Chapter 15

Outside the room
    "Autumn would like to tell all of us something," Emily said as she walked over to the lounge area down the hall from the room. "Is she okay, what did she talk to you about for so long?" Nikolas answered jumping to his feet. "She's fine Nikolas, and she was telling me something about my..our real father." Emily said unsure if she should fill them in. "What do you mean your father?" Nikolas said. "Autumn and I are half-sisters, our father and her mother had an affair and our father left because her mother was taking drugs and partying, he knew about Autumn and left her a letter and a picture of me in a safety deposit box in Arizona, she recognized me when she got here, but was too scared to tell me," Emily said quickly filling them in. "Why was she scared?" Lucky asked. "She wouldn't say, she just asked me to come get everyone and that she would explain it all at once because its hard for her to talk about," Emily said. "I suppose we should go in there then and find out what's going on." Nikolas said, leading the way down to Autumn's room.
Inside Autumn's Room
    They walked inside the room unsure of what was going to be said, but somehow knowing that they would not be the same afterwards. "Hi guys, sorry to scare you like that, I just needed to tell Emily that part first, did she fill you in?" I said. Nikolas sat down lightly on the bed next to me and took my hand, Lucky and Elizabeth settled into chairs on one side of the bed and Zander and Emily sat in the chairs on the other side.
    "This is hard for me to tell you, but you guys are such good friends, you deserve an explanation for what is happening to me." I said. "Only if you are up to it," Nikolas said. "It's time for me to tell all my secrets, I have been running from people for long enough." I said. "Then tell your story Autumn, we want to help you, all of us," Lucky said.
    "Ok, here it goes, as I told Emily I was born in a bad part of LA, my mom was never very stable, she was into drugs and drinking long before I was born and didn't stop long enough to carry me full term. I was born 2 1/2 months early and stayed in the NICU for 3 months. She brought me home, laid me in my wicker basket in the back bedroom and went right on partying. My father is also Emily's father, and he left before I was even born, only sending one letter to my mom when I was about 3 months old. He couldn't handle her partying anymore.
    When she was sober and not high she would actually take me to the park and take care of me, but when she was drunk, high, or hungover she would just let me lie in my little basket in the dark corner of the bedroom. Half the time we didn't have electricity, food, water, or a telephone for emergencies, but my mother always had a bottle of vodka, cigarettes, a new boyfriend, and an ounce of crack or heroin. Some of the guys weren't so bad, they ignored me for the most part, and one of them actually called Child Protection, but nothing happened with the complaint. Pretty soon she started bringing home this one guy all the time. That was when I was 4 years old. I remember I was scared of him as soon as I met him and he hated me yet he always came to tuck me in at night. First it was fine, but then he started undressing me for bed too. Then he would..." I started crying and couldnt continue the story. Nikolas gave me a hug and said "He would what?"
    "He would touch me places that I didn't want to be touched, but when I told my mom she would tell me not to lie to her about my stepfather and that he was nice enough to take care of me. By the time I was 5 he started forcing himself on me every night. I cried myself to sleep and started acting up in school. Then when I was 8 he left and my mom was angry at me, I remember she would hit me and tell me that it was my fault that Daddy Steve left, because I was telling lies about him to my teacher. About a week later she left for awhile and when she came back after another week she brought home a new daddy. His name was Tom and he was ten times worse than Steve could ever be. He started right away raping me. By the time I was 13 I had already had 2 abortions, he dragged me to the clinic and said that he was my father and that I was sleeping around and getting into trouble. He beat me up so badly I had to have my Spleen removed, he broke my arm and my nose twice and that was all before my 14th birthday. Then after I turned 14 Steve came back and my mom was sleeping with both of them. She got pregnant again, but Tom beat her up and she lost that baby. Then she got really sick. She had HIV and it turned into AIDS after 6 months. I was tested but I am clean, well at least I knew that before all of this." I stopped for a minute to take a drink of water.
    "What do you mean all of this?" Nikolas asked. "I know that someone raped me again. I can tell, was it Tom, did the bastard find me again?" I said. Everyone sat there unsure of what to say. "Dammit I need to know right now, did he do this to me again?" I said. "Yes it was Tom, in the bushes in the park, right where he raped Elizabeth 4 years ago," Nikolas said, his voice breaking with almost every word. "Is there more to your story?" Elizabeth said, tears streaming down her face. "Yes, but if its too painful for you to hear, I mean he did this to you too.." I said. "No, you need to finish, this isn't about me right now." Elizabeth said.
    "As I was saying, she deteriorated quickly, and Tom and Steve kept looking at me to pay off my mother's debt. She owed them a lot for drugs and alcohol. I didn't have any money, but they didn't want money, they wanted my...services. They sold me to their friends on the street, they would pay me either in money or drugs, and I had paid off most of my mother's debt by my 15th birthday. That's when she died, New Years Eve at about 9pm....Tom and Steve wanted the other $5000 dollars in the next 2 weeks but I couldn't do it anymore. I found out about the letter from my father, Emily's father too, and I left that night after my mother's will was read. She gave everything to those two bastards and only left me the letter. I ran to Arizona to find the deposit box. He left me a letter and a picture of Emily, as well as about $8000 in cash. Tom and Steve somehow found out about the money I had and where I was, and they started to chase me. So I went on the run. After about a year it was only Steve chasing me. Now I know why, Tom was in jail for the things he did here. But now, they are both after me and they wont stop until they kill me, or use me again to pay off the debt from 6 years ago. I can't do it again, I would rather die than deal with them again. I don't want to run anymore but I don't know if I will survive." I said finishing in tears. Everyone was crying and we all just sat there stunned into silence.
    Nikolas broke the silence. "We will help you, now that we know who the enemies are, we will keep you safe." he said. "You guys are the best, but you do know that now that you have heard my story you are all in danger too, especially Nikolas and Emily." I said. We sat there determined to fight against them, not knowing how tough the fight was going to be.