Forgotten

JOSH'S POV.

The next afternoon.

After literally beating the shit out of my drums for a while, I wandered downstairs to see if anything remotely interesting was going on. Dad was stood in the lounge on his phone, but as soon as I came into the room he handed the phone over to me.

"Um... hi?" I said uncertainly, having no idea who I was speaking to.

"Hey what's up? You alright?"

"Nathan?"

"No, It's Matthew."

"Oh.. sorry, you sound so similar."

"I was kidding, it's Nathan."

"Oh right. Yeah I'm OK. How are you?"

Why the hell does he want to talk to me? I mean, we've met only twice, but then again, we did cover a show for his band once.

"I'm great. Dude you sound so different now."

"Yeah, I know." I knew I was being difficult to have a conversation with, it was kind of deliberate, I really didn't feel like talking to anybody right now, especially somebody I didn't know very much.

"Well I've just been watching some videos of a certain pair of twins performing with a band called Madina Lake."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You guys are good, you in a band?"

"Um... not really, we have no guitarists."

"Easily fixed. Look, I can't talk for too long, find yourself somebody who plays guitar and get your asses to meet us yeah?"

"Um... when and where?" I saw Dad smiling and wondered what the hell they were all planning.

"We want to see your band play so if you guys-"

"No! No way! Last time was so scary, I'm never going on stage again in my life!"

"Aww come on, you guys were great. I take it your the singer of this band of yours?"

"Uh... no. That would be my sister."

"But dude, she's like eight."

"She's seven and she's amazing. Look, I don't know if you know whats been happening with me and my brother the last week but I really don't want to talk to you right now."

"What's been happening?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I thought you knew, but it doesn't matter. Why did you want to see this so called band I'm in play anyway?"

"Just interested is all, I'm really sorry if something bad has been going on with you guys, if you ever need to talk, I'll listen."

"No thank you," I said shortly, handing the phone back to Dad and walking back to my room.

I had kind of 'borrowed' Dad's ipod to learn some songs off, I looked to see if he had any Madina Lake.

Artist: Madina Lake.

Album: From them, through us, to you.

Tracks: 11.

I guess he does then...

***

An hour later I was sweating badly, my hands were throbbing and I had broken a drumstick. But I knew four songs. To me they sounded right, whether they were right or not I had no idea about.

"Josh? Come downstairs?" came Dad's voice from outside my door.

I sighed and walked over to the door.

"Holy shit! What the fu- hell happened to your hands?!"

"I've been playing for over an hour, I keep hitting them is all." I looked at my hands, I had several cuts on each hand, most of them still bleeding.

"Take a quick shower and come downstairs yeah?"

"Fine," I said, wondering why the hell he wanted me downstairs.

ROBBIE'S POV.

4 hours later.

"Man, I'm really sorry to hear that," said Matthew sympathetically as Dad explained we had been missing for a week.

"So you don't talk much do you?" said Dan. I had never really spoken to him, when Josh and I pretended to be Nathan and Matthew we tried to speak to people as little as we could so we didn't give ourselves away.

I shook my head and looked at the four men sat opposite from me.

They were four of the nicest guys I had ever met, but still they scared me, even though Matthew and Nathan were hardly taller than me now, the fact I had four near strange men in the same room as me was scary.

"He's a bit quiet now cause of some things, but, this isn't what we're talking about, remember?" said Dad.

"Yeah yeah, OK. So you play bass right?" asked Mateo.

I nodded.

"Why are you so nervous?"

I shook my head.

"You really don't have to be scared, they don't bite, they aren't going to hurt you if you talk to them," said Dad.

"S-sorry," I said quickly.

"Don't apologize! This might not have been the best idea Bob," said Nathan. Matthew was looking at me curiously, as if trying to read me. I avoided his gaze and stared at the wall near him.

"Spending time with people you don't know well will help you get better," said Dad to me. I nodded.

"So... oh right... hi," said Josh, wandering into the room without realizing Madina Lake were here.

"What's up. Dude, what did you do to your hands?" asked Matthew.

"Just... stuff," said Josh, shifting awkwardly.

"You're a drummer?" asked Dan.

He nodded, looking anywhere but at Dan.

"Pfft. Prove it."

"Fine. I can play almost half of your record so fuck you dude."

"Yeah? You think?"

"Fine, don't believe me," he said and I could see Dad smirking.

"Show me," said Dan. Josh nodded and Dan and Matthew jumped up.

"Well I wanna see too!" said Matthew.

"Um.. okay," said Josh and they left the room.

Nathan, Mateo, Dad and I talked for a little while. At some point Cassie wandered into the room and sat between Nathan and Mateo. She was really confident today, I think having us back here with her was really helping her.

Mateo started to absent-mindedly hum the tune to 'Here I Stand' and it wasn't long before Cassie was tapping out the beat on her leg with her fingertips. Her lips began to move soundlessly, forming the words but keeping them all inside and not making a sound.

I watched her for a few moments until she got up and left the room, walking up the stairs to her room by the sound of it.

A few minutes later Josh, Dan and Matthew re-appeared, Dan looking at Josh in a very different way than he had done before they had gone upstairs.

"Your boy got some skills," he said to Dad as they all sat back down. Josh sat beside me, he looked exhausted and I wondered how much he had slept last night.

"Yeah, considering he's never had a lesson, except like once or twice with me," said Dad, looking at Josh proudly. Why can't I make him proud like that?

"Yeah well I mean, that kind of talent is pretty..." Matthew trailed off, looking out into the hallway where a sound was carrying down the stairs.

The room fell silent and the most beautiful thing I have heard in a long time drifted into the room.

"Here I stand,
All alone, tonight,
and I wish I was strong enough to breathe,
without you, in my life,
and I wish I was anyone but me..."

"Holy shit," breathed Nathan, going to get up but Dad shot him a warning look.

"You see, she's so shy with that, and it's incredible," said Dad, almost sadly. I think he wished Cassie would have more confidence in herself.

"No child her age should be able to sing like that, its unnatural."

"Well, maybe she just has a gift," said Dad.

"I guess. She's amazing though, really, she should come on stage with us and sing that with me," said Nathan and Matthew nodded eagerly.

"She'd never do it."

"It would be worth asking, with a voice like that she'd be crazy to never share it with anybody," said Mateo.

I lost interest in the conversation and walked from the room, heading for my bedroom. I needed to be alone a lot more than I used to. I think it was what Darren had done, I needed time to my thoughts, something which I never used to need time for. I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling, quickly becoming lost in thought.

I feel so used now, like I've been used up and thrown away. Discarded, now having no purpose, he had taken what he wanted and that is what I had lost.

There was a soft knock on my door and I sighed, there was no way I was getting up.

I waited a few moments in the hope that whoever it was would just leave me alone, but I had no such luck, they knocked again.

"Come in," I said wearily.

"Hey Robbie," said Matthew softly, coming into the room and shutting the door behind him.

I tensed and he noticed.

"You don't have to be afraid of me or anything, I just wanted to talk," he said, holding up his hands as if surrendering.

"If you think I'll talk to you then you're wrong."

"I'm not asking you to talk to me, I'm just asking you to understand this," he said, walking over and sitting at the foot of my bed, crossing his legs red-Indian style and facing me.

"I want you to know that whatever that man did to you it's not your fault. Never think that. It's his fault and not yours."

"What did he tell you?" I growled, sitting up immediately.

"Your Dad hasn't told me anything, nothing I didn't already know. He doesn't even know what happened to you and your brother while you were in that house. The police are looking for him and they can't charge him for everything he did unless you tell somebody what he actually did to you guys," he looked at me very seriously. The seriousness didn't suit him, I was used to seeing him acting almost like a child, seemingly so carefree and full of joy. Now he was the exact opposite, like he could read my mind.

"I- I don't want to talk about it."

"Did he hit you?"

"I said, I don't want to talk about it. Could you go back downstairs?"

He didn't move. He looked at me more seriously and then spoke again.

"Did he hit you Robbie?"

"Yes," I whispered, staring at the floor.

"Show me."

"W-what?!" I spluttered.

"You won't show your Dad so show me. I want you to think of me and Nathan like older brothers to you two, you can count on us for anything and we'll do our best okay? I don't want to pressure you into anything, but it will help the police if somebody other than your brother see's what he did to you."

"His name is Josh," I said through gritted teeth. Something about Matthew was pissing me off. I knew he was being so nice to me right now, but I was feeling like lashing out and it was all because I felt so broken, nothing was fitting right.

"What did he do to Josh? Did he hit him too?"

I nodded wordlessly.

"How about Cassie?"

I shook my head.

"Is that bruise from him?" he asked and I touched my face lightly. I knew I had a bruise under my left eye from Darren and I nodded.

"Man, what the fuck did he do to you?" he asked, looking disgusted and truly sorry about what had happened at the same time.

I felt tears prick in the corners of my eyes. Before I knew what I was doing I was pouring my heart out to Matthew. If only I had known of the tape recorder in his pocket, documenting my every word...