A Place Of Hope And No Pain (Avenged Sevenfold)

Chapter 1

Chloe's POV

"Are we ready?" Marcus asked, walking into our staff room and closing the door behind him.

I nodded and looked at the other's. "I think we're ready."

Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.

"Good, the clients will start arriving soon." Marcus told us, before turning and walking out again.

I made my way over to the window, grabbing my usual spot I always took so I could watch the clients arrive.

I smiled as Clay sat next to me. I was glad he was here for this round, he was like my best friend in this place, and after the first few weeks, you really needed a good friend to talk too, if you got any time.

I guess I should probably explain who I am, what I'm talking about and exactly what I'm doing here, in a house, an hour away from the closest town.

My name is Chloe, I'm 33 years old and I'm a nurse, well I'm an occasional nurse, when I'm not doing what I'm doing now you'll usually find me an ER at a hospital, working my ass off.

This was my second job. It was such a demanding job that usually I did 12 weeks on, then 12 weeks off. I couldn't cope with two cycles in a row, it was just too tiring, physically and emotionally.

"What have you got?" Clay asked me as we both stared out the window.

"A 34 year old alcoholic, male." I told him, watching as the first car arrived.

"Just great." Marcus said, butting in. "I get stuck with the 40 year old Crack addict."

"Hey." I snapped back. "I had a Crack Head last time."

"Speaking of Crack Heads." Clay muttered as we watched a highly agitated man climb out of a SUV, yelling and waving his arms everywhere.

We sat there and watched as he made his way into the common room. It's where they would all gather, when the twelve of them arrived, they'd get the welcome speech, a bit of a tour and then the real work would start.

This was a high end rehab facility. Our clients paid top dollar to spend twelve weeks in our company. They got five star accommodation as well as their own personal counsellor. Of course there were group activities, but they paid top dollar for one on one care and that's what they got.

They had our undivided attention, we were theirs for twelve weeks, even our rooms were adjoining and we would be there, anytime of the day or night that they needed us.

It was a demanding job and things could and quiet often did, go wrong. When someone is coming down from their 'high' they often got violent, but that was okay, I knew how to handle myself and on more than one occasion I'd had to kick someone's ass.

The worst thing about this job, for the twelve weeks the clients were locked up in this facility, we were locked up with them, we couldn't leave either, but it was okay, I didn't mind, the money more than made up for that fact.

"Oh damn." Clay hissed. "Here's our token rich teenager who got hooked on her Mommy's Oxy."

I looked out the window and he was right of course, there was usually one in every intake. They never lasted, usually after two weeks Mommy and Daddy drove up here to pick up their Princess after she'd called them crying.

God, I sounded terrible, but I didn't mean too. I did love this job, as hard as it was. It took a lot of guts for someone to come to this kind of facility, to take twelve weeks out of their life, to kick a habit that ruled their life and I had nothing but admiration for our clients, they were strong, they just didn't know it yet, but they soon would, it would take a few weeks, but they'd learn.

"Woah." Clay muttered. "He's huge."

I nodded, watching a tall muscular male get out of a car with what appeared to be his parents.

"He is big." I agreed, watching as he grabbed his bag and followed his parents inside.

"Damn." Clay mumbled. "I can't wait to meet to them."

I agreed, I couldn't either. I always enjoyed meeting all of the clients, most of them were nice people, deep down under their addiction and on many occasions I'd met a person who, once they'd kicked their habit, turned out to be amazing, they'd just lost themselves somewhere along the way.

That's what we were here for, to help them find themselves again.

Twelve clients, twelve counsellor's and one manager, all locked in here for twelve weeks. Hopefully everybody would all get along.

"There goes the boss man." Clay whispered.

I looked over to see Bruce, the manager, walk into the common room, closing the doors behind him. There he would welcome everyone, including the clients family, he'd explain a few things, give a tour and then it would be time for the family members to say goodbye.

"Want a coffee?" Clay asked me, standing up. "It might be your last chance for awhile."

He was right of course, it might be the last time I got to myself for a while, I mean some days, if our client was bad, we didn't even get a chance to shower, let alone have a coffee.

I stood up, pouring myself a cup, taking a mouthful and savouring it.

Hopefully these twelve weeks would be smooth, my client nice. Hopefully we will get on, that always helped when it came to this job, if you and your client didn't have a good rapport, it often made this process hard, for both of you.

I'd been lucky. I'd had a few problems with a few clients, but like I'd said earlier, once I'd kicked their ass things had changed and I was proud to admit there were still a few ex clients I kept in contact with.

Hopefully all would go as planned this cycle and as I stood there, drinking my coffee, I silently prayed for a peaceful twelve weeks.

I mean honestly, how much trouble could a 34 year old alcoholic be? He'd already made the hardest decision of his life. He'd decided to come here.