So Cold • Hardzello

Chapter 26

Enjoy this nice, long chapter!

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"I'm sorry, what was the plan again?" Roger asked as they sat in his car in the driveway.

"My father has to be at work right now. We go in and grab as much of my stuff as we can. Also we need to find my car keys. We have about 8 hours to do this." It had nearly been two days since Ben ran away. He had to go get his stuff at some point.

They loaded Joe's Jeep up with boxes to put things in and would transport what they could back to Roger's. Ben was positive he could get as many sentimental belongings of his out of that house in the time frame. He was even going to take some of his mom's things. He needed to have some pieces of her with him.

Once they were ready, they left and headed down the road. Mr. Jones would not be there so it was a relief. Ben also felt anxiety, he would have to walk back into the "jail" that he had been imprisoned in. His blood had probably stained the floor at this point and he had no clue if his dad destroyed his room when he realized Ben was gone.

They pulled up into the driveway and Ben took a deep breath. He had his keys to the house on him and walked to the front door. He unlocked the door and froze. A pair of arms wrapped around his middle and a head rested on his shoulder.

"You can do it, it is going to be okay. I'm here." Joe whispered, he wouldn't let Ben have a panic attack, not on his watch.

Ben stepped into the house he had once called his home and made his way to his room. The stuff in front of his door was moved out of the way and his door was ajar. He pushed open the door completely. Nothing was damaged further than what it was that night. All that had been damaged was Ben's phone and soul. His blood was dried to the floor just like he thought it would be.

Joe carried one of the cardboard boxes into the room and began to help Ben throw his clothes into it messily. Right now, it didn't matter if his stuff was neatly packed, what mattered was getting as much as they could. Roger and Brian came up with more boxes and took the filled ones down to their vehicles.

Joe and Brian successfully carried Ben's TV down the stairs and safely got it into the back seat of Roger's car. While Joe stuffed Ben's stuff in the boxes, Ben went in search of his keys. He opened the room that was once his mother's and still is his father's. He searched the side draw of the father's bedside table and found them hidden in the back under some papers. Ben opened his parents closet, looking for anything that was his mother's. He wanted at least something of hers, like one of her shirts. They still smelled like her and it would bring him comfort.

There, in the bottom of the closet, laid a neatly wrapped present. One top of it was a to and from sticker.

To: Ben

From: Mum

Underneath it was another one addressed to Joe. Those had to be the presents she was telling about right before they got hit. Ben felt his breath catch in his lungs. He wanted to cry but now was not the time.

He grabbed the two medium-sized boxes and placed them on the bed. He continued to look in the closet for anything else. He found his mother's favorite blanket and pulled it out. He eventually found his mother's box of his baby things. It contained his birth certificate, a little scrapbook, and other little keepsakes. He looked through the closet till there was nothing else left to find. He even searched her bedside table and found a journal. Her last entry was:

I'm so proud of my son, he's got a play tomorrow night and I'm so excited. I know he will do so well. His father is not so excited though. I wish he could just understand how it makes Ben happy. He was not always this cruel. I don't understand what happened. He's not the same man I married. I still love him but he's just different now. He changed for the worse.