I love you all so much for the reviews on the last chapter, so I'm hitting you up with another chapter! Longer, I think... And way better written than the last. This is a mash-up of the flashbacks we've already seen and some new ones :]
Tori Vega's story...
A small child lay curled in a ball by the side of the wrecked car. She was shaking and tears streamed down her face, her tiny tanned arms were wrapped around her knees and she rocked slowly back and forth, humming.
When the police and ambulance service arrived at the scene the two adults in the car were dead. Probably killed on impact they said. No one noticed the child until the bodies had been extracted and bagged.
"Oh my god. Is that a kid?" A middle aged police officer shouted at his colleges pointing at the tiny figure curled up on the ground. He ran over to her, slowing when he got close and crouched down to her level. He noticed she had been crying, but her tears were stopped now. Blood covered her face, clothing and hands. She was rocking herself to and fro shaking incessantly. "It's okay now, Kiddo." He said lifting her into his arms and standing to cradle her. "Can you tell me your name?" He questioned softly, his stubbly chin crinkling as he spoke.
"T-T-Tori Vega." The little girl stuttered, her long chestnut hair plastered to her head with what looked like dried blood. The officer swapped her from arm to arm as he pulled off his jacket and put it on her.
"It's okay now Tori, you're safe. Can you tell me what happened? What you remember?" He asked, waving his colleges and the paramedics away so they wouldn't scare the tiny girl in his arms. He carried her to his car and sat down on the open boot, setting her on his knee.
It was only then that she properly turned to face him; big brown eyes stared into his, wide with fear and upset. A small hand protruded from the long sleeve of his jacket, firstly is reached up and with one finger traced over his moustache. "You like moustaches, ay?" Tori only nodded moving her hand to sit in his larger one that was rested on her legs. He shut his fist gently round hers and she took a huge breath before answering him.
"I was going to see my sister's first play with my mommy and daddy. We were singing along to daddy's favourite song when something flashed in front of us and then I couldn't see anything but I could hear my mommy screaming... Then, when I woke up I asked them to wake up. B-bu-but they ca-ca-c-can't-t-t." Tori told the police officer, choking on her words.
"You're a very brave girl Tori Vega. My name is Eddy and I'm going to make sure you're okay. Alright?" Eddy asked wiping Tori's tears away with a tissue before carrying her to the ambulance so she could be checked over. He then drove her to the hospital and contacted her Aunt. He held her in his lap the whole time until her Aunt came.
Tori didn't get to see Eddy again after her Aunt showed up. She never forgot him though. The kind man with the moustache.
oooOOOooo
A nine year old Tori Vega sat silently in the front pew of the church. Her sister Trina sat next to her, tears streaming down her face. Tori hadn't cried yet. 3 days and she hadn't shed a single tear. She rubbed circles on her older sister's back as she clung to the younger girl. Her grandfather and uncles carried the two coffins down the aisle past her and out of the door at the back. Tori was forced to stand by her aunt. Pushed into leading the funeral procession out into the graveyard.
Half of the congregation wept as the coffins were lowered slowly into the joint grave. Tori didn't. At least they're still together, was all she thought. Trina lunged towards the grave screaming in grief. Tori just watched as she was restrained and hushed by relatives. They filled in the hole and the vicar herded everyone back to the church. Everyone but Tori.
In her tiny hand she clutched a single white lily. She stepped forward to the headstone and lay the lily down gently.
"I love you mommy, I love you daddy...sleep tight." She whispered before turning away and walking back to the church.
oooOOOooo
A nine year old Tori Vega silently watched her as her Aunt talked to her new foster parents.
"Tori just needs a stable home, I'm sure she'll be alright." The mouse haired foster mother told her Aunt.
"We'll look after her, we promise. Tori's going to be so loved." The woman's large, round, greying husband confirmed. Her Aunt nodded too overcome with emotion to talk. When she had composed herself she turned to Tori and spoke.
"Sweetie, I'm so sorry you can't stay here but I just can't afford it. Steve and Carole will take good care of you though, and you can come visit me all the time!" She pleaded with Tori trying to get her to understand the reasoning behind the fostering.
"Well, whenever we can get you over here that is." Steve chipped in unhelpfully. Tori silently nodded and got into Steve and Carole's car. They followed her lead and they were soon on their way to Tori's 'new home'.
The house got smaller and smaller as the car pulled away down the street. The tiny figure of her waving Aunt disappeared entirely as they turned a bend and the two adults in the front dropped the facade they had been maintaining for Tori's Aunt's sake.
"Listen here Kid, you're not going to be seeing your Aunt a lot, and don't even think about telling anyone what goes on at our house. You belong to us now." Steve threatened and, turning to face her at a stop light he dragged his forefinger across his throat. "That's what happens to kids who snitch." He stated.
Tori's eyes widened in alarm but she didn't say anything. Her hands were clamped firmly together, the ring her mother had left her tucked safely under her shirt on a leather band round her neck resting just by her heart, her fingers too small to wear it properly yet.
That was the beginning of six years of abuse for Tori Vega. She was raped and molested almost every night by Steve and was beaten by Carole. The only reason she was able to go to Hollywood Arts was because her Aunt had insisted and paid for it knowing what a talented singer Tori was.
oooOOOooo
A ten year old Tori Vega lay silently in bed. She glanced anxiously at the clock on the wall. He would be here soon, he always came around this time. She curled up and faced the wall praying to God that he wouldn't come tonight, that tonight she could sleep in peace. But no, her prayers were not answered, and a few minutes later she heard her bedroom door being pushed open and someone walked in. The figure stumbled over to her bed and ripped back the sheets exposing her.
"You're lucky I'm doing this...you're so ugly no one else would ever even consider touching you like I do." The man whispered in her ear. Tori didn't respond; she just lay limply; eyes squeezed shut; trying to lose herself in an imaginary world in her head. She felt the man undress her and push into her. She wanted to scream and cry out but she knew if she did he would just go harder, for longer. Tori's whole body was engulfed in the pain she had become accustomed to. Hours passed before he lazily withdrew and stumbled out of her room.
A ten year old Tori Vega whispered into the night, "I miss you mommy, I miss you daddy." Before curling back into a tiny ball and rocking herself into a nightmare filled sleep.
oooOOOooo
Steve and Carole convinced Tori that it was her fault they were doing these horrible things to her. They told her that her parents had died because of her. They said that she was worthless and deserved to die.
They said these things to Tori so often that she eventually started to believe them and when she moved back home with Trina at age sixteen she was left the empty shell of the Tori Vega who had been so lovingly raised and brought into the world by Holly and David Vega.
oooOOOooo
A sixteen year old Tori Vega got out of the taxi and stepped onto her front drive. Her parents front drive. She hadn't been here since she left for Trina's play the day she lost everything. Seven years and she hadn't even seen the outside; it hadn't changed much, at all actually. Someone must have been doing their gardening and cleaning their windows whilst they were away. Probably Mrs Dougherty at number twelve she thought, a small smile gracing her lips.
Walking up the path to the front door was a surreal experience. Like a dream. When she reached the door she hesitantly turned the handle and swung it open to see the inside of her old/new house.
Nothing had changed. Not a single piece of furniture had been moved. The remote was still in the exact place she had chucked it on her way out of the door seven years ago. Her dad's coat was still hanging on the back of a chair in the kitchen. It was like walking into the past.
oooOOOooo
A year later and Tori and Trina still hadn't moved anything. Everything that used to be their parents was still in the exact same spot as it had been for the past eight years. And that was how they liked it. They liked walking down in the morning to see their mom's empty coffee mug sitting on top of the grand piano where she had left it the morning of the accident. They found it comforting to pass their dad's slippers at the bottom of the stairs before bed each night.
It was these little things that allowed them to pretend. Pretend things were the same and that they weren't living through emotional hell each day. It allowed them to put up a front to the rest of the world pretending that they hadn't been as tragically abandoned as they felt.
Well? Review and let me know! If you want me to do more flashbacks? Do some for Jade? Just let me know below :] Have a great day!