*A/N*
    It's finally here!!! The official rewrite of this story, yay. I'm sure a few of you have been waiting for this and I hope it was worth the wait. If you don't know I decided to connect this story with my other FF Crazies since I didn't have any concrete plotline for this (hence why it kinda stalled out).
    As you'll see this will pretty much follow the same storyline I originally wrote it, but different enough that it won't feel like you're just rereading it again.
    Hope y'all enjoy it!!

Chapter one
(Unedited)

My cheek presses painfully into the cold, hardwood floor of my Father’s home office as I fight to stay conscious. Each breath becoming increasingly more painful, but I use it to my advantage as something to focus on to keep from slipping under.

Heavy steps vibrate the floor under me, and I force my eyelids to pry open as my Father's boots stop just a breath away from my face.

“Did you really think it would work?” His mocking laughter causes my heart to sink. “Oh Baby Girl, you're stupid if you think those little boys could have saved you and the others.” 

He motions to someone behind me and another set of heavy footsteps enter the room. 

“Just remember, Alexia,” my father whispers as he kneels down in front of me, “what’s about to happen is because of you.” 

He grabs hold of my shoulder closest to him and flips me onto my back. Pain sets fire in every inch of my body, causing my vision to become unfocused as the darkness tries to surround me.

“No no, Baby girl.” A sharp sting ignites across my cheek, bringing me back from the edge of unconsciousness. “You need to stay awake for this,” my father chuckled darkly as a loud thud resonated next to me.

“Lex.” Tears pool in my eyes at the familiar voice.

“Caleb,” I whimper out as I blink to clear the tears away to see him clearly across the small space between us. 

His short black hair is matted down with dried blood and his light skin is covered with horrible discolored bruises. He looks over to me with one of his bright blue eyes swollen over and sends me one of his large goofy smiles. My eyes well up again at seeing him in such a broken mess.

“I’m sorry,” I manage to whisper past the lump forming in my throat, “it’s all my fault.”

"Alexia," Caleb captures my full attention as he stares me down, "this is not your fault. I'm the one that came back, so this is on me." 

"Family first, right?" That goofy grin is back.

"Always."

*~*~*~*~*

I jolt awake in my bed, gasping for air as the phantom pains from my dream linger within my limbs. My eyes wildly scan the semi-dark room for any hidden dangers while my heart attempts to beat its way out of my chest. The streetlamp outside my window thankfully casts just enough of a glow to assure me that I was still alone.

“You're fine,” I console myself, using my voice to break up the ire silence. “You’re alone. You're safe.” 

I repeat these three facts until my frantically beating heart finally calms down. Taking in a shaky breath, I swing my legs out from under my fuzzy blanket and pick my phone up off the side table. I click the power button on the side and immediately regret it as the overly bright backlight temporarily burns my corneas.

Fuck.

I squint my eyes and quickly read the time before shoving the offending device under my pillow.

4:23.

Nope.

I grab hold of my soft blanket again and wrap myself back up in a cocoon of warmth. Determined to get that last few hours of sleep before having to deal with being the new student again with my brothers.

School.

I stifled a groan at the reminder of having to start all over at another school. It's close to the end of my Junior year and I've been to four different high schools. But I guess when your Father is in hiding for his immoral and highly illegal business, settling down wouldn't be the smartest move on his part. 

But it stops here. 

I mentally repeat my mantra until I feel my body relaxing and begin to close my eyes. 

Only to have images of blood and broken bodies immediately start bombarding my thoughts.

“You’re fine,” I chant out loud as I tighten the blanket around my shaking body. Of course, it's a feeble attempt to block the memories since they easily take hold and allow my old fear to start burning through my veins. 

I only last another minute before angrily shoving the blanket off and jump out of bed. My whole body trembling with the need to move and I try to appease it by pacing the length of my room.

“Damn it,” I hiss out when that only makes me feel like a trapped animal and I nervously start biting the side of my index finger. 

Risk it or suffer? 

The sound of heavy steps snaps me from my inner debate as my body freezes in place, waiting for the danger that normally follows that sound. 

Why is he awake? My mind frantically questions as I force my limbs to move quietly over to my door.

Unfortunately, our new house is anything but new as the worn hardwood floors groan under my slight weight, and the heavy wood door groans it protests to being open. 

Fuck you too, I mentally scoff at the door’s rude squeak and press my ear against the small opening I was able to get out of it. I can just make out the low rumble of my father’s voice mixed with shuffling as he seems to be gathering his things.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he explains and by the lack of response, he's talking on the phone. “Get Arthur on Skype so we can start the final test the moment I arrive.” He continues barking in the phone but it gets muffled as he leaves the house.

We're out of time. 

My heart launches into its erratic beating again as I impatiently listen for his car to back out of our driveway. Ingrained fears have me waiting for a full five minutes before throwing open my rude ass door and making my way down the short hallway to my oldest and youngest brothers' room. Their door is far less squeaker than mine so I was able to silently enter the room. 

A small night light illuminates the right side of the room while a strategically placed dresser leaves the left side in shadows. My eyes automatically drift over to the lit-up bed and relax just a tiny bit at seeing my younger brother Sawyer fast asleep. His small body curled around one of his pillows. 

Tiptoeing over to his side, I gently untangle his feet from his blanket and cover him back up. 

Soon, I silently promise him as I carefully tuck some of his dirty blonde hair behind his ear, we'll get you out of here. 

“What’s wrong?” I’m not surprised to hear my oldest brother's whispered voice behind me. Even as quiet as I was, I knew he would wake up the moment I opened the door. Out of the four of us, Liam is the lightest sleeper and the main reason Sawyer stays here instead of his own room. 

To keep him safe.

“He’s on the final test, ”I whisper back as I step away from Sawyer's bed to face Liam's sleep ruffled appearance. His ice-blue eyes become completely alert from the significance of my statement and motions for me to follow him out of the room. 

The moment I have to door firmly shut, I reach over to the light switch located between their door and the opening to the stairs and flicked on the light. Needing to see every nook and cranny around me as the adrenaline racing through my veins increases the feeling of being caged in.

“Explain,” Liam orders in his growly angry voice when I face him again.

And here comes the General. I firmly hold on to the urge to roll my eyes at him barking commands at me since I know this is just how he handles things.

My siblings and I take different routes when dealing with shit hitting the fan. I'm impulsive and allow my instincts, even the stupid ones sometimes, to control how I act. Ashton, my older twin brother, calmly takes things in stride as they unfold. While Liam stands on the opposite spectrum from me with the need for control and to formulate detailed plans before taking action. 

Hence the nickname.

A slight popping noise jerks my attention down to Liam's right hand, his own nerves manifesting through his main tick of clenching and unclenching his fist until his knuckles pop. Telling me that I got lost in my thoughts again and haven't answered him.

"Someone must have hit some kind of breakthrough this morning. I woke up just as he was leaving. Yelling at whoever was on the call to contact Arthur." I explain quickly, trying to keep it just facts so Liam doesn't blow a gasket if I end up rambling as I do sometimes when my anxiety digs its claws into me. Speaking of, my body begins to tremble as the overpowered emotion ramps back up when I stop moving, and I began tapping my thumb against my thigh to pacify it.

"Which means he's confident there will be progress this time," Liam finishes with a frustrated sigh, his fingers disappearing within the short strands of his blonde hair. "We're out of time." 

Hearing my level-headed brother repeat my morbid thoughts from earlier really drives home how fucked we really are right now. I feel my body start to sway side to side as I watch Liam focus on a spot on the wall behind me. His logical mind working through dozens of possible plans, deciding which one will keep us all alive at the end.

"We can't afford to be cautious anymore," he finally says after leaving me on pins and needles for a few minutes. "We need to use every opportunity to collect anything pertaining to him and his experiment." 

I eagerly nod my agreement since this slow and cautious strategy was torturous these last few months. I've been smothering my impatient need to act after what happened, but I need my family safe. I'm not willing to watch anyone else die because of my father. 

"Come on, " Liam commands and I quickly follow behind him as he makes his way down the worn, creaky stairs. As he turns to head down the small hallway running alongside the stairwell, my feet freeze where the hardwood transitions to the dark brown carpet. 

Father's space, my inner voice warns, knowing the repercussions if I enter what my Father has claimed as his domain. Flashbacks start to overwhelm me, constricting my lungs from taking a full breath in. 

"Breath," I whisper as I force myself to take a detailed inventory of the space around me. The way the chilled wood floor seeps into my bare feet to the harsh smell of cleaner we use to get the house ready for Father to live here. "You're okay. You're safe."

"Lexi?" Liam appears in front of me, the light from the hallway upstairs intensifies the concern warming his icy blue eyes. 

"Flashbacks," I admit since there isn't hiding the way my arms shook from their crossed position across my chest.

"Go," Liam's tone softens as the General takes a backseat to the caring brother roll. "I'll get Ash to help." I barely get out a jerky nod before my overwhelming need to run has me sprinting up the stairs. 

My whole body is now vibrating as I stumble into my room. Heading straight for my dresser, I wrench open one the drawers and dig through the clothes until my fingers grab hold of a pair of black, sweat pants. I just pull them on over the shorts I went to bed in and hunt around my floor for my running shoes. 

"Where the fuck are they," I hiss out as I drop down to my knees to search under the bed. I just barely catch their bright green color peeking out from behind some pillows I kicked under here last night, and crawl in to get them. 

"Lexi?" I jump in surprise at the sudden sound, inadvertently smacking the back of my head against the metal frame of my bed. 

"Son of a whore," I groan in pain as I wiggle out with my worn shoes in hand. A snort of amusement has me glaring at the doorway as I try to rub the pain away. The hallway light halos the lean frame of my twin brother standing in the threshold to my room. His dark red hair sticking up in every direction, evident he just rolled out of bed, as he stretches his long arms up over his head. "What the hell Ash?"

"Sorry," he chuckles as he makes his way over to me. His steps are slightly sluggish since it takes two cups of coffee to fully wake him up in the mornings.

"Sure you are," I grumble half-heartedly, knowing my jumpiness was more on me than him, and take his offered hand to get back on my feet.

"You good?" I just hold my shoes up as an answer before moving around him to dig through my drawers again to find some socks. "How bad is it?"

I pause my panic-filled search to glance over my shoulder at Ash. A tiny smile pulls at my lips when I see him using his fisted hand to rub the sleep from his eyes like a small child. Ash could be adorable sometimes with his dimpled smile and childlike actions when he's loopy from sleep, but once he's fully awake then he becomes a large pain in the ass.

"I'll be okay," I reply simply as I resume my search for socks, "nothing that can't be fixed by running." A growl of frustration begins to build as I wrench open my third drawer and still not find one pair of socks hiding within the mess of clothes I haven't been about to separate properly.

"Lexi, sit down." Admitting defeat, I trudge over to my bed and perch right on the edge as Ash takes over the hunt for the elusive pair of socks. 

And of course, he finds them within seconds, I inwardly rant as I watch Ash just reach in the first drawer I ripped apart and pull out a pair of nearly rolled-up socks.

"Alright, what's up Lexi?" Ash questions, prompting my legs to begin bouncing to release the building anxiety. "This is more than just overhearing what dear old dad had to say this morning, so spill." 

Indecisiveness hits me hard.

After what happened, it became hard for me to share my inner problems with my brothers. My new anxiety created this little voice that likes to pop in every so often to tell me to quit being a baby. That my problems are nonexistent compared to the other shit transpiring around me. 

Obviously, that's completely unhealthy and one of the reasons my brothers made me promise to spill my guts when asked.

You can't help us fight against this if you're fighting against yourself. You have to speak up so we can help you work through this. Liam so eloquently told me after I had my first panic attack over something stupid. In truth, I can't even remember what triggered it, but it almost got us caught when we were trying to collect evidence on Father's projects. 

Sighing, I lift my gaze back up to Ash and just watch him search through the small boxes on top of my dresser. Using him as my focus tool, I push past my barriers so I can translate my inner thoughts into words.

"I dreamed about Caleb again." Ash pauses his hunt for whatever in the box to look over his shoulder at me. I catch both relief and pain swirling within his blueish-green eyes before he was able to hide them behind his calm mask. The pain is understandable since we were all very close to Caleb and his friends, but the relief is a surprise. 

I guess this is the first time they didn't have to pry the answers out of me. That has to progress, right?

"Did you have another panic attack?" He inquires once he returns to digging through the box. My brothers learned that it's easier for me to continue to open up if they're not staring me down.

"No, I use the verbal focusing technique you and Liam learned about. It works a lot better than just counting." Ash makes a slight hum sound that lets me know he's listening as I continue, "it kept me freaking out but that spike of adrenaline made me start to feel caged in."

"And now you need to run it off," he finishes for me as he pulls my hairbrush from the box before moving over to me. He hands over the brush, silently saying my red curls must be close to attacking people who get to close, then kneels down in front of me. 

Sighing, I allow Ash to help me put on my shoes since we both can see I'm too jittery to lace them up correctly and use the brush to work out the knots in my hair.

"That won't happen again," Ash declares after the silence fell over us.

"You can't promise..." I begin but he smacks my leg, hard. "Ow, what the hell Ash?"

"Stop declaring the worst." He makes sure my shoes are tied tight before lifting his eyes up to mine. "It will not happen again." 

The hard edge to his voice dares me to argue with him right now but already feeling overwhelmed, I quickly bow out of that impending argument. 

One problem at a time. 

I unwind one of the many hair bands wrapped around the brush's handle and pull my messy curls away from my face in a tight knot.

"Here," Ash abruptly announces as he thrusts my phone and a large black shirt in my face. "Remember no more than an hour." 

"I know." The last time I felt caged in like this I ended up running for close to three, and really it wasn't even my decision to stop. If my legs didn't give out on me, I think I would have kept going until I passed out.

"Set an alarm just in case," He demands as he waves my phone closer to my face causing me to become more irritated with each pass it takes.

"Fine." I snatch the phone and make sure he watches me set an alarm for one hour. I leave the app open so I can start the timer the moment I start my run and wave it in his face like he did me. "Happy?"

"Very," Ash sarcastically replies as pushes my hand away then throws the shirt over my head, "and please for the sake of everyone's sanity run off the snarkiness too." 

"Asshole." He just chuckles at me before heading out of my room. I make quick work of covering the slightly revealing tank top I went to bed in with the black shirt Ash through at me. The large design dominating the front advertises mine and Liam's favorite band Hollywood Undead, and try clinging onto the happy memories it sparks.

Hoping to replaces the horrible flashbacks of Caleb's death with the images of me and Liam singing along to the amazingly crude lyrics.

Bringing my phone up, I hit start on my one-hour timer before tucking the device in one of the deep pockets on the side of my sweatpants. 

Then I flee from the ever-growing claustrophobic feeling of my room and try to make as little noise as I can as I dash out of the house. 

My feet hitting the black asphalt of the main road in front of our house at full speed.