Chapter 10

Throughout all the months that passed, I was able to keep my grades up and keep my practices going. Although I did notice that Mark was starting to really have trouble keeping up with me.

I continued to go out with a new girl each weekend, never going out with a particular girl more than once. I tried to make sure that I didn't do anything with any of the other girls. I had learned my lesson that these humans went extreme when you rocked their world that much.

After a while however, I started to miss the sex so much that eventually I had to go ahead and start sleeping with a few of them. I always made sure that the ones I did sleep with were never virgins. I didn't want that kind of hassle.

When October rolled around and it was time for Halloween, I volunteered to take Christina out. I overheard my other three sisters asking Ellen if they could go out with friends instead of with us.

I certainly wasn't happy about their request but I knew there wasn't anything I could do about their choices.

I had been hoping to spend the time with my sisters like we used to but they seemed to have developed other priorities. In fact they even seemed to be getting worse attitudes with me as time went by, especially after each one of my dates.

I was starting to worry more and more about the way the girls were starting to act and it seemed to start to manifest itself in my dreams. I started to have nightmares about them just about every night.

Christina had to start sleeping in my bed again. Her being there with me seemed to be the only thing that would help prevent my nightmares I was having about the other five girls.

I did try my hardest to ignore the dreams as well as the actions of the girls. I thought that I was doing ok with the nightmares until I woke up early and found that Christina was lying there next to me.

In my nightmares I was having I would always end with Christina grabbing my hand and leading me away from the scenes. She always seemed to lead me to a tranquil place.

As time passed I noticed that Christina seemed to be getting more irritated with her sisters and also seemed to be developing dark rings under her eyes. She seemed to be tired all the time. I couldn't figure out why.

I felt sorry for her but I couldn't figure out what to do to stop the dreams. I didn't know how but it seemed to me that my nightmares were keeping her awake.

One night I decided that I would lock my door so that Christina could get some sleep. I was just trying to look out for her. It ended up being the worst night of my life.

The dream started as usual. I was walking one night and found myself walking towards an old section of town that had a few old buildings. I looked through the windows and saw all the girls in my life being forced to capitulate.

I could see that they didn't want to do what the guys were trying to force them to do. I watched the guys start slapping and hitting the girls. I kept pounding on the windows and yelling at the guys to stop but it never seemed to make a difference.

No matter what I did, the guys just kept getting their ways. For the first time, I had to watch the guys succeed at their tasks. Usually Christina would come in at this point and save me from watching the horror. I had to watch the girls get raped over and over again. Nothing I did made a difference.

I thought I kept hearing Christina calling my name but she never showed up to take me away. Her calling my name just didn't seem to be able to turn me away. I couldn't turn away to find her.

When I finally woke up, I was drenched in sweat and my throat was raw. I got up and went to the door to take a shower. What I found when I opened the door surprised me greatly.

Curled up against my door frame was Christina. I could see dried tears on her face and her cheeks and eyes looked puffy. She looked like she had just fallen asleep. I could also see bruises on the palms of her hands.

It broke my heart to see her lying there like that. I gently picked her up and took her into her room. I could tell that she had fallen asleep recently because she didn't stir at all when I picked her up.

I had slept in a little bit so I didn't have time for my run. I took my shower and went down for breakfast.

When I got downstairs I saw Ellen sitting at the table. She had rings under her eyes and her cheeks were tear streaked. She must not have heard me come down because she jumped when I asked her if everything was alright.

Ellen jumped up from where she had been sitting and ran over to me. She threw her arms around my neck and started crying.

I didn't know what to say so I just held her for the few minutes that she cried.

"What's the matter?" I asked her.

"I had to listen to two of the most important people in my life suffer all night long." Ellen said.

"What do you mean?" I asked her. "Was someone hurting my sisters?"

"It's not like that." She said smiling at me. "You locked your door last night. I figured that you had seen the lack of sleep that Christina was suffering from and I figured you wanted to try and help. I have noticed the lack of sleep as well as you have. The problem is that your plan didn't work."

I held Ellen in my arms again. I waited for her to finish her story. I was beginning to get a knot in my stomach because I had a bad feeling that I knew what it was that caused Christina so much pain.

"I have been trying to give you your space." Ellen said. "When I first noticed that Christina was sneaking into your room again, I was nervous, but I noticed quickly that your nightmares were stop as soon as she lay down next to you."

I didn't know what to say. I had thought that it was all in my head but here was an outsider telling me that her being next to me was actually helping me to sleep. I figured my mind must have been realizing that she was there so it would relax my mind which would help me get away from the nightmares.

"I wondered if you would notice." Ellen said. "I figured that you would notice the rings under her eyes. I also had a feeling that you would try to do something about it. I thought you might try something like you did. I don't blame you for trying but I don't think you quite realize how special you are to Christina. With that in mind, there was no way that your plan could have worked."

I lowered my eyes to try and hide the shame I felt at that moment. I never planned to cause Christina more pain. I was just trying to help her sleep.

Ellen could see how ashamed I felt so she grabbed my face and made me to look her in her eyes.

"Don't feel bad." She told me. "A lot of people that care would have probably tried the same thing. I'm sorry that it didn't work for you. That's just how it is sometimes."

I pasted a smile on my face as best I could.

"So where is your sister at now anyways?" Ellen asked me as she was turning towards the stove.

"I put her in her bed." I told her. "I figured that she disserved to sleep in a bit today. I hope you don't mind."

Ellen smiled and nodded her head at me. "Yeah, I think I will let her sleep as late as she wants today. I will call the school and let them know." She said.

I smiled at Ellen and sat down to eat. Ellen turned to the stove to get breakfast ready. I couldn't decide what to make of the whole situation.

I was lost in my own thoughts when I noticed Stephanie come downstairs. She looked like she'd had a long night as well.

I was very surprised when Stephanie sat down next me. When I looked over at her, she was staring down at her hands. She looked like she had something heavy weighing on her mind so I left her alone.

I noticed Ellen look over at Stephanie a few times but Stephanie didn't seem to notice. I was in the middle of some heavy thoughts of my own, when I heard a quiet sniffle. When I looked over at Stephanie, I noticed that her eyes were red and I could see tears running down her cheeks.

I didn't know what was wrong and even though I wasn't really getting g along with most of my sisters at the moment, I still didn't like to see any of them cry. I slowly extended my hand and gently lay it on hers.

Stephanie jumped at first, but when she looked at me, she lost it. She grabbed my hand like it was a lifeline.

"I'm so sorry for the way I've been treating you." She said.

I still didn't quite understand why the girls had been acting the way they had so I didn't quite know what she was apologizing for. When Stephanie continued, it was like she had been reading my mind.

"With you talking about going away, I thought that you didn't want to be my brother anymore." She managed to say through the tears.

"Of course I still love you girls." I said. "I don't think I will ever stop loving any of you."

I gently tugged on her hand and in a flash she had climbed into my lap. I just held her and let her cry herself out.

"I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't believe mom and dad when they tried to tell us that." She said. "But last night when I heard you, I knew it was true."

I must have had a confused look on my face because Stephanie kind of smiled at my look.

"Christina woke me up last night when she left the room." She said. "I was worried about her so I followed her. She sort of seemed like she was dazed but she went straight for your door."

I nodded at her to continue. Stephanie took a deep breath before continuing.

"Christina grabbed your door handle and tried to turn the door handle but the door was locked." Stephanie said. "When the door handle didn't turn, I think that woke her up some because she looked around like she was lost."

Stephanie shuddered at her memory of what happened next.

"She looked like she might come back to bed." Stephanie said. "I saw her even start to turn back to the room. She was half turned when she froze. She turned back to your door and she looked like she heard something that frightened her."

"I didn't know to think until I heard it also." Stephanie said with a haunted look in her eyes. "Christina kept trying to get into your room. She kept knocking on your door and calling your name but you wouldn't answer the door."

"She seemed to be really scared when you wouldn't answer." She said. "I was about to return to sleep until I heard the sounds myself. I could hear you crying in your sleep. I heard you trying to yell at someone to leave me and my sisters alone."

I had lived through the dream and I still didn't feel quite as shaken up about it as Stephanie seemed to be over it. I was rubbing my hand up and down her back now to try and help keep her calm.

"I could hear the pain in your voice." She said. "I knew then that you really did care very much for us. I truly realized at that point that we were very important to you. I listened to you for a couple hours with Christina. I felt so ashamed when I thought of how me and my sisters had been treating you."

I hugged her tightly and told her that everything would be alright. I was able to eventually get her to calm down enough to finish her breakfast. It was a close call though when Stephanie got off my lap and climbed into her own just as her sisters came down for breakfast.

The other two sisters continued to ignore me as usual but I was in too good a mood to let their negative attitude get me down. I had Stephanie back as a friend so I was happy.

Stephanie saw the way that the other two sisters were treating me. She looked sad knowing that she had been treating me the same way shortly before. She had treated me the same way up until today.

I could also see that she was starting to get angry at the other two's behavior. When she looked in my direction to see if I would say anything I just shrugged. I knew that there wasn't anything that I could do to change their attitudes until the time was right so I was content to wait. I had gotten quite good at the waiting game.

Stephanie looked like she was going to say something to them at one point so I got her attention and shook my head at her. She looked like she might say something anyways but she nodded at me and kept quiet.

I left soon after that to head down to the bus stop. I was pleasantly surprised to be joined shortly by Stephanie. As soon as she joined me however, she asked me why I didn't want her to say anything to her sisters.

"It kills me to be treated as I have been by you all but they have to decide to forgive me for whatever it is that they think that I have done on their own." I told her. "We can't force them to forgive me so we just have to wait."

She shook her head with a sad look on her face.

"It just wouldn't be the same if you had to talk to them." I said. "If you talked to them then they would always have a little doubt in their minds and I don't want just parts of you. I want you all whole and complete. Besides I don't want you to tell anyone about what you heard last night. I would very much prefer if you kept last night to yourself."

"I don't like it but I will do as you ask." Stephanie told me. "It just makes me so mad when I see the way they treat you. It doesn't help that I know I was treating you the same way before last night."

"Honestly, I still don't understand why you were acting like that, and why your sisters are still acting like that." I said. "Please just promise me that you will tell me in the future when I do something that makes you mad. Remember, I wasn't raised the same as all of you were, I usually don't understand when I do something to upset you girls."

She looked shocked for a minute then she started crying again. She had forgotten about my past. My reminding her now made her feel even worse for the way she had been treating me.

I knew she already felt bad about her actions and I didn't want her beating herself up over it anymore so I just shrugged at her and smiled.

We smiled at each for a few minutes until the bus showed up. My other sisters came running down the driveway just as we were climbing onto the bus. Stephanie sat down with her friends and I sat alone. That was fine with me because I had a lot of things to think about anyways.

At the twins' house, I saw the twins climb onto the bus. They weren't looking very good recently but I couldn't figure out what I could possibly do about the situation to fix it with them. It looked to me like they might be starting to show the signs of drugs but I couldn't be sure.

They sat down next to a couple of the druggie's girlfriends. That was all I needed to be sure that my suspicions were correct. I just hoped that my gifts to them would help them at some point before it was too late.

My day was usual. I was even able to sneak out of practice again without the girls being any the wiser. I would actually laugh when I thought about how frustrated the girls must be from thinking that I would just disappear after practice. I was actually a little surprised that they hadn't figured out how I was getting out yet.

I went and practiced my fencing with Mark again, as usual. We kept talking about the whole situation with the twins but neither one of us could think of what they were mad about or what we could do to fix it.

I didn't want the twins to be hurt but I was almost at the point of not caring anymore if they ever talked to me again. I was starting to understand what Mark had meant about the opposite of love being indifference.

The fact that the twins were starting to act indifferently towards me didn't help my feelings. I think a large part of their act though was because of the drugs. But it didn't matter because I almost didn't care anymore myself.

In all of our discussions though, I was able to keep my suspicions about the drugs to myself. I didn't think that Mark would believe that his girls would be able to do anything like drugs.

At the end of our practice I decided to jog home. I had started to miss my usual running. Elves are natural born runners so we love to run.

When I got home, I walked in the front door only to be tackled by my little angel of mercy.

"I am so mad at you." Christina said as she clung to me. Her face was buried in my stomach. I just held her for a few minutes so she could compose herself.

"Please don't ever do that to me again." She said. "I was so worried when you wouldn't wake up and answer your door last night. Why did you have to go and lock your door for anyways?" She asked.

"I was worried about you hun." I told her. "I know you haven't been sleeping as much as you should lately and I was hoping that you would just head back to bed if you couldn't get into my room is all."

Christina was frowning as I first started speaking, but by the time I finished she had progressed to fully fledged tears. The sight of her crying broke my heart and I held her close again.

"I'm sorry Angel, I promise that from now on you are welcome into my room from now on, whenever you feel that I need it." I told her.

Christina stopped crying and looked at me with the sparkle returned to her eyes. She was smiling at me and looking so cute that I wanted to just melt into her and protect her forever.

"You really mean it?" She asked me. At my nod, she jumped up and kissed my check before running off to tell her mother.

I smiled as I watched her leave. I turned to go upstairs and saw Jason standing there smiling at me. I just shook my head and went up to shower and change.

I had no sooner got out of the shower when I heard a knock at the door. I quickly threw a towel around my waist before I opened the door. I was shocked at who I saw standing there.

Stephanie's eyes were downcast but she looked up into my eyes to ask if she could come in. I agreed and went over to my bed to sit down. She looked like she really wanted to talk to me about something so I patted the bed next to where I was sitting.

Stephanie came over to sit down but stopped when she realized that I hadn't gotten dressed yet. I smiled at her and said. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure I don't have anything you haven't seen before."

Stephanie blushed and shook her head. I was surprised; I would have thought that she would have at least seen her father by accident at some point.

I shrugged and patted the bed next to me again. She seemed to gather her courage before sitting down finally. I sat quietly next to her and waited for her to start.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry again for the way I have been treating you." She said.

I started to say something to the contrary but she stopped me by putting one of her fingers to my lips.

"I had a talk with mom today after I got home from school." She said. "She reminded me of what you had told me earlier. She told me that you were raised differently from the rest of us and that you probably didn't even know why we were all upset."

At my nod of confirmation she seemed to feel even worse, if that were possible, but she continued what she started saying.

"We have been upset with you because of you leaving us." She said. At my shocked expression she rushed forward. "You said you were leaving for the summer and didn't act like you were the slightest bit concerned about how we would feel about it. Then you started to get angry at us because of the way we were acting so we started getting angry right back. We were just trying to get your attention so that maybe you would decide not to go."

"The real kicker for us though was when you started to go out with all those different girls while we were mad at you." She said. "You aren't just a brother to us. You are also our ... never mind."

I was shocked. This whole thing had pretty much been a huge misunderstanding. And on top of that the girls were about to get into some serious trouble over it. I shook my head and slumped down onto my bed. I just hoped they always remembered the special gifts that I had given them.

I sat back up and hugged Stephanie and told her that everything would work out in the end. I shooed her out of my room then so I could get some sleep. I figured I might need to be well rested before too much longer.

Stephanie, Christina and I all got along much better after that for the rest of the month. Stephanie even joined Christina and me when we went trick or treating on Halloween. I was glad that she and I had become close again.

I was relieved to see that Stephanie had been able to get out of the situation that she was in before they decided that she couldn't leave. I had read stories about people trying to leave that type of situation being threatened and harassed.

It wasn't until just after Christmas that things with Jessica came to a head. I had really hoped that I would be able to prevent anything bad from happening until I was able to make up with them.

We had just come back from Christmas break when it happened. I had thought that I was making progress with them over the holidays. They had almost been civil to me over the break.

I soon discovered though that I was sorely mistaken when school started back up. As soon as they got back to school, they started to hang out with the wrong people again and their attitudes reflected it.

I almost wasn't surprised to hear my implant that connected me with the Elfbow start to beep to get my attention.

"Which one is it?" I asked it. I had been dreading this day coming but I was realistic enough to know that I couldn't do much to stop it.

"Jessica has just asked for help." It said. "From the sounds of things, I would surmise that they are trying to force her to have sex with them. She sounds like she is just barely holding her own for now but I don't think they are going to let her resist much longer."

I wasn't surprised to hear it. I had been scared that something like this would happen. I had even debated with myself as to whether or not I should help them right away or not so that they might learn a more lasting lesson. I had eventually decided that it would be worse to wait but I had also decided to do things a little different this time.

I got up and because everyone was still awake I asked Jason if I could go out to the back pasture. He looked like he was going to deny my request but I guess something in the look on my face made him change his mind. He agreed and I was out the back door almost before he had even finished saying it was ok.

I ran as fast as I could out to the Elfbow and jumped on. We were on our way before the door had even finished closing. On my way to the bridge I stopped by my quarters. I grabbed one of my jumpsuits.

The jumpsuits I had installed onboard the Elfbow were top of the line when I left. They had the built in boots and gloves and even a built in soft sided helmet. The other special feature about them was that they were designed to withstand small space debris from puncturing the outer material. Needless to say they were pretty much bullet proof.

I had decided after my last couple of stints in the hospital that I was tired of spending so much time there. Plus when I pulled the full facial visor down, no one would really be able to tell what the face underneath looked like.

"We are almost over the site sir." The Elfbow AI told me.

"Ok, do like last time and put me down far enough away to keep anyone from being able to see you." I told it.

I had been lucky the last time I helped one of the girls because no one said anything about the bike I had showed up on. As soon as I had gotten to feeling well enough to leave the house without one of the girls following me, I had stolen away with the bike.

I replaced it on the Elfbow and changed its appearance enough to keep anyone from recognizing it. I didn't want to have to destroy it to keep my secret. I liked riding the bike whenever I was able to get away long enough to do it.

I jumped on the bike and started it up while I waited for the Elfbow to descend. It didn't take long for the Elfbow to reach the appropriate height for the ramp to open to let me out.

I gunned the engine and shot out of the vehicle bay like a demon on fire. I hadn't bothered to ask where I should head because I figured I would just trust the Elfbow to give me the right directions as I drove.

I soon came upon a barn where I could see light coming from inside. The Elfbow told me that the tracking beacon on Jessica's amulet was coming from inside.

I figured my best bet for the least amount of violence was to make as dramatic an impression as possible. That should let me get in and out as quickly as possible.

I had the Elfbow fly overhead this time to let me know where everyone was inside the barn. It was able to give me pretty specific description of where all the bodies were located. I figured that at least this time I wouldn't be going in blind.

I walked to the front door and steadied my nerves. I made sure I was completely calm before making my move. Once I was ready I kicked the doors in.

As soon as the doors opened, the Elfbow told me that my suit sensors were detecting multiple drugs in the air. I ignored the statement and went in the direction that the Elfbow had told me that I would find Jessica. I was able to find Jessica before anyone had reacted.

I quickly stepped over to where she was. There were two guys holding each of her arms while a third was trying to get her legs apart. They had already succeeded in ripping all her clothes off.

I shook my head and looked her in her eyes, even though she couldn't really see my face for the mask. I shook my head again and stepped forward. The three guys hadn't noticed me yet so I grabbed the one trying to get between her legs. I was mad now so with considerable strength I threw him over my shoulder where he flew until he hit the wall.

The first one was just landing in a crumpled up pile, knocked cold when I stepped forward and grabbed the other two at the same time. I picked them both up by their necks and swung them into each other hard enough to knock them out as well. They had tried to struggle free at first but their strength was no match for mine.

They soon joined their buddy in a pile over by the wall.

I looked at Jessica again as she struggle to try and cover herself with her hands. Even though she had been pretty much tormenting me with her attitude for awhile now, when I looked at her, all I could feel was sadness that she had let herself get this far gone.

I heard a sound behind me so I turned to find that all the guys that had been at this little party were now on their feet facing me. I quickly noticed that all of them had acquired some sort of blunt weapon or knife.

I hadn't been in a fight for a long time and I'll admit that I was almost itching for one. The sight of so many combatants got my blood to pumping.

The first one to come at me was attacking with a swinging 2x4. I ducked it easily enough and stepped to the side so that he would run past me. As he was passing me I struck out with the side of my hand into his larynx. He dropped quickly after that and I knew he was out of the fight so I turned my attention back to my remaining opponents.

Two came at me next, one was caring another board, and the other had a tire iron. I waited until just before they reached me before somersaulting over their heads as they tried to both swing at me at the same time.

As I was going over their heads, I punched down with my finger knuckles, connecting with their spines just below the base of their skulls. I made sure to only hit hard enough to cause them temporary paralysis.

They both dropped to the ground before my feet reconnected with solid ground. There were now only three guys left. I smiled at them, even though I knew they wouldn't be able to see my face.

I could tell from their expression that the last three were thinking about running but I seriously wanted to make an impression here so I wasn't planning to let them get away.

I approached them slowly and I guess they figured out that they weren't getting out without a fight because they all attacked at once.

The first to reach me had a knife that I just dodged as he swung it at my gut. As the knife passed close to my stomach, I struck his wrist with enough force to break it. He dropped the knife and turned to run. I caught him by his collar though and threw him against the wall.

There were now only two. The second guy had a knife also. He tried to bring it to bare as I was throwing the first one but as soon as the first one was out of my hands I continued the spin I started and swung my hand at the inside of the second attackers upper arm which caused his whole arm to go numb.

He dropped his knife also and tried to run but before he had a chance to turn I grabbed him and threw him into the last man standing. The last one was actually quick enough to get out of the way which caused the second to hit a pillar behind him. He must have hit his head because he was out now also.

The last man had seen how easy I had dispatched the other two so he pulled a gun. I'd had enough of these damn humans with their guns so as soon as I saw the weapon I stepped forward and grabbed the barrel.

I turned the gun towards his own leg just as he pulled the trigger. The shocked look on his face at the realization that he had shot himself was comical. As he dropped from the leg wound I kept a hold of the gun and put it into one of my cargo pockets.