After a shaky breath, Sky spoke, “so between now and him getting locked up, if and when that ever even happens; none of the four of us can ever be alone. We’ve always gotta be in pairs if not all four of us together. We can’t let him ever get access to this power. Or let him do other things to us either, obviously” he added more quietly.

“It could be months though” Star said softly, “and Kole and Crista will eventually have to go back to their own houses at some point.”

“I have less than a month before I’m eighteen. I could probably avoid home for that long if I tried real hard” Kole stated with only a touch of sarcasm.

“And Crista’s supposed to avoid going home for four years?” Star stated sadly.

“Three years and two months” Crista corrected, though sadly.

That was when Connor interrupted the panicked teens. “All of you, just relax a minute. If they refuse to let Curt out on bail then you may not have to change your entire lives just yet. We just need to find out more.”

Sky sighed, “innocent until proven guilty, dad. And he’s seventeen. And he’s rich. And the only people accusing him are so-called freaks” he looked down, “you really think we’re gonna get through this without having to see him again? Cause I highly doubt it” he said sadly as he went upstairs, not even bothering to collect his dinner first.

“And the cheery thoughts keep comin” Kole mumbled.

A couple of hours passed as the teens all still sat quietly in Sky’s room pretending to have any appetite at all as they picked at their food containers. Not much was said, as all four were busy contemplating what sort of hell the next few weeks or even months would actually hold for them. At nearly five, Connor called up to them from the stairs, informing them that they were wanted downstairs. They all gave each other wary looks and set their food aside as they even more warily pushed themselves to their feet to head down the stairs.

When they did reach the bottom of the steps Miss Lewis gave them a look of slight surprise, “well, this makes things easier, with all four of you here.”

They all sighed as she gestured for them to take seats as Connor and Brie supplied her with a chair from the dining room so she could take a seat as well as she searched her briefcase for whatever pertinent notes she had on hand.

As she retrieved the notes, she gave them another skeptical look as all four of them were wearing expressions that wavered between dejected and terrified. “I assumed you all heard that we got our trial, right?” she had to ask.

“We heard” Sky swallowed a lump in his throat, all four of them still not looking up from the floor.

“That’s what we wanted to happen” she told them slowly.

“Is he out on bail?” Star asked with that panic obvious in her tone as well as on her face then.

“So that’s what has you all so glum?” Lewis replied.

“He wanted us dead before we got him put on trial. How dead do you think he wants us now?” Sky retorted, “didn’t Burke tell you why I never reported it to begin with?”

“She did” Lewis confirmed, “but it’s not just the four of you who helped him end up there, you know.”

Then Kole interjected sarcastically, “well, great, I feel so much safer already.”

Crista was then the one who spoke, “is he seriously going on trial for just grabbing me, or for what he did to Sky... and Sammi... too?” she asked as she cast a sad look between the two boys.

“Actually the charges are one of sexual assault of a minor; that would be you of course, Crista. But after the hearing they’ve also brought multiple charges of rape against him as well” she informed them confidently.

“How many’s multiple? And who is he actually getting charged with raping then?” Kole had to ask as Sky’s eyes darted to the floor again, his breath coming more shortly as Star put an arm around him comfortingly.

Lewis took a slight breath, “he’s getting charged with raping Sky, Sammi, Brandi Turner, and two other girls Brandi gave us the name of, as well as three more those two gave us the names of. Eight counts of rape altogether” she confirmed as they all looked back at her in shock.

“Eight?” Connor choked on the words from where he and Brie listened from the doorway to the dining room. “Please tell me that they didn’t actually let this kid out on bail.”

Lewis sighed heavily, “he’s not eighteen for another month, and he has no prior record. Though he will likely be tried as an adult, in light of how brutal the rape of Miss Charles was, and she was only fifteen at the time” she added sadly as Kole visibly flinched. Lewis then quickly moved on, “the bail was set very high, but his family is well-off, so they may be able to pay it nonetheless” she informed sadly.

Sky just gave her a look of defeat, “so, we’re all just fucking dead then? Yeah I wonder why we’re so goddamn glum?” he bit out as well.

“Sky you can’t think that way” Lewis attempted.

“What way? Realistically?” he scoffed.

Lewis just sighed, “as he’s being tried as an adult in light of Sammi’s rape, and since he is turning eighteen next month, he would have to go to prison rather than juvenile detention. And seventeen year olds do not do well in adult prisons” she had to inform.

Sky scoffed loudly then, “what? He might get raped or something? Yeah, we couldn’t have that” he nearly growled the statement.

“I know how you---”

“How I feel?" Sky interrupted loudly, “I sincerely doubt that, lady” he told her angrily.

“His parents will likely keep him out of school while we wait on the trial” Lewis attempted, “so if it’s seeing him at school that you’re worried about?”

Kole then spoke up, “unless he’s in a cell or at least on frigging house arrest, none of us will even be close to safe” he returned angrily.

Sky scoffed once more, “again, I wonder why I never wanted to report it. We were living in fear every day before this, and now it’s just a million times worse. What a wonderful world.”

Lewis took another moment to try and compose herself, “I know I probably shouldn’t even say this, but I’m going to anyway. Out of the rape charges yours and Sammi’s will probably be hardest to prove. So it’s likely that he would be more apt to go after Brandi and the other girls; the ones who are still here to tell their story themselves” she added more quietly as she gave Kole a sympathetic look.

Sky just gave her another rueful look, “so that’s your advice? Hope he’s too busy trying to scare them into silence that he’ll just let us be?”

Lewis cast her eyes down before continuing, “this is what every witness at every trial has to face. The fear of some kind of retaliation. But that’s all the more reason why it’s so important to put him away. So you can all feel safe again.”

“Oh, so all we have to do is just survive long enough to even get to the trial. And then just hope that they actually put him away so he doesn’t have the entire rest of his life to try and get revenge instead. Yeah, that’s all” Sky scoffed again.

Lewis made another attempt at allaying their fears, “he’s already done to you what he’s done to you, Sky. The likelihood of him repeating the crime he’s already being charged with is pretty minuscule.”

“You think I’m worried about what he’ll do to me? Been there, endured that. Just look around this room if you wanna finally understand what the fuck it actually is that I’m so afraid of” Sky retorted angrily.

“All we can try to do right now is get through the entire trial as quickly as possible; but if it makes you feel better, we can try to place officers at your homes or school” she offered.

They all looked at each other warily then, as the last thing they needed was cops keeping an eye on any of them. Star finally managed to speak, “wouldn’t it be easier to just have officers keep an eye on one Curt instead of four of us?”

“I’m sure they will be” Lewis stated. Though none of them looked all that assured. Instead of trying anymore futile words of hope, she just took a breath and moved onto her reason for being there, “now, what I need to talk to you all about is what we should expect when you’re called to testify. It could be difficult if there’s anything in your lives that you may not want dug up.”

“No shit” Kole mumbled.

“I take it that means that there are things you think they could use to discredit you all?” Lewis asked warily.

“Other than just holding up pictures of us, you mean?” Kole returned sarcastically.

“Appearances can be... adjusted... for trial. I’m more talking about pieces of your personal lives that they may try to use against you; like they tried to do with Sky’s orientation at the hearing” she provided the example. Though at that point Brie and Connor just shook their heads and moved to the dining area as the teens just all looked down hopelessly.

Kole shook his head again, “every single part of our lives will be used against us; all of us. So maybe you should just give up and let the cheerleaders he roofied handle all the testifying, and we’ll just watch quietly” he scoffed.

Lewis took a worried breath, “are you telling me that even though your testimony is what brought these charges out into the open, you don’t want to see it through? You don’t want to testify again to make sure he finally goes to jail for all he’s done to all of you, and those you care about?” she added pointedly.

“To make sure?” Sky just gave her another look of disbelief, “and you can assure us that us testifying against him again would ‘make sure’ he paid, can you?”

“You know I can’t do that, Sky, but---”

“Exactly” he cut her off as he looked away again.

Star sadly looked down as she added, “so you want us to not only make him want to murder and rape us all for revenge, but also to let them drag every single personal detail out into the open and use it to attack us as well? Sound about right?”

Lewis sighed in frustration, “it’s that exact opinion that let’s so many rapists get away with their crimes!”

“Just because it’s an opinion doesn’t mean it’s wrong though” Star returned in a near whisper.

“So you are actually telling me that none of you want to testify? After all this?”

Crista finally spoke then, “can you make us?”

“In some cases, yes. But I was hoping we wouldn’t have to try to” Lewis stated with her own bit of defeat. “I mean, don’t you all at least want to try to make him pay for what he’s done?”

“Of course we do” Star sighed, “but every single one of us will be discredited because of who we are, and it’ll just make things that much worse.”

“You don’t know that” Lewis argued.

Then Kole sighed with impatience, “fine, let’s pretend. We’ve got that attorney client privilege crap, right? You ask us all the things you know that Sullivan asshole will ask us. Bet it’ll take ten minutes, tops, before you won’t want any of us to testify either.”