Chapter 14

Statement Giving

"I insist!" Tom was trying to push it and he was succeeding. My father looked like he was about to crack, which he was. Besides being a strong man on the outside, he was a strong man on the inside. But, there were just a few people out there in the world who could break my father down. I was one of them, Robin another. Tom also fell into this catagory.

"Are you sure, Tom?" My father asked for the millionth time. This whole conversation had been going on for the past half hour. Tom didn't blame us for the damadges on the cabin. Or at least what was left of it. He was fully insured and claimed to never have really liked the cabin in the first place. You can't blame him for that. And he wanted us to stay at the lake, too, so he was offering my father another cabin.

I was sat on the hood of my car, most of my siblings surrounding me in one way or another. They had all grown very protective over me ever since the cabin burnt down, "Courtney, can I ask you something?" I stopped my sunbathing for a moment to look at Sammy. "But you got to promise you won't get man AND you have to tell the truth!

My blonde-headed sister was sitting in the drivers seat, the door wide open and her little legs dangling out. We were parked by the entrance of the lake site. My father had taken us there because that was where Tom's cabin was situated. He lived out on the lake with his daughter, Emerald. Just the two of them, all year round. It would probably kill me to do that. As much as I liked the lake, I also much preferred my house in the middle of a populated city.

"I promise." I answerd, unsure of what I was getting myself into. I knew that my younger siblings had a lot they wanted to ask and there was a lot I had to explain. But I found them all too young to understand.

"What did Trent do to you?" I froze up for a second. What was I supposed to say? No one had told the younger ones anything, should I? It was my life, after all. I should have been the one to tell them if I wanted to.

I looked at Dani who was leaning against the back of the car, trying to control the twins from fighting. Her whole face was painted with worry. I knew at that moment that even Dani was scared of everything that had happened. And she didn't even know the whole truth!

I quickly turned my gaze back to the floor, re-thinking Sammy's question in my mind. Everyone wondered the same thing, what had Trent done to me that was so bad? It was obvious he had abused me, but how?

My mouth opened up and a shrill scream came out as my limp body was thrown against the school wall. I clutched at my shattered wrist, my whole body in utter pain.

"YOU WHORE!" Trent yelled at me. He was towering above my fragile body, his face screwed up in anger. I stared deeply into his emerald green eyes, the hatred swirling around like a teacup ride.

"I-I d-didn't do a-anything." I protested, my voice trembling. Trent chuckled to himself before hositing me up by my neck. I gagged as his grip cut off my airway. I was pushed back up against the wall, my whole body shaking. I was slapped across my cheek and had to endure a punch straight to the gut. Agony.

"DON' LIE TO ME!" Trent spat in my face, "I KNOW YOU'RE CHEATING ON ME WITH THAT, THAT DICK!"

"W-we're just f-friends." I stuttered from fear and from pain.

"FRIENDS! YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT BULL?" He pulled his hand back and punched my lip. I could feel the blood dripping down my chin, mixing into my tears, but I couldn't do anything about it.

Pain spread through my entire body. I was on fire and no one wanted to extinguish the flames for me. I felt paralyzed to the spot, not able to move, barely ablt to breathe.

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT LYING TO ME? HUH!" Trent bent down, rasing his fist once again to my face. More pain was inflicted upon me, more agony I was thrown into.

"Please..." I whimpered. Trent snarled, but he moved away from me. I clung onto my stomach as sharp daggers pushed their way through. I slowly managed to sit up, though the painwas all over now. The bruises that covered my arms were all different shades of blue, black and purple, some old, some new. I sobbed harder than ever, the emotional pain as bad as the physical.

"Trent!" I screamed at my boyfriend. "Get off-" His lips cut me off, pressing roughly into mine. He started kissing me passionatly, I tried to to kiss back, but Trent started to chew on my bottom lip. It hurt, but I couldn't control the quiver that sent my lips apart, giving him access for his tongue. I wanted nothing more than to move away, but I was restrained. Trent was too powerful for me to overthrow. I tried to escape his grip, but he was too strong.

His tongue made it's way around my mouth, licking at each spot, dancing along my own. Tears started falling down my face, but he didn't care. He had his evil ways with me, disgust washing over my whole body. Even more so as he grew fed up and his mouth trailed his tongue down my neck to my partially revealed chest. Wearing a low cut tank top as Trent had suggested proved to not have been a good idea, though I knew I couldn't have argued with him over it. He sucked hard on my coller bone and I cried harder at the pain he was causing me.

Soon enough, his mouth made it's way back to mine and he removed his hands from the wall behind me. He wrapped them around my waist and started groping my butt cheeks. More tears crashed from my eyes onto my already rosy-cheeked face. I wanted nothing more than to run from that spot and never look back, but Trent always found me. Trent never let me escape. His hands slowly made their way up my top and over my bra. He massaged my breasts violently and I quietly screamed into his mouth, losing my voice as I begged my mind to go numb.

"Bad things, Sam." I replied, chewing ont the inside of my mouth. I didn't want to burst into tears at that moment, I could wait until I was alone to do that. "It's nothing for you to worry about, anyway." I told my sister. She sat back on her seat and crossed her arms/

"I never get told anything, just because I'm young doesn't mean I won't understand." Sam snapped and I felt her pain. When I was young, my parents never told me anything. I hated having to be that with my sister, making her feel like I thought she was stupid.

"It's not about undertanding, Sammy." Dani told her, "It's just what Trent did wasn't a good thing, I don't even know what he did and I sure as hell don't want to."

"No one wants to know what he did, okay, Sam?" I said. "I don't want to know what he did...But I do. And it haunts me every single second that I'm alive. I don't want you to be thinking the same thoughts, okay?" I reached out and ran a hand through her blonde locks. But she shurgged me off

"Fine." She huffed, starting to sulk.

Shayne slumped back against the hood of my car, not quite sitting on it, but leaning. Everyone had been acting very protective over me, I know what had been revealed that morning was a big wake up call, but Trent was still with the police. He was harldy going to show up here anytime soon.

"Well, kids. We got a new cabin for a little while." My father announced proudly. My thraot went dry with what seemed to be fright. But I had no reason to worry. My family was with me, Duncan nad his family were with me. Trent was still locked up and I had the rest of my vaction to relax and unwind from the stresses of my life.

"Whoop-de-doo!" Shayne shouted to the sky. We all started to laugh at him. After an eventuful morning, he was still the family joker. And no one would have changed him for the world. We all needed someone to brighten our darkest day.

"Okay, okay, thank you Shayne." My father smiled, claming everyone down with his hand. "Now let's get going before we lose anymore vacation time!" We all clambered back into the cars and I followed the minivan down to our new cabin. It was five minutes further away than the other one had been, but it was on Duncan's side of the lake. At least that was a bonus.

As soon as the minivan stopped, I pulled up along side it. Everyone scrambled from the cars like we had when we first arrived. But things were definitely different. The new cabin was in a much better shape than the other one. It wasn't as grand as the Lewis', but was still nice by our standards. White wood and polished steps, no mold or moss growing along the sides. The place looked unlived in, but that would soon change with my family. The only down side was the fact that we unfortunatly didn't have our bags from the other cabin yet. That was if they hadn't been singed to death in the flames like everything else.

"Are you guys going in or what?" My father asked. Nearly everyone made a mad dash for the door, all wating to be the first to wreck the new cabin. I stood in my spot, watching them all. I wasn't in the mood to fight over what bed I wanted, I'd just wait and have the last one. My head was hurting and I preferred the sidelines than the actual game at that moment.

"You know, life will get better." I turned and saw Shayne standing next to me. I nodded in agreement, knowing he was right.

"I know, but for now it sucks." The two of us walked into the cabin together. This time there was no stupid trick from Shayne that time and I was glad for it. The moment between us was too perfect for him to ruin.

It was still a three bedroomed cabin, which made it a squeeze for all of us. There were two beds in the girls room, two beds in the boys and a double bed and a baby crib in the master bedroom. We had to sort out sleeping arrangement, but I didn't really care. That did mean I ended up sharing a bed with Sammy. The twins took the other bed and Stevie had a sleeping bag on the floor. Dani was fortunate to call the sofa before anyone else and Shayne took the other one. Charlie and Jake shared a bed, the twins took the other one, which left Robin with the crib. Needless to say that the five-year-old was not happy.

As I entered the girls room, wanting to just curl up in bed and sleep the rest of the day away, I found my sisters all huddled around, whispering to each other. They all hushed when they came to light that I was in the room and stared instead.

"So, Court, what's the plan?" Stevie asked me, a devilish smirk on her face.

"Plan for what?" I questioned, sitting opposite her on the other bed.

"The plan to get dad to still let you date Duncan." Jessy piped up. They were all smiling at me, waiting for a reply, but my head was hurting too much. After the events of the day, all I needed was to stop thinking for a moment, but I wasn't able to do that.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, moving my head to look at each of my sisters induvidualy. They all seemed to know something that I didn't, which wasn't a surprise to me. My sisters were duvided into two halves; one half loved looking for trouble, the other loved listening to other people's conversations. When brought together, they were an unstoppable force.

"Dad wants you and Duncan to break up because he doesn't think you're ready to have a boyfriend so soon after Trent." Dani told me, obviously not believing a word of it herself and knowing that I would never let dad tell me what to do. "We overheard him talking to mom while you were with Duncan earlier."

"So soon after Trent?" Stunned, I barely amanged to think about what I was saying. "We broke up two years ago!" I yelled, but I wasn't furious with my sisters, they had been the ones to tell me the truth. That was just the close bond we did occassionally show through the fighting.

Before anyone of them could respond to what I had said, there was a knock on our bedroom door. We all turned to face it as dad pushed it open. I could feel my cheeks burn slightly with anger, there was no way I was breaking up with Duncan. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me and I was not going to ket my father do anything to get in my way.

"Courtney, there's someone here to see you." He told me. His face was nervous. I felt my stomach flip and I started to become nervous, too. Who would wanting to see me? If it was Trent, my dad would have shooed him away. If it was Funcan, my dad would have shooed him away. No one else would have come to see me. But I knew I had to go see who it was whether my body agreed or not.

I could feel the eyes of all my siblings behind me as I walked towards the mian room with my father. He reached out and squeezed my hand, but I pulled away. I know he only wanted what was best for me, wasn't that what all parents wanted? But Duncan was good for me. Duncan was perfect for me. I may not have believed it at first myself, but he truly did care for me. I just wished that everyone else could see that, too.

I was greeted by the officer who had been re-straining Duncan earlier that day as I entered the room. He smiled at me and I smiled back-He seemed friendly enough, but I had no idea why he was there.

"Hello, Courtney. I'm Sergent. Green." He introduced himself. I nodded my head, whsipering a hello. I was scared, I was even more nervous at that moment than before. I had never really talked to a police officer before, it was a new experience for me. And I would have been fine with it if I hadn't known what was coming next, but I did;

"Do you mind coming down to the station to write out a statment on Trent Smith?" He asked. My knees grew week and my heart started racing at the very sound of his name. I was going to have to give a statment about him, I knew I was going to have to. As I had already been thinking about Trent all day, even more so when Sammy had asked me what he had done, I should have been able to recite it all perfectly. And I could. But I didn't want to. The memories haunted my mind like I had witnessed a murder. Which, in some sense, I had. I had watched my innocence wash down the drain when I had been with Trent, I had watch him kill every part of me which was now left broken and unmendable.

"No at all." I replied, but I was no longer smiling or looking anyone in the eyed. I could see my mother flee the room and my father rubbed my back, but I shurgged him away again. I still hadn't forgotten what he was planning on doing, either. I just had more pressing matters to deal with first.

I followed Sergent. Green out to his police car that was parked along side mine. As I scooted into the back seat, Duncan wrapped his arms around me, encasing my body in his protective shield. I hugged him back, wanting to stay in his arms, but it was very inappropriate for the situation at hand. So I moved away and buckled up, but let him hold onto my hand as we drove away from the Lake.

The drive was almost in total silence. The only noise was the police radio, but I tried to block it form my mind. I tried to block everything from my mind. I wanted to forget it all, I wanted to lift the weight from my shoulders and let everything settle back down to the vacation I was supposed to be on with my family.

We soon arrived at a large white building with R.C.M.P. printed above the door in bold letters. I didn't take in anything other than the tiled floor as Duncan and I followed the Sergent through the main building and off to one of the side rooms. Duncan gave me a quick one armed hug before we were both led off to seperate rooms.

It was a stereotypical investigation room; plain white walls, wooden table with two chairs, one occupied by a woman in a black suit with a voice recorder. I had seen it all before on TV, but I had never thought I would have been in the positiin of the girl being interviewed.

I took a seat opposite the officer who was looking through some paper work. I tried not to make a sound, simply staring down at my hands on my lpa, not wanting to make eye contact at all.

"Hello, Courtney, my name is Jane Butcher." The woman spoke up, her eyes staring directly at me. Her voice was kind and harsh at the same time, confusing my mind even further. "I'm going to need to ask you a few questions about Trent Smith and I need you to answer them as best as you can, okay?" I didn't reply, but she took it as a sign to move on. "Has Trent Smith ever hurt you in any physical way?" I didn't respond again. I was far past scared at that moment; I was numb. It was unlike me to be frightened, but I couldn't come to terms with everyone knowing my deep, dark secret. I had held it in for so long, I felt as if losing it to the world would leave me even more delicate rather than stronger.

"It's okay, take your time in answering." Jane told me, sensing my insecurity.

"Y-Yes." My voice shivered coldly with my answer, but I felt the weight starting to life already. Maybe I had held it in for too long.

Duncan's P.O.V.

"Tell us exactly what you saw." The officer said. I looked up to the ceilng and closed my eyes to picture the night in my head. It was a lot easier than I imgained it to be. But maybe because I couldn't get Courtney off my mind, actually thinking about her helped.

I was fed up of going to the lame parties that happened at the lake each year, it was the same with each one. My parents were forever dragging me and my siblings each year, none of us wanting to go, but we had no say in the matter. So, I was left to wander around after escaping the clutch of my cousins. I hated most of them, too. Spending a summer with them practically killed me as it was.

I leaned against the railings and looked up at the sky. It was a clear night and the stars were shiningly brightly. My mind was trailing back to Courtney, she was different from every girl I had ever been with. No just looked wise, not just personality wise. When we had kissed, I actually felt sparks. When I was around her, I had butterflies in my stomach. It was all a sappy chick-click, but it was very real. I had liked her since we'd moved to the stupid town. I found that annoying her at the best of times was the best way to grab her attention. I loved how her face would scrunch up in anger, making the seven freckles on her nose stand out even more as her face went red, but they stayed the same color. I loved how much she hated me, it made smile on the inside a lot more than it probably should have. Maybe because I knew she didn't really hate me.

On the lat day of school, I decided to make my move-I kissed her. I didn't think I'd see her for the whole summer, so it wouldn't matter. Turned out that the last day of school party was thrown at her house by her brother, which had shocked me as Shayne and Courtney were nothing alike. But it was there I finally told her I liked her and she said she liked me too. The memory made me smile, butb I had to surpress it in front of the officer who was questioning me.

I shook my head clear from all the thoughts I was thinking, bringing me back to the shit party at the lake. I looked across the floor and saw my escapre route. It was around the side of the main building, but I knew it let straight back outside. I weaved in and out of the crowd, rounding the corner only to find a couple making-out. My reaction was to roll my eyes, but then I saw the girl struggling and noticed the guy had his hands holding her in place. I would have beat the shit out of the guy either way. The girl clearly didn't want to be there with him and guys who act like douche bags like that piss me off. I started walking towards them when the guy pulled away from her. That was when I saw the girl's face-Courtney. My Courtney. Then I was ready to give that guy hell. I moved my legs faster and as I did he raised his hand, aiming for her delicate face. I grabbed his wrist from behind and spoke as darkly as I could, "You don't want to do that."

Trent laughed and replied, "And your going to stop me?"

"Yeah, I am."I shoved him into the wall and he pushed himself back at me, his fist colliding with my jaw. We started fighting, both of us getting clear shots at the other. After being in that situation so many times before, I was a pro at leaving inhumane pieces of shit on the floor to rot for all I cared. Courtney ran over to me and we hugged it out for ages. I just felt glad to have her back in my arms.

I explained the important parts to the officer who wrote it all down whilst also recording my words. We fired questions and answer between us for a little while and then I was dismissed.

Courtney's P.O.V.

Janes dismissed me from the room after about five hours of questioning. It only took so long because I kept hesitating on my answers. I first thought that I was hesitating too much, making her think that I wa slying about it all. But I wasn't. Recounting all of the horrible abuse I had inflicted on me brought back the memories, feelings and pain. I had wanted nothing more than to burst out crying in the middle of the interview, but I couldn't. I was numb from head to toe and my voice was in monotone.

Duncan was sitting on the floor outside, looking very rough with three disposable cups around him. He looked up at me and smiled. I didn't smile back, instead I broke down crying. It was what I had needed to do. I needed to cry it all out and sleep it all away. Duncan quickley got to his feet and held me close. I sobbed into his chest for what felt like five more hours, but it must only have been a few minutes. We only broke apart when Sergent. Green had come back to collect us, suggesting to take us both back to our cabins before our parents could worry anymore. That was an offer I couldn't refuse.

A/N: YAY! UPDATE!

This is the second longest chapter so far and it is dedicated to Miss. Iluvpurpleandblack99 :D

hehehe...Sorry it took so long! This story was on hiatus...But Iluvpurpleandblack99 asked me to update, SO I DID! I though, WHY NOT? Beacuse of my free time recently, I have been updating a lot...Okay, I say free time...I will admit to skipping three classes...DON'T HATE ME! My head can only take so much...

Today I'm having a bad day...One of those majorly depressed days...It only gets worse when you sit through an hour and a half of Sociology and then find out your boyfriend cancelled your plans -.- Even worse day...

STOP BEING DEPRESSING! NO ONE GIVES A DAMN!

Hey, in case you don't know already, I am also revising The Runaway Returns :D

http: /chloerhiannonx .deviantart .com/gallery /34000991# /d4huyxi

TAKE THE SPACES OUT AND FOLLOW THE LINK! I made a book cover for this story! And all my other stories, too! So please go check them all out :D

Thank you to;

You know...I'm not going to even respond to the reviews today because I wrote the last chapter when I was at the dentist for my filling and tooth extraction...That was exactly two months ago! October 5th...Wow...SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED SINCE THEN! LOL!

Has it only been eight weeks and six days? It seems soo much longer than that to me! That's what college does to you, it makes you add weeks in your mind! o.O

LOL!

Sorry for bad spelling, spellcheck is a BITCH!

Thanks for reading, please review :)

Love, ChloeRhiannonX