Ace in the Hole [COMPLETED]

C.14

Sirens were wailing, flashing their alarm into the dawning night sky. While Joceline was being interrogated as to what happened, paramedics were taking Matthew to the hospital, and others were bringing out Alexis' corpse. Luckily for Joceline, her neighbors had heard and seen the commotion and sided with her, so she was fairly safe from criminal charges. Including Matthew's story about how Alexis kidnapped him, and evidence that supported the matter in Alexis' house, and they were guaranteed their safety. Joceline was still upset with how late the cops were, and how none of her neighbors did anything during the fight, but she was at least alive.

It took her some time to recover from the attack, considering she did just kill someone in brutal fashion. She recalled how she would joke about these things with Matthew, but never did she think that they would come true so suddenly. Why the fuck did any of this even happen? This was straight out of a horror fiction, not something based in reality.

Either way, she had sorted her mind out after they brought her to the hospital as well. She apparently had a small shard of glass impaled into her back, as well as a few bone cracks, but they got it out easily, and there weren't any more problems. Joceline recovered faster than Matthew, of course, so she felt obligated to at least check up on him.

The nurses said that he would live, despite his severe injuries. An artery had been barely touched by the blade, and if it weren't for his clavicle catching most of the blade and breaking in the process, he might have been dead. Joceline didn't understand the specifics of his injury, but was just glad to see that he made it.

Joceline wasn't able to be right there for him. That was reserved for his family, who had spent several days in the hospital with him. Either way, Joceline was as exhausted as Matthew probably was, and she couldn't take sleeping on a bench. One of her block mates offered to have her crash by her place, at least while Joceline's apartment was a crime scene.

During her stay with the block mate, people kept prying Joceline for the details of what happened. She didn't like repeating herself, especially with such a dark topic, but her new "friends" quickly spread the word of how she and Matthew were such badasses. She wanted to die now, to just disappear and forget all the horrors of that night, but she still had to finish the next semester.

Eventually, Matthew got discharged from the hospital, and although they weren't staying together anymore, Matthew and Joceline still found time for each other. They went to an obscure cafe, and Joceline bought them cookies and coffee in an attempt to return to normal times.

"So," murmured Matthew, struggling with his cookie and coffee since he only had one good arm to use. "How are you doing after the uhm..."

"Fine," replied Joceline, trying to be chipper about it all. "We almost died, but, we didn't! So there's that."

"Yeah..." Matthew snickered as he sipped his coffee. "Shit, this is better than the hospital food."

"The hospital food wasn't that bad. At least it's better than what we normally eat."

"Right..." His eyes wandered to the window, looking on into the street. "That was... pretty intense, yeah?"

"Yeah..." Joceline looked out the window, too, her mind trying to block out the flashing images of bloodshed. "Pretty... pretty cool, but..."

"Scary," he finished, and Joceline nodded to that.

"How did you even get out?"

Matthew shrugged. "She was bad at knots."

"Sure." Joceline snickered, trying to find some amusement in all this shit. "So, what now?"

"You wanna still... stick together?"

Joceline snorted. "And get attacked by another freaky psychopath because of you? I'll pass."

Matthew nodded. "Good. I was moving anyways."

"What?!" Joceline stopped drinking her coffee, trying to clear her throat to keep speaking. "I'm sorry, you're moving?"

"Not because of the attack," he noted. "Although it's also that. I'm leaving for this break, to heal up. Going to... my best friend's place."

"WHAT?!"

"My family allowed it," he added. "I'm going to the provinces, to stay with Abrenica. I need the air, the sights, the angel..."

"Well..." She sighed, taking another sip before continuing. "You do you. I understand you need a break from all this shit. You heard what they say about us?"

"Badass," he commented. "Yeah, I heard. My 'friends' won't shut up about it."

Joceline snickered a bit as she heard that. "You have friends?"

"Oh, shut it." Matthew rolled his eyes as Joceline laughed her heart out. So it was, back to the ordinary so soon...