Nightmare

I kept my eyes down away from the judge and everyone else in the court room that morning. I knew I wasn't the one in trouble, but I was embarrassed, everyone knew what had happened to me and the ones who didn't know were soon to find out. I looked up as the doors opened and a man in a bright orange suit walked in. His hands were cuffed in front of him and he shot me a glare. My heart sank and my stomach turned just at the sight of him. His name was Matthew Charles Sanders, ex lead singer of the band Avenged Sevenfold. Now that I was here I was afraid that if they found him not guilty he would kill me for ruining his career. Not only that but he was the only one that was found, the others involved hadn't.

It all began March 28th 2007. I was 17 years of age at that time. I lived in Orange County California and in my opinion it was the best place to be. I wouldn't have traded it for anywhere else in the world to live. My friends were amazing, my family was great, and everything was just so perfect. But all of that would soon change.

I stood outside a small venue, fixing my makeup and hair in front of the small mirror beside a clothing store. There was plenty of people around, but I was there alone. I had heard about the teenage girls that had been going missing around here. There were rumors going around about the people who were doing it. Of course. We knew they were men, but the rumors spread like wild fire as to who the men were. I ignored all of the warnings, to me it was lame gossip spread by losers all over the internet.

I heard the sound of a small kitten meow and I pushed my makeup away into my purse. I took a few steps in the direction of the sound, there it was, sitting in a small alley way. It was solid black with a little bit of white under its' chin and on its' tail.

"Kitty kitty." I called it, taking some steps towards it. I finally reached it and bent down, running my hand through its' fur. A soft smile appeared over my lips as it began to purr and rub up against my legs. "Well hello there." I chuckled.

The sound of a bottle breaking startled me and I quickly stood, looking towards the sound. A man stood there with his back pressed against a wall. He wore long blue jeans and a black leather jacket, a shirt was worn under it with the words "F your morals". His head was shaved and his ears gauged.

As I began to back away from him, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I ran into someone. Nervously, I turned, there behind me stood a man six inches taller than myself. He had a snake bite piercing, a septum piercing and his ears were gauged. A wicked grin appeared over his lips and I tried to scream, but the man I was backing away from grabbed me, he wrapped his arm securely around my waist and tightly covered my mouth. I kicked my legs as hard as I could, punching back at him. I felt a sharp pain across the back of my skull and everything went dark.

I awoke hours later in a cold dark room. The only light I had was that of which was coming in from the small window. My hands were extended above my head and tied to two posts that were connected to the bed. My legs were tied together by my ankles. I tried to scream, but it was muffled by the piece of cloth that was tied tightly around my head. I quickly looked up as I heard a crack of a chair from across the room. "Please let me go." I muffled, tears sliding down my cheeks. The man stood and walked to my side, it was someone different, and I didn't recognize him. He was short, his nose was pierced and his head was shaved.

I let out loud groans and muffled screams when I saw the knife in his hand.

"Hey now, shh.." He whispered, sitting on the edge of the bed and placing the knife next to him. "I'm not going to hurt you." He looked down at me.

My heart was racing and I was having a hard time breathing. The look of sorrow on his face was almost convincing that he really wanted nothing to do with me. "If you promise not to scream, I'll take off the cloth." I quickly nodded my head and he did as promised.

I let out a loud gasp, coughing as I caught my breath. "Please let me go, I won't tell anyone I swear." I begged, even more tears sliding down my cheeks. He looked at me but didn't say anything. He lifted his arm and placed his hand on my cheek, gently wiping my tears away. I jerked my head away from his touch and he let out a soft sigh. He stood in silence as he picked up the knife, I feared this was the end, but he simply put the knife back into the small pouch that was hooked to his pants.

"I didn't want to do this, I didn't want any part of it, and I never have." He quickly said, sitting down in the same chair again. "They force me to, or they said they'll kill me. You have no idea what they've done when I said no before." His head fell into the palms of his hands after saying that.

For some reason I believed him, or at least I wanted to anyway. After a few minutes of silence he looked back up at me. The wetness on his cheeks shone from the moon light. I knew he was being serious now. "Can I just give you some advice?" He stood back up, walking over to me and sitting once more. "Just do what they ask and don't fight back. The more you fight the rougher they'll get." His gaze fell away from my own. "Just please do what they ask." He repeated himself "You'll have a better chance of them not killing you."

Those words made my heart race and my breathing quickened once more. I became sick and dizzy. Their plan was to kill me, they wanted to kill me. I turned over the best I could as my sickness got the best of me. The man jumped up and grabbed a garbage can, holding it for me before grabbing a couple of tissues and wiping off my mouth.

"We'll have to put you in Mat…."He quickly stopped himself before speaking any further "We'll have to put you in the boss's room while we change your sheets and then we'll get you back in here okay?"

The man left the room and soon returned with the two that had brought me here. I let out a loud scream when I the first man walked over to me. Now that he had his leather jacket off I could see what he really looked like. He was built, tattoos covering every inch of his arms. "Shut up." He growled, pulling out a knife and cutting the rope that was tying me to the bed. I quickly turned my body, kicking him back as hard as I could. He let out a loud groan and stumbled back. The man that had somewhat helped me caught him.

The man with the snakebites walked over to me, pulling out a gun and roughly placing it to the side of my head. "You pull another stunt like that and I'll be more than happy to kill you now." The wicked grin from before appeared once more. I nervously looked up at him, trying to slow my breathing. "That's what I thought." He removed the gun and stood up straight. The man I had kicked walked over to me, ripping me off the bed by my wrist. I let out a loud groan of pain as I fell to the floor and he forcefully dragged me to another room.

He picked me up and threw me onto the bed "You move once inch away from that spot and I'll kill you. Got it?" I let out a low growl and glared up at him "You two keep threatening me with death, why not just do it already?" His eyes widened and he grinned, walking over to me and placing a hand on my waist. "I would sweetheart, but I have some other things in mind for you first." I pushed his hand away and nervously looked up at him. He let out a loud dark laugh and stood up, walking towards the door way, stopping to look back at me as he opened the door. "My name's Matt by the way, just so you'll know what to scream." And with that he walked out, slamming the door shut.

"Pig." I whispered. He wasn't doing anything to me and I already felt violated. Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? I looked around the room, looking for a window to crawl out of, anything to let me escape.

It felt like hours had passed and all I could hear was the sound of their voices in another room. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but I tried my best to listen. The door quickly opened and I sat back down on the bed where Matt has placed me. Five men entered the room, Matt being the first one. He grabbed a chair and sat down in front of me, all the other men stood behind him. "Well since we've decided to keep you here for awhile, I should introduce you to everyone." He grinned back at the other men before looking at me.

"That's Zacky." He pointed to the man with snakebites. "That's Johnny." He pointed to the man that had helped me in the room. "That's Jimmy." He pointed to a tall shirtless man. "And that's Brian." He pointed to a man that had shoulder length black hair and a nose ring. I looked over all the men carefully.

Matt raised his fist, pulling it back and getting ready to hit me. I flinched back and all of the men laughed except for Johnny. "She's gonna be an easy one." Brian snickered, walking around to me and placing a hand on my inner thigh. I nervously watched him and Matt pulled his hand away. "You had your fun with the last one. This one's mine." Matt smirked, looking at me. His eyes were a dark green and he looked like he wanted to kill anyone who crossed his path. "Get her something to eat." Matt looked back at Johnny before standing up and shooing the rest of the guys from the room.

Once all of the men were gone he closed the door, sliding off his shirt and tossing it aside. My eyes trailed over the fine details of his muscles. I looked over all his different tattoos. He had demons riding on horses on his left arm and random tattoos on the right. His chest was covered with what looked like Angels and other designs, with the words "Thicker than Water" above it all. His stomach had a skull with bat wings. I had seen that symbol somewhere before, but I couldn't figure out where.

"Getting a good look to tell the cops what I look like?" He smirked, walking over to me, unbuttoning his pants.

I quickly shook my head, backing away from him on the bed. He grabbed my leg and roughly pulled me back to him, leaning down and pressing his lips to my neck. "Don't, stop please!" I begged, pushing my fist up against him, trying to get him away. Tears filled my eyes and quickly made their way down my cheeks. He grabbed onto the top of my shirt, ripping it open, leaning down and planting kisses down my chest and stomach.

I kicked and punched up at him as hard as I could, praying that he would stop and just let me go.

"Oh what's the matter baby? Too much for you?" He laughed wickedly and worked his way back up my body, pressing his lips forcefully against my own. I jerked my head away from him and he laughed at that. "I'm going to get what I want no matter how much you try and stop me. Now I could make this easy on you, or I could just force it from you, either way, I'm getting it."

He reached down, pushing down my pants, grinning.

The minutes felt like hours as he raped me. I begged him to stop, I told him I'd do anything, but he wouldn't listen. He'd left the room only minutes ago, satisfied with what he'd received. I continued to lay there, wiping the tears from my eyes. I felt like this was my fault, all of it. I grabbed onto a blanket and wrapped it around my body, letting out a groan of pain as I moved my legs. My clothes were ruined and I had nothing to wear.

How could someone be so cold and heartless?

I shivered from the cold air, even the blanket didn't protect me from it. The look on his face kept replaying through my mind like a nightmare.

The door crept open and I closed my eyes, hoping that when I reopened them I would be home, safe in my bed and this was all just a bad dream. "It's just me." Johnnys voice soothed. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at him, embarrassed. I knew all of the guys knew what had happened and he was more than likely out there bragging about it. Telling them every last detail.

He set down a pair of clothes on the bed, girl clothes. A disgusted look appeared on my face. They must have belonged to one of the other girls they'd brought here. "Don't worry, they belong to my girl friend." He assured me. I relaxed some and sat up, keeping the blanket tightly wrapped around me. "Get dressed and then go into the kitchen. When you leave this room take a right and keep going down the hallway, you'll come to the living room, you'll be able to see the kitchen from there." He made his way back to the door, walking out and looking back at me. "I'm sorry." He whispered before closing the door.

I sat up, quickly getting dressed. I tried to ignore the pain the best I could. I stood and walked to the door, walking out and going the way he'd told me to go. When I walked into the living room all of the guys stopped and stared at me. "He did a number on you huh? I haven't heard him make a girl scream that loud in awhile." Zacky laughed, running a hand through his hair. "I bet I could make you scream louder." He winked.

I wrapped my arms tightly around my waist and dropped my gaze to the floor, making my way towards the kitchen. I let out a loud groan of pain as I hit the floor face first. I slowly looked back to see Brians leg extended out in front of him. "Oops sorry." He smirked, looking down at me, the rest of the guys laughing. I looked up towards the kitchen only to see Johnny sitting there at the table, playing with a small knife. I managed to stand up and finish walking into the kitchen, sitting down in a chair next to him.

I looked down at the small sand which in front of me, looking over it carefully. "I made it, don't worry." He sighed, keeping his gaze on the knife. I slowly picked it up, taking a small bite at first, but quickly eating the rest. I felt like I hadn't eaten in days. I didn't even know how long I'd been here.

"I'm gonna help you escape." He whispered, looking at me. My eyes widened and I looked at him. "Just go back to the first room you were in and I'll help you when the guys are busy planning their next hit." He glanced at the other guys to make sure they weren't watching or listening to him. I nodded and stood up "Thanks for the food." I said before walking back towards the room I was in. I walked past Matts room and into my room. There were new sheets on the bed and I walked over, sitting down. Waiting for Johnny to tell me when it was okay to leave.

I heard a light knock on the door before Johnny entered the room, gently shutting it behind him and sitting next to me on the bed. "I'm risking my life to do this, you know that right?" He looked at me with a serious look. "You don't have to do it." I whispered, placing a hand gently on his shoulder. "It's fine. Here's what's gonna happen. I'll let you leave the room first, they're all in Matts room right now with the door shut. Make sure you don't make any noise walking past the room. Go into the living room and you'll see the front door, go out it and run to the nearest car." Johnny paused, pulling a pair of keys out of his pocket and handing them to me.

"Turn around and go straight, keep going straight till you come to a road, then go left and keep going, you'll be back into the town they found you in, you should know where to go from there."

I didn't know what to say to him, did I really want to do this and risk him getting hurt? After everything he's done for me?

"Please just go now before it's too late." It almost sounded as if he were begging.

"Thank you so much for everything." I whispered, kissing his lips gently before standing up and walking out of the room. I tip-I-toed past Matts room and into the living room; gently pushing the front door open, making sure it didn't make any noise before walking out and running to the nearest car, opening the door and climbing in, locking all the doors as I did. I pushed the keys into the ignition, starting it and backing out, turning the car around and heading down the long narrow dirt road.

I watched in my rearview mirror as all the men ran out. A weapon in each of their hands. Matt turned towards Johnny, I could see the furious look on his face from here. Matt raised his hand which had the gun in it and fired. Johnny fell to his knees before falling face first into the dirt. I let out a loud scream, tears stinging my eyes. It was my fault he was dead, I should've stayed behind. It wasn't worth it, I should've risked my life to let him keep his.

I looked towards the Jury as a man stood, my heart was racing faster than ever. "We the jury find the defendant, not guilty." My heart almost stopped at those words and I looked over at Matt, a smug look on his face, he looked over at me and winked. I felt dizzy once more and picked up a glass of water that was in front of me, taking a mouth full at a time.

"Case dismissed!"