A/N: Songs listened to while writing this.
Gone by Daughtry
Waiting For Superman by Daughtry
Sorry by Buckcherry
Crawling Back To You by Daughtry
A/N 2: Future chapters will get darker in tone
Luke and Raelynn arrived home around the same time the pizza had shown up to the house and everyone was eating… and Luke's eyes brightened a bit.
"Hey, there you are." Luke says, him and Amanda hugging before she noticed Raelynn. "Rae, this is my friend I mentioned, Mandy." He says, Amanda and Raelynn shaking hands.
Amanda and Raelynn talked for a bit… and Raelynn noticed the scar on the palm of Amanda's left hand but didn't ask.
It was later when Amanda was asleep that it happened again…
"I had to leave, for both of us! We were hurting each other by staying together!" Amanda says angrily, trying to shove her 6'5", 250 pound ex off of her.
"You think you can just walk out that door and I wouldn't find you?! Wherever you're hiding?!" Randy yelled after backhanding Amanda across the face and trying to choke her, Amanda managing to pull his hands off of her neck by bending his index fingers back and running for it as he screamed.
In the kitchen was a Bowie knife that Karl had kept… when Randy caught up to her, he gasped after feeling the knife plunge into his chest.
Amanda stepped back in horror as Randy fell, his blue eyes looking at her as his life started slipping away.
"Why?! All I wanted… was to love you." Randy says through the blurred vision before his head slumped to the side and he laid eerily still…
Amanda shot up, breathing heavily as her eyes opened and trying not to scream… before looking across from her in the darkened room, recognising the muscular frame that belonged to Finn as he sat down across from her and brushed her hair out of her face.
"Hey…" Finn says, Amanda flinching slightly but Finn reached out and carefully hugged her. "It's okay, Mandy… it's okay, it was just a bad dream." He whispers, his right hand rubbing up and down her back as she hung onto him.
The two let go, his hand resting on hers before they stretched out on the bed.
"I had to get away from Randy… but not just him, from everything. Everyone in the damn media speculating about what really happened and whether Chris had roid rage and that he killed them in cold blood… I was around Chris and his family from the time I was 10 years old and yes, he and Nancy had their arguments, all couples do… but he loved his wife and son, they were the most important people in his life… his family. And now David and Megan, they're left without their father, their stepmother and their baby brother." Amanda says quietly, Finn brushing her tears away.
"You and everyone who knew him knew him better than those vultures who won't let him and his family rest… Mandy, the truth might never be fully known though." Finn says quietly, kissing Amanda on her forehead.
"It just… it hurts that they're gone…" Amanda says, instinctively wrapping her right around around Finn as he pulled her into his arms.
The two fell asleep after talking for a bit longer… it was barely daylight when Finn cracked his eyes open when he heard something downstairs.
Being as quiet as possible, Finn lightly untangled himself from Amanda, having been holding her the entire night… but her sleepy hazel eyes opened, him knowing that the 17 year old was startled by the noise.
"Here." Finn whispered, putting a baseball bat in Amanda's hands and grabbing the Bowie knife Karl had shown him earlier. The two snuck downstairs and saw a shadowy figure near the safe and trying to open it.
Finn took the bat from Amanda and crept up behind the burglar, whacking him him with the bat. The hooded figure screaming as he fell but the scream was muffled by Finn clamping his right hand over the kid's mouth.
"You scream, you're gonna wake up the others here as well as the whole neighborhood! Me and the tiny girl will be the least of your problems then!" Finn growled, handing the bat to Amanda, who whacked the burglar across the face with it.
"Lady, what the hell?!" The burglar yells although it was muffled.
"I don't take too kindly to intruders." Amanda says.
"You're deranged! Both of you are!" The burglar says after Finn yanked him up to his feet and tied him to a chair Amanda dragged from the dining table after Amanda had found some rope from the garage.
"If you think we're deranged, I should introduce you to my pal Kurt! Don't let the bald head and smile fool ya, he's a lunatic when he's pissed!" Finn says, Amanda a bit startled.
She only knew one man who fit that description and had the same first name and Amanda had known Kurt since she was 10 years old.
"He's right… I've seen how Kurt is when he's protecting his friends. So why don't you give us your name and we won't call the cops?" Amanda says, the burglar eying her up and down before turning to Finn.
"Why don't you let me go and then go give her a good fucking? She looks like your type anyway, worth a good few times in bed before you move-" The burglar says, screaming when Finn punched him across the face and Amanda jumping back when blood started gushing from the burglar's nose.
"Why don't you shut your fucking mouth before I shut it for you, lowlife?! She's been through enough damage in these past two years!" Finn said in a menacing tone.
"And you don't think I haven't been through hell?! Whatever she's been through, there's always someone who's suffered worse!" The burglar says.
Amanda looked up at the staircase, seeing Karl.
"Need me to call the cops, you two or are you gonna kill him?" Karl asks after walking over to them.
"This is fucked up! All I wanted was the cash and instead, I get beaten up by-" The burglar shouts, the air knocked out of him when Amanda lifted her left foot up and slammed it into his torso before Finn pulled her back and Karl looked at them before turning to the burglar.
"Well now… you've gotten a whole hell of a lot of trouble instead of a score. This is my home." Karl says.
Finn lightly held Amanda's left hand when he felt her trembling next to him, hoping to comfort his new friend... but she had that look in her eyes.
The look of someone pushed too far.