Zac (Deranged Ink #4)

Prologue

Zac

I didn’t have a rough childhood. In fact I had the kind that most kids dream of. I was an only child to loving parents that were kids at heart. They loved video games, junk food in front of the television for movies nights, and staying up late telling ghost stories by a flashlight.

My father and I tossed a football in the backyard while my mother watched from the window that overlooked the backyard above the kitchen sink. She’d laugh and end up out on the back porch watching us until the sun started to set.

I was a lucky kid, but that changed around the time I turned ten. Two men broke into our home, and while I hid in the closet my parents were brutally murdered. Those sounds, the cries and terror that took place, forever haunt me.

I remained in the dark closet until eventually silence set in and hours later, I emerged. The scene I was met with, those images can never be erased. My heroes, the two people that gave their lives to protect mine, were taken from me.

With no living relatives or family friends to take me in, I ended up in the system. Foster care was rough. No one wanted to adopt a lone boy with an attitude bigger than this world. I hated everyone, I was angry and hateful, no one could reach me. I created havoc wherever I went, I acted out because I could.

I spent years feeling like I was alone, even though so many were trying to reach me.

Until I met Jace, I never let anyone in. But he reached me, it wasn’t him trying to pretend he understood what I was going through. It wasn’t because he too had no one. It was because he fired back during a group session where one of the many doctors was attempting to make me share my feelings.

What he said could have been perceived as harsh but to me it was the first real honest thing I’d heard in years.

“How about we leave the guy alone,” he interrupted Dr. Lewis, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. A silence settled over everyone as their eyes shifted between Jace and the therapist. “His parents were murdered while he was forced to listen. He hid in a closet knowing he was going to die too, or hold his breath to keep from being heard. So until you are forced to listen to the screams of your parents as they fight for their lives, maybe you should back off. When he is ready to talk, he’ll talk. Quit pretending you know anything about what any of us are going through or have gone through. When you leave here you go home to your cushy life and sit down for a home-cooked meal your wife has ready for you. Meanwhile we remain here, eating food that tastes like cardboard reliving the nightmares of our lives, wondering if it will ever get better.”

From that moment on, Jace and I have been friends. My ride or die, and the only person in my life that didn’t sugarcoat shit. But he was also the guy I knew would always have my back. In good or bad times, we were a team.