Lonely Hearts 2

Chapter one: Lincoln

I scowled at Emily as I sat in the Seat of Shame. I had achieved at least one thing during this journey. Emily was pissed.

"What were you thinking?" She shouted.

Fred and Charlie stood either side of me, and just to make things more dramatic, they had kept the handcuffs the police shackled me with.

I struggled in my seat.

"Do you have any idea how long we spent looking for you? How worried we've all been?" She asked.

I was silent. I didn't care. I didn't care anymore about this place or their stupid rules. I wanted, needed, to get back to my sisters.

"Let me go." I said, spinning around to glare at Fred.

"You stay where you are if you know what's good for you." He growled.

"Anything could have happened to you." Emily continued. "And for what?"

"Let me go." I shouted.

She filled out a bunch of paperwork and ignored my swearing.

"Lincoln, enough." Charlie said, eventually. "We have an obligation to keep you safe. We are just doing our job."

"That son of a bitch fucked me over." I muttered.

"He did as we asked." Emily said, calmly.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"When you left we figured you would somehow manage to track your sisters one way or another." She explained. "So we took precaution to ring Louis and inform him of the situation."

"You told him to get in touch if I reached them?" I asked.

"Of course." She said, calmly, flicking through the paperwork and not meeting my eye.

I simmered silently, realising I had been played from the start.

"Lincoln, I don't even know what to say to you right now." She said, finally looking up. "Except that I am extremely disappointed."

I scowled.

"I have found a placement for you. Now if this doesn't work, then I will be making arrangements for you to be moved elsewhere." She said and I looked up, perplexed.

"I'm not going." I said, simply.

"This isn't optional." Her eyes turned obsidian dark. "This is your last chance, Lincoln. I mean it this time. We have given you plenty of opportunities to sort yourself out."

"I'm not going."

"Then you will be placed in a youth detention center." She said. "You are becoming a danger to yourself and others."

You need to be trained.

I was silent, anger bubbling at the ultimatum.

"I would strongly advise you to use this opportunity." Emily said, calmly. "It is going to be really good for you."

"You can't put me in a youth detention centre when I haven't done anything wrong." I argued.

"If we can't keep you safe, then we will send you somewhere where you can." She explained. "This isn't optional, Lincoln. You need to know what a real family is like."

I scowled. I knew what a family was like. I had one. Until she ripped me away from it again. I didn't want to play her games anymore, but I knew she meant what she said. This was my last chance. If I muck this up, I would never see my sisters again.