Burning It Down, All the Way to Bat Country

Matt’s POV
Holy.mother.of.GOD. For a bunch of teenagers, these kids are really good, we were all speechless. The kids were starting to look really nervous.
“Well? What did you think?” Mistey asked, starting to get exasperated. We all looked at each other and grinned before bursting into applause, cheering wildly. The girls flushed, and Blaze just smirked.

“So do you guys have a band name yet?”
“Yeah, it’s called Forgotten Memories.” Blaze said, and we nodded.
“Awesome guys, you sound really good.” They grinned and started putting the instruments back where they belonged and then all of a sudden jumped up and ran back to the game room. We found them in their previous positions, with Mistey and Trinity blasting the shoit out of soldiers on Medal of Honor.
“Alright guys, make sure you get all this shit cleaned up, we’re going upstairs.” Brian said, and we all walked up to the living room.

“So they were better than I thought they would be.” Johnny remarked after we had all sat down.
“Yeah man, damn Trinity has got some pipes.” Zack added in. I nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, she would constantly be singing when she still lived with those monsters, I think it was her escape from life.” Jasey nodded.
“Probably, I’m so glad she made friends so quickly. She needs them.”
“Totally, that Mistey is a crack up, I love her!” Corra chimed in from Zack’s lap.
“Haha yeah, and Jesus Evan and Blaze are protective of those girls, when we were at Taco Bell they almost beat the shit out of this kid who was trying to hit on Sarah. I’m glad, those girls NEED protection.” Jimmy said, tucking Aja closer to him. She had decided to not go to sleep so instead of fighting it, Jimmy just held her, knowing she’d pass out soon.

“So Matt and Steph, how was your date?” Jaz asked from her perch on Johnny’s lap. Me and Steph looked at each other before grinning and looking back at the group.
“It was great until we left. We were almost at the car when Jake showed up and decided to be a stupid asshole. He grabbed Steph’s arm and wouldn’t let go, so I pulled her wawy from, then I might have had a little loss of control, and broke all the fingers on his right hand.” I grinned at the last part, and Brian laughed and slapped my back.
“Good job dude, really.” Steph giggled and nodded, burying her face in my chest.
“He did too, Jake started crying like a little girl.” All the girls busted up laughing, Lynnie even fell off Brian’s lap and started rolling around on the floor. Suddenly Jaz jumped up and clapped.

“LET’S MAKE S’MORES!!!!!” She screamed, and all the girls jumped up and squealed. Steph turned to me and pouted.
“Matty, will you go to the store for us please?”
“Haha sure, ya’ll just need s’mores stuff?” They nodded and I got up, dragging Brian with me out to the truck. Brian sniggered as he got into the passenger seat.
“Dude, you’re whipped and she isn’t even your girlfriend yet!”

Trinity’s POV
“DUDE! THAT’S CHEATING!” I yelled as Blaze shoved me over, making me miss like 8 notes on Guitar Hero.

“So? I never said I play fair.” He smirked and I just tackled him, sitting on his stomach and crossing my arms over my chest. He laughed and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Wow Trini, didn’t know you liked me like that!” I laughed and played along.
“Oh yeah baby.” I leaned down and acted like I was gonna kiss him until I heard Jasey screech.
“What the fuck?” I laughed and got up, helping Blaze jump to his feet.
“It was nothing Jasey, just a joke.” She grinned and nodded.
“Just don’t let your dad or your uncles see you joking around like that, I’m sure you like your friends living.”
“Sure thing Jase, I’ll remember that. Now, is there something you needed, or did you just come down here to watch us be retarded?”
“We’re gonna make s’mores and we wanted to know if you guys wanted any?”

“HELL YEAH!” We screamed as we raced past her up the stairs and outside to the fire pit, where the guys and the rest of the girls were sitting. There was a minor scuffle over the bag of marshmallows, but two minutes later and were munching happily on gooey goodness. I was sitting there thinking, which is never a good idea for me, and decided that it would be awesome to jump in the pool fully clothed. So I did, and surfaced to see my friends running towards me at full speed, cannonballing into the pool at the same time. We grinned at my dad, who was just looking at us and shaking his head. We swam around a bit before my dad called an end to the night around 2 am, sending us to bed. Once we had gotten dry clothes on and gotten the basement reasonably clean, we all layed down and went to sleep.

He was going to get me, he was almost here. I wasn’t going to be able to hide.
“Did you really think you would be able to hide from me, did you really think you were safe?” The man kept creeping towards me, the blade glinting in his hand. He stood over me and raised the knife…

Mistey’s POV
I woke to Trini thrashing around, whimpering something about not hurting her, leaving her alone. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, trying to wake her up.
“Trini, wake up, come on girl, wake up.” Her eyes snapped open and she sat up with a gasp, looking around wildly. I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her hard, forcing her to look at me.

“Trinity, it was just a nightmare, you’re ok, nothing bad is happening.” She started sobbing and I pulled her into a hug. She clutched onto me and kept crying. I guess her sobs woke the others up and we were soon surrounded by our friends. Half an hour later and the sobs were finally stopped and she was calm enough to lift her head and look at us. We looked back at her, the confusion written plainly across our faces.

“I should probably tell you what my life was like before I came here huh?” We all nodded and sat in front of her, waiting for her to gather her thoughts and start speaking.

“When I was ten, my mom died. Before that, my life was great. I had the perfect parents and everything I had ever wanted. Then one day, my mom was driving me home from ballet and she was blindsided by a drunk driver, she died on impact, I went into a coma in the hospital, woke up a week later. My dad didn’t visit me; all he did was sign me out to take me home.” She paused, taking a deep breath before continuing.

“He was nice enough to let me heal before he started treating me like shit. Three weeks later and I was cleaning the entire house, cooking all the meals, catering to his every whim. He said it was my punishment for killing my mom. I believed him; I thought I had killed her because I was distracting her, so I did everything he said. Three months after the accident he met Jennifer. They got married and had a baby within a year. Then the beatings started. Little things at first, slapping me, maybe a punch to the stomach, and things slowly got worse. I was 13 when he raped me the first time.” She started crying again, and Blaike and I put an arm around her, she smiled weakly, moving on with the story.

“I was so confused, what had I done to deserve any of this? I had figured out by then that the accident wasn’t my fault. Then, two weeks after my fifteenth birthday, Matt moved in next door. I guess the guys were on a break or something, so he decided to rent a house on the other side of town so he could get away and still be close to home. I ran into him at the grocery store when day, then actually talked to him later, after my parents had had a party. He figured out what was happening just a few weeks later, and gave me his number, telling me to call him when I wanted help. I called him four days later, after my ‘parents’ had beaten me, and given me papers that said I wasn’t their kid anymore. Matt adopted me, and that’s how I got here. I’m sorry I woke you guys up, I haven’t had a nightmare since the first night I was here, I thought they were done.” She finished and looked up at us; we all had tears streaking down our cheeks. Evan and Blaze pulled her between them, hugging her fiercely before making a promise.

“We won’t ever let him near you, you’re safe now, we promise.” We all smiled and nodded, Evan and Blaze had made the same promise to protect us years ago. We all somehow ended up falling asleep curled around each other, sharing our warmth and the protection that came from a family. My last thought before drifting off to sleep was simple.

She’s gonna be ok