Noxious

52 | one of us

Charly 

Nothing felt real. 

I stared at the white tiled ceiling above me as I lay motionlessly in the bathtub. Steam gently circled off the surface of the water and tickled my cheeks until they were beyond pink. 

I had made the water hot enough to burn me. I had done it in an attempt to get myself to feel anything but the relentless ache within my chest. If I could distract myself, maybe I could accept our new future. 

Maybe I could accept that one of us was missing. 

It just didn't feel like a happily ever after to me. I might not have gone to jail and served time but I felt like my wings had been clipped entirely, and I was within a cage for everyone else's amusement. It was a feeling I had known my entire life. 

Still, I was supposed to be happy now. 

But how could I? 

I pressed my lips together and my eyes drifted down to the surface of the water. I could almost see my reflection from how still I had been. I couldn't stand the ghostly soul that stared back at me so I focused on the wall.   

Twelve hours ago, after my trial was concluded, I found out Tommy was now my legal guardian. He had also adopted Rowan. Then, we were introduced to Agent Lauffery. She told us about our placement in the Witness Protection Program. 

Since one of the gang members who had tried to kill us was still loose in the city, and the criminal trial was expected to last for three months, we were eligible for protection regardless of our probation status. 

We were relocated across the country within hours of that news. 

There were limitations and restrictions with being in the program, of course. By rule of the court, we were registered for therapy for the duration of the three months, and we weren't allowed to miss a single session unless it was an emergency. 

We were re-enrolled in a high school within the area and we were expected to finish high school. I was previously a drop-out because I had never cared for school, and Rowan was forced to be a drop-out by his deadbeat mother; but now we could finish our schooling, and we could have a diploma. 

Through it all, we were under the supervision of our probation officer. His name was Officer Wagner and he was actually a close friend of Officer Glauser and Officer Layden. Every week, Officer Wagner would report back to the court on our probation status and if there were any violations. 

We weren't allowed to be involved with any of the previous illegal activities we had been caught doing, and that was fair. I honestly didn't want to do any of it, ever again. Agent Lauffery told us that the program would release us for prison time if we were caught doing anything illegal, and I certainly didn't want to go there. 

Finally, we had alias names now and we weren't allowed to use our real names in public or around friends; if we made any during the program. 

Our only request that Agent Lauffery granted was there we could all have the same last name.

I slowly processed everything that had happened, as my life had seemingly taken a complete one-eighty turn. I hadn't expected the outcome of all of this, and I hadn't expected the court to be so responsive to our situations; regardless of our charges. 

However, I wasn't sure what the future would hold. I didn't know what would happen after the three months of being in Witness Protection, and then the years after we all served our probation term. I pondered it all with a heavy heart.