The Abuse

The guy was just lying there on the ground.

"Uh, you okay?" asked Matt.

"Does he look okay to you?" I asked.

Matt paused and stood there with the right side of his head leaning into his right fist.

"It was a rhetorical question!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah." he said, "He looks like he's in pain."

"You think?" I responded.

The person on the ground lifted his head up. We could tell he was all tired and beat up.

"I am NOT okay." he said.

"Hmmm." said Justin, "You look interesting."

"What's that… supposed to mean?" asked the boy on the ground.

"Oh, nothing." said Justin.

"You look really weird." said the boy on the ground, "Are you hiding anything behind all that hair?"

"Just his ugly face." said Matt.

"Hey!" said Justin.

"Well, ugly or not," said Frederica, "that's not important right now."

"R-right," said Vera, "we-"

"What's your name?" asked Sheldon.

"I'm Theodore." the boy answered.

After that, we all introduced ourselves.

"So, what's going on with you?" asked Sheldon.

"My parents… are dead." answered Theodore.

"Oh, well that sucks." commented Matt.

Theodore slowly got himself up and then dusted his legs off. He then leaned back a bit, with his arms stretched out and hands open. He began laughing.

"Dude, why are you laughing?" asked Matt, "That's kinda creepy."

"Why should I be sad?" he said, "Them being gone is a blessing!"

"E-excuse me?" I replied.

"What do you mean?" asked Sheldon.

In front of us, he took off his shirt and turned around. There was this huge scar on his back.

"I didn't get this from any of those monsters." he said, "My Dad got me real good with a knife recently."

"Oh God." I commented.

Then he pointed at some bruises on his right arm.

"These came from my Mom." he said.

"Oh." replied Matt.

"Th-that's awful." commented Vera.

"Those two made everyday hell," he said, "they expected so much from me. If I was just slightly off what they wanted, I'd get a beating."

Theodore put his hands in front of his face.

"A test score being one point lower than they wanted, one tiny spot of dust, not making enough money from any of my part time jobs… anything like that, I'd have to put up with shit." he continued.

"Alright," said Frederica, "I think we understand what's going on. So, what are you going to do now?"

"Honestly, I don't know." he said, "I'm just glad that they're gone."

"We know you are." commented Justin.

"What should we do with him?" asked Matt.

"I don't have room in my cardboard box." said Sheldon.

"Why don't you stay with me?" suggested Justin.

"...Yeah, okay." said Theodore.

"Well, that was fast." I said.

"Well, my own house was destroyed," said Theodore, "It's either that or living on the streets."

"Okay," said Justin, "glad that we have that taken care of."

"So, what now?" asked Matt.

"We go home, I guess." said Sheldon, "There don't seem to be any signs of any more monsters showing up."

This is when we all split up. Frederica went to what remained of her house and hid herself down in her lab. As for the rest of us, our own homes weren't caught up in any of this, so we were just fine. The first thing I did was go to my room and fall over on my bed because I was completely exhausted. Monsters came over from another world and we had to fight them. That really takes a lot out of most people. As I buried my face into my pillow, there was a knock on my door.

"Come in." I said.

After that, my father came into my room.

"What?" I said.

"I see a lot has been going on today." he said.

"Yeah." I replied.

"I'd like you to stay inside for a while." my father said.

"Oh." I responded.

"With how dangerous it is out there," he continued, "I don't really want you out there."

"That's fair." I replied.

"We've already lost Ken-" he started.

"But he's not dead-" I started.

"Well, we don't know."

"You don't think he's dead, do you?"

"I sure hope not."

"I see."

"Well, that's all I wanted to talk to you about."

After that, my father left the room. At the time, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to follow his advice. I might have done some fighting, but things definitely were getting too dangerous. Everyone spent the next several days in their houses, nobody even daring to go outside. And while I was stuck inside, all I could think about was Ken. Was he still alive? How was he doing? Where the hell even was he?