Chapter 6

I had just walked in the door after school. I was maybe a couple of minutes late and I knew that my dad would be pissed if he found out. I hoped that he was either passed out or at some bar getting drunk. I had just set my bag in my room when I heard him walk up the stairs. He was stumbling and I could safely say that he had a few drinks after work. I bolted for my closet trying to hide in hopes that he would pass out before he could raise a hand to me.

"You running from me boy?" He was leaning against the doorframe with the belt draped over his shoulder. If I attempted to continue my escaped, my punishment would be way more severe.

"No sir."

He took the belt off his shoulder, sliding it through his fingers until the buckle end was almost touching the floor. I turned my back to him and waited for the first blow to hit. I could hear the buckle swing, but before it hit things shifted and I was in an alley with a boy that I kind of recognized. What really got my attention though was the scarring down the boy's face. Once deep cuts that had Healed stretched along the left side of his cheek.

Liam.

"Haymond, Haymond...."

I opened my eyes to see Caleb's concerned face. He had bags under his eyes and his hair was very disheveled. A small smile spread across his lips as he leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He called out to let Lindsey know that I was awake and not even ten seconds later Niko busted through the door.

"You stupid little shit. You're a fucking idiot. You-"

He kept spewing profanities at me. telling me it was stupid to be out there by myself. How I could have died and none of them would have known about it. There was no slowing him down. This had been expected though. I knew that there would be lecturing about me going off on my own I just hadn't expected it to be Niko. Caleb had tried to tell me it was a bad idea to go alone but Cameron needed him more than I did.

"I wish you would have a little more self-respect. And both of you should keep me and Jaz in the loop if you're going to go on rescue missions, always."

Lindsey poked her head around the door.

"Haymond, I've got four kiddos out here that want to see you."

I nodded and she opened the door wider and in walked Alex, Wyatt, and holding Wyatt's hands were his younger siblings Tyler and Lillian.

"They really wanted to see you," Wyatt said gesturing to Tyler and Lillian. He let go of their hands and they both ran up to the side of my cot. I said I was in need of a nice hug and both of them crawled up to hug me.

In our guild, Jaz and Caleb had given their concern about the kids and how most of them had lost the parents in their lives when they came to us. So we had decided that we would assign kids a caretaker which was basically an older guild member that would become a role model or Parental Figure as Niko had nicknamed it. It worked out really well the first time that most of the kids that we raise from their early teens when our guild first started now had kids that they were mentoring.

Since I had a lot of troubles with anxiety and trauma, the other took on kids and I helped them out when I could. It wasn't until about a year ago that they all thought I was ready. Wyatt had come to us with Tyler, who was seven at the time, and Lillian who was four. Wyatt himself had been only fourteen. He came after a friend had threatened to kill him and his siblings because his parents' genes most have been faulty if they had a gay son. Knowing that there was nothing his parents could do, he packed his things took his siblings and left. His parents didn't even report them missing and that really bugged Wyatt.

Alex's story was similar to Wyatt's except for the fact that Alex was an only child and their father was the abuser. Alex had joined my little family about three months after I had gotten Wyatt and the littles. They all got along fine and Wyatt accepted Alex as another one of his siblings. Alex had trouble sleeping due to the PTSD of his younger years so Alex asked me if it was okay for they and Wyatt to share a room and since Wyatt had no problem with it Caleb help me set up another cot in Wyatt's room.

"You okay?" Alex was very concerned for my wellbeing, they always had been. before I could answer them however, Jazmine and Cameron poked their head in the room.

"You might want to see this."