To Keep Her Safe is All I Know

Prologue

He was home.

The first couple of days home from tour were always kind of like a big exhale. He got to sleep in his own bed, shower in his own shower; it was nice for a while. However, the big exhale that came with being home was often short lived. It was great to see his family and his friends again after being away from them for so long, but after a while, the "itch" to get back on tour managed to creep its way back into him.

However, in recent months, that had become a bit different. The "itch" to get back on tour never went away, but there were a lot of things going on in Chris' life at the moment that managed to keep him occupied and go a little less crazy while he was home from tour. Almost every day he had something to do now, which was nice. When Chris got home from tour, he did usually like to have a couple of days at home to unwind and relax a bit, but it didn't take long for the cabin fever to set in. Over the course of the past year and a half though, home life had actually been a little bit chaotic, in ways both good and bad. Right now though, Chris actually felt pretty relaxed.

Summer was ending. It was the beginning of September and fall would be here soon. The leaves were still green, but you could see the slightest hints of yellow beginning to appear on some of them. The weather was still warm, and there was a lovely breeze in the air. Chris had the windows of his car rolled down and music blasting as he drove home. He was bored today - as per usual during his off time - and decided to do something productive by running some of the errands he needed to run. He stocked up on some more makeup, and he got a nice, new leather jacket since his other one had gotten ripped up at a show. Of course. Chris already had a lot of ideas on how to modify the jacket to make it a little more "Chris Motionless" as he did with a lot of his other stage outfits.

A song that Chris doesn't recognize comes on. Chris skips to the next song. Chris had the Bluetooth from his phone connected to the stereo playing on random, and half of the songs that had played were ones he didn't know. He'd have to tell her to stop downloading music onto his phone the next time he saw her, which probably would be in the near future.

Chris had also gotten a new pair of sunglasses that he was liking very much. He was also looking forward to trying some of the new makeup he'd gotten. Chris didn't wear makeup as often when he was home as he did on tour, but he did do it at home sometimes, just as a way to pass the time. She sometimes asked him if she could do his makeup some time. Chris wasn't sure how much he trusted her with makeup brushes and pencils near his eyes. He'd trust Melanie with it though, since she'd been doing his makeup since they were fourteen or fifteen.

Chris felt accomplished, and he felt like he'd gotten a lot of things done. It was still early in the afternoon, and Chris was actually kind of looking forward to getting home and relaxing. He would be home in just a couple minutes...

And then his phone began to ring.

Chris sighs, then looks at the caller ID. He then looks at the time. 3:20 on the dot.

Chris presses the button to connects the call to the Bluetooth and speaks, "Hey, Sadie. Do you need me?"

"Yeah. Mom isn't here and she won't answer any of my calls or texts." Sadie's little voice says through the speakers of Chris' car.

"I'll be there in a few." Chris says.

"Okay. Thanks, Chris."

"No problem, kiddo."

They hang up.

This was pretty common. Sadie's mom worked on-call, so this happened often.

Just two blocks from home, Chris makes a u-turn and heads in the opposite direction towards the elementary school.