A Foster's Home

Chapter 6

It's been three hours since Freddy's breakdown. It was late at night. Thankfully it was a Friday so they didn't have to wake up early the next day, especially after what had happened.

Rosa and Victor were able to calm Freddy down, but he remained locked in his room. He wouldn't even allow Billy to enter the room, anger and betrayal still flowing through his veins. But he didn't cry anymore. It felt like all the tears had run out. The memories, however, still remained with him. He laid in his bed with eyes staring only at the bed above his, the events of what has happened today fresh in his mind.

He eventually will forgive his siblings for what they've done--they were, in fact, only trying to help--but right now he couldn't. Just the thought of them looking into his sketchbooks, sketchbooks filled with the best and worst moments of his life. It was like they were invading his personal life. And keeping it a secret from him rather than just tell him they wanted to help! He felt so betrayed, especially by Mary. He told her his deepest, darkest, and most painful secret and just blurted it out as if it were nothing, like...gossip.

Freddy closed his eyes and sighed. It's been a long day. He wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but he knew he wouldn't be able to. The memories would just invade his dreams. He was sick of it all.

He opened his eyes and looked at all the superhero stuff surrounding him. They were also the cause of his breakdown, his memories, and his nightmares. They were daily reminders of what happened that day, especially the Batman stuff. Batman was his dad's favorite superhero, so everything Batman related belonged to him. It all reminded him of not only the accident, but also what happened before the crash. What happened before the crash was suppose to be one of the best days of his life, an accomplishment that he and his father had been working on for a while, only to be taken away hours later.

Fresh tears started to well up his eyes. The emotional, stabbing pain came back to his heart. He had to do something about all this stuff. The more they stared at him, the harder all of it would be. He had to put it all away. It was the only way to truly heal. Taking away the constant reminders would ease the pain. If only there were something to take the pain away completely.

Freddy got up from the bed, got his crutch, and walked over to the closet. In it were a pile of boxes that had once stored all his superhero things. He was relieved that he didn't throw them away. One by one he got them out, every box he took out made him more confident of his decision.

Then he walked over to the most painful reminder of them all. He remembered the day his dad got it. He was four years old and his dad burst into his room with a big smile on his face. It was Freddy's first introduction to Batman, and his dad told him about the many ways Batman would fight enemies with it. He even showed his son some of the techniques he learned. He remembered his mother standing at the door smiling and rolling her eyes at her two goofballs. That day was when he got closer than ever to his parents. What was a beautiful moment was now a haunting memory. Freddy grabbed the Batarang and put it into one of the boxes.

Then one by one, all the Batman stuff began to fade from the room, telling the other superhero stuff that soon it'll be their turn.
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Billy was tired of staying in the living room. Freddy had locked him out for three hours and at that moment he was desperate to do anything to get inside the room. But he knew that Freddy was still mad at him. He couldn't blame him. Still, he made another attempt.

Billy walked up the stairs and walked up to his bedroom door and knocked. "Freddy? Can I come in now?" he asked as gently as possible.

"Why?" he said with anger in his tone.

"It's my room, too, you know."

There was silence on the other end of the door. Billy didn't know if he was thinking about it or simply just ignoring him. He put his ear against the door to hear what was going on. Then after a minute of silence, Billy heard the door being unlocked.