Chase your fate

Chapter 19

It was dark, the streetlights barely giving off enough of a glow to light their way, as Chase held Devyn's hand walking along the side street by her house.  The quiet neighborhood making each step that they took echo against the homes.  They stood before the walkway to her house, preparing to say goodnight.  He closed his eyes, leaning in to kiss her, when he heard the echoing of several quickly approaching footsteps, followed by her sudden gasp and the feeling of her being jerked from his arms.

It was like he was falling.  He had just been on solid ground, her as his foundation to stand on, when suddenly he felt her body being pulled from his grip.  He stumbled forward as he lost his balance in the immediate absence of her.  Opening his eyes, he saw her being dragged away from him by several dark shapes.  The fear in his heart, quickly replaced by the anger and rage consuming him.  He steadied himself, beginning to chase after them, not caring about the who, or why, just knowing that he couldn't lose her.

He heard the laughter piecing through his eardrums as her muffled screams broke through the hardened shell of his heart.  As he came closer, the shapes began to take form.  He saw Alex, with his hand clamped over her mouth, his other arm around her breasts, holding her struggling body, as Chris, Luke and Walt all tried to help him subdue her.  Chase ran towards them as fast as he could, but it seemed that he got further away with each step that he took.  The helplessness began to cloud his mind as he heard the fabric of her shirt being torn and her desperate crying out of his name.  He began closing in on them, seeing her teeth clench down on Alex's hand, then her body being roughly turned, hearing the ferocious sound of skin on skin contact when Alex slapped her hard enough to knock her to the ground. 

Suddenly, without warning, he leapt at Alex, colliding his shoulder into his chest, tackling him to the ground.  The impact was so sudden that his balance was stolen and they tumbled to the ground.  Chase quickly stood up, crouched and ready to pounce.  His teeth clenched in anger, fists balled and eyes moving between the 4 boys from his memories.  He looked over at her lifeless body on the ground, his only thought was to be quick and strong, to get her to safety.  The boys circled him like a pack of ravenous wolves, watching his movements, waiting for their opportunity to strike.  It was like a scene from his past, only all of them were bigger and stronger now.

They all heard Devyn whimper, and as the 4 turned to her, Chase used the opportunity to strike, knowing that if he waited for them to make the first move, he wouldn't have a chance.  He ran at Luke, landing a powerful blow to the back of his neck, seeing him crumple to his knees.  He turned towards Walt, wrapping his right arm around his neck, trying to choke the life out of him.  Alex and Chris attacked together as he held on with all of his strength.  He felt the impact of each hit that landed on him, struggling with all that he had to not let go of Walt's neck.  He began to feel Walt's body going limp in his grip when her screams filled the air around them.

Chase dropped Walt's body to the ground, kicking out at Chris to get him away, quickly looking over to see Luke kneeling over Devyn's body.  He let out a growl with a primal rage buried deep inside of his soul as he barreled past Alex, grabbing a handful of Luke's hair and dragging him of of her.  He felt several hands on his body, pulling him backwards causing him to stumble and fall, landing on his back.  His senses disoriented, he tried to stand only to be pushed back to the ground.  He saw thier faces, lit up by the eerie glow of the streetlights, glaring down at him with wicked satisfaction.  He heard his own voice coming as if from a distance "get up.. fight". 

He stood back to his feet, surrounded by Chris, Luke and Walt, seeing Alex pick Devyn up from the ground, pinning her against the tree.  His hands moving roughly over her body, his lips on her skin, her tears falling over her cheeks.  He leapt towards Alex, only to be caught by the 3 boys, feeling them push his body against a wall, pinning him there.  Walt and Chris holding his body as Luke took a handful of the top of his hair, slamming the back of his head against the wall and grabbing his face, leaning in close to him, trying to hold his head steady as the boys fought against his struggle.  Luke's voice came in tauntingly as he whispered into Chase's ear.  "We're going to hold you here... and make you watch.. and there's nothing that you can do about it."

Chase struggled against the arms holding him against the wall, and the hands holding his face.  He saw Devyn's tears, heard her whimpering.  Her panicked voice calling out to him "Chase... you... you said I was safe with you.... you promised to keep me safe...." followed by the voice of his father "be a man son.... what are you... why can't you be stronger... where did I go wrong with you..".  He felt the surge of panic and despair taking over.  He felt the adrenaline running through his body.  With all the strength that he had, he struggled enough to break free, knocking the boys to the ground.  He rushed Alex like a bull gone mad, taking him to the ground.  He saw the look of surprise in his eyes as he began landing punches on him over and over, the red tint of his vision being made darker as the blood began to show from the opened wounds on Alex's face.

Without warning, he felt a searing pain in his lower back, stopping him from his assault.  The world began to spin in a drunken sway as he stood to his feet, looking down at the bloody form of Alex's body lying on the ground.  He reached to his back, feeling the cold steel handle of the knife that was plunged into his body, felt the jolt as he pulled it out, looking at the bloodstained blade in his hand.  He turned to see the laughing faces of the boys as he fell weakly to his knees, dropping the blade to the ground, feeling his life draining from the puncture in his back.  He heard the voice of his father again in his mind as he crumpled to the ground "I knew you were weak... I knew you couldn't do anything right.".  Chase heard himself whisper as the tears slipped from his eyes "I.. I tried....."  He looked up as Devyn came over, kneeling beside him, pleading with her for forgiveness "I... I tried...".  She looked at him sadly, whispering softly "You were never going to be good enough for me anyway Chase...." she said as his final breath escaped from his lungs.

.........

Chase's mother came rushing through the door to his bedroom,  turning the lights on hearing him screaming.  She quickly came to his side as he sat upright in his bed, panting, gasping for air, tears streaming down his face as his body shook in terror.  She cradled him to her chest, running her hands over his sweat soaked hair. "Shhhhh.. baby.. it's ok... it's ok Chase.. it's just a dream baby.. you're safe... momma's here baby... you're alright....".  He clutched onto her like a child in the night, crying against her shoulder, sobbing loudly. 

His dad stood in the doorway, a look of disgust on his face.  "Bella.. you need to stop coddling the boy.. he's 17 years old.. dear god.. still afraid of the dark".  She glared back at him "Dammit Larry, go back to bed.".  He walked back to thier bedroom, mumbling about thinking someone was trying to kill the little sissy only to find it was just another of his scary dreams.  His mother held him close against her shoulder, trying to calm him down.  "Are you alright baby?" she whispered when he finally stopped sobbing.  "Y..yeah.. momma.. go.. go back to bed... I.. I'll be alright.".  "Okay baby... get some rest." she said as she hugged him tightly one last time and left him in his darkened room.

He lay there in the darkness, hopelessly away, not able to get the dream from his head.  His nightmares were always so vivid, so real, like he was actually in them.  A product of his overactive imagination he guessed.  The more he thought about it though, the more angry he became.  He knew that Alex was still looking for an opportunity to go at it again.  He knew that it wasn't going to end well this time.  And the thing that really bothered him about the dream.. were the words that they had spoken... because he knew, in his heart, that it was true... he would never be good enough.. for any of them... but dammit.. he was going to try....