The Long Haul

Chapter 33

As Jay disappeared into the hallway and the door closed, Alex's face suddenly shifted from the sarcastic, confident teen to a nervous, anxious one. Without warning, a loud crash came from the stairwell, startling her. As a pre-programmed reflex, her eyes darted over to the door as her heart raced, anticipating the worst was coming for her now.

A loud crash came from the kitchen - a mug? a beer bottle? A lamp? who knew what it was this time that Pat Halstead threw at the wall.

Alex immediately retreated to the corner of her bedroom, sliding down and pulling her knees to her chest as she rocked back and forth, a hollow attempt to soothe herself. Her dad was in one of his moods tonight. It was only a matter of time now.

You can do this.

It's not like he's going to kill you.

You've made it through worse.

One day he'll drop dead and it'll stop.

Stay strong.

She went through her mental peptalk, bracing herself for what was to come.

Just as she was about to start her mantra over again, her bedroom door flew open, the handle pounding against the wall where it had already made an indent a while ago. Her eyes, laced with fear, shot up to the figure standing in the doorway.

Her father held a folded brown belt in his hand and a drunken look of evil across his face.

"Alex, we need to talk," he slurred.

The creak of a door yanked Alex from the clutches of her nightmare, disorienting her as she stumbled between past and present. Her breath hitched, and it took several seconds to steady her mind, to remember where she was - and where she wasn't. With trembling hands, she wiped stray tears from her face, glancing around the dim space. Slowly, reality set in: she wasn't trapped in her old bedroom, bracing for another beating. But the relief was fleeting. She was still trapped inside this cage at the police precinct.

Adam needed to make his way back to his car to get an evidence bag he left behind. He opened the door into the garage and started jogging through it, but immediately stopped when he saw a familiar kid in the cage.

"Alex?" he called out, clearly surprised to see her here. He hadn't been sure what Jay had done after he found her, but this was unexpected.

Alex jumped up when she recognized the familiar face. "Adam!" she called out, trying to move closer to the cage's door, but unable to due to the handcuffs. "You have to get me out of here," she begged.

He walked over to the cage cautiously. "What are you doing in there?" he asked, even though he clearly knew the answer. Her watery eyes didn't go unnoticed by him.

"Jay's lost his mind! Get me out of here." When he didn't budge, she quickly added desperately, "Please!"

The officer wasn't sure what to think right now; he had no idea whether he agreed with whatever Jay was doing or not, but that didn't matter. He wasn't about to put himself in the middle of it, and he had to respect Jay's decisions.

"Sorry, kid. I'm sure, uh," he looked around to an empty room. "I'm sure Jay will be back soon, okay? You're safe down here - nobody else can get in," he added, trying to give her some solace that she wasn't about to be jumped by true villains.

Once she realized that Adam wasn't coming to her defense, her guarded walls returned and she swallowed the lump that had been resting in her throat. "Screw you," she spat as she sat back down.