Chapter Text
The monsters under your bed is a phrase not to take too literally. We tell our kids the monsters under their bed aren’t real and that it’s just an irrational fear of the dark and the feeling of imaginary creatures, but none of it is real. The monsters under Evan Buckley’s bed are real, but they don’t lurk under the bed. His monsters lurk in the house and pose as loving parents, when really they’re monsters. They are people who don’t understand how to love their children, and it’s just Evan. His older sister never found out about their wrath, and if Evan can help it, she never will.
It’s a scary thing for someone to handle on their own. Evan’s sister only left three years ago, but when she left, it was the worst thing ever. His parents had some restraint when the two siblings were living under one roof, but once his sister left, Evan was all alone. He was alone before his sister left, but now it’s an unimaginable kind of loneliness. He’s accepted the fact that no one will help him, and he’s ok with that, but only because he has two years left. If he’s lucky, maybe his parents will kick him out or go too far, and Evan won’t have to be here anymore, and suffer through the pain he constantly feels every day.
Just two more years, right?
Evan is in his sophomore year of high school and continues to hide what goes on when he leaves the building every day at 3:30 pm. He enjoys school. He doesn’t have a subject he doesn’t like, and although some classes are better than others, he still enjoys every single one. His favorite class is currently Weights. He loves pushing himself beyond the limits, but he’s too scared to use his abnormal strength to beat the monsters, so he just enjoys the weight class.
Coach Light loves his students in the Weights class. He loves to watch them go beyond their limits and learn what they can and can’t do. His most impressive student, though, is the one whom he has to double-check his appearance because of his quietness, and that is Evan Buckley. Once he knows the kid is in his class, he can spot him in the gym because he always wears the same thing every day to class, despite how hot he must get. He always wears tight long sleeves, shorts, and compression tights, and it’s noticeable and odd to the coach, because he always manages to cover every inch of his body like he’s hiding something. Hence why Coach Light has kept an eye on him and notices small things about the kid’s demeanor; like he never works with anyone, he doesn’t have a spotter, and when he misses school, he comes back the next day, and he’s even more closed off. It raises suspicion in the teacher, but until the kid confesses to anything or he finally notices an unexplained mark or two on his body, then he can do something, but until now, his hands are tied.
Today, the class is working on arms, and Evan is in the back area working on bench presses. Coach Light comes over to check on him. “Hey Evan, how are you doing today?”
Evan smiles slightly at his coach and sits up, giving the man his full attention, “Hi Coach. I’m good, about to do my workout.”
“That’s good. How much are you benching today?” He’s always been curious about Evan’s strength and thinks he might have the potential to be in the military one day, if he ever wanted to. His friend did tell him to keep an eye out for potential military trainees.
“Oh,” Evan glances at the weight he just put on and adds it up, “it’s about 290 pounds.”
Coach’s eyes bulged out of his head and looked around to Evan’s peers and knew none of them had benched that much. “That’s impressive, Evan. Have you ever thought about the military after you graduate?”
Evan is surprised and a little embarrassed by the praise. He rubs the back of his neck before answering, “Um, no, I’ve never thought about it. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I graduate.” Evan answers honestly because his only goal ever has been to leave his parents' house and never look back.
“Well, think about it and let me know. I’ve got a friend who’s a Navy recruiter for the training base just an hour away from here. I think you have what it takes.” Coach Light pats Evan on the back, and he notices the kid pull away like he was burned by the touch.
Coach Light was about to walk away and let Evan get to his workout when he stopped him, “Coach,” Evan calls out, thinking if he made it to graduation, it wouldn’t be the worst thing he could get into. “I thought about it and I thought it would be fun. I don’t have any other plans.” Evan shrugs, and the coach smiles at him.
“Sure, I’ll get you a pamphlet after class today.” Coach Light heads back to the middle of the room to watch the kids get to work and continues to glance at Evan, watching him bench almost two times his weight. After class, the coach hands him the pamphlet and watches the kid book it out of the room, and while the room is quiet, he makes a phone call.
“Hey Light, what you got for me?”
Coach laughs at the introduction before explaining, “I have this kid that can bench almost 300 pounds, and when I talked to him about being in the Navy, he seemed generally excited, and I gave him a pamphlet after class today.”
“Ok, why do I feel like there’s more to the story, though?”
“That’s because there is…” Coach contemplates whether he’s going to tell his friend about Evan’s age or just leave it out for now. He goes for the latter, “he’s an interesting kid and mightbeabusedathome. ” Light rushes out on his speculation.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“There is a possibility that he could be abused in his home, but I don’t have any way to prove it. He’s a quiet kid who benches almost two times his weight, and he wears clothes during class that cover his whole body. He would wear a hood if he wasn’t already sweating his ass off.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t have anyone else to tell, and maybe if I found out what was going on in his home life, then being the youngest Navy SEAL ever wouldn’t be the worst way for him to go.”
“How old is this kid? And don’t lie to me.”
Light scratches the back of his head, trying to get it out, “He may… possibly… be… only sixteen.” Light waits for his friend to yell at him.
“SIXTEEN?! What do you mean he’s sixteen?”
“I mean, he’s sixteen, but I still don’t know what to do about his home life. Am I just supposed to wait until a mark appears on his face or what?”
Light hears his friend sigh deeply before, “I don’t know Light. I just know that he might need help, and maybe asking him and waiting for a reaction is the best way to find out how close you are.”
“I can try, but I don’t want to ask him while he’s in class. I don’t want to expose him like that if I am right, but thanks. I assume you're going to inform the boss?”
“I am, although I’m probably going to keep out the fact that he’s sixteen. Let me know what you find, ok?”
“You got it.” Coach Light hangs up and thinks about the kid the rest of the day.
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Evan takes a deep breath before entering his house, knowing he’s late. Evan walks to school everyday and it’s not even remotely close to his house, but his parents still expect him to be home at 4:15 everyday. Most of the time, he can make it, but not tonight. “I’m sorry I’m late. The—” Evan is abruptly stopped from explaining because of a brutal hit to the face.
“Whatever excuses you were about to say does not make up for being late!” His father’s voice echoes in the house as Evan recovers from the hit. Once he’s recovered, his father slams him into the wall and his hands are in a death grip on Evan’s shirt. “Your mother has worked hard in the kitchen and you're not here in time to eat it? Evan, we have a very strict set of rules to follow and if you can’t be here for dinner then you can just not eat.” Another brutal hit to the face knocks Evan to the ground and before he can get up, he gets pummeled in the stomach and ribs multiple times by his father’s work boots still on.
Evan understands he’s late and he knew he was going to get in trouble for that, but the hits are never ending most times, and tonight is no different.
“You continue to disappoint your mother and you continue to disappoint me. I don’t want to see your face the rest of the night.” With that said, the kicks stop and Evan is dragged up the stairs by his hair and thrown into his bare bedroom. His parents never bothered decorating it or giving Evan anything for Christmas or birthdays so it just has a bed, a stained rug, and a desk for Evan to do his school work on, but that’s it. His closet is also pretty bare with just enough clothes to look like he’s not homeless (and so the teachers don’t suspect of course). “I will unlock the door in the morning before school.” With his father’s last words, Evan is left in his room alone for the rest of the night.
In a sick sort of way, he likes being alone because at least he can work on school work and draw in an extra notebook he used for Algebra last year. He can dream about things that’ll never happen like parents who love him, game nights downstairs, trips to literally anything with ice cream involved, and way fewer pain associated with physical violence. He would also like to wear short sleeves and show off his muscles, but that also goes with showing his bruises both faded and fresh, but still easily spotted and noticeable if he wore clothes that wouldn’t hide everything.
Evan’s last thoughts before he attempts to sleep tonight, is the possibility of being in the Navy. The pamphlet his teacher gave him in weights today sits in the bottom of his backpack, hidden in case his mother ever does another room check and squashes the dreams that barely ever got to be thought of. The Navy is supposedly one of the toughest branches of military Evan could ever join, well the SEALs are, but needless to say, any branch of military in Evan’s opinion would be better than living with his parents for one more day.
The Next Day
Evan’s commute to school is a little rough with the amount of possible cracked and bruised ribs he accumulated and today, he’s wearing a hoodie to cover up the nasty bruise his father so kindly gave him last night. He’s unsure how he’s supposed to go through the day or even workout with the amount of pain he’s in. He thought about stopping by the nurse’s office for pain meds, but then there was an off chance she might notice his bruises and he quickly turned it down, deciding to suffer instead of ease his pain.
Evan’s second to last class of the day is weights and he’s excited it’s arms today, but he still takes it easy. He starts with the pull-up bar and goes for 25 before he drops and lands a little too hard causing him to take a break. At this moment, Coach Light comes over. “Hey, Evan are you doing ok today?”
Evan tries to hide his face and he was doing a good job making sure he never picked up his head for any reason, but he has a feeling that’s not going to slide with the coach. “Yeah, I’m ok Coach. Just dropped down too hard from the pull-up bar.” Evan explains, still attempting to keep his head down enough to continue hiding the bruise the size of Texas on his face.
Coach Light crosses his arms and gives Evan a look trying to analyze his reasoning for not looking up, but then he remembers his question from yesterday. “Am I just supposed to wait until a mark appears on his face?” This is the opportunity and it makes his heart hurt just thinking that the possibility became a reality faster than he was hoping. “Evan,” Light sits on the bench next to Evan. He looks around the group to check on the rest of the kids and notices they aren’t paying attention before addressing the boy cautiously, “why aren’t you looking at me?”
Evan mumbles under his breath and is praying the bell rings before he has to explain himself, “I don’t know.” His head drops further, wishing Coach would just let him be.
“Evan, are you scared to show me something? It’s just you and me. No one else will see.” Evan is quiet for several beats and Coach Light takes another look around the gym, checking on the other kids before looking back at Evan.
“Promise me you’ll leave me alone and let me get back to working out after you see it?” Evan questions and holds out his pinky finger toward Coach.
Light sighs and looks toward the finger and then back at Evan, “I can’t promise that Evan. My job as your teacher is to make sure my students are safe. So whatever is bothering you, it’s ok to tell me.”
Evan is on the verge of tears as he contemplates his options. If he tells his coach where he got the bruise and the truth behind it, then maybe he can be safe from ever feeling this kind of pain again, but if for some reason the truth doesn’t set him free from his parents death grip, then when his parents get questioned by local authorities and find nothing, Evan will be dead the following day and he knows it. “Am I safe?” Evan asks, his voice small and broken, but he has to know for sure.
The question Evan asks breaks Light’s heart even more, but he reassures him. “Of course you are, Evan. Whatever happened and whoever did it, they can’t hurt you anymore.” Light hopefully gives Evan the reassurance he needs before the boy next to him slowly lifts his head. He’s too afraid to say the words yet, but the proof is enough. “Oh Evan.” Light has to pause because the bruise is way bigger than he was expecting, “When the bell rings in a few minutes, I want you to go to my office and we’ll talk about it there. Don’t worry about your last class of the day.”
Evan’s head drops again now that the secret is out before Evan had even said the words, knowing Coach Light probably suspected it a long time ago. “Ok,” he whispers softly and brokenly, before attempting to get back up.
Coach Light grabs his wrist gently, stopping Evan from going any further. “How about you go ahead to my office and take a few minutes to yourself?” Coach Light suggests before Evan nods and picks up his water bottle, heading to the coach’s office and ignoring the weird looks from his classmates.
A few minutes later, the bell rings and the kids start to venture out. Once the room is empty again and Light doesn’t have another class today, he makes some phone calls. First to the principal's office informing her of the situation so she can call the help Evan will need. His last call is to his friend from yesterday.
“That was quick, just calling about your day or about the kid?”
“The kid.”
“What did you find, Ben?”
“It’s true. His face has a pretty nasty bruise and he’s tried to hide it all day, but after contemplating his decision to tell someone, he lifted up his head and showed me what happened. He hasn’t said the words yet, but he’s in my office now and the principal is heading down too. I just thought you should know.” Ben bridges his nose, trying to process everything.
“And you're 100% sure the kid is being abused?”
“Of course I am. It makes me wonder why he couldn’t tell me sooner though.” Ben looks toward the window to his office and the kid with his head buried in his hands. “He’s in so much pain and I can’t wrap my head around why someone would do that to a child. I would never hurt my daughter.”
“Just remind yourself that he came to you and that he's going to get the help he needs.” Light’s friend reassures him and he notices the principal walking into his classroom.
“I gotta go, the principal just walked in. Thanks for the encouragement.” Ben hangs up the phone and addresses his boss. “Hi, Principal Summers.”
She’s looking around the room, “Where is he?”
“He’s in my office, but he doesn’t know you're here yet or anyone else you called is here, so let me inform him before you barge in there with questions.” Light puts out a hand to stop Summers.
“Fine, but make it quick. We need to get to the bottom of this before the end of the day.” Principal Summers crosses her arms and gestures for the coach to explain to Evan.
Evan still has his head in his hands and continues to stifle his tears when the door opens and Coach Light walks in. “Hey Evan, Principal Summers is here to talk to you, but I thought it would be easier for you to talk to me first.”
Evan looks toward the door and sees the principal standing with her arms crossed, “She looks mad, but I know what happens next. I don’t want to go into the foster system. I’m a teenager about to age out of it anyway. I-I-I-I can’t. Just let me go, ok? I’ll tell you whatever you want, but I don’t want to go into the foster system please?” Evan begs, tears streaming down his face, knowing it would be a waste of time anyway.
Coach Light is at a loss for words at the boy broken and scared in his office. He waves the principal into the room and explains the situation. “Evan will explain whatever you need him to, but he doesn’t want to be in the foster system. Is that even possible?”
Summers looks at Evan and then at the coach, “Maybe, but unfortunately I’m not the one to make that decision.” She kneels down to Evan and gently places a hand on his knee. “I understand your concerns, but you will need a place to stay. Do you have any other family nearby?” Evan shakes his head and Summers continues. “OK, I don’t know of another option.” Evan looks down solemnly before jerking back up and searching frantically for his backpack.
“Where’s my backpack?” He looks to coach.
“It’s in the other room, but what do you need it for?”
“The Navy. They provide bedding and food and Coach said it’s only an hour away from LA. I was already going to join, and at least you’ll know I’m ok because of your friend.”
Summers and Light look at each other and back at Evan before Light speaks up, “But you have to be seventeen to enlist, and that’s with parents permission.”
“Or a guardian.” Evan adds, “I’m almost Seventeen as well, I can bluff and tell them I am Seventeen, and your friend can vouch for me. Please it can work, it’s better than—” Evan cuts himself off dropping his head again.
“Evan, if this is something you want to do, we can talk to the case worker coming in, but you need to tell us.”
Evan starts by finishing his sentence, “It’s better than anything my parents could dish out. My father does the physical stuff and it’s almost daily. I can’t do anything to please them and I never wanted to please them, but I wanted the pain to stop,” Evan starts crying again but continues, “so I obeyed the rules, I kept my grades up. I did everything, but it was never enough. I was never enough and my mother, she would always find ways to put me down or blame my father’s behavior on them wanting the son they never had.” The confused faces of the adults in the room causes Evan to elaborate. “I had an older brother, but he got sick and I was supposed to save him. I didn’t and my parents blamed me for it, but at the time they wouldn’t physically hurt me unless I was home alone with them, because my older sister still lived at the house. She protected me without even knowing it, but she moved away three years ago. It’s been like this ever since.” Evan finishes his explanation bursting into tears. Both the principal and the coach pull Evan into a hug before they both leave him to explain to the case worker that just showed up.
They’re still talking when the bell rings dismissing the students from school and as they all run to the buses or their parents picking them up, Evan doesn’t leave the school. He doesn’t even leave the room and he wonders when his parents will call the school and wonder where he’s at. They’ll act like concerned parents until behind closed doors, and then Evan’s body is never not covered in bruises. If Evan left the school now, he still wouldn’t make it home in time for his curfew and he would surely get another brutal beating, but that’s not happening right now.
He wonders what happens next.
Is he going to be in the back of someone’s car while his parents get arrested for abusing their kid? Will his sister be informed of their parents' trial and wonder how they ended up behind bars? Will they even tell her? She is over the age of Eighteen and supposedly in a good relationship with her fiance, or is he her husband now? Evan wonders if whoever drives him to his house will even let him exit the car until his parents are out of sight. Will they go in and get Evan’s stuff? Not that he has much stuff to get. In all honesty there isn’t an item of importance to him that he would even want out of that house, and stepping in the house without a smack to the face, would be the first in a long time if he even entered.
Maybe he’ll just stay in the car and wonder what the rest of his life will be now that he doesn’t have anyone. He wonders if the military is really his best bet, but what other option is there?