Musically Talented: A Chester Bennington Fanfiction

I've Become So Numb

Life was hard for Dana Marsh. The gut wrenching feeling of anxiety hit her like a ton of bricks every time she walked down Arcadia Lane and turned left. Before her stood her nightly impending doom, the home of her wicked mother.

Dana's parents died when she was a mere three years old, leaving her to the foster care system. For years, she stayed in an orphanage where she knew she didn't belong. Every day, Hazel Gardener would make her life hell. That Pippi Longstocking haired girl had a serious temper problem, and constantly the two bickered. Neither of them were adopted, and their resentment toward each other only grew. When she was twelve, someone finally brought some good news; she'd found a foster family. Suddenly she was whisked away, the last memory of that terrible orphanage being the scowl upon Hazel Gardener's face.

That was news Dana wished she never heard, that she'd found a foster home. Her foster father was nice, but after his unfortunate passing, she was left all alone with Melinda, her foster mother. The only reason Melinda continued to "care for her," was so that she'd receive her monthly stipend, given by the state with the intention of paying for the costs of raising a child, but Melinda always spent it on herself.

"DANA GET IN HERE NOW!" Melinda screamed, distracting her from her thoughts as she walked inside the treacherous house.

"Coming." She mumbled, quietly walking toward the kitchen where her eyes landed on Melinda filtering through the mail, tossing the junk mail into the trash can.

She thrust an open envelope into Dana's hands, you could see the anger in her eyes. "Open it." She commanded, nothing but bitterness in her voice. Dana slowly grabbed the paper from within the torn envelope. "Faster, go?" Melinda hissed, snapping her fingers.

Dana's face fell as her eyes scanned the report card in front of her, the one displaying less than acceptable grades. Dana knew this wasn't gonna be good. Suddenly, she felt Melinda's perfectly manicured nails grip her arm, her fingernails digging into her arm as she pushed her up against a wall.

"Do you know how embarrassing this is?" She hissed, practically breathing fire, the scent of salmon on her breath. Dana cowered under Melinda's intimidating stance as Melinda snatched the cursed paper and shoved it in her face. "Having a failure like you in my house, I should've never fostered you. I can't wait for you to turn eighteen so you can get out of here!" She spat, but before she could say anything else, her phone rang, startling the both of them. "You're fucking lucky." Melinda snapped as she rushed to her phone. "Hi baby!" She purred into the device as Dana rushed to the basement and locked the door behind herself.

She was right, she knew that as soon as the day comes where she'd become an adult, she'd be kicked out. It wasn't a new concept to her, and to be honest, she looked forward to it.

The basement was her bedroom, her safe haven. It wasn't scary, like all of the movies make them out to be. Carefully treading down the staircase, her decorative lair seemed so inviting. Melinda would never dream of going into that basement, so Dana knew that she was safe as soon as the door was locked.

Her eyes caught sight of her foster father's black acoustic guitar, one of the few remnants of him in the house. After he passed, Melinda got rid of everything, as if he meant nothing. She nearly threw out the guitar, but Dana begged and pleaded for it.

"Fine, but get it out of my sight." Melinda scoffed, shoving the guitar into Dana's hands. And so she did, keeping the guitar in her bedroom.

Dana picked the guitar up off of its stand in the corner of the room and began plucking some random tunes on the strings. She'd always liked guitars, always fascinated by them. The one hobby she can claim as hers was the art of playing the guitar.

When she was alone, Dana felt she could be herself. When she was alone, she was stronger, like she could do anything.

The rest of the night was spent that way, Melinda left the house right after receiving that phone call, and Dana sat on her bed, quietly humming to herself, strumming to her heart's content.

A piercing sound woke her from her peaceful sleep, and she shot out of bed. It was six in the morning, and her alarm signified that it was time to get up and ready. Throwing on a random black shirt, jeans, and her one pair of converse, she ran upstairs and into the bathroom. She knew she could avoid Melinda if she left the house before six-thirty. She'd never pass up an opportunity to not let Melinda put a damper on her mood.

School wouldn't start for another two hours, so Dana typically spent her mornings walking through the city of Phoenix, the city in which she'd always lived. One day, she promised to herself, one day she'd get out of there and start anew. Kicking pebbles as she walked, Dana hummed to herself, something she found herself doing often.

School was not too far from home, so after almost two hours of doing nothing, she caught up to the only person she'd remotely consider a friend, Nick.

"Hey, Dana! What's up?" The nerdy boy asked, propping his taped glasses back onto his nose. She'd encouraged him to get some new glasses, but he always refused, saying he was putting his money into some sort of genius invention and that he'd get new glasses later. To which, Dana smirked and ruffled his hair.

"Nothing today, just Melinda as usual." Dana mumbled, now walking alongside her strange friend.

"Crabby pants?" He laughed, they both sporadically create nicknames for her, to match her pure wickedness. Dana nodded and they walked in silence until they found themselves at Phoenix Public School's entrance. "It's done." Nick suddenly said.

"Hm?" Dana asked, walking to her locker and twisting the combination lock to get it open.

"The time machine. Come over after school, I want to show you." He begged. Before Dana could mock him, the bell rang and she flung herself toward her classroom.

As her math teacher droned on, Dana leaned back in her chair, humming silently. Music was her passion, and it was no secret that she enjoyed it, but she knew it wouldn't be a career she'd obtain success through. Melinda couldn't care less what Dana pursued, but the teachers always tried to convince her to sign up for college. Dana despised the idea of going to college, so she'd have to pick some type of regular job in the future, well, if she didn't want to be homeless. She dwelled on this for the rest of the school day.

She never accompanied Nick at lunch, mainly because she enjoyed being alone, but also because he was always off doing something random, possibly working on that "time machine" he'd been talking about so often. She debated whether she would humor him after school to see this contraption, her main reason for accepting being that she would avoid Melinda.

So when the time came that the last bell of the day rung, she darted up from her seat and joined Nick at the exit of the school's vast building.

"Just wait till you see this thing, it's massive." Nick exclaimed, walking toward his garage door and pushing it open.

Dana's mouth fell agape. Nick seriously made a contraption?" She laughed to herself as she followed Nick into his garage, staring at the strange thing he made.

"Stand over here." Nick suggested. Dana was about to mock him for being so weird, but decided against it as she humored her friend by standing on a large X marked with frog tape.

"Ready? 1... 2..." A bright light flashed, temporarily blinding Dana, but as her vision cleared she noticed...

"Nick?!"

A/N
Omg hi everyone! Thanks for reading this new story! I've had this random dream years ago, since like 2015, and I thought I'd write about it. Don't worry, I'm not ditching my other story, and yes, our accident prone ninja Chazlord will be in the next chapter!