15

We really did drive that car back to the settlement. It was a nice ride. I hadn't been in such a fancy vehicle for years. I think the last time I was in something this nice was when I was just a kid. I wasn't allowed to stay either. 

It was just one of those times where I got to ride because someone richer then my parents had driven me to some school event. I couldn't even remember what that event was. It was just that many years ago. Add on the fact that that particular car wasn't as fancy as this one. New back then had nothing on new now. 

Granted vehicles like this would probably become a rarity in the future. I smirked to myself as we pulled through the gate. This would probably be the last time I would ride in this car too. I wanted to skip straight to the long run Boss man was planning. These short ones were irritating to me. 

I wanted to go out. Find a dungeon, and raise my kill count the quickest way I knew how. I sighed heavily as I left the car, and headed over to where I'd forgotten my phone. That simple notion almost made me laugh out loud. When was the last time my phone hadn't been attached to my hip?

The thought of actually forgetting my phone entirely was a foreign concept up until recently. I was roughed up so no one was going to be asking me much of anything so I was able to just walk over to my phone, and pick it up. It was unplugged by now, and had been replaced with a different device, but they didn't take it off the shelf. I picked it up, and saw that it had ninety-two percent battery so with it not being used it had been sitting unplugged for about an hour. My phone had three missed calls. 

I hadn't been called since this had all began. I could feel my brow furrowing. The phone that had called me was the spare phone that my youngest sister was allowed to use most of the time. I flipped through to visual voicemail. Briefly wondering why it was called visual voicemail when there was no video as I clicked on the first voicemail, and put the phone up to my ear. 

"Angelina?" My little sister's voice came through quietly, "Are you ok? Did the monsters eat you? Can you come here? I want to see you. Mom is crying. She says you're not coming back. Dad won't talk to us. Are you with Aaron? Mom...."

The line went dead. Pain, and guilt filled me. My chest tightened to the point that breathing was difficult. I hadn't felt like this in a long time. I may not have a good relationship with my mother, but my siblings were a different story. 

My father was on that neutral ground. Our relationship wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. He'd worked a lot when I was younger so I didn't know much about him, but he'd made sure I knew that if the shit hit the fan he would be there to help me. I moved down to the next message. 

"Angelina," My dad's voice, "Aaron is gone. I could use some help if you're still out there."

The message was short, and I could practically feel the pain in my dad's emotionless voice. My eyes were starting to tear up so I walked out, and went to the ally. I leaned up against a wall, and broke down right then, and there. I wouldn't be able to hold together for anything for a while. I'd been dreading this phone call for this exact reason. 

I swallowed my pain, and images of my family flitted through my mind. My five siblings, and my parents. Just because my father was a man's man who had enough guns for everyone in the household didn't mean he'd be able to protect them all. Aaron had moved out a few years back. I rubbed my raw eyes, and reddened face. 

One of the reasons I didn't want to face my family was the possibility of them being dead. The second reason was if my mom was one of the surviving family members. Her mental abuse had grown to be incredibly severe by the time I moved out to the point that my self worth was in the fucking toilet. I was afraid of falling back into that mindset. The third thing I was worried about was actually seeing my family die. 

Even right now I could feel a massive hollow in my chest. Squeezing my heart, and lungs to the side to the point that it was hard to breath just at the thought of my little brother being gone. Seeing part of my family being ripped out of my life might break me completely. I had just been ignoring the oncoming pain this whole time. Delaying the inevitable really. 

It didn't matter how much I wanted to avoid the pain of realizing that a huge part of my life was gone. I had to face that pain head on now. There was no more pretending that it wasn't happening, or wasn't going to happen. I pulled up the third message. This one was actually left by my mom. 

I knew my mom would never let someone else use her phone as long as she was alive. My little sister had already told me that my mom was alive so this message was definitely from her. I deleted it. She was alive. If what she said on that message was at all similar to the things she said to me before I left then I would be in even more pain then I already was. 

I couldn't handle that right now. I would just talk to her when I got to her. I did love my mom, but she had done too much to me for me to be okay with comforting her. Knowing that she wouldn't bother to comfort me no matter how much pain I was in. She'd proven that to be true throughout my life.