“No, stop. Please, don’t.” My arm flails out, and I jolt upright, still trying to fight off my assailant. It takes a minute for me to realize there’s no one there. I’m alone in my room at Omega House, sweat pouring down my temples while my chest heaves with each ragged breath.

The door cracks open and light spills inside. Jason quietly slips to the side of my bed and sits down. “You okay, man?”

“Yeah, did I wake you?” I swipe the back of my hand across my forehead, hoping he doesn’t notice the gleam of perspiration covering my skin.

“No, I was just coming upstairs when I heard you. Another nightmare?”

“I guess.” I hate that at twenty years old, I’m still having nightmares like a little kid. I should take comfort in the fact that I’m not wetting the bed as well, but I know this has to stop.

Ever since Sean talked a few of us into doing a photoshoot with his perverted professor, the fears that haunted me through most of my adolescence have returned. As soon as those men pulled out the chains to leash us like animals, flashbacks of those years at home came flooding back. And even though we were rescued before anything really disgusting happened, the damage had already been done.

I didn’t experience any physical trauma that day, but the old emotional wounds that I’d buried away in my psyche were torn open and splattered across the forefront of my mind, making it impossible for me to go more than a few hours without having a mini panic attack.

This has to stop. I’d hoped it would fade as time went on, but it’s been weeks, and nothing is better. If anything, my fears have started to get even worse than I remember from that first year after I left home. I was sixteen when I finally socked away enough money from mowing lawns and dog walking to escape from the home that never really was.

It was a shelter from the rain and a place to find a meal, but it was never a home. At least not to me. My mother blamed my omega status for my father leaving us. But he left way before anyone knew my status. Whatever reason for his abandoning us didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter now.

What does matter is that my mother was forced to work long hours as a house cleaner during the day and a waitress at nights, leaving me and my brother alone from the time we got home from school until after midnight every night. And from the time I was eleven until the day I left, Joseph practiced being a dominant alpha on his weak little omega brother.

I’d managed to put all that pain behind me, leaving it in the past where it belonged. But after just a few minutes in a secluded warehouse with some psychos, it all came flooding back. All I see when I close my eyes is the evil smile of a monster who hurt me for so many years. He took something from me that I can never get back, and I’m afraid of what I know must happen next.

As much as I hate the idea of ever looking him in the eyes again, I have to. I need to confront my demons, so I can be released from the hold they’ve had on me for so many years.

I need to go home.

I’ve never been good at saying goodbye. When other people leave, I usually find an excuse to not be around for the awkward promises to stay in touch. The lies about calling and visiting are just a waste of time. So, I spare my friends and slip away before anyone wakes up.

I have a few hundred bucks in my checking account and sixty-five in cash from helping the old man across the street clean out his attic. If I take buses, I should be able to get to Boise for less than a hundred dollars. It’ll be an all-day ride, but I need that much time to process what I’m about to do.

I never believed this day would come.

I never wanted this day to come.

But before I go to sleep tonight, I’ll be back in the house where all my worst nightmares were staged. I’ll have to face the woman who never believed me when I told her what was happening, and I’ll finally confront the monster who hurt me.

I don’t expect this reunion to go well, but it’s the only way I can move on from my past. At least that’s what the talk shows and self-help books always say. Face your demons. I don’t know if that’s applies to the kind of demon who could pin me down with one arm and fulfill his sickest fantasies until I was bloodied and unconscious.

But that’s what I’m going to do.

Get ready, Joseph. Your demon is coming back for you too.