Hey guys and gals, once again, it's time for another chapter of Beating the Past, Embracing the Future! Alright, no rambling today lol, so let's get right into the action. I hope you like it and please leave a review with your thoughts and ideas on the story ;) Enjoy!
(Beginning of Chapter 29) WARNING : Language and violence in this chapter, as well as sexual behavior and mentioned of child molestation and rape. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Water splashed onto the sidewalk as Morgan drove into the puddle, pouring down rain drenching everyone outside in New York. An unexpected storm hit New York City in just a few hours, and reports say a hurricane is forming down near Florida, and is heading up the east coast, fast. But it shouldn't hit New York for a couple of days.
"Dad? Is it safe to be driving in this weather?" Luke asked his father, staring out the window.
"Yeah it's fine Luke...don't worry." Morgan stated, reassuring his nervous son.
"We can miss the first meeting, it's fine!" Luke exclaimed.
"Luke buddy...don't worry...we're going to be fine." Morgan replied. "The building where they're having the meeting is just a few more blocks away."
"Do you think Emma and Zuri got home okay on the bus?" Luke asked.
"Yeah I'm sure they did, they've taken the bus before." Morgan said.
"I meant with this storm." Luke replied.
"Trust me Luke, if anything would have happened, your mother would have called me. And she hasn't, so you have nothing to worry about." Morgan exclaimed.
"Okay." Luke replied.
They pulled into the parking lot of the building, and both rushed inside, with Morgan covering Luke with his jacket as they ran through the front doors. Luke sat down in one of the chairs, while Morgan went up to the front desk.
"Hi I'm here for the Male Victim Support Group? Do you know where that is?" Morgan asked an elderly woman who was sitting at the front desk.
"Down the hall, third door on the right." The woman replied.
"Thank you." Morgan said as he walked away, motioned Luke to follow him as they walked down the hallway.
"So did you and dad have another fight?" Conner asked his mother, sitting down next to her at the kitchen table.
"Conner, your father is just in another one of his moods, it's nothing to worry about." Mindy replied.
"You think it's safe for him to go out in this storm?" Conner asked.
"I don't think anything that man does is safe sweetie..."
"You know today Luke had to go home early?"
"Why?"
"He nearly had a concussion, his brother Ravi did it accidentally, and he got suspended!"
"His own brother? Wow. I can't believe that."
"Yeah, I didn't even believe it at first. Luke always told me Ravi was the good one!"
"Well after everything that family's been through...I can't blame him. At least it was an accident and not intentional."
Suddenly, the power went out, and the house was engulfed in darkness. Both of them sighed.
"I'll get the candles." Conner exclaimed.
"And I'll check the fuse-box." Mindy replied.
Both got up and went their separate ways, Conner heading into the kitchen, while Mindy went down into the basement.
"Found the candles!" Conner yelled.
"Good! Now find the lighter!" Mindy yelled back. "The storm cut the power! Going to have to wait until it's passed for the power to come back on."
"Okay!" Conner shouted back to her.
Eventually, the whole downstairs was decorated with candles. With Conner sitting on the couch, drawing in his journal, and Mindy was reading a magazine next to him.
"Whatcha drawing?" Mindy asked, looking over to see what Conner was drawing, only for him to turn away.
"N-Nothing..." Conner exclaimed, closing his drawing journal and sitting it on the table beside him.
"Conner I'm your mother...I just want to see what you're drawing." Mindy said.
"It's okay mom...you don't need to see everything." Conner stated, starting to get up, grabbing the book.
"Wait...let me see!" Mindy exclaimed, standing up and reaching for his book.
"Mom! No!" Conner exclaimed, laughing a bit.
"Oh come on? One drawing! That's all I ask?" Mindy asked.
"Ugh...fine!" Conner stated, opening the book to a page where he drew a lion roaring.
"Oh my god...Conner this is great!" Mindy exclaimed, looking closer, seeing all the details he added, like to the lions mane, or to the trees in the background.
"You like it?" Conner asked.
"Yes! This is amazing! How come you never showed me these?" Mindy asked, now holding the book and flipping through the pages.
"I didn't think they were all that good." Conner admitted.
"Why not? These are fantastic! You haven't taken any art classes or anything, how did you get so good?" Mindy asked, still flipping through the pages.
"I don't know...one day I just started drawing...and I've never stopped." Conner said shyly.
Mindy flipped to a page with Luke on it, but that wasn't the only thing that caught her eye. Luke was in his underwear, nothing else. Conner had drawn Luke in his underwear, detailing his body just as the real thing would look.
Conner yelled, "No!" and snatched the book out of her hands.
"C-Conner...I-I'm..." Mindy stuttered out.
But suddenly, before either one could speak. Conner's father and Mindy's husband Paul came bursting through the door, soaking wet and screaming.
"MINDY! Get your ass over here now!" Paul screamed, leaving the front door wide open, letting water in.
"Paul! Oh my god! What the hell are you doing!?" Mindy yelled, running into the foyer.
Before she could react, he struck her across the face. She wailed in pain as she was shoved down to the floor.
"Shut the hell up you bitch!" Paul screamed, grabbing her neck and pulling her up, choking her, slamming her into the wall.
"MOM! DAD LET HER GO!" Conner screamed, charging at his father, tackling him and pushing him to the ground, releasing Mindy from his tight grip. She fell to the floor and was gasping for air.
"Why you little-" Paul yelled, grabbing by his foot, and pulling him down to the floor, causing the young boy to scream in fear. He slapped his son across the face and slammed him into the banister leading upstairs.
Paul jumped to his feet, and grabbed Conner by his hair and started to drag him down the hallway and into the living room. Conner screamed in pain as his father pulled him by his hair.
"DAD! STOP IT!" Conner screamed, punching his father in the jaw, forcing him to let go of his hair.
"PAUL! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" Mindy shouted, running across the room and crashing her body into his, sending both of them down onto the glass table, shattering it.
Morgan and Luke walked into the room, with Morgan sitting in the back. While Luke had to sit in a circle of chairs, with all the other boys, each from ages ten to eighteen.
The counselor, Mr. Davis, is basically the therapist for the group. He's been doing this for over twenty years.
"Okay...well let's all start with introducing ourselves...I'll go first. Hi, I'm Daniel Davis, and I'm 49. Now your turn." He said as he looked at one of the other boys.
Each boy went, leading up to Luke, who was the second-to-last one.
"Hi...I'm Luke Ross...and I'm 13."
"Nice to meet you Luke, next?" Mr. Davis stated.
Luke looked over to the boy next to him, he had dark brown hair, that is spiked up in the front, and steel-gray eyes. He was wearing a white, v-neck t-shirt, and some ripped jeans. But had a gray red sweatshirt wrapped around his waist. And he was wearing army boots.
"Hey...I'm Cole Richmond...and I'm 17."
"Nice to meet you Cole, and since you're the last one...we are going to go around again backwards and tell each other something interesting about ourselves." Mr. Davis constructed.
"Alright then...well I was born in Miami, and moved to Los Angeles when I was seven, and then moved to Seattle when I was thirteen. And I moved here last year." Cole stated.
"Oh I see, how is it moving from place to place?" Mr. Davis asked.
"It's hard...you gotta leave your old friends behind and go to a completely new school, you know the rest." Cole said.
"Okay, well thank you for sharing...Luke, your turn." Mr. Davis stated.
"Umm...I was born in Detroit, but moved here when I was young after I was adopted." Luke said.
"And was it hard moving from Detroit to New York? And being adopted?" Mr. Davis asked.
"It was difficult, but I knew I would have a better life with my new family...so that helped." Luke replied.
"Very nice, okay, next?" Mr. Davis said.
"Hey Ravi...whatcha doing?" Emma asked, plopping down on the couch next to Ravi, who was staring at the black tv screen.
"Nothing...absolutely nothing! Since I'm grounded and can't play video games for a MONTH! I have nothing to do!" Ravi exclaimed, trying to be loud so Christina would be able to hear him front the kitchen.
"Well if you have nothing to do...then come do the dishes!" Christina shouted back.
"Huh...that backfired...sucks for you!" Emma stated as Ravi got up.
"Can it!" Ravi exclaimed, sticking his tongue out at her, only for her to do it back.
Once he left, Emma's smile went away. She reached for the table, grabbing the remote, and turned on the tv. After watching for a bit, she walked back upstairs, and went into her room. Locking the door, she walked over to her nightstand, and pulled out a camera.
She hit the record button, and went to sit on her bed, facing the camera.
"Hi...incase you don't know me...I'm Emma Ross...and I'm being called a slut at school, despite never sleeping with anyone. I'm doing this to show people, that I am who I want to be. And right now, since everyone is calling me a slut and a whore, my resistance is starting to crumble, even my supposed best friend called me a slut. So since all of you think this, I might as well not fight back. So...next Friday, after this whole storm goes by, come to my house because I'm throwing a party! Expect some alcohol...and the cutest boy can do whatever he wants to me..."
Emma got up, and turned off the camera, and sent the video to her phone. Where she went onto Twitter and Instagram, and uploaded the video. Tears dropped down her cheek, knowing that what she did, could impact her reputation for good.
"MOM! DAD! STOP!" Conner screamed, grabbing his mother's shoulders and pulling her up, off of his father.
"He attacked us!" Mindy yelled, only for Paul to pounce on them both, pushing them onto the couch.
"You pieces of shit!" Paul yelled, punching Conner in the face, spitting blood out of his mouth.
"Conner! RUN!" Mindy yelled, clawing at Paul, scratching his neck and face.
Conner escaped his father's grasp and charged across the room, running to the foyer.
"You son of a bitch! Get back here!" Paul screeched, charging at his son, tackling him to the ground.
"No! Dad! Please I'm sorry!" Conner begged.
"Go to your room! Now!" Paul screamed, standing up tall and menacing, running to the front door and slamming it shut, and quickly locking it. Conner sat on the floor, crying in disbelief.
"I SAID GO TO YOUR ROOM!" Paul yelled, grabbing Conner by his collar, and yanking him up, and pushed him onto the staircase, hitting his knee. Conner charged up the stairs, crying hysterically.
Paul walked back into the living room, still soaking wet, seeing Mindy standing there, holding a large knife in her hand.
"Y-You're drunk P-Paul! Just stop this!" Mindy yelled.
"Shut the hell up you slut!" Paul yelled, walked towards her.
"I swear to God if you come near me I'll stab you in the face!" Mindy yelled.
Paul started to laugh, and said, "Oh Mindy...so naive...thinking she can actually take me on by herself...yeah sure!"
He continued to walk towards her, both circling around the shattered glass table, each stepping on broken glass, but since Paul was wearing boots, and Mindy was wearing slippers, neither could feel them.
Upstairs, Conner hid underneath his bed, silently crying. He would have called the police, but he left his cellphone downstairs. All he could hear was the rain smashing against the windows, and the sudden boom of thunder every few seconds.
"Okay...now everybody pick a partner, and once you find your partner, find your own spot in the room, and tell each other about why you're here. If you feel it is too difficult to say it, then don't. But if you think letting it all out will help, then please, let it all out." Mr. Davis announced.
Everybody grouped up, and all that was left was Luke and Cole, so they were forced to work together.
"Hey...Luke right?" Cole said.
"Yep...Cole?" Luke replied.
"Mhmm...so want to find a spot?" Cole stated.
"Sure, how about by those chairs over there?" Luke asked, pointing towards some chairs on the far right of the room.
"Fine with me." Cole replied, and they both walked over. Morgan watched from the back of the room.
They both across from each other. Each wondering who should speak first.
"S-So...why are you here?" Cole asked awkwardly.
Luke paused, breathing deeply as he slowly answered, "I-I was nearly r-raped by my gym teacher. A-And before that...b-before I was adopted...I w-was abused a-and molested by my b-birth father..."
"Y-You mean you were abused twice?" Cole asked.
"No...only by two different people, I was abused by my birth father many times...so many I lost count." Luke replied.
"I-I'm sorry...h-how old were you...when y-your birth dad r-raped you?" Cole asked, not wanting to bring back painful memories for Luke.
"The first time I was five...and it kept going on until my neighbor found me...that's when my birth dad went to jail, and I was put up for adoption." Luke stated.
"Wow...I'm so sorry that happened to you." Cole replied.
"Well what's your story? Why are you here?" Luke asked.
Cole sighed, and said, "Well...the first time happened when I was living in Los Angeles, I was eleven, and I was at the park with some of my friends. This group of guys came, and forced me and my other friend Zak into the woods...and we both were gang-raped."
"Oh my god! I can't believe that happened to you...how did you and your friend Zak cope with it?" Luke asked.
"Well...Zak's way of coping wasn't good..." Cole replied.
"Why? What'd he do?" Luke asked.
"He killed himself...overdose." Cole replied.
Luke was shocked, he didn't know what to say.
"After that, we tried to stay in LA, but it was just too hard, so that's when we moved to Seattle." Cole stated.
"Did that help?"
"At first it did...but when I was fifteen, when my parents went out to some banquet thing, a man broke in and found me...and before I knew what was happening, I was being raped all over again, except this time it put me in the hospital...and a while ago...I found out I was HIV positive. That's when we left Seattle and moved here."
Luke sat there, jaw-dropped, not knowing what words would be able to respond to what he said.
(End of Chapter 29)
Okay, so this chapter had A LOT of sensitive stuff in this chapter...sorry if it wasn't what you were expecting, but I did warn you in the beginning. So do you all like this Cole character? Definitely a very powerful way to start off someone in a story. Alright, so just to warn you all, remember when I asked you all about whether or not I should write about a school shooting? Well yeah, that's happening, soon. I'm thinking it's going to be Chapter 32, but that's not set in stone. So anyway, I hope you liked it and please leave a review with your thoughts and ideas for the story! See ya next time, bye ;)
