Secrets Always Come To Light

Chapter One

There was a knock upon the door, this was a special day for the Johnson family. Helen excitedly proceeded over to the door and opened it. "Hey Allison, it's nice to see you again," Helen smiled as she reached her hand out. Allison, the social worker smiled back and shook hands with her. "So, where is Dylan? We've been so excited to having him," Helen spoke.

Dylan came around the corner with his headphones on with loud music blasting from them. Allison grabbed the headphones off his head and put them in his hands. Dylan took a deep breath and produced a half-assed smile. He knew this would end up with him back in the stupid care home.

As Allison went to the car to get Dylan's other bags. Helen showed Dylan in. He put his hood up and put his hands in his pockets, as he stared at the floor. Emily, Dylan's new adoptive disinter came down the stairs and saw Dylan looking around with his eyes. "Hi. Are you ok? It's ok to be nervous. Your new room is ready." Emily softly spoke to Dylan.

Allison and Helen walked in with Dylan's bags, he snatched the bag Allison was holding. "What have you got in there? It's a bit heavy for clothes," Allison questioned. Dylan looked at Allison with a blank stare and walked up the stairs to find his room.

Once Dylan found his room he shut the door and placed his bag on the bed. He unzipped the black duffel bag and looked inside. Dylan pulled out the handle of his machete that he bought from someone online. He smiled as he pushed his hand over the blade, he put the machete back in the bag and looked at the rest of his stash of illegal stuff and smiled.

As he stared at the contents of his bag there was a knock at his door, Dylan quickly zipped the bag up and shoved it under the bed. Allison walked in and put his other bag down on the floor, "so, what do you think? Do you like it here?" She quizzed. Dylan shrugged, "it's only going to end up like the rest. No point in getting too comfortable here," he said in a deep tone as he sat on his bed, "I won't bother unpacking, I'm sure it won't last long." He added. Allison sat down beside him, "I don't think Helen will give up that easily and Emily seems nice. You should be positive about this one, I think it's going to be the one this time."

Dylan stared at the floor and shrugged. Allison walked out of the room and shut the door. "I'm sure he'll settle in soon. He's been pulled from pillar to post for years," Allison spoke. "Why has none of Dylan's placements worked?" Helen quizzed. Allison handed over a copy of Dylan's file which felt as heavy as a concrete slab.

Helen shockingly placed the file down on the table, "if you have any issues or questions, here's my card with my email and number. Don't hesitate to get in touch with me." Allison smiled as she passed Helen a card and left.

Helen opened the file and found the page she was looking for. She stared at the words that were written.

"Dylan is a violent and angry young man."

"Dylan beat up his foster brothers and threw a chair at a window and shattered the glass."

"Dylan threatened to kill our whole family. He is a very disturbed child."

Helen was shocked, Dylan didn't seem violent. She knew him as quiet and sweet. She closed the folder as Dylan walked into the living room and looked around. "Hi Dylan, do you want to watch TV? Or we could do something you like to do?" Helen asked. Dylan looked at her and put his headphones on and sat on the couch. Helen smiled and thought nothing of it. She took the file to her office with Emily following close behind.

"Why doesn't he talk? He's weird, you're a counsellor, can't you counsel him?" Emily groaned. "You know it doesn't work like that. He's just anxious. It's a whole new home to him. He just needs time." Helen responded as she placed the file in her filing cabinet that locked. Emily left as she rolled her eyes.

Dylan scrolled through his phone as Emily sat next to him and stared. Dylan tried to ignore her, but as she continued to stare, the more annoying it got. "What do you want?" Dylan sighed. "There's no need to be rude. I just want to get to know you," Emily smiled. "Plus, you're my new brother, after all. So we might as well be nice to each other." She added.

Dylan looked at her with a blank stare, "I doubt I'll be around that long." Dylan sighed. Emily shrugged and turned on the TV, Dylan skulked to his room. He shut the door behind him and looked around his room.

The bare walls reminded him of his room at his real parents house where he wasn't allowed to put anything up. He brushed his hand along the grey painted walls as he remembered his parents and siblings shouting and fighting.

He went over to the window ledge and stared out of it. He couldn't believe he was at another new home and wondered how long this was going to last. Dylan never stayed long enough in a family to settle down. He was always angry, he couldn't trust anyone. Another new home, another new school and new bullies to make his life hell.

As Dylan was in this train of thoughts, Emily barged into the room. He quickly turned around and stared at her, he sighed as he saw the big smile on her face once again. "What do you want now?" He asked. In his head, he wanted to scream at her and tell her to leave, but thought he'd try getting along with this family for once.

"Mum wanted to know what you'd like from the takeaway? She doesn't know what you like." Emily questioned. Dylan looked confused, "well, what sort of takeaway is she getting?" Dylan replied "I think it's more like burgers and that." Emily spoke. "I'll just have some chips, I'm not really that hungry." Dylan responded. Emily nodded and left, "HE SAID HE'LL HAVE CHIPS!" She screamed down the hall, as Dylan covered his ears.

Half an hour later the takeaway arrived, Helen passed Dylan the carton of chips and a can of cola. He smiled at her "Thanks" Dylan uttered as he sat on the sofa next to Emily. Dylan ate his chips while staring at the TV which was showing the soaps.

Once he was finished he sat quietly and sipped on his drink. He took out his phone and scrolled through it. Emily looked over at Dylan's phone, "what site is that?" Emily wondered. Dylan locked his phone, "Nothing, just a forum I'm a member of." He explained. Helen glanced over at Dylan concernedly.

Dylan stood up and went to his room. He took out his phone again and saw there was a meet up that night for forum members. He thought about asking Helen to see if he could go, but decided he would sneak out later tonight.

As he messaged the members to let them know that he was coming, Helen had knocked on the door.

She walked in, Dylan turned around, "I don't mean to pry, but what is that forum about?" Helen spoke. Dylan looked down at the floor, trying to think of an answer without telling the truth. "It's a...uh.. a rock music forum. We just talk about bands and that," Dylan uttered, Helen nodded and smiled.

"Ok, I'm glad you have something that interests you and that you enjoy doing," Helen smiled. "Well, it's almost time for bed. So, I will leave you to go to sleep, goodnight." She added. Dylan smiled back as she closed the door, he got his bag ready, checking that he had everything inside of it.

Dylan made sure he had the machete and matches. He also checked he had the money that he stole and saved up from the care and foster homes was all in there. Dylan then placed the bag by the window and turned the lights off.

After a few hours had gone by, Dylan got out of bed and started to put his shoes on. He heard some noise by his bedroom door and panicked. He stayed silent and waited for the noise to go far away before going towards the window.

Dylan slowly opened the window, trying not to make a sound. Any little squeak he looked back at the door, checking if someone was behind it.

Once the window was open most of the way he started to climb out, Dylan wrapped his leg around the silver steel guttering, breathing heavily as he struggled. He eventually got his foot to grip onto the guttering strap that held it in place.

Dylan started to shimmy down the guttering, trying not to make a sound, he didn't care about getting hurt, his only goal was to make it to the pavement below.

As he finally placed a foot on the pavement, he took out his phone and checked his messages for the location of the meet.

*Silver Oaks Forest @ 11:30pm*

*Meeting starts @ 12:00am*

Dylan saw the night bus coming towards the bus stop and ran towards it. As the bus came to a stop, Dylan got out 2.80 out of his wallet ready to hand over.

As the bus driver opened the doors he nodded to Dylan. He stepped onto the bus and handed over his money, "single return to Red Lake Grove please" Dylan notified. The ticket machine buzzed as it printed the ticket.

The driver ripped the ticket from the machine and handed it to Dylan, "thanks." Dylan muttered as he walked to the back of the bus. The bus roared its engine as it started on its journey, the lights shut off leaving only spot lights shining throughout the isles.

Dylan stared out of the window, watching as the streetlights beamed of the pavement and houses in total darkness. He checked the time again, *10:59m*.

As he scrolled through his phone a notification popped up, the ping echoed his ears, bringing him back to reality. He saw it was for a group chat and pressed it.

The chat blew up once he joined. Dylan scanned through the messages, everyone talking about the night ahead.

The bus started to pull in to the first bus stop, the streetlight beamed over the shelter, as the other person stepped onto the bus. He looked at Dylan as he sat down a few seats ahead of him with a black duffel bag. Dylan knew he was going to the meet up as well.

As the bus got started again, Dylan wondered if anyone had noticed he was gone. He had no calls on his phone so he assumed that they were asleep. He knew he'd be back in time, he had done this plenty times before.

After another 20 minutes on the bus, they had finally arrived at the destination. Both Dylan and the other person started walking towards the bus doors.

As both boys stepped off the bus, they walked down the dirt trail towards the light shining through the swaying oak trees. It was all silent before the other boy started speaking, "I'm Mitch, what's your name?" He questioned. Dylan looked up at Mitch and smiled , "I'm Dylan. Nice to meet you, are you looking forward to tonight?" Dylan quizzed.

Mitch looked ahead, "yeah. The only thing that I do look forward to lately." He admitted. "How about you? How long have you been coming to these meets?" Mitch added. Dylan fiddled with his bag strap, "yeah it's the same for me, haven't had the best of times lately. I've been coming for a few months, what about you?" Dylan informed as they were getting closer to the entrance gate. "I've been coming a year or so." Mitch grinned.

Dylan and Mitch arrived at the gate and climbed over. Dylan looked up and saw the abandoned house. The pair walked towards the group hanging outside of the house. They all greeted each other with handshakes and fist bumps.

"Welcome everyone, the truck will be arriving shortly. I'm Elijah for those who are new here." Elijah, the leader of the forum greeted. "I hope you have come prepared. If you want to purchase a weapon, please come into the house and I will be happy to help you out." He added. Elijah walked into the house, Dylan and three others followed him.

As Dylan entered the house he saw the table in front of him. The table was covered with guns, ammo, swords and machetes. Dylan walked over to the guns and ammo, he picked up a Glock 17. Dylan brushed his hand across it and pointed it towards an empty space. "Hey Dylan, welcome back. I see you picked the Glock 17. It's an excellent gun. It can shoot up to 50 metres, about 200 RPM. It's been the most reliable and durable gun since it's production." Elijah boasted. "What do you think? I'm offering to sell for 250 and the ammo about 100, just for you." He added.

Dylan smiled as he looked at the gun again, he nodded and placed the gun back on the table as he got his money out to count it.

As he finished counting the 350 out of his savings, he handed it over. Elijah boxed up the ammo for him and handed it to Dylan, "thanks for your business again, can't wait to see you out there." Elijah smiled and went to help another group member.

Dylan walked out of the house and went to sit on the bench. As the others joined, the truck had arrived. Everyone cheered as the truck drove into the end of the fence. It was getting close to 12 am when Elijah went over to the truck driver.

Everyone started getting ready and prepared. Dylan got his machete out of his bag and prepared the gun. He loaded the gun. He figured he'd mainly use the machete, but would use the gun to try it out.

Once everyone had gotten ready, Elijah came over and waited for everyone to quieten down, "now, everything is ready for you. Please head to your designated positions, and your subject will be brought out to you" Elijah exclaimed excitedly as he watched everyone walk to the fun area as said the sign that was placed on the side of the fence.

(This was no normal club meet-up. This club would probably be referred to as disturbing and psychopathic, maybe even sociopathic. Every member there was a victim to some extent. The subjects were paedophiles who had been caught by the clubs paedophile hunters and bought to an unknown location to await their deaths.

Every member had been abused, either by a parent, teacher, grandparent. Members wanted justice, not just for themselves, but for every child being destroyed by these people.

In their minds they were doing right. They had been messed up, unable to trust any adult again and felt especially angry. In their minds, nothing was wrong and police and parents would thank them for making the world a better place.)

As everyone got to their positions, the subjects were bought out to each member. Dylan looked to the side of him, where Mitch was standing. Dylan was smiling, Mitch smiled back. The excitement was getting to everyone.

Dylan watched as his subject was dragged out to him. The man was tied up and had a blindfold on, covering his view. He looked to be in his 60s, he was a large person. The man was shouting, "I'm innocent! I haven't done anything wrong!" The man shrieked.

As the man was thrown down on the dirt, Dylan began putting his gloves on so his DNA wouldn't be found. He pulled out his machete and walked up to the man. Dylan grabbed him by his hair and spat in his face.

"Please, I'm innocent! Please stop!" The man squealed. Dylan threw his head back and let him fall back on the ground, "if you were innocent, you wouldn't be here, you dirty bastard!" Fumed Dylan.

Dylan scraped the blade of the machete across the mans arms as blood splattered all over the dirt turning it dark. The man cried in agony, "why are you doing this?" Screamed the man. "Because my life was ruined by disgusting reprobates like you. Your kind have destroyed people like me and I'm going to make you pay." Dylan exploded as he swung the machete back. He aimed for his right arm and made contact with it as more blood spewed out.

Blood splattered Dylan's face while he was smiling at the mans screams. He made more cuts on the mans body. As the man screamed, Dylan undone his jeans and pulled out his penis and began pissing on the mans wounds making him scream louder as the cuts began to sting.

Dylan laughed as he began pulling his jeans up and began doing his belt up. He walked back to his bag and grabbed his new gun. As he walked back he looked at the others to see what they were doing, Mitch was kicking his subjects stomach, hard enough to make his subject sick.

He walked up to his subject and cocked the gun, the man realised what was going on, "I'm really sorry, please let me go, I won't do it again, I won't tell anyone about this," the man pleaded with Dylan.

"It's too late, you should have thought about this before doing what you did. You're going to hell." Dylan taunted. He put the barrel of the gun to the mans head to panic him. The man could hear the other people firing their guns.

The number 1 rule at the club meet-ups was, when your subject is dead, you leave. Dylan watched as some members left, shaking Elijah's hand as they left.

Dylan took out his phone to check the time. It was nearly 1:30 am, he started thinking that he should soon start to head back home.

He put his phone away and pointed the gun at the mans penis and pulled the trigger, "try using that tiny pathetic thing in hell now." Dylan laughed. He then decided to call it a night by cocking the gun again, placing it on the mans left temple, "Any last words, asshole?" Dylan snarled.

"Please, don't do this." The man cried in between breaths. "Say hi to the devil for me!" Dylan smiled as he pulled the trigger. Blood splattered everywhere, on Dylan's clothes, face and the hand he was holding the gun in.

Dylan spat on the man again and walked to his bag. He placed the gun inside a cloth and wrapped it around the gun. He then placed it in the bag next to the machete. Dylan then cleaned himself up as best he could, mainly the face and hand, as the clothes could be washed when he got home.

As he put the bag over his shoulder, Dylan walked to the exit. Elijah stopped Dylan on his way out, "hey Dylan, your style is unique. I saw what you did back there. Here's my number, I give this out for exclusive events. You're obviously very passionate about this, you must have been hurt very badly by someone. I'll be in contact." Elijah beamed as he handed Dylan his number and shook his hand.

Dylan began walking back to the bus stop, he checked his phone for the time. He noticed the time was 2:00 am, "fuck!" He exclaimed as he ran to the bus stop. Just as he got there, the night bus arrived.

Dylan pulled out his ticket and noticed a speck of blood on the corner, he quickly covered it with his finger and showed the driver, who motioned for him to get on.

As he walked to his seat, he smiled and nodded to the other members on the bus. Dylan sat down in his usual seat and added Elijah's number to his phone.

Once everyone was seated, the bus started to pull away from Oaksbridge Forest. Dylan watched as the truck from earlier turned into the entrance of the forest.

After 20 minutes travelling, the bus finally pulled into the stop by the house he had only moved into 14 hours ago.

Dylan stepped off the bus and made sure no lights were on. He saw his window still open, and the curtain swaying out of it. He quietly walked over to the gutter and started to climb up it, all the while trying to be as quiet as possible and to not hurt himself.

Once he made it inside, he quietly shut the window and closed the curtains. He took the bag off his shoulder and hid it under the bed again.

Dylan took his clothes off and put on a pair of camo joggers and black hoody. He then put the bloody clothes in the hamper at the end of his bed, he was thankful he wore black and the blood wouldn't show up. He made sure to take out the piece of paper Elijah had written his number on.

Dylan then got into bed, but he couldn't sleep. He was glad that he wasn't caught this time and that no one would ever find out until the club leaders decided the world was a better place.

While he laid in bed, he decided to get a padlock for the bag. Dylan had thought of all the scenarios of people finding the bag and looking inside of it.

Dylan started to drift off to sleep as the birds began to chirp and the sun was about to rise. Dylan must have been asleep for 2 hours before Emily bursted into his room. Dylan jolted awake, "what the hell are you doing?" Dylan snapped. "Mums making breakfast. Plus, you've got to go to the school to register," Emily smiled.

Dylan wiped his eyes while yawning. He got out of bed and followed Emily. "Morning Dylan. Did you sleep well?" Helen asked. Dylan sat down at the kitchen table, "yeah, I did." Dylan spoke as he smiled to himself. "Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Helen questioned. "I'll just have a coffee, I'm not that hungry."

Helen smiled and made Dylan a mug of coffee. She put it on the table, Dylan began sipping it. "So, after breakfast we will be going to the school to get you registered. I know you don't like school, but it will be good for you." Helen explained.

Dylan rolled his eyes, he hated school. He knew he'd be bullied, this time he wouldn't be having it. "Do I have to go? School is pointless." Dylan groaned. "Yes, you do. It will be fine. Why don't you go have a shower and get ready?" Helen suggested. Dylan finished his coffee and went to his room to grab some clothes.

He left his room and opened the bathroom door. At that moment, Dylan had an idea, he would stay in the bathroom for ages, thinking if they were late, he wouldn't have to go.

Dylan turned on the shower, he began taking his clothes off. He looked in the mirror and saw a splatter of blood on his neck, he quickly got in the shower to wash it off. 'That was a close one' he thought.

As he was hit with the hot water splashing his skin, he thought of his last school experience. Remembering the bullies chasing him all around the school, beating him up when they had found him. His crush laughing at him when he asked her out and calling him a freak. As he remembered, he could feel his anger rising.

Dylan reached for the dial of the shower and turned it to the hottest setting. He felt the hot, steaming water burning his skin. After a few minutes he shut off the shower and stepped out. He stepped in front of the mirror and stared at the scars on his wrists.

"What's taking so long in there? We've only got 10 minutes to get there." Helen shouted through the door. Dylan sighed, "fuck off" he whispered.

One minute before they were suppose to arrive at the school, Dylan walked out of the bathroom. Helen ran up the stairs, "do you think I was born yesterday? We're still going, so get your shoes on." Helen smirked.

Dylan sighed again and grabbed his shoes. He put them on and went out to Helen's car. He got in the back and put his hood up. As they began driving to the school, Dylan felt a tight pressure in his chest. He knew what was happening, it had happened many times before, he was having a panic attack. 'Great timing' he thought.

As he clenched his fist, Dylan put his head down so Helen didn't see him counting to ten, '10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1' he mouthed. Dylan didn't want to show weakness, and wanted to show that he wasn't scared of anything. He looked out of the window as a tear rolled down his face.

He thought of jumping out of the car and running away. He wondered why he had to go to school at all, and how many times he could get in trouble before they eventually expelled him. Dylan pulled out his phone and texted Elijah, "hey Elijah, it's Dylan. This is my number. Thanks for last night, can't wait for the next meet-up."

As Dylan sent the text, they had arrived at the school. Dylan looked out the window to see an old looking building and students walking around. In an instant, he knew that he didn't want to be here and quickly locked his door as soon as Helen had gotten out.