'No,' he thought, eyes as wide as saucers. 'This is bad.'

The young boy was being held in place by a large, shadowy man at least twice his height and five times as strong with broad shoulders and bulging muscles. He had a tight, bruising grip on both of the boy's wrists who was forced to watch on as his sister was attacked in the middle of the darkened street.

"No! Someone please help me. They've got my little sister," he hollered as loud as his small lungs would allow before a clammy hand was clamped over his mouth and said girl screamed in both pain and terror.

It was too late for help though as seconds later the final blow was delivered and she fell motionless and limp on the cold, hard ground.

Chazz was finally released and thrown to his knees at the exact same moment as his eyes snapped open and the scenery around him changed. Even he had changed; no longer a mere child. He was much taller with secret pain revealed only through dark eyes and tails of hardship engraved on his face.

His face. It was wet he realised. He was crying? A loud sob escaped his lips as his door opened and a crowd of concerned faces surrounded him.

Slowly, his senses came back to him and he realised that the arms encircling him and pulling him towards a warm chest belonged to his mentor, Atticus, and the faces were that of his newly accepted friends who had been sleeping over next door. Nothing to be afraid of but he tensed at first anyway. Soon, however, he felt safe and the shushing noise Atticus was making relaxed him but he just could not forget the dream and so could not stop the floodgates that had been broken down.

Eventually, he was calmed enough to speak at which point, Jaden asked, "Did you have a nightmare?"

Thinking this a stupid question, the others were shocked when Chazz replied, "No," slightly muffled by his position, and at their puzzled faces he elaborated, "a memory."

Upon further prodding, the teen was forced in to further explanation and began the long tale.

"I was eleven at the time -oh wait- you guys probably don't know this. I'm not the youngest Princeton," he paused allowing the others to react. "Or at least, back then I wasn't. I once had a little sister; only two years younger. Her name was Alicia and she was the family favourite, just so perfect in every way. We all loved her.

"Anyway, one night I had been asked to meet her at a friend's house so I could walk her home. I did so but about halfway on our return, we were ambushed by three huge guys. They had been hired by a rivalling company of our family's to get back at us for taking away an important investor and they were willing to go as far as to kill a little girl to get their revenge. She'd never done anything to harm anyone in her life but kill her they did. Dragged us to a more secluded street and murdered her right in front of me. There was nothing I could do. My brothers always blamed me though."

By now, tears were prickling at his eyes once more and his voice was wavering, threatening to crack at any any moment.

"That's bullshit," Atticus exclaimed. "It's not your fault."

"Yeah," Jaden agreed with a firm nod. "You were just a kid. You shouldn't have been lumped with a responsibility like that. If they were any kind of brothers they'd have found time to tear themselves from their work and go get her themselves."

"Thanks, but even so, I've always felt this guilt deep down and now, for some reason, it's decided to rear its ugly head again," he replied, turning his head to face the wall. They'd seen enough of his weakness for one day.

"You shouldn't feel guilty," Alexis asserted as Chazz turned back to look at her with disbelief. "And we can help you with this, right guys?"

"Right," everyone agreed in unison.

AN quite a crappy ending but it had to stop somewhere and in my opinion, it was beginning to run on a bit. Also –headdesk- everyone's OOC!!!!