It wasn’t too long after Star and Crista had made their way out to the car that lunch period, before Kole had easily tracked them down. Though it was almost the end of sixth period before the girls’ nail-biting in the front seat and Kole’s chain-smoking in the back seat were finally interrupted when the school doors opened and Sky himself finally appeared.

His long sleeve was rolled up and his arm was wrapped in thick bandages as he stepped outside. Brie and Connor then stepped out of the doors behind him, looking nearly as distraught as the other teens looking on from the parked car then.

When they reached the car themselves, Star quickly got out and wrapped Sky in her arms tightly, as he winced slightly at the pain the embrace caused in his still bleeding arm under that bandage. “Sorry” she whispered as she noted that pain easily and gave him a tearful kiss instead.

Looking past Star and finding Crista and Kole in the car, watching with their own worried and expectant looks, Connor sighed, “I guess you’re all missing classes because of all this? Why should I be surprised?” he added more quietly as he moved to get into his own nearby car.

Then Brie looked back at Star, who still stood close to Sky with her head on his shoulder, her hand clinging tightly to his, her own worry still quite clear, “and are you planning on actually going back to class now that you got to see him?”

“How can I? What’s gonna happen now?” Star returned as she lifted her head to look back at Brie.

“Still figuring that all out” her mother sighed with her own hopelessness, as Sky just kept his eyes to the ground, not contributing much of anything to the conversation. Brie then looked between all of the teens and her husband who was already starting the engine of their car. “And I doubt any of us wanna have this conversation here. If you’re not going back to class either, Star, take Sky’s keys and follow us home.”

“I can drive, mom” was all Sky offered to the conversation then.

“That’s good to know, dear; but you’re riding with us” she told him shortly.

“Mom” Sky began as she gave him another look of warning.

“Are you really going to try arguing right now, Sky?” she returned.

“Mom, it’s not...” Star began, only to stop herself when Brie gave her the same warning glance and started toward the car behind Connor, giving Sky one more pointed look to get him to relinquish the keys to Star and follow her. Star then sighed back at Kole and Crista as she grudgingly slid behind the wheel of the black Mustang again. “I somehow doubt the two of you wanna endure the night ahead for me and Sky. I’ll keep you posted though” she offered sadly.

The two other teens simply glanced back at where the ‘mads’ impatiently waited in their own car as Sky slumped into a place in the back seat of that vehicle before Connor pulled out of the lot almost immediately after the door closed behind his son. Kole and Crista then sighed in concession and each moved to give Star a soft, sad kiss. They then exited the car, gave one more look to the other vehicle turning toward the lot exit, and forced their heavy boots to carry them back toward the school doors to try and finish their day without the benefit of their soul-mates being there to help them try to get through it all as well.

Upon pulling Sky’s car into the garage behind her parents’ vehicle several minutes later, Star sighed as the two adults headed into the house with a shake of their heads back toward where Sky was less eager to get out of the car. Sky then finally did exit their parents’ car as Star exited his, both sighing heavily as the door to the house loudly closed behind their parents.

Star moved to sadly hand Sky his keys and gave him another sad but gentle hug to further postpone following their parents inside just yet. “I’m guessing you at least got suspended?” Star asked him sadly.

“Three days for having a blade on school property” he scoffed as he leaned back against his parents’ silver BMW.

“So you can’t come back til Wednesday?” she asked with a combination of worry and surprise.

“More like I don’t have to go back til Wednesday” Sky returned with a disdainful tone.

“And that’s all they're making you do? Stay outta school for three days?” she asked as she looked up at him.

“They wanted to do more. Anything to rid themselves of the reminder of what they let happen on school property during school hours, and the shit storm it’s causing. But Burke insisted they ‘not further punish such an obviously troubled young man who’s already been a victim of this school’s lack of an efficient policy against bullying’” he repeated her words with a mocking tone and a slight roll of his eyes.

“Bullying?” Star scoffed, “please tell me that’s not actually how they’re still referring to what Curt did.”

“Physically assaulting me is the reason for his suspension, after all” Sky shook his head, “and I honestly can’t help wondering if their records just say ‘burnt boy with cigarette,’ since they sure as fuck don’t seem to wanna acknowledge what else he did. Even after Mathis saw it himself” he added with continued bitterness about the entire situation still clear in his tone.

Brie then opened the door from the living room to the garage, “house. Now” she told them with that same warning in her tone as the two sighed again before heading inside.

“Why are you so mad at Sky, mom?” Star asked as he took a defeated seat on the couch.

“Why?” Brie shook her head as she looked to Connor for any further input. Though he just sat on the nearby recliner, elbows propped on his knees as he leaned forward, running his hands through his own ear-length locks with obvious stress. “This is exactly the kind of attention this family does not need; the kind of attention you two do not need” Brie told them pointedly.

“You think he did it for attention?” Star retorted as Sky just continued to stare at the floor in front of the couch.

“That’s not the point” Brie replied, “whatever the reasons why, attention is what it’s gotten!”

Star shook her head as she also took a seat next to Sky, “all they did was suspend him.”

“Yeah, that’s all they could legally do. But they ‘strongly recommended’ that we get him serious help; as in putting him someplace where he can get that help!” she returned angrily, “do either of you really like the idea of Sky being locked up in some hospital? I’d think you two may take issue with that sort of thing, wouldn’t you?” Brie told her children pointedly.

Star just shook her head worriedly as she looked between all of her family members, “you’re not actually gonna do that though, right?”

Brie sighed heavily as she finally took her own seat in the other recliner, “letting any doctors near either of you is hardly even an option” Brie assured, her volume going from loud anger to soft regret, “but that’s what they want us to do. And if we don’t... I can just imagine the unfit parenting memos and the PTA meetings. Not to mention the fact that they obviously want Sky out of their sight; just so they don’t have to deal with any of their own liability in all of this mess” she sighed again.

Star let out her own angry sigh, “this is such bullshit. Chloe, Sarah, Georgia, and Brandi are all his victims too. And they’re even still testifying as far as we know. Why the hell is the school singling out Sky?”

“Oh I’m sure they want all the girls gone too” Brie returned, “but none of the living ones were raped on school property, as far as we know, anyway. Sky was” she added as her own eyes moved to the floor at having to repeat that fact again. “Plus, what gets more attention? Girl goes to party, gets drunk, and gets violated while unconscious? Or football star rapes other boy in locker room hate crime?” she shook her head as she bit back a few emotions while Sky flinched at the words, already knowing the truth of them.

“Just” Connor began as he finally looked back at Sky, “I know you’re hurting, Sky, but doing what you did to yourself today? And in the school bathroom? You had to have known how easily someone could have caught you” he just shook his head as he looked down again.

Sky took a long breath before he spoke, “all I was thinking was, Curt’s gonna be back here in this place, in only eleven days. And his trial’s not even scheduled for another two months, if it doesn’t get postponed” another breath, “and when he did, what he did to me, it was only three weeks after school started. What could possibly happen in two more months, right?” Sky bit out sarcastically, then added, “especially when he’s now got nothing else to lose and a nice long list of witnesses and their friends and families to turn into more victims” he shook his head again. “That’s what I was thinking; not, gee I hope that no one walks in and rats me out to a teacher” he sniffled as he looked away again.

There was another long moment of silence before Connor spoke to both his children then, “so what do you want us to do? Send you to another school? Move? What do we need to do to keep any more horror from happening to the two of you? Just tell us now.”

Star was the one who spoke then, as Sky didn’t seem to have much strength left to voice any more opinions of his own just then, “as great as that sounds, dad, it’s not just each other that me and Sky are terrified for. We have two other soul-mates now. And when they try to defend themselves without us, their brains start to bleed” she sniffled, “how can we just abandon them, and our DNA, which they now have inside each of them? Especially now that he’ll be back” she added with another sad sniffle as she wiped at her eyes.

Connor looked down again, “well, Kole is almost eighteen. He could likely leave Richmond easily enough, even without his parents’ permission.”

Then Star quickly replied, “and what about Crista? The fourteen year old girl that Curt has already put his hands on; already sexually assaulted. Can you imagine us leaving her there, all alone? With Curt coming back? We may as well kill her ourselves if we do that” she finished as more tears appeared at the thought.

The next day was Friday the thirteenth, and for the first time in seventeen years, Star began to think that maybe that day would finally earn its reputation. After all, she felt beyond unlucky, as well as rudderless and completely lost having to be in that school without Sky there with her. And this would only be the first of three such days. And she didn’t even want to think about what the following week would be like with both Curt and Sky back in school again; assuming any of them even made it another ten days at this point.

Star was spending another lunch period sullenly sitting at their usual table, when they didn’t choose to have lunch in the car, which she was now driving to school instead. However today, Crista was the only one with her as they waited on Kole to come back inside after having the lunch time cigarette he and Sky usually partook of. And perhaps Alana was feeling rather superstitious that thirteenth day of October as well, as she hadn’t come to school that day at all.

Crista glanced down at where Star distractedly scribbled in the margins of her notebook. It was the same notebook she had been using to write down all the horrors she had pulled from Curt’s head, as well as the heads of a few of his victims that she had passed in the halls that week; all of them looking about as dejected as Sky had since the charges against Curt came out.

“You wrote down dates?” Crista asked softly as she moved to take a closer look at Star’s writing covering multiple pages of the black college-ruled notebook.

“I wrote down all I could bear to remember” Star stated softly, “easier to make what he sees real if I use as many facts as I can.”

Crista then turned the notebook toward her as she flipped the pages, flinching at a few words that jumped off them as she did. She continued trying to take in all she could, so she could hopefully further aid in their plan to make Curt lose his mind, hopefully even before returning to school if they could. She then narrowed her eyes as she glanced through the dates Star had written before the details of each incident that she could pull from Curt’s head. In a separate shade of ink, there were also written some of the details she had also pulled from the girls’ heads when she needed more to go on than just Curt’s twisted recollection; unbearable as it was to see and feel what his victims felt, herself.

“So the first one, Caitlin? That was one of his actual girlfriends? And he raped her on his fifteenth birthday, three years ago?” Crista asked as she shook her head and skimmed over the words that ‘Caitlin’ herself had recounted to Curt earlier that week.

“Yeah, she was the only one who was actually awake for everything he did, other than Sammi, and Sky” she added more quietly, “and she ended up moving away afterwards. And we know how it worked out for Sammi and Sky” Star sniffled slightly.

Crista shuddered as she moved on to the several pages that recounted his encounter with Sammi then. “Not sure I wanna read this part” Crista whispered, “I didn’t even know her, but... it somehow hurts more, knowing what I do know about her.”

“To put it mildly” Star agreed as she also turned her eyes away from the tear-stained pages that she forced out, detailing the experience Sammi had been subjected to in that very building they now sat in.

“And Sammi was over a year after Caitlin? Right before the holiday break from school?” Crista asked as she looked back at the date that also happened to be the date of Kole’s baby’s death; months before it ever even had the chance to be born.

“Guess it took him a year of wondering if he’d ever have to pay for Caitlin after she was forced to move away. But then he finally got the courage to do more horrible things again, when he saw Sammi go into that supply closet all alone. After all, she was just some freak, not his actual girlfriend. Who’d care what happened to her, right?” Star sniffled again as she bitterly repeated just a few of Curt’s thoughts prior to following Kole’s love into that closet and doing all the horrible things he did to her there.

Crista took another ragged breath as she flipped to the end of Sammi’s encounter, and moved on to the rest. She then narrowed her eyes as she flipped back and forth through Star’s emotion-fueled handwriting. “And Tim’s girlfriend, that was like seven months after Sammi?” She flipped more pages, “and this Raina girl, that was eleven months later? This June? At the graduation party the team threw at Curt’s house for last year’s seniors?” Crista flipped through more pages worriedly, “then Scott’s girlfriend was only a month later, this July? And Curt’s girlfriend Georgia was only a month after that? A month before school started this year? And Sky was three weeks after school started... and his new girlfriend Brandi was only four days after he raped Sky?” Crista gasped as she looked back at Star. “So, the first three were one a year? Then the last five were only in the last four months?” she exclaimed. “He’s getting a million times worse, and they’re still letting him come back to the same school, with five of his eight victims?” she asked with even more outrage.

“And those are only the eight that he’s being charged with” Star sniffled.

“So there’s even more?” Crista whispered.

“What do you think?” was all Star could say as she wiped at her sad eyes once more, wondering how many more there would still possibly be added to that list once Curt was back in their presence once more; in only ten days.