My dad doesn't really talk much about anything, at least, anything that matters. Sure, he'll ask me about my day and comment on the weather but a girl expects more from their father than small talk. I think that's all he knows anymore; small talk and fake smiles. No matter how many times he lies and says he's fine, all of us know that he isn't. How could he be? We're not supposed to know the truth, but we do. Soft whispers through closed doors can still be heard if you're patient enough to listen.

Sometimes I hear them talking about Uncle Ben. Dad told us that when the Society was built, Uncle Ben wasn't able to assimilate. Eventually, his mind just broke and so did his body. That's a lie though. Uncle Ben took a Glock 19 to his own head when the Resistance failed and peace came. Everyone knows it. Even the kids at Learning whisper behind their hands about Kennedy Mason's crazy dead uncle. Unfortunately, he's not the only one.

Uncle Hal might be worse than Uncle Ben. Uncle Hal didn't kill himself, but sometimes I wonder if it would've been better for everyone around him if he had. After his wife died, Uncle Hal became a cold hearted, mean man. Dad tried to tell us that our Uncle was gravely ill and that it was his 'brotherly duty' to look after Uncle Hal's daughter, Faith, but not a single one of us kids bought it. Faith did her best to cover up the bruises that her father gave her, but sometimes her sleeve would slip up a little further than she'd meant it to when she'd go to wash her hands or her shirt tail would come un-tucked when she leaned over for something. Then we'd see the blacks and blues painted on her skin like she was some kind of canvas. The way she'd hesitate with fear in her eyes when she headed home at the end of the day really sealed the deal. Uncle Hal drank to drown his sorrows and beat to bury his angers.

The Mason family of crazies only gets better from there. Papa Tom was a great man once. That's what they tell us Mason kids anyways. Now he's just a shell of a person. People have to force him to eat and force him to drink. They'd be forcing him to breathe if it wasn't human instinct. Dad told us that he used to be a history professor and that's where our names came from; McKinley, Hoover, Reagan, and Kennedy. The once great professor hadn't spoken in years; not a single word. Sitting by the window of our living room, he stares out into an abyss that's invisible to the rest of us. I think he sees past the Wall with his old eyes, I think he remembers the way things were before. He remembers back when Hal was a man to be reckoned with and not a coward of a human being who can't stay sober long enough to remember his daughter lost her mother just like he lost his wife. He remembers when Ben was a teenager, scared and alone, but alive and healthy. Maybe he even remembers himself, the man who was the second in command to the 2nd Massachusetts Resistance Militia. Kids like me are lucky. We were born behind the Wall of the Society. We were born safe, but Dad and Mom and Papa Tom and Uncle Hal and Uncle Ben…they weren't so fortunate. They all remember.

On our mantel piece sit five pictures in beautiful wooden frames. The most recent was a family picture. I was standing in the back trying to get Hoover to stop pinching my elbow and McKinley was frowning down at us both. Since she turned 16 she'd gotten to be nothing but high and mighty. Baby Reagan, well I guess she isn't a baby anymore, was sitting in Mom's lap screaming her head off and Dad had brought his hand to his forehead. All in all, it was a pretty interesting family portrait.

To the left of our family photo sits a one from a wedding that took place about 18 years ago. Mom looked more beautiful than I'd ever seen her; you couldn't even tell her scars were there. The dress was A-line with just hints of iridescent blue beads here and there. Blue was my mom's favorite color. Her curls had been pinned up into an intricate bun and Daddy looked happier than he ever was. My parents had gotten married before Uncle Ben decided to destroy his own family, piece by piece.

Next to my parent's wedding photo sat a second. An especially handsome young man had his arm around a girl in a simple knee length white dress. Their faces were both dirty with mud and splatters of blood. The girl desperately needed to run a hair brush through her long, wavy blonde locks. The backdrop of the photo seemed to be in the middle of the woods and I'd deduced that this had to be my Uncle Hal before he spiraled into the hell he's in now. I recognized the hair on the girl that must be my Aunt Maggie. Faith had inherited her mother's hair. Uncle Hal had gotten married in the middle of the woods half way through an alien invasion. I really wish he hadn't turned into such a mess. He must've been such a badass in his time.

Then there was the picture of Papa Tom and a woman named Anne. Dad had explained to me that his father and Anne had been married once and that they technically still were. He also told me that if he could help it, I would never meet her. Of course, that's Mason family code for you're going to meet her and I did. It had been around three years ago. I had been 7 or 8 at the time but I knew right off the bat something was not right. Her eyes were dilated and glazed over, as if she were high. I'd seen McKinley come home not quite right a couple of times but this was something completely different; something worse. Her skin had taken on a bluish tint and I could tell this woman wasn't doing any old weed joints, no. This was really something bad. I asked my older sister about it later. She looked at me like an idiot as she explained.

"Morphine," she told me.

"What's that?" I asked narrowing my deep brown eyes.

"It's a drug," Kinley replied absent mindedly.

"Obviously," I rolled my eyes. When I didn't move McKinley turned to me.

"Do you want to get out of my room?" her hands were resting on her hips and her left eyebrow had begun to twitch.

"What's Morphine do?" I asked staring her down expectantly.

"It's a highly addictive pain-killer. Anne was a doctor once. Now she's just washed up and crazy like all of the Masons." There was little bit of curious hurt behind my older sister's eyes as she spoke. I cocked my head sideways questioningly. "What?" Kinley had snapped.

"We're not all crazy," I whispered. "Dad's not."

"Dad's barely hanging on as it is." She had replied before pushing me back and slamming the door in my face. I had cried and my mom had immediately scooped me up to comfort me. She'd told me that she knew how awful sisters could be; that she'd had one once. But I wasn't upset about what McKinley had done. It was that moment I'd realized how alone our Dad must feel. Even at age seven I understood how strong Matthew Mason truly was.

There are an awful lot of things I shouldn't know, but I do. My grandpa's a mute and my grandma's a drug addict. One Uncle is an abusive drunk and the other killed himself. My dad is barely holding onto sanity and my Mom is a woman who still lives in her past.

Her name is Caroline and she came from an aristocratic family in southern Virginia. She grew up with horses and butlers and parents that she hardly ever saw. People respected her, though she had little respect for them. For the first nine years of my mother's life she was treated like a princess. When the aliens came and she was taken, her crown was stripped away. That was until my dad found her. Mom always told it like this super romantic story but Hoover and I, we saw right through it.

"Do you think Mom just married Dad because…" he trailed off but I knew what he'd meant.

"…because he treated her like she was on some kind of pedestal." I finished for him.

"Exactly," my brother had said looking down at me from his top bunk.

"Poor Dad," I said flicking a rubber band at my older brother's face.

"Hey!" he said, laughing, before throwing a pillow down at my head.

"He really loves her," my features had gone somber.

"Love," Hoover scoffed.

"Yes," I replied, frowning, "Love. Even with her scars, he loves her."

"I bet you just want Boone to love you, too." Hoover stuck his tongue out at me as my cheeks had flushed bright pink. Boone was my brother's best friend, three years older than me but I'd known him my whole life.

"Shut up," I grumbled. It was my brother's turn to become serious.

"Have you talked about the Invasion yet in Learning?" my brother asked me, emotionless.

"Yeah," I replied quietly.

"It's a load of bull," Hoover growled.

"What?" my eyes widened. Nobody questioned what was taught in Learning. It was immediate cause for Punishment.

"Do they really expect us to believe that the Overlords came in peace to 'fix' humanity?" Hoover shook his head.

"Well, yeah," I'd replied skeptically. "That's what happened."

"Uncle Ben wouldn't be dead if that were true," I opened and shut my mouth a couple of times, trying to think of an answer. When I couldn't, my brother continued. "I mean, they've got us trapped inside one giant electric fence."

"Wall," I instinctively corrected. Calling it anything except the Wall was cause for immediate Punishment as well.

"Whatever," Hoover rolled his chocolaty brown eyes. "Don't you want to know what's beyond the Wall?" I looked up at my sibling in shock.

"There's nothing but danger outside the Wall, Hoover. You know that, don't you?" My voice sounded strangely robotic and rehearsed.

"You sound just like them," he hissed with disgust. I knew who he was talking about; the men and women with the spikes in their back. They were our Learners and our Security. Everything that went on inside of the Wall had to have their stamp of approval before it was done.

"They're here to keep the human race safe." I said, reciting what I'd heard over and over in class at Learning.

"Not at all," Hoover said, his eyes glimmering with something I'd never seen before. Ambition? No, it was something more than that. "They're here to keep us in."

AN: So, this is a fresh idea that was developed between me and AwesomeChic101. These characters were built up by hand and we really hope you enjoy them. As the title says…this is the Second Generation. Matt's kiddies are in this story. I hope you enjoyed this and are excited for the next Chapter! Let me know! Matt, Anne, Tom, Ben, Hal, and any other canon characters belong to TNT and what not. However, Boone, Regan Mason, McKinley Mason, Hoover Mason, Faith Mason, and Kennedy belong to AwesomeChick101 and I. Hope you liked them as much as we did. Thanks again and be sure to Review. I love ya'll's opinions!