Thursday, July 28, 2005

   Cream Filling: Origins (Chapter X)
[I outlined this chapter at work yesterday during my dinner break . . . it was fun to explain what the heck I was doing since it wasn't schoolwork. Heh . . . the red binder certainly gets a lot of attention . . . anyway, I think it goes without saying that this one's gonna be LOOOOOOONG . . . but hey, I gotta make up for the lack of true consistancy in this one, right?]


"Fil', you're a cop now?!" Jason said as he walked around the trainee. "When the piss did this happen?" Cream remained basically silent, still slightly behind his training officer.
"Hey, you don't worry about him," van Zielen interrupted, "I'm talking to you, not him . . ." The constable stepped in and in front of Jason, the most noticeable out of the four, and pulled out her notepad. "Cream, you get the dealer's info, okay?" Cream nodded and went over to the tall and unwavering man with the dark sports jacket.

Constable van Zielen was already taking down Jason's information when Cream made his way over to the drug dealer. Knight quickly slid over to his old friend's side.
"So first you leave our house in a moment's notice, sneak back now and then to get your stuff for almost a week, and then disappear off the face of the earth for months . . ." Knight said. Cream stayed professional and ignored him while he spoke with the dealer.
"Alright, what's your name?" he asked, his pen and notepad at the ready. Before the man could answer, Knight chimed in once again.
". . . and now you're gonna finish the back-stab by flipping us over and pounding one right into our faces, good one man . . ." he said directly into Cream's ear. Cream turned his head and gave a quick glare before turning back to the drug dealer - Knight just chuckled.

"Your name, sir?" Cream asked again.
"Peter Schultz," the dealer answered. As Cream wrote it out on hispad, he suddenly stopped and looked up with wide eyes.
"Pete?!" Cream said, pulling his head back to get a look at his old classmate. He couldn't believe it: Pete Schultz, the computer prodigy of his grade 10 class was now standing before him with bags of drugs in his pockets.
"Who's askin'?" Pete asked back.
"It's Fil', Pete," Knight answered. "He's gone rogue on us, it seems . . ."

"Hey!" Cream said commandingly, looking at his former best friend, "Be quiet, I'll get to you soon enough . . ." Seeing another one of Knight's grins, Cream turned back to Pete. "I don't get it, man . . . you were bright, you were gonna be able to do so much, you . . ."
"I'm still bright and I can still do a lot," Pete replied, "sometimes things just don't go the way you originally plan for ya, and then you make due with what you can . . ."
"But . . . but this?" Pete shrugged.
"Hey, it's income . . ." Cream shook his head and continued collecting the man's information.

"Y'know, Pete ain't the only one makin' money off of this," Knight commented slyly. Cream closed his eyes, took a breath, and shook his head quickly - this situation was not a possibility he had really taken in account . . .
"So am I under arrest or what?" Pete asked casually. Cream, unsure of what to do, quickly looked over to van Zielen for help. Unfortunately for him, she was still preoccupied with Jason.
"Hey ma'am!" Knight shouted over, calling to the constable, "your partner here's not sure of what to do with himself again!" Again, the trainee clenched his hands and forced yet another comment to slip through his being.

van Zielen quickly looked over and saw the situation.
"Just frisk him and take whatever he shouldn't have," she said before going back to the others. Cream immediately went back to Pete and checked his pockets. After retrieving half a dozen bags, Pete dropped his arms and crossed them over his chest.
"So we done now or what?" he asked.
"Uh . . ." Cream thought quickly . . . . . "ah, piss . . . yeah, get lost, man . . ."

"Well done officer," Knight remarked again, "you took his stuff, then set him loose . . . gotta be proud of yourself . . ." Cream shot him another long glare; Knight returned the stare.
"Hey, Cream," van Zielen called. Cream refused to respond and continued staring back at Knight. "Cream! Get over here!" she demanded. Cursing violently in his head, Cream took his eyes away from the other man and made his way over, much to Knight's delight.
"Cream, keep your cool," van Zielen said. "I know you have history with these guys, but keep cool . . ." Cream, completely frustrated, turned back to the others who were all visibly pleased in seeing their old friend get scolded so.

"Alright, your name," the constable continued, now looking at Tim.
"Jablowme," he said. "Given name-" the minuteCream rolled his eyes and put his hand over van Zielen's pad before Tim finished giving his fake name.
"Maaier," he said, "I know all their info, we don't need to waste time here . . ."
"Aw, come on Fil'," Tim said, stepping forward with his fingers waving the officers closer, "we can't skip the friggin' protocol, can we?"
"Yeah Fil', this ain't very professional," Jones added, speaking up finally. Despite who was actually speaking, Cream looked over at Knight and tightened his lips subtley. Tim and Jones continued shouting, while Jason joined in soon enough. Knight, meanwhile, remained at the side, quiet and smiling widely. It only took one more look for Cream to straighen up and stand tall.

"Alright you jackasses, shut the hell up!" Cream shouted, actually breaking the noise for a brief moment and catching everyone off guard. He stepped forward towards the four of them despite van Zielen's protests and continued speaking. "You notice we're not arresting you guys tonight?" he said confidently. "'Cause if you'd rather we do, we can, y'know."
"Keep cool," van Zielen repeated.

Tim, ever belligerent, also stepped forward and directly in front of the recruit.
"Hey, what the piss is this all about?!" he spat out.
"Tim," Cream said sternly, "I swear, back off now or-"
"No, you listen up you son of a bitch! You ditched us and ran off to play cops and now you're comin' back . . . what, you had no balls to come back to us without a friggin' gun on your hip?" After the comment, Jason and Jones in the back laughed and cheered their friend on. With Tim still directly in his face, Cream smirked.

"You think having a pistol or a badge gives me the sort of courage I need to talk to petty retards like you guys?" he said.
"Cream, keep coo-" van Zielen tried to say before getting cut off again.
"Tim, let me tell ya . . . once you realise how friggin' stupid you've been all your life, and see others for what they really are, it's not hard to look back and say 'yeah, I can take him'. To be honest man, you're tough and you're aggressive . . . . . but you're still that guy's bitch, and not-"

Tim swung up violently as a reflex. Cream ducked his head back immediately and watched his old friend's hand swipe past his face and knock off his hat. As the officer-in-training stepped back he raised his foot, pressed it solidly into Tim's sternum, and pushed him away for a couple steps; as his foot came back down, he reached to his belt and gripped his taser.
"See, now you've gone too far," he said, the stun gun pointing directly at Tim. Jones and Jason immediately backed up, seeing a pistol-shaped weapon and nothing else; Knight reacted immediately, but composed himself quickly afterwards along with Tim.

"So what, you're gonna shoot me now?" Tim said, trying his best not to show a hint of emotion one way or another.
"If you don't cool it, yeah," Cream said. "You cool yet?" Before Tim could respond, Knight stepped in next to Tim. After the two exchanged glances, Tim nodded and backed up slowly. As Tim backed up, Cream kept the taser trained on him although he let his eyes lock back with Knight's.
"Stay cool," van Zielen said again.
"Oh, I'm very cool," Cream replied, still never taking his eyes off the man in front of him . . .

"So, Fil' . . ." Knight said as he stared hard into Cream.
"So, Knight . . ." Cream said back, slowly lowering the taser below his line of sight.
"So what do we do now?" Knight asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"I'd like to go home soon," Cream replied. "Would you like to go home, Knight?"
"Yes, Fil', I would love to go back to our home . . . by the way, you left a ton of your crap in the storage locker. I'm gonna throw that crap away if you don't come back some time soon . . ."
"I got what I needed from there. I don't need the other stuff . . . . . there's a lot of stuff in that apartment I don't need, y'know?" After he spoke, Constable van Zielen started to say something. Before the words came out, though, she looked at the two men - former best friends - and knew it was not her place to say anything now.

"You know," Knight said after a short pause, "you might have a new uniform and rank and whatever, but I'll still know you as the petty thief who pissed himself at night because everyone around him was being so bad while he was staying so good . . . give me a break, man!" Cream smirked again.
"So, did you always get off on finding ways to insult and depress me?" he asked. "'Cause you seemed to enjoy it more than I thought a normal person should have . . ."
"I never did understood how you saw things, Fil' . . . do you not realise that this fantasy world of yours doesn't exist, and that things way worse than what I was putting into my blood were going on all around us?" Cream started to respond, but Knight continued. "What the piss did you think was gonna happen?! The world is going to hell, and retard dreamers like you aren't helping the matter all too much."
"But stoners like you are, right?"
"No, realists like me are. I mean, how long was it before you even got a real job? I'm out there asserting myself in the world every day while you dicked around playing with dead animals and reading your books that were so much beyond us . . ."

As Knight trailed off, Jason started cursing and shouting, making large gestures - Cream's taser pointed in his direction ceased his antics. Again, he Looked back at Knight.
"Y'know, dude," he said, "you're right. I did live in a fantasy world where I didn't know what the piss I was doing. I don't make excuses for that . . . but guess what?" As Knight looked back, Cream looked over at all the rest of them as well. "The fantasy ended the moment I got the piss out of that apartment. As for where I go from here . . . well, I'm gonna be going somewhere . . ." He eyed his former roommate once again. ". . . . . and this time I'm not running away . . . I'm leaving it behind."

Again, Cream raised his taser. This time, though, it was pointed squarely at Knight before he could lash out with another verbal outburst.
"Go home, all of ya!" Cream commanded. Tim, Jones and Jason started backing up slowly, cursing and swearing with each step. Knight just looked back at the man before him, snarled one last time, flipped out his finger, and stormed off - the others quickly followed suit.

Still standing in his spot in the park while his four old friends stepped off the sidewalk and across the street, Cream finally realised how much his hands were shaking. He quickly looked around and noticed a great many various people in the park watching him from a distance - they were all a blur, though. All he could think about was how much energy those ten minutes actually required of him. He was completely drained physically, psychologically, and emotionally from the encounter. After holstering the taser he was still holding, Cream flexed his hands open and closed, trying to regain a sense of calm in them.

Seeing her trainee's predicament, van Zielen walked over and put her hand on Cream's shoulder - Cream's head immediately drooped down with her touch and he forced himself to breathe slower.
"You did good, Cream," she said, patting his shoulder softly. "Really good, actually . . ." Cream looked over and smiled with his mouth but nothing else.
"Yeah, I guess I just . . . . ."

He paused himself in mid-sentence when he felt a lump rise in his throat. Fearing what else he felt, Cream touched his finger under his eye and found moisture. Quickly rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and shaking his head, Cream looked back at his training officer and laughed quietly - van Zielen did the same and put her arm around his other shoulder, giving him a slight shake.
"Oh man . . ." Cream said as they made their way back to the squad car, "why oh why did I apply for this city . . . . ." van Zielen continued walking them along quietly, not saying a word. She knew his situation well enough: working as an officer in this small city, he was bound to have many incidents like this down the road, where he would find old classmates and neighbours on the wrong side of the line. He was probably going to have to arrest some old friends from high school, or from old sports teams . . . the way his generation seemed to be, the odds were heavily stacked against him. van Zielen gave him one more pat on the shoulder before letting him get into the car, still having no good words for him.

"Seriously," he continued, "I need to get out of here bad . . . . ."


[Emotional climax . . . . . not enough explosions. Nuts . . . heh. Anyway, I threw in a few more cameos, so from last chapter to this one I have now added Shinigami, Mireiyu, Petie, and Schultzie. Ahhh . . . . . Saturday shall be the final chapter! Can you believe it?!]
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