SWD: Chapter 16
Content Warning: A few uncomfortable topics come up in this chapter. Just be aware and keep yourselves safe, okay?
It was now 10:30pm here in the small town of Peach Creek. The town was abuzz with the breaking news that happened a few hours ago. A notorious mafia family located in Sunflower Shoal had finally been caught and disbanded due to their boss, Rufus Martel, being arrested for a laundry list of crimes he had been involved with over the past twenty years.
After being interviewed by the police, most of the victims involved with this incident had returned home, with the only exceptions being Robert, Lucian, Marie, and Matthew. Robert needed to stay overnight at the hospital to heal from his injuries, so Lucian was looking after him along with Marie and Matthew. Camilla was brought back to the AirBnB that the Swanson's were temporarily staying at, along with the Peters family.
Vincent and Sheryl returned to the AirBnB an hour ago, immediately hugging Felix and Ashley and apologizing for leaving them alone. They went back to the house to gather some clothes and such due to the sudden events that brought them here, leaving their kids to be snatched by the Martel's. Ashley was the one who was shaken up the most, despite Felix being the one that was taken. Felix told his parents about what happened at his perspective, telling them that Jennifer helped him get away so he could find help, only for him to encounter Camilla, who he decided to not leave behind, "I'm sure the Swanson's are very grateful to you for helping out Camilla," his mom said to him earlier.
Anyway, we soon focused our attention on the hospital, where we could see Matthew walking down one of the many hallways of the building, currently heading to the entrance of the hospital. He wanted to ask the nurses and doctors for an update about Vergil Bishop, who was admitted to the hospital earlier this morning due to forcefully being poisoned by his own wife from ingesting half of a cyanide pill.
As much as he hated to admit it, Matthew did still care about his biological father, even after all the things that happened, leading him to him being arrested along with his mother. He still remembers how kind but stern his dad was to him and Serena when he was younger; like a real father would be. Vergil was also very nice to Edward, despite not being related to him at all, even becoming sad when he 'melted away' due to his ice powers. The 'Edward melted away' part was a lie, but his sadness was real. They could tell he was trying his best to keep them happy in the place they were held up in. Vergil also expressed to them many times that they could finally leave the labs once their research was over; the twins and Edward believed him that it would happen one day…
By the time the twins became twelve, they could see their dad become more awful and bitter by the day, probably due to the stress of the research he was being forced to do by Rita and the Martel family. It was obvious that he was putting up a façade; his wife was the true evil one here. Even if he tried to get away with the children, he would be tracked down and brought back to her.
But now, Rita is dead, and the leader (along with the higher ups) of the Martel family are behind bars. There would be no need to worry about them anymore, and Mathew could easily ignore Vergil if he wanted to… but that was not the kind of person he was. If there was anything he could do to help his father recover, he would try his best to at least stay in touch and help whenever he can. He just hoped that everyone else could see his reasons when he talks to them again later; especially Serena, who held the deepest grudge between the three.
Matthew knew Vergil would probably go back to jail once he recovered; knocking on death's door like this did not make the charges of his arrests disappear. He and Rita did kidnap over 48 kids back in August, after all; he needed to spend time in prison as punishment… But, after what happened today, Matthew decided he wanted to ask Mr. Edgeworth if there was a way to change Vergil's sentence from what it was originally going to be. From what it sounded like, Vergil and Rita were going to be charged with the maximum sentence for their crimes, but now Matthew wanted to request Vergil's charges or sentences to be less severe or shortened, even if it was just a minuscule amount.
Matthew arrived at the entrance of the hospital, walking over to the front desk to speak to the nurses there, "Umm, excuse me…"
One of the nurses turned to Matthew, "Hello there, do you need something?" she asked in a friendly tone.
Matthew nodded his head, "I, uh, wanted to know how a patient named Vergil Bishop's is doing. I'm… umm, his son."
The nurse stared at Matthew before grabbing the tablet in front of her to search for the name, "I remember being told that this man was being guarded by a few officers, so you might need their permission to see him. Do you wish for me to try and contact someone that can help?"
"Yes, that would be great!" Matthew replied in another nod.
"Alright then, I'll inform the guard that you're coming to visit. His room is C8, which is on the third floor," the nurse said, "I'll also contact one of the doctors looking after him so he can give you an update."
"Thank you, ma'am!"
Matthew jogged to use the elevator to get to the third floor. He was now walking to room C8, where he could see one security officer and a doctor standing nearby.
The officer noticed Matthew approaching them, "Are you the kid the front desk told us about?"
Matthew nods before turning to the doctor, "Umm, can I ask how he's doing? Or is that considered top secret or something?"
The two men stared at Matthew, "You don't need to be shy about asking, son. I know he's under strict guard due to what happened, but he is your father," the doctor said before taking out his cell phone to pull something up, "It's only natural for you to worry about his well-being."
There was a small pause before the doctor continued, "When he arrived here this morning, he was unresponsive to us. Thankfully, we did our best to pump out the cyanide he took; he did not ingest that much of it to kill him. He's still alive and is responding to most of our questions."
Matthew widened his eyes in pure shock, "H-He's going to be okay…?!"
"Yes, but there is a catch," the doctor said as he scrolled on his phone to read some more information, "Your father woke up around lunchtime, but then he began to suffer a seizure, most likely due to the lingering effects of the cyanide leaving his system," the doctor looked up from his phone, "It also seems he completely lost the use of his left hand, arm, and shoulder. But, other than these small things, your father is stable and slowly recovering. He's very lucky to be alive."
Matthew stood there in disbelief as the doctor gave him the news.
"Your father is still resting in his room, but I think it would be wise for him to not have any visitors tonight," the doctor said before flashing a small smile, "We will be sure to contact the Johnson's once he wakes up so you can see him, alright?"
Matthew nodded slowly.
"Glad to hear that it's good news for once," the guard said before sitting down on a bench near the room he was guarding, "You should go on and get some shut-eye, kid. I'll keep a good eye on him."
"O-Okay…" Matthew muttered before he began to walk back to the elevators to go to the first floor.
He trekked down the halls of the hospital once more, arriving at the entrance to the hospital cafeteria, 'I really need something sweet to drink.'
Matthew walked towards the big refrigerator that had all the cold beverages to buy inside, grabbing the cheapest drink he could find, a small box of apple juice. He did not feel like drinking anything like soda or sweet tea.
Once he grabbed what he wanted (along with a Granny Smith apple and a small bag of chips), Matthew went over to pay for the food at the register. Usually, there would be a worker here during the day at the checkout, but since it was the middle of the night, the hospital invested into putting a self-checkout register for any late-night purchases from the cafeteria.
After he finished using the self-checkout, Matthew looked towards the sitting area of the cafeteria, only to see Marie and Lucian were also here, talking to each other. Since they both learned they were father and daughter earlier today, of course they would want to know more about themselves. Matthew made a small smile before he walked over to them, 'Maybe I should try to get to know Lucian if he's going to stick around.'
A few hours later after midnight, Eddy was sleeping soundly on his bed until a small noise caught his attention; it was a tap that was coming from outside his bedroom window. He groaned a little at the noise, not thinking much of it before realizing that it was someone outside in his backyard. It had started to snow again earlier that evening, so whoever was outside was probably freezing. Eddy grumbled a little as he got out of bed to open his back door, only for him to widen his eyes at who was standing there.
It was Zoey, she had run over to his house only wearing her tank top, pajama pants, and some house shoes; not even wearing her trademark hoodie or even a winter coat. He could tell she was in a panic, her long blond hair was in disarray from bedhead while her eyes were puffy and red from crying, "Z-Zoey?! What's—"
Zoey quickly went over to his side to hug him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder as she did. Eddy stood there for a short moment in shock before letting her inside his room from the freezing snow, not exactly knowing what else to do. He led Zoey to his bed so they could sit down, letting her continue to sob until she was done. The two sat there in silence for a long time.
As they sat there, Eddy had a feeling about what was upsetting her, but was confused about why, 'Evan was taken back to prison, so there's no need to worry about that creep anymore! She's gotta know that everything's okay now, right?'
Eddy felt Zoey's hand curl into a loosened fist, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up, or even run over like this to your house, Eddy," she finally spoke.
"It's fine, you're lucky I even noticed you were outside," Eddy said before making a frown, "Why did you run over here without a jacket or your hoodie? You could have gotten sick."
Zoey looked away from after she let Eddy out of her hug, "I-I… had a really bad nightmare."
Eddy arched an eyebrow, "A nightmare?"
Zoey slowly nodded, "Yeah, it's something I've been meaning to talk about, but I kept putting it off," she paused for a second before straightening her posture, trying to help herself feel better, "Almost every night, I've been having the same kind of nightmares since… you know, the second time, and they became more frequent after your birthday."
Eddy stared at Zoey before realizing she was talking about the second time Evan was arrested.
"When I heard he was dragged out of prison by the Martel family to help them, it made me feel sick, and my head couldn't stop spinning. The person I feared the most took you away, thinking if he targeted you, he could get to me."
Eddy made a glare, internally cursing to himself, 'That fucking asshole…'
"I-I was so scared, I didn't know what to do at first," Zoey continued to explain, "But I knew I couldn't stand by and let him get what he wanted! That's when we both finally stood up to him before they dragged him back to prison."
"Yeah, let's hope that creep still feels the pain of that huge kick in the balls for a long time!" Eddy chuckled lightly, trying his best to help lift her spirits.
Zoey stayed silent to that response, only nodding her head before biting her bottom lip at what she was going to say next, "Eddy… these nightmares I keep having are about your brother; about the things he already did and what he could have done to me if he wasn't stopped," she quietly said, her body began to tremble more and more as she hugged herself, "The nightmare I had tonight was the worst one I've ever had… I could see and feel everything he was doing to me!"
Zoey began to point at various parts of her body before gesturing to the area of her lower privates. Eddy's face grew pale at this. She did not want to say it out loud, but Zoey was trying to tell him that those were the areas his brother was touching in those nightmares.
Zoey began to scoot away from Eddy afterward, "S-Sorry, this is all so freaking stupid!" She said before lowering her head, "I know those are only dumb dreams, I-I know they are! They're not real! A-And a lot of them don't mean anything! B-But I…"
Zoey looked back at Eddy with tears in her eyes, "Why does he keep haunting me like this?!"
Eddy leaned over to Zoey to hug her, pulling her back to where he was sitting on the bed. He said nothing to her at first, but Zoey could feel Eddy tremble slightly, "I'm so sorry," he quietly repeated to her.
'Eddy…' Zoey thought with sadness as she tightly hugged him back. She could tell that Eddy was crying from what he heard. It was very rare for anyone to see him cry for any reason.
The two teens sat there for another minute before getting each other out of their hug, "Are we feeling better now?" Eddy asked.
Zoey sniffled, "Y-Yeah, that helped. I just needed to let that out, sorry," she glanced over to Eddy's cell phone, which was on his nightstand, "Hey, can I call my parents? I, uh, snuck out of my house to get here."
"I can tell you did," replied Eddy, gesturing to her lack of hoodie or jacket. He grabbed his phone to hand it to Zoey, "Tell them I'll bring you home once I find something for you to borrow."
Zoey widened her eyes before nodding her head. She was halfway hoping Eddy would let her stay over due to how cold it was, but realized they should not push their luck with making their parents mad (or give them the wrong ideas), "Right."
Eddy went over to his closet to grab a spare hoodie he never really wore; it was a gray hoodie that did not have a zipper in the front, only having the one big pocket.
Zoey called her parents with Eddy's phone; it took a moment for them to pick up, "H-Hey, mom. Sorry to wake you up, I, umm…" she explained to them that she had snuck out in a panic, running to Eddy's house instead of calling him, "He's taking me back home in a second, can you unlock the door for me, please? I didn't bring my keys."
Eddy watched as Zoey was talking on the phone, placing the gray hoodie beside her as he sat back down.
"I can explain everything when I get back home," Zoey continued to say, "I wasn't thinking straight when I ran over here…"
There was a small pause.
"Okay, thanks."
Zoey hung up Eddy's phone, "Are they mad at you for running over here?" Eddy asked.
"I could tell they sounded irritated, but that's because I suddenly woke them up," Zoey replied before sighing, "Anyway, I'm should tell them about my nightmares, so I can try and get some help."
"Oh, you mean like them taking you to a therapist, right?"
Zoey nodded, "That's right, I probably should have asked about seeing one when those dreams started, but I was too scared to talk about it."
She felt Eddy's hand touch her shoulder, "Well, if you need any help, you know who to call!" he said with a smile, "I'll be here to help, along with everyone else!"
Eddy felt Zoey pull him closer to her into a half hug, "I know, Eddy…"
Author's Note (April 10th, 2025): Man, I feel so out of it. Maybe it's all the pollen.
