The Miracle Clinic

On a morning before school, Cameron Dots wakes up in his bedroom. Wondering just what happened last night, he goes to put on a t-shirt but when he does, he notices how it feels like his clothes just aren’t fitting as they usually do. As he exits his bedroom he decides to start making himself some breakfast as he puts some bread in the toaster.

As he does so, he sees his dad walk in wearing a robe and drinking coffee.

“Cameron? What are you doing up so early? And what’s up with your pupils?” Mister Dots asks as he yawns.

“It’s not early, I’m getting ready for school,” Cameron says, “And what about my pupils?”

Cameron looks at a mirror and notices that both of his pupils are dilated. Though before he can really look more closely at them, his toast finishes so he goes and grabs some.

“It’s 5:45 AM, usually you wake up at 6:30,” Mister Dots says, “Well more like we wake you up at 6:30 but still.”

“Oh, I guess I just felt like waking up early today,” Cameron says as he eats his toast.

As he eats his food, Cameron begins to realize that there are many oddities going on today; first, his clothes didn’t feel right on him, now he’s waking up way earlier than usual, his pupils are dilated, and he’s eating breakfast when he usually doesn’t get hungry until noon.

But strangest of all, he has the urge to return to Club Azure.

As the day went by and Cameron went through school, he noticed many other strange new things about himself; his pupils finally returned to normal but now his teeth would clench without him realizing. His muscles would get tense out of nowhere. And the craving to go to Club Azure would get worse and worse as the day went on.

Eventually, when school did get out, he’d try to head to Club Azure only to see that it only opened up later that day. So he waits, and after a while, the sign lights up, and the doors finally open. As he walks down those steps into the nightclub, trying to make sure he doesn’t look desperate when he finally gets there and sees his friends; Cal Hound, Marcy Murphy, & Li-Wei Zhang. All of his worries wash away as Cal buys him drinks and everything gets better.

Sure, his vision gets blurry afterward and he’s sweating a whole lot more, but that’s probably just due to how late he spends at Club Azure each night. Though what Cameron couldn’t tell was that as he continued to enjoy himself he kept on sinking. Sinking into a trap that he’d mistakenly thought was a new chance for him.

One day as Cameron makes his way to the club he sees that the room that he & Cal are now in is a VIP room without a glass door, so they can’t even look outside. When Cameron begins to talk, Cal sighs.

“Hey listen, hanging out with you is fun and all but…when are you going to pay up?” Cal asks.

“P-pay up? What do you mean?” Cameron asks as he drinks some water due to being so dehydrated.

To that Cal begins to laugh as he says, “Wait you thought all of those drinks were free?! You know how much money I spent on those.”

“But the fake ID it-” Cameron says but Cal slams his fist onto the table.

“You owe me thousands,” Cal hisses, “You know how hard it was to get Li-Wei to sell me those drugs.”

It’s at those words that Cameron stops as realization washes over him, “What drugs?”

Realizing he slipped up, Cal sighs, “Crap I wasn’t supposed to tell you for a while. Oh well.”

It’s then that Cal pulls out a Ziploc bag that contains white powder as he explains, “We’ve been putting this stuff in all of your drinks. It’s just a lil something to make you feel real good.”

As Cameron tries to wrap his head around everything, the door to the VIP Room opens as Li-Wei steps in. It’s then that Cameron notices Cal’s eyes are also dilated while Li-Wei’s are normal.

Li-Wei sighs as he says, “Well since you told him there’s no use in beating around the bush.”

Cameron is confused until Li-Wei kicks Cameron to the ground, as Cameron tries to get up, Li-Wei slams his foot on his head before dropping several fake IDs by him.

“In order to make up for all of your reckless spending, you’ll be trying to convince people to purchase these fake IDs. They also function as a discount card for several subsidiaries we own. Once they trust you, bring them here and make them want to keep coming back,” Li-Wei explains as he lights a cigarette.

As Cameron tries to gasp for air, Cal stands up as he says, “Hey Li-Wei isn’t that being a bit too harsh-”

Though Cal gets cut off by Li-Wei putting his hand over Cal’s face and slamming him into the wall.

“Listen bitch,” Li-Wei says, “You’re in the same predicament and not once did you care about getting your buddy wrapped up into this. So don’t try to moral grandstand now.”

Cal is nervous as he nods, Li-Wei then lets go of him and his attention returns to Cameron.

“The lowest you can sell the IDs is $125. If you can’t make up the rest of the money by the end of the month then I’m sure the others will be able to find a way to get you to return our money,” Li-Wei says.

“Why would…Why would I work with you?” Cameron gasps.

“Well it’s simple,” Li-Wei replies as he puffs out some smoke from his cigarette, “You don’t have a choice.”

Cameron realizes what he means. If he runs away, then he won’t be getting access to any of the things Club Azure brought him. None of the partying, none of the substances, none of the friends. Sure he could try to return to normal but… every time he isn’t here he wants to be here.

Cameron slowly bows his head as he says, “I’ll do it. I’ll work for you.”

“Prove it then,” Li-Wei utters as he shoves his shoe next to Cameron’s head.

Cameron looks up at Li-Wei only to see a twisted demonic smile having contorted onto his face, it spreading from ear to ear.

“Go on,” Li-Wei remarks, “Clean it.”

Tears begin to fall from Cameron’s face as he leans closer to Li-Wei’s shoe.

Hesitantly, Cameron puts the shoe to his lips and begins to ‘clean’,

He can’t escape this, and he just wishes that he never stepped foot in this demonic nightclub. Once finished Cameron rushes to the garbage can in the room and throws up. Li-Wei rolls his eyes as he lifts Cameron back up and has him and the silent Cal Hound make their way to the door.

As the three exit the VIP room, Li-Wei makes sure to hide the bruises he left on Cameron as he shows him the way to the Employee’s Only section of the building. As that happens, Logan Stewart finishes serving a drink to someone. The person has their face obscured and is wearing a gray hoodie underneath a green denim jacket, blue jeans, and white sneakers. The person sips their drink – a glass of apple juice on the rocks – before paying for his drink and exiting the nightclub.

__________________________

The next day in Starlight High, The Miracle Clinic is in another meeting with Alex & Ronnie in the middle of a game of arm wrestling.

“Heh, too easy,” Alex says as he begins to push Ronnie’s hand down.

Though his grin is wiped off as Ronnie starts using all his power to tip the scales in his favor, and before Alex realizes it; he’s lost.

“Well I guess that finally settles things,” Ronnie says with a smirk.

Alex looks at his hands dumbfounded, “I thought I’d have won that easily.”

As the two are chatting there, Marcus looks over and notices Elizabeth standing against the wall contemplating something. He walks over and asks, “Hey, everything good?”

Elizabeth looks at him and replies, “I’m fine, it’s just that Cameron hasn’t been showing up to club meetings for a few days, and I haven’t seen him at school at all.”

“Really? He’s probably sick,” Marcus says.

“Yeah but still, something feels off,” Elizabeth murmurs.

Hearing this Marcus gets an idea and suggests, “Well why don’t we go check up on him.”

Elizabeth looks at Marcus and after some contemplation, nods. The two start to leave the classroom as Ronnie stands up and also walks to the door.

“Hey wait, where are you guys going?” Alex asks.

“I haven’t been to my mom’s work in a while so I figured it would be nice to surprise her,” Ronnie admits.

“I’m gonna go check up and see how Cameron’s doing,” Elizabeth answers.

“I’m just tagging along with Elizabeth,” Marcus adds.

“Oh, so I guess the club meeting is over?” Alex asks.

“Yeah, I guess so, see ya later man!” Ronnie says as the three exit the classroom.

As they do, Alex sighs as he doesn’t feel like heading home just now. As he looks around the empty classroom he notices a box on Amnestor’s desk.

“Oh I forgot all about this,” Alex says to himself as he lifts up the box that reads ‘mail-in requests.’

“Everyone stopped sending them a week after we started having this,” Alex remarks as he lifts up the lid to the box, “I wonder if there’s any-”

Alex stops as he sees one singular strip of paper at the bottom of the box. Curiosity getting the best of him, he slowly grabs it and begins to read it to himself. As he does so, his eyes widen as he finishes reading the note.

After reading the note, he grabs his backpack and runs out of the classroom. As he does so he almost runs into Aken Amnestor & X Locke who are entering the classroom.

“Woah, he seemed to be in a rush,” X remarks to himself.

“That’s none of your concern X,” Mister Amnestor says as he hands X his last major exam, “what matters is how you somehow did worse on this exam than the last.”

X looks at the exam papers and sighs as he sits down at a desk and begins to work on the paper.

As Amnestor walks to his desk, he notices that the mail-in requests box has been opened. Connecting the dots, Amnestor wonders just what was written there that made Alex so worried.

__________________________

Rain begins to fall from the heavy clouds as Ronnie makes his way towards his mom’s tattoo parlor. As he does he wonders just how long it's been since he was there. The place his mother created from the ground-up, it’s essentially her second child.

“I should visit more often,” Ronnie thinks to himself as he gets to the glass doors of the parlor, only for his heart to slowly sink in.

On the glass doors of the parlor is a sign that reads ‘For Sale’.

__________________________

Elsewhere, Elizabeth & Marcus make their way to the front door of The Dots’ Family Household. When Elizabeth knocks on the door, the two are greeted by Misses Melissa Dots opening the door. She rubs her glasses as she looks at them.

“Hey we’re Cameron’s friends,” Marcus explains.

“Oh, are you his friends from that after-school club? It’s nice to meet you,” Misses Dots says.

“Nice to meet you too,” Marcus says, “Though I hope Cameron feels well soon.”

Confused Misses Dots asks, “What do you mean by that?”

“We haven’t really seen him at school recently so we thought he was sick,” Elizabeth says.

“That’s strange, Cameron’s been leaving for school every day and getting back late. I thought he was hanging out with you kids,” Misses Dots remarks.

As confusion and concern fill the three of them, Elizabeth begins to walk away. Startled, Marcus looks at her before looking at Misses Dots and saying, “It was nice meeting you, sorry for the confusion.”

“It’s…it’s fine, thanks for letting me know,” Misses Dots states.

As Marcus goes to catch up with Elizabeth, Misses Dots gets her phone to talk with her husband. Marcus finally catches up to Elizabeth and notices her fists are clenched.

“Hey, Eliza-” Marcus begins to say but Elizabeth interjects.

“What’s wrong with me?! I should’ve tried to talk with him!” Elizabeth groans.

“Hey it’s not your fault, besides we don’t even know what Cameron is up to-” Marcus begins to say before being interjected by someone once again.

“MARCUS! LIZZY!” A voice cries out.

The two look to see Alex Smith, riding on his little cousin’s pink tricycle, pedaling straight towards them.

“ALEX?!” Elizabeth & Marcus shout confused.

The trike skids to a halt as Alex hops off of it.

“Thank god I found you guys,” Alex pants as he tries to catch his breath.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Marcus asks.

Instead of answering, Alex hands them the strip of paper in his hands. While the paper is a bit crumpled and wet due to Alex’s sweat, Elizabeth & Marcus can make out what the words on it are.

“I found it in the mail-in requests,” Alex states.

The request reads ‘Bring an end to Club Azure and rescue your friend from their clutches.’

See You Next Chapter!~