute later, the helpers that were pulling up Jade and the rescuer had finished pulling them back up successfully, helping Jade get back to solid ground. A few paramedics came over to Jade as the rescuers began to take her out of the harness. Jade could feel herself shaking before finally calming down. Jade slowly proceeded to get back on her feet, trying to get the blood to rush back into her legs. Sitting in that spot for so long made her legs go numb.

As she began to walk away, Jade could see her mom close by before she ran over to her, embracing her daughter in a tight hug, "Jade! Oh, thank god you're alive!" her mom sobbed.

"Mom…" Jade muttered as she hugged her back, "I-I'm sorry I made you worry like that! I…"

"It's alright, sweetie!" Clara stated back, "You're safe now…"

Evan and Rebecca looked on at the scene with a sense of relief. Evan turned his attention back to the rescuer, who had already begun his trek back down to rescue his brother.

Everyone there was waiting patiently for the signal from the rescuer to pull them back up. Thankfully, it did not take long to receive the signal. The workers began to pull them up, only taking a minute for them to reach the top. Eddy was secured in the safety harness before both he and the rescuer landed their feet back on solid ground. Eddy collapsed a little from the numbness he had in his legs but quickly got back up as the paramedics arrived to help him if he needed it.

Eddy slowly began to walk away before seeing Jade standing next to her mom. They both smiled at each other before Eddy quickly ran over to Jade, embracing her in a tight hug, to which she hugged him back, crying her eyes out.

Evan felt even more relieved than before when he saw Eddy and Jade hug each other. He wanted to walk over to his brother to apologize for everything he did, but he did not want to ruin the moment between Eddy and Jade, 'I'll wait for now.'

Evan felt Rebecca embrace him around his right arm, "Evan…"

"Yeah, I know," Evan stated, "I'll talk to Eddy later once things calm down."

"… Actually… I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my apartment… Later tonight."

Evan widened his eyes as he looked back at Rebecca, a blush could clearly be seen on her face, "It's been so long since we've seen each other because of your promotion. I-I… I've really missed you."

"… Okay, I get it," Evan replied to her with a cocky smirk; he could tell what she was implying. He pulled her into a hug from around her hips in a loving manner, "I'll make sure to ask the boss about demoting myself back to being a normal officer. I don't think I can handle another day without you, Becca."

Rebecca made a big smile at Evan before they both leaned in, kissing each other for a long time.

Everything was going to be okay for Eddy and Jade, even Evan and his girlfriend had a happy ending… But what about Double D and Alice? And how are Ed and Reese holding up with what happened?

Author's Note (April 1st, 2024): I'm on a roll! Let's hope this keeps up!