Welcome to the Family

I sat up in bed. My body was drenched with sweat and I felt like I’d just run a mile. The images from my dream still filled my head. Wait. No. It wasn’t a dream. It was a memory.

I had been back in the back seat of that car again watching as my Dad sank into the distance behind me. It had been year since that day and I still couldn’t get it out of my head. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since that day. I missed him.

Those three months in California had been the best of my life and I would do anything to get them back. I wish that I’d never fought Ashlynne because if I hadn’t then maybe I’d be there with everyone instead of here.

I still kept up with the band even if Brad didn’t know it. I read about them whenever I was able to get online and watched whatever videos I could find. Sometimes I watched interviews they’d done and I could see that the smile on Brian’s face wasn’t genuine.

A lot of times I’d lie in bed at night and think about what I’d tell him and Jimmy, the two that I’d grown closest to while in Cali. I’d tell them about how after Brad and Mom took me from Johnny’s we’d left California, driven right through Oregon and Washington and straight into Canada.

From there we bounced from hotel to hotel until we ended up back in the States and settled in New Jersey. I’d tell them about how 2 weeks after we got our apartment in Jersey Mom had been hit by a car and killed, leaving me alone with Brad and Charlotte. About how the abuse had continued and in fact gotten worse.

There wasn’t a day that went by now that I wasn’t hit someway. From the outside Brad appeared to be the perfect Dad. A saint in some ways for continuing to care for his dead wife’s ‘troubled’ teenage daughter. It made me sick to think about it.

If the people in our neighborhood could see the real him they’d see the monster that lived inside. They’d see Brad turn from semi-good looking man to the horrible beast that blamed me for the death of his wife. She had been going out to get cold medicine because I’d been sick with the flu and for once she’d taken pity on me. Now she was gone, leaving me here with her vengeful spouse.

I knew that after that dream I wasn’t quite comfortable going back to sleep so I did what I usually did. I took my Green Day blanket and wrapped it around my shoulders and slipped my feet into my Gir slippers before crawling out of the bed and walking to the arm chair by my window.

I curled up in the chair and looked at the moon that was outside my window. It was full tonight and filled my small room with light. I leaned forward and picked up my laptop and opened it up.

The light was bright in my eyes but they soon adjusted and I pulled up the internet. I went to the first sight I always went on, the Avenged Sevenfold site. I hadn’t been on here in weeks since Brad had flipped his lid and taken it away until I had begged and pleaded for him to give it back so I could do a research paper.

I smiled at some of the comments that fans had left. Most of them were praising Brian or Zacky. Then something caught my eye. It said ‘Tour Info’ in large letters under ‘Recent News’. I quickly scrolled down and began to read.

It said that they were currently on tour and then listed a long list of dates. I scrolled down and my heart stopped. They were coming to New Jersey in two days. The tears began to fall down my face. I had to see them.

*Brian’s POV*

I sighed as I tossed and turned in my bunk. I couldn’t sleep again. Usually I slept like a baby on the bus but there was something about this tour that made it where I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to call Michelle but she and the girls were in Cancun for a girls weekend and I didn’t want to disturb her. It wasn’t like she’d mind but when me and the guys went out she didn’t bug me.

Sighing I pushed the curtain of the bunk to the side and climbed out. Everyone was asleep except for Ernie our bus driver but he was in his own little world up front. I opened the fridge and pulled out a beer and popped it open and wandered back to my bunk.

After crawling back inside I felt down the side of my bunk until I found what I was looking for. I had pulled this out more during this tour than I had in the past year and I had no clue why. I unfolded the picture and smoothed it out. The picture was creased severely now and the edges were beginning to fray but it was the only picture I had of Joey.

The day that Rebekka had taken Joey and I’d gone to Joey’s house I had taken this picture from one of the frames by Joey’s bed. The date on the back said it had been taken just months before she’d moved to California. In the picture she had her guitar in hand, her face concentrated as she played a song. Michelle had laughed when she saw it, she said Joey looked just like me.

I downed the rest of my beer and laid back. I wondered where she was. After she’d left I’d hired a lawyer but he couldn’t do anything unless we actually knew where Joey was. So from there I’d hired a private detective but he’d lost her at every turn and now he’d lost them entirely.

I just hoped that wherever she was, she was okay. Brad was a class A asshole. As for Rebekka she was a bitch like no other. I guess now that I thought about it she was one back in the day too none of us had seen it though.

Sighing I put the photo back between the bed and the wall and tossed the beer bottle to the floor outside my bunk. I had to get some sleep. We had a show in two days and if I was going to be any good to the band when we got to New Jersey I would have to get at least 2 nights of sleep in a row.

I closed the curtain and pulled the blanket up around me. I could hear the soft snores of my band mates around me and soon I drifted off to sleep, thoughts of my daughter filling my head.