The Runaways – Chapter 20

By MyNameIsCAL

-Max's POV-

We had finally found a camping site to spend the night at. It was late now, the fire almost burnt out. Fang and I were supposed to be taking turns keeping watch, but the place was deserted and on my watch, I found myself dozing off every now and then.

I must have fallen asleep though, after dozing one too many times.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

I bolted up into sitting position.

"Hey, I'm sorry," Iggy was being pinned to the ground by Fang. "I…You were talking in your sleep. I mean, you sounded like you were in pain. I wasn't just going to let you go on."

Fang released Iggy.

"Fang, are you okay?" I asked.

His eyes met mine, softening. "Iggy just scared me…I…I thought he was my father."

"I'm sorry," Iggy repeated.

Fang shook his head. "I didn't mean to attack you."

"Nah, it's alright, I'm fine," Iggy insisted.

But Fang still seemed shaken, even as he laid back down, pulling the blanket over him.

"Exactly what did your father do to you?" Iggy questioned.

Fang turned away from him. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, something's bothering you. And I know he did more than just beat you up, Fang," Iggy went on.

"I don't want to talk about it," Fang's voice cracked.

Iggy let out a sigh, heading back to the tent.

"I need to tell Iggy," Fang muttered, closing his eyes. "He knows something is up with me anyway."

"You tell him when you're ready," I told him.

But Fang shook his head. "I'll lose Iggy's trust if I don't tell him soon."

-Fang's POV-

We were off in the car again, Max driving. Every now and then she'd give me this sideway glance. She was worried about me. And it was obvious now that I wasn't getting sleep anymore, it was obvious that I something was wrong. Max and I exchanged few words as we drove the last stretch to Yellowstone. The rest of the car had fallen silent too.

After finding a less crowded and farther away place, we set up camp. I managed to get Iggy alone as we unpacked the trunk.

"I need to talk to you later," I said. "When the others are asleep."

"Alright," he agreed.

The next few hours passed slowly. We ate some food and the others retreated to the tent, ready to sleep. Iggy sat on the other side of the fire and Max kept up a quiet conversation with him as I paced back and forth. Finally, Iggy grew impatient, just like I knew he would.

"So what do you need to talk about?" he frowned. "Because I've got some things to talk to you about too."

I sat down next to Iggy, trying to think how you explain to someone that your father didn't just throw a few punches at you, that he really fucked you up for real. The courage I had mustered before was now gone, so instead, I let Iggy go first. "Then what is it that you have to say, Ig?"

"Well," he seemed to have lost his own words too. "We know something is wrong, Fang. And we can tell it's keeping you up at night. We're not stupid, Fang. But I don't want it to get in the way. I mean, we're depending on you to get us away from danger, to keep us alive, and if you're distracted, we need to know why. We want to help you, but we also can't be in a situation where whatever's bothering you puts our lives in danger."

Well, that seemed reasonable. If Max weren't here, I'm pretty sure we'd all be pretty screwed. I opened my mouth a few times, and after some more hesitation, I finally spoke. "Remember last night when you woke me from my nightmare?"

"Yeah, I remember," Iggy nodded. "You almost killed me too, saying something about thinking that I was your father."

"You really want to know what he did to me?" I asked in a low voice.

It was Iggy's turn to take a moment to think. "Are you saying he did more than beat you up?"

"Yeah," I muttered, keeping my eyes on the ground.

"So then what?" Iggy prompted.

But the words, they wouldn't come out, and I stuttered for a minute, my throat choking up. Max moved towards me.

"You don't have to tell me, Fang," Iggy said quietly. "I just…I want to know that you're okay."

"Hey, Fang, breathe," Max took my hand.

I leaned against her, closing my eyes, tears still finding their way to flow out. Breaking down like this in front of Iggy was definitely a sign that I wasn't okay.

"My father beat me up," I sobbed. "And…And he drugged me. I couldn't fight him, Ig. And…and then…"

"Shhh, Fang, it's okay," Max whispered in my ear.

"And then he raped me."

-Max's POV-

"Oh, jeez, Fang, man, I'm sorry…I…" But Iggy fell silent, unsure of what he was really trying to say as Fang cried.

We sat there for the longest time, the only sound came from Fang. He had tired himself out now, his breathing slowed, now asleep.

"Why didn't he say anything before?" Iggy asked after a while.

I pulled a blanket over Fang. "I don't know. It's only bothering him now because he's had more time to think about it."

Iggy shook his head. "I tried so hard to think about what could be bothering him so much, and every time I thought back to how he told me his father had beaten him and how he never explained it like he usually explained things. But I never thought anything would be that bad…that never crossed my mind."

"You can't tell the others," I told Iggy. "Fang only wanted to tell you because he was afraid you would stop trusting him."

"Because I was concerned about what was going on with him," Iggy seemed to understand. "No, I wouldn't even think about telling them."

I let out a sigh.

"Things like that shouldn't happen." Iggy's eyes seemed to find me. Sometimes it was hard to believe he was blind at all.

"The situation we're in never should have happened either," I responded. "But considering everything that's happened, we've tried to make the best of it."

Iggy's eyes became unfocused again as he turned his head away. "I'm glad you found him and helped him, Max."

I looked up at the sky, the stars visible out here in the wilderness. After a while, I looked back down at Fang. "Yeah, me too."

Alright, thanks for reading this chapter. New chapter after the weekend probably. I'm going to put up one of my new stories that I've been working on, based on poll results. So whatever story I put up, that idea will be deleted from the poll, but I'll keep the poll opened to figure out the second story I'll put up later.

I've actually got like four different new stories I've written the first few chapters for, so once I figure out what direction my current stories are heading in, I'll put those out too. So don't be disappointed if a story on the poll isn't put out because I'm working on all of those ideas there.

Anyway, enough rambling. I should probably have rambled about the poll on a story that's ending soon, but I don't think I'll get the chance to update anything tomorrow and I'm sure there are a few of you out there that would be interested to hear that.

Thanks for reading!