Letters To Shay||✓

chapter eleven.

Out of the three hours I was given, I had spent one hour watching the video, and thirty minutes curled up in a ball crying. Time was running fast. So I sat up and and removed the disc, and plugged in the flash drive. In less than a second the contents of the flash came up. It contained two videos and a note. I clicked on Kim's video and waited for it to come up.

Kimberly's face came up and she looked tired too. She didn't waste any time before starting her quarter of the message.

"Picking up from where Kiera stopped, the three of us discussed it and decided to watch. Calling you out on it didn't seem smart, especially when you were emotionally unstable. I know you cut, Keyonna. No, I didn't see your cut marks. Isn't it unusual to find packets of razors in your cabinet? The night I said Mum told me to check on you, I used it as a way to stop you. Thank God you didn't that night. I'm not as stupid as I look, Keyonna." She paused, shaking her head. I dropped my head and let guilt wash over me. She really wasn't too stupid, she knew.

"I also know about the nightmares. I know that they still plague you, And I understand. I don't know how long you had to keep quiet but I know it was long enough to build all that hatred, especially for Emmett.

"Keyonna you're not the only one who had it bad- Keith did too. I did, and so did Kiera. There were so many hints we dropped, hoping you'd see that you weren't going through pain alone. But...

"Keith's rage started back some eleven years back, with his childhood sweetheart, before your innocence was stolen. They went out with a couple of other first year students. The two of them went deeper into the woods and somehow trespassed on some illegal poacher's property. They... They..." Her voice hitched as tears fell. "They tied him up and they raped her. She died in the end." She started sobbing. I felt that wasn't all all to the story but an emotional Kimberly was hard to deal with.

"At first he was very quiet, and didn't say anything. His grades started dropping and he flunked all his classes. Then all of a sudden he became crazily aggressive, smashing vases, wrecking furniture, starting fights in school. Sleep was a stranger to him. Drugs were the deal of his day." She sighed, wiped her face with her shirt and continued. "He killed someone, Keyonna. Bashed the head of a kid with a Rock. He went to juvy. He didn't come back home when he was released, but went back to school, studying nursing, with promises that he'd always go to therapy.

"This time he went to prison with charges of first degree murder, handling weaponry without a license and drug abuse. That's why Keith was never home until recently.

"Not just him. Kiera had a kid at seventeen, and sold it. They told you she was staying on campus, but she was at her baby daddy's. He was a married man- yes, Kiera was very stupid- and the tension in his house was thick. So when his wife wasn't home, he would beat her. But she survived and after the baby was born, she was rushed into college, for her safety and ours. She, uh- she became emotionally traumatised and slept around, drank like crazy." She looked at something over the camera, like she was thinking.

Kiera didn't look the emotionally unstable type, or the type that would drink because she was frustrated. Hearing my siblings back stories for the first time was an eye opener. It was surprising. Kimberly had just told the first two stories. What about you?, I thought.

"I didn't have it rough like the rest of you, Keyonna. Mine was just messy, regular teenage things. I smoked my first cigarette in the ninth grade, lost my virginity in the tenth, did drugs. Heck, Mum always cried herself to sleep over us. After spending one night in a police cell, I turned a new leaf. All I did after that was sleep around, and that was it.

"This might seem very weird to you, Keyonna, and your stubborn side is telling you not to give two flying shits right now, but we care about you. See, at the end of the day, life's about being happy with who you are, and I feel like we're so blessed to have the support system and the best family to really support each other no matter what we're going through. Keyonna, family isn't an important thing. It's everything. We're here for you if you need us- me, Keith, Kiera, we're here. I- I hope this video will move you. We love you, Keyonna."