A Foster's Home

Chapter 2

Weirdly, Freddy was able to fall back to asleep quickly. Usually when he talks about his past, sleep is miles away. He was glad, though. But being able to fall asleep quickly wasn't exactly paradise. It was a terrible memory that has found its way through a different path, a nightmare.

Freddy opened his eyes. They felt heavy, but he managed. The first thing that he saw was his hand covered in red liquid. It was blood, but who's? He tried to lift his body up, but it hurt too much. His breathing became hard. He felt pain everywhere. He lifted his head and saw where he was. The place was dark and it was raining. He couldn't see clearly because of the blood dripping down his face. He tried to wipe it, but it only smeared some more.

He felt the most pain in his left leg. He couldn't move it. Freddy turned his head slowly. His leg was stuck and pinned between a wall and a seat. But was it a wall? It was metal. He could tell because it was stabbing his leg.

He wanted to scream for help, but he couldn't. His throat felt dry, his head throbbed, everything hurted. He wanted it all to go away. He let the tears fall. He didn't even know what happened.

Freddy turned his head to look foward and screamed. His entire body flooded with pain, but he didn't care. His attention was on what laid in front of him.

There was another bloody hand, but it wasn't his. The hand belonged to someone in front of him. It was hard to tell who it was. It was too dark. There was another person dead beside the other one. It was at that moment he realized that he wasn't in a building. He was in a car.

Freddy heard sirens in the distance. There was distant chatter and a man yelling at people to back away. His head hurt from all the noise.

Then there was lightening. The lightening was bright and he was able to see the details of the car for a second. He recognized the car he was in. His heart raced and his body shook. A second lightening stroke, this time illuminating the faces of the two people in front of him. He saw them. He wanted to scream. Now he knew exactly what had happened.

"NOOO!"

Freddy woke up with a pain in his head. He felt a hand shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw Billy looking down at him. His breathing was rapid.

"Billy?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What happened? I heard a thump and next thing I know you're on the floor. You okay?"

Freddy slowly sat up, rubbing the spot where he hit his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. What time is it?"

Billy looked at the Superman clock. "It's 6:00. We have to get ready for school." He extended his hand to help Freddy up.

Freddy nodded and grabbed the crutch next to him. Then he grabbed Billy's hand. "Okay."

"Bad dream?"

"Yeah."

"Did a villain dominate and defeat a superhero?"

Freddy laughed under his breath and looked down. "No."

"Then what?"

"It's nothing, Billy. Everyone gets bad dreams now and then. They don't mean anything." Freddy walked past Billy to go to the bathroom before anyone else can take it.

Billy sighed. He knew that Freddy was lying. Based on all the tossing and turning and the mumbling, he knew something was wrong. And he knew very well that it was about last night's conversation. There was something about his past that was haunting the poor kid.

Getting the truth out of Freddy wasn't going to be easy. As much as he loves to talk, Freddy knew what to say out loud and what to keep in. He wasn't one of those people who blurts out secrets as much as it may seem. Billy knew that by now.

But he was going to get as much information as he needed to know about Freddy's past. He'd ask his social worker if he had to. Billy didn't want his foster brother to end up like him, all depressed and isolated. He knew very well that the more Freddy held in the truth, the less of himself he will be. That wasn't something that Billy wanted to see in his usually-happy brother.

He was going to find out the story, whatever it took.

Billy quickly closed the door and locked it. He looked around the room to see if there was anything that might help answer his questions. He ran to the desk and quietly rummaged through Freddy's mess. Come on, there has to be something here.

He checked in every drawer, in every shelf, under every paper. There was nothing. All he could find were all the information needed to know about all the superheroes, nothing about his past! He sighed in frustration. He sat on the floor, defeated.

He was about to give up until he saw something shiny under the pillow of Freddy's bed. Billy quickly ran to the bed and reached for the object. It was a notebook. No, it was a sketchbook. He knew that Freddy liked to draw. Maybe this might reveal something. He opened the sketchbook and smiled. He saw drawings about their adventures, how Billy became Shazam, how the family fought Dr.Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins, how Billy came into the family, and much more. It was like a diary, but with drawings. Who knows what other things might be drawn in there.

There was a knock on the door. Billy quickly closed the sketchbook. "Yeah?"

"Open the door." It was Freddy.

"Uh, I can't." Billy ran to his backpack and put the sketchbook in.

"Why not?"

"Because...," he looked at the clothes folded on the drawer. "I'm changing! Just give me a few minutes."

"Fine."

Billy quickly changed into his school clothes. He got excited. Once at school, he was going to find out the truth once and for all.