The Miracle Clinic

Chapter 42 - The East Side (Finale)

In a small dusty room in the basement of The East Side Express is Vanessa Deli, she's sitting on an old red couch which is behind a glass table. On that table are two objects. One is Mesto-Presto's black bag, which Graham took by accident, and the other is a wooden box with a metal lock on it. The box that Graham & Blanko dug up from Starlight High not too long ago.

As she contemplates what could possibly be inside that wooden box, she hears the door leading to the room unlock, and the person who enters the room is Marcus Veridan.

"MARCUS?!" Vanessa asks shocked, "Wh-what are you doing here? How did you even get in here!"

"Well it's a bit of a long story," Marcus replies, "I- uh, I guess you can chalk it up to a miracle?"

"What?"

"Oh right, you don't know about the club I'm in," Marcus says before getting back on topic, "Look, I wanted to talk to you since...why? Why did you do all of that?"

"You...you wouldn't understand," Vanessa says.

"Then make me understand, why did you burn down the school? Why did you make a scene at the gala? Was everything a part of some big plan?" Marcus questions.

"The school thing was an accident, all we needed was that box and it got way out of hand," Vanessa says, "As for the gala, we needed a distraction, so I made a distraction."

"Is that all there was to it? All that talk about the MSA's lies was just a distraction?"

"....no, that was all true. After all they did whenever I see them all act nice and fake about how they're 'bettering the community' I just... I just get so mad!" Vanessa vents before sighing, "Though look at me now. Still just hiding away, staying still. They're probably gonna hunt me down for what I did."

"That doesn't seem likely," Marcus admits, "They've been hiding the existence of that whole thing you did at the gala. Right now it's like it didn't even happen."

"Didn't even happen huh?" Vanessa comments, "They sure like to sweep things under the rug. I guess I should've expected they'd do the same here."

Hearing that Marcus decides to ask, "What...what did they even do?"

Vanessa is hesitant at first before she explains, "It... It was seven years ago. Back then, I used to live with my family at a public housing place called Lakeview. It was the only thing my family could afford. But the MSA? The MSA didn't see that. All they saw was a place that could be torn down and replaced with a fashion outlet. So they had the city claim the infrastructure was unstable or something. Just like that they got their new fashion outlet they so desperately wanted, while I lost my home. After that things got... messy."

Vanessa places her hand on the side of her arm. Marcus is silent for a bit.

However after a while, Marcus ends up speaking, "Vanessa, I... I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"It's fine," Vanessa lies, "I'm over it."

"But still, I don't know how to make you feel better but, I hope you know that there's people like me & Alex who'll be there for you if you need it," Marcus states.

Vanessa hearing that smiles softly as she replies, "Yeah, you too."

Though as the two sit there, a thought crosses Vanessa's mind as she turns to Marcus.

"Hey Marcus, I'm sorry for asking you this but, can you promise me something?" Vanessa asks.

"Uh sure, what is it?" Marcus asks.

"Whatever you do," Vanessa begins to say, "Make sure you-"

However Vanessa wasn't able to finish her sentence as the door to the room opened. Her face turning serious as from the doorway steps Andy Nibble, who enters the room with a smirk on his face.