Jacob

Chapter 7

The room is silenced of all voices, only the ticking of a clock and the unsteady breathing of it's guests fills the void from being nothing but air. Officer Graham sat on his dingy metal chair in the corner of the sickeningly plain interrogation room just watching the boy who sits at the table in front of him.

He watches the way the boy's breathing is a nervous mess, the way he picks and pulls at the skin around his nails. He watches the unsteady bounce of the boy's leg and the way he hunches over in his seat. Most of all he sees the way that all moving, breathing and little calmness remaining leaves his entire body as a police officer walks in with an inmate not far behind.

The officer looks at the boy then towards Graham before speaking:
                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                  "The man refused to leave his cell for this meeting sir, there was nothing we could do to persuade otherwise," I nod my head though never take my eyes off of Jacob as the officer continues his conversation "The lady was hesitant to comply but came, where would you like her sir?" I finally bring myself to take my eyes off of the kid and look up at the woman in the room. She sports an all orange jumpsuit and a pair of handcuffs around her limbs connecting her hands and feet as one. My eyes scan over her appearance yet I can not look past the fog of rage and disgust to bring myself to notice any slight detail about the filth Infront of me. The only thing I can see is a person that has brought so much pain and suffering to so many good people; People I call my friends, People I grew up with, People I watched grow up, and a person whom I have shared a home with and my wife has shared her heart with for the past few days. I see a monster who has brought such disgusting, painstaking torture to a boy who has not yet got to see the world as an adult or even a functioning human being. He has been ripped away from a family, a home, a childhood, but most of all a life worth living so all I see is not a human being Infront of me but a monster that deserves to rot in hell.

"Graham" Looking past my haze of thoughts I meet Jacob's eyes then follow them as he indicated towards the officer who is still waiting for an answer I now realise. "Yes sorry, Set her down at the table please then you are excused, thank you" The officer does as instructed and my eyes once again go back to watching Jacob. I watch as the two sit in an intense silence, staring at each other in a wordless show down. The kid slowly cowers down and I decide to end this staring contest.

"You've got ten minutes tops kid" Jacobs eyes turn to meet mine in a scowl "Ten? What the fuck am I meant to do with ten minutes?" I shrug and in a simple tone state "You're lucky you get that. Do with it what you want but times ticking and if I feel the need I will pull us out early" with huffs and grumbles under his breath he turns back towards the woman in front of him.

"Mother" Jacob receives no reply from the woman in front of him that he calls his mother, all he receives is a cold stare. An uneasy breath leaves his lips before continuing.                                                              "You seem to be calmer today, how is father?"                                                                                     "Did you know that the officers announced more charges to our name this morning?" The reponce took the boy by shock, not yet expecting to be met with words as apposed to silence.                         "What?"
"19 new charges this morning because you whined like a little bitch to that officer!"
The teen flinches back and the woman before him spits the words in his face,
"We fed you, clothed you, gave you and education, all we asked for in return was respect! That's all we wanted and we had every right to punish you as your parents you were just to weak to handle it!" Clarissa stands up slamming her hands onto the table creating a loud bang and Jacob flinches back instinctively, causing the chair to screech back. Within a split second a voice comes over a p.a in the room
"Watch yourself inmate or you will be removed. Four minutes left" it was officer Graham. The voice surprisingly sent a wave of calmness through Jacob and he composed himself once again.
"They tell me what you did to me, what you BOTH did to me, wasn't parenting. It was torture," a mixture between a scoff and a laugh escapes his lips as he continues on "Bas tried to tell me for years that it wasn't normal but I just brushed it off. Wait until I was 18 and move out but then all of this happened and more and more people kept telling me it wasn't normal. People who didn't know me or owe me anything and I think that's when I started to realise..." Jacob finally meets Clarissa's eyes "you two never loved me, you loved the power you held over me"
He takes it as his cue to stand up and shortly after Clarissa Hargrove begins to scream at the boy. Tuning her voice out Jacob looks over to the mirror on the wall behind him "I'm done here" those simple three words was all Graham needed to hear before he opened the doors to the interrogation room followed by two officers to escort Clarissa out.