Sorry it took so long to upload this chapter our internet broke, so I couldn't upload it when I would have liked to, but I should update all of my stories now as I once again have internet.

Any thing in italics is a flash back or past events.

Any thing not in italics is present events.


Megan knew that she might not learn much from watching her boobish brothers, but she knew that watching them would tell her some thing. Josh didn't notice it while he was talking to Drake, but she did.

Josh didn't notice it while he was trying to show Drake a magic trick, but she did.

Josh didn't notice it while he and Drake were playing video games while sitting on their sofa, but she did.

Drake's face. There was some thing different about it. He had tear tracks running down his checks.

That night at dinner Drake was eating much slower than usual. Drake tried to get him self to eat at his normal speed, but he couldn't force him self to do so. Luckily for him it was only him and Josh and his brother wasn't really paying much attention to him as he was extremely interested in watching the show that he was watching on the TV.

Drake was glad that for once there was some thing that Josh wanted to watch on TV about avocado's.

Drake tried to keep him self up and out of bed for as long as he could, but his mum was soon nagging him to go up to bed. Josh was doing the same, so Drake came up to their room and got changed for bed. He was so nervous to fall asleep, but he couldn't help it. His eye lids were closing over his eyes and he could feel sleep engulf him and there was nothing that he could do to stop it.

A few minutes after Drake had fallen asleep he managed to force his body to open his eyes. Drake fought to keep him self up, but he didn't want to fall asleep again, so he even resorted to reading one of the books that Josh kept near his bed. That night Drake had no nightmare's bother him, however the cost of that was Drake getting no sleep.

The next morning when Josh woke up to the sounds of video games he was surprised to see that Drake was already awake and was playing on his game sphere.

"What are you doing Drake?" Josh asked as he climbed out of his bed and headed over to sit next to Drake on the sofa.

"Just playing some video games before school." Drake replied with a yawn following his sentence as he continued to play the video game he was playing. As Josh continued to watch Drake play the game he realised just how good Drake really was at this game and at the same time Josh noticed that Drake was already dressed in some normal clothes.

"Are you ready to go to school?" Josh asked shocked that he already knew that Drake was going to say yes in answer to his question. Drake nodded his head as an answer as he was too focused on his game to speak, "Well I'm going to get ready to school." Josh said as he left the room with a change of clothes in his hands.

Drake and Josh walked down the stairs later for breakfast, not that Drake actually ate any of the food that was in front of him, but Josh did and he also got to listen to Josh telling him a story about what happened at work the other day. Although Drake really didn't want to hear about it the story managed to stop him falling in to another nightmare, so Drake was thankful that Josh decided to tell the story and that Josh had yet noticed that Drake hadn't fallen asleep last night.

School was terrible and Drake couldn't focus on any thing that the teachers were saying, but for once he really wished that he could do so as he fought against him self to remain awake. The only thing that was managing to keep Drake semi focused at the moment was the fact that less than half an hour it would be lunch time, so he would then be able to do what ever he wanted for a while and Drake knew exactly what he was going to do.

Unfortunately for him, Drake could feel him self losing the small amount of consisness he had by the minutes. When the bell rang Drake had no clue how he had been able to stay awake as he could feel his eye lids closing over his eyes. As soon as he was out of the room he headed towards the cafeteria with Josh, but when he got there he managed to lose Josh when Josh went to join the line to get some food.

After waiting for about two minutes Drake spotted the two people that he desperately wanted to speak to. It seemed that they had seen Drake as well as they headed over towards where he was stood. Luckily Josh hadn't spotted the three of them yet.

"Hey man." Trevor said as he and his brother, Scotty stopped in front of him.

"Hey." Drake said, but his voice came out weaker than he had hoped it would, however Drake found that it strangely didn't bother him for once. Drake knew and so did Scotty and Trevor that they were his only friends who had ever seen him break in to pieces and tell every thing to.

"You okay?" Scotty asked him. Although Trevor and Scotty weren't the most intelligent people they did care very much about the friends that they had. Drake was glad to have those two for friends and he was so glad that he had those two as friends six years ago when he had really needed them.

"N..no I d..do..don't think that I am." Drake replied stuttering on his words slightly as he spoke. He could Trevor and Scotty look at each other before he felt hands on his shoulders and felt him self moving through the room, but he had no idea that he was moving by his self.

When they were out of the hall he found him self in one of the closets that was in the school building. He looked around as Scotty and Trevor took their hands off of his shoulders and gently pulled him down on to the floor, so that they were all sat down. Drake managed to put every thing together in the next few seconds, realising that Trevor and Scotty had lead him here.

"What's wrong man?" Trevor asked Drake who just looked down slightly before managing to find some words after a long amount of silence and what must have been at least three or four minutes, however Trevor and Scotty hadn't rushed him, they were still sat in the same places as they were before waiting for him to speak.

"I..I can't sleep."

"Why can't you?" Scotty asked. Usually if it had been Josh that had asked Drake that it would have come across either in an angry, annoyed or upset tone, but Scotty just spoke the words in no particular tone at all. Drake knew there was a reason why he had always told these to every thing when he was younger.

"I..I," Drake couldn't find the right words to go after I, so he changed the start of his sentence, "M..my nightmares are b..back." As soon as the words had left his mouth Trevor and Scotty seemed to understand every thing exactly as it was with out Drake having to give them any form of details at all.

"Whoa man." Trevor started stopping after two words.

"That's not good." Scotty finished the sentence that Trevor was going to say, some thing that Drake had become used to since he had known the brothers. The three continued to talk until another bell rang telling them that lunch was over, so the three carefully came out of the closet.

"Don't worry we'll get around this." Scotty said.

"See you later Drake." Trevor replied before the two walked off in the opposite direction of Drake who headed to Mrs Hayfer's English class. He was walking slowly, so he knew that he would be late in to the lesson, but he didn't care if he was late. He really didn't.

When Drake opened the door to the class room walking in two minutes late Mrs Hayfer instantly had some thing to say to him.

"Nice of you to finally decide to join us Drake." She said with that same hateful tone she used when she always spoke to him lining her voice. Drake felt sick already and she hadn't even started to teach any thing yet.

However this time Drake thought that Mrs Hayfer's teaching wasn't the reason that he was feeling sick. The reason was that he was going to fall asleep. There was no way around it he was going to end up sleeping and having nightmare's while having Mrs Hayfer shouting at him.

Drake sat down with out saying any thing back to Mrs Hayfer who just looked shocked as Drake did so, but she started to teach any way scribbling on the board some thing about some thing called the Odyssey, which Drake had no interest in at all and because of that he could feel him self slipping him to sleep and that was exactly what happened.


The next morning when Drake and Megan walked out of the kitchen it looked like dad hadn't moved even an inch. Drake looked at the clock and saw that he and Megan were going to be late to get to school as their dad had told him that he wouldn't drop them. Megan didn't say any thing because Drake didn't and she just walked towards the stairs running up them thinking that Drake was right behind her as Drake had said to her yesterday that he would play her a song on his guitar.

Drake was about to follow Megan when he heard that sickening voice in his ears again.

"Drake come here," Drake did as he was told in fear of what would happen if he didn't do so, "You are to take Megan with you and go to school."

"But dad by the time I get to school-"

"Drake shut up. You go to school and remember to drop Megan in to the school gym for her gymnastic practice later. I've already phoned the school and told then that you and Megan will be in late, so get Megan down here and go." They were instructions, but Drake had to follow them.

"Megan come down here we need to go school." Drake called up to her. He couldn't hear her reply as his dad was speaking to him again.

"Drake are you listening to me?" He asked.

Drake debated his answer for a moment before deciding that maybe this was the time for him to actually say some thing back to his dad. "No."

"No?" His dad repeated.

"No," Drake said firmly, "I wasn't listening to you."

Drake wished that he hadn't said that as he felt some thing harder than a hand hit the right side of his neck suddenly making it hard for Drake to look over his right shoulder with out being in pain. But his dad had a thing for one thing after another and quickly tripped him up allowing Drake's back to hit the floor with a thud. Drake tried to get up and run, but he was already in too much pain to do any thing. He was used to worst than this and that would be exactly what he would probably get later.

However there was some thing telling Drake that he would get worse than the usual punishments later. That hint was coming from the look in dad's eyes. Drake had seen that look every time his dad had hit him in the last few days and last night he had over heard a conversation that he probably shouldn't have over heard.

As Megan came down the stairs his dad whispered quickly for him to get up, which Drake tried to do, but he was finding it really hard. He felt pain rush through his right ankle as he finally got on his feet as he found out that his dad must have injured it earlier when he pushed him down on to his back.

"Drake?" Megan asked as she came in to the room and saw her brother with his hand on the right side of his neck and his body leaning against the sofa.

"Yeah Megan. Let's go." Drake said before picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. The walk to school was long, painful and boring for Drake and he could tell that Megan probably felt the same. Usually Drake would talk to her, but today he didn't feel able to do so.

When he got to school he dropped Megan off where she needed to be before reminding her that she needed to ask Janie's mum for a lift home tonight. Megan nodded wondering why Drake was limping as he walked away from her and why she needed to get a lift home tonight, but she didn't ask.

Drake didn't enter his lesson as he knew that there was a chance that people could notice him limping or notice his neck and Drake knew that there were two people in that room who would notice.

When the lesson was over it seemed as if those two people had known he was there as when they walked out of the room they carefully grabbed him before continuing to walk down the hall.

"Okay man what's happened this time?" Trevor asked as he stopped walking, Scotty stopping as well bringing Drake to a stop.

"Wh..what do you mean?" Drake asked back, but Trevor and Scotty weren't fools when it came to their friends. When it came down to Drake they never missed any thing at all. Despite how stupid they appeared.

"You know what we mean Drake," Scotty started, "Your limping on the right side. So what happened?"

"I fell down the stairs and hurt my ankle, but I'm fine. I'm just clumsy you know that." But some thing was telling Drake that the pair weren't going to believe that excuse.

"Drake, man you aren't clumsy. You never trip up, but then you come to school a mess what happens?" Trevor asked still not believing that Drake was telling the truth, but to be honest you couldn't expect Trevor and Scotty to believe that excuse again.

"Yeah Drake what's up and you know if you fell down the stairs how comes the right side of your neck is all red?" Scotty asked. Drake couldn't take this any more. Both of them weren't going to give in until they knew the truth.

"Alright," Drake nearly shouted, "If you two really want to know I'll tell you."

"Tell us what?" Trevor asked, "That you fell down the stairs."

"No," Drake started he needed their word that they wouldn't speak of this, "Promise me that what I'm about to tell you will not be told to any one else, promise me?" He asked.

"I promise you man." Trevor replied.

"Promise." Scotty replied.

"Alright, well," Drake paused for a moment taking in as much air as he could, "My dad beats me." There he said it. He told his to best friends, so why did he suddenly feel like collapsing on to the floor.


"Drake!" Drake's head shot up as he heard his name called. The tone he heard was so similar to his father's that it could have been the same tone Drake wouldn't have known the difference. However he saw that Mrs Hayfer was standing next to him. Looking at him watching his every move, "Why don't you stand at the front and tell us all what you were thinking about while you were sleeping."

No! Drake couldn't tell them all what he was 'dreaming' of if you could even call it that, because in Drake's opinion he was not dreaming. He was sure that he was having a nightmare. Mrs Hayfer grabbed Drake's arm since he wasn't moving and pulled him up. Just like Drake's dad had done a few times before and it had always made Drake want to run. As soon as Mrs Hayfer had pulled him to his feet, Drake's old fighting instincts kicked in.

"Get away from me." He said as he tried to pull his arm free. He could see every one's faces become shocked he could see Josh open his mouth to try and say some thing, but his brother wasn't able to speak any words. He could see Mrs Hayfer open her mouth and for the first time since he had spoke he heard some thing else break the silence.

"Excuse me Drake, but you can't speak to me that way." Mrs Hayfer looked very shocked as she spoke, however she still hadn't let go of Drake's arm.

"I told you to get away from me." Drake said as he finally managed to get his arm free and started heading for the door.

Josh wanted to shout out to Drake and tell him to calm down and sit back down, however Drake's behaviour was scaring him as he had never seen his brother act like this before.

"Drake don't you dare walk out of that door," Mrs Hayfer said as she started to walk back towards her desk and Drake who was ignoring her orders and was opening the door any way, "Drake sit down."

"Shut up and leave me alone!" Drake shouted before walking out of the door and running out of the school building, not once looking back, but not once looking forward.


Please review and thanks for reading.

I also have a quick question. Do any of you know if Drake has ever broken his ribs or his arm? If so please leave a review or pm me.