Trapped

You deserve to know (Part 1)

Jonah's POV

"I've been here for four years, I have three to go, I know what your reaction will be when I say this, but none of it is my fault." She gives me a look, her eyebrows raised, her eyes wide in disbelief. I decide to continue anyway. " Basically, I was born into a fucked up family. I was all alone as a child, no siblings to talk to or help me get though it. My parents divorced when I was two, and even though I was too young to understand, it still tore me apart. Before long, both my parents were alcoholics and couldn't be in the same room together for a minute without being at each other's throats, literally. After three years of my parents being apart, they met again. They were both intoxicated, it wasn't pretty. The fight was nasty, and I saw everything. It wasn't really anything I hadn't seen before, until dad pulled out the .45. I had always thought of my parents as abusive, but it never once crossed my mind that my dad could own a gun. I witnessed my own mother's death. No one ever found out. According to police, mums death was a suicide. Not long after my mum died, dad kicked me out of the house, it was the only thing my dad did that I was grateful for. If I stayed, I don't know whether Id be alive. I spent most of my life on the streets, being the oblivious five year old I was, I still had hope that someone would scoop me up, take me home, look after me and raise me and I would get my happy ever after. One day, something happened, and I thought I was going to get my joyful ending, but it quickly turned into a nightmare. As I wanders the streets. A boy, about 17 years of age, approached me. Said I had potential to be part of their gang, to be a fighter for what is right. After all the bad in my life, the least I could do was give something good to the world. But I was clueless, I was wrong. 14 years, Stella, was how long I spent with those bastards. They said they were fighters. They lied. They were cowards, they were attention-seekers. They were terrorists. For those 14 years of absolute hell, I was forced to join them in their plans of destroying cities and potentially starting World War III. While I was helping the guys, in about my sixth year, I found out my dad had died from a drug overdose. The men around me were so apathetic, it rubbed off on me and I showed to emotion when I heard the news. Then there was one fight. In my fourteenth year, 2012, I was participating in an attack on Afghanistan. There were American soldiers there too, and I was surprised, but Tida, the head of the gang, told me to kill. They were like animals that way. To kill was their first instinct. I wasn't sure what to do. The others shot most of them down, so I thought I wouldn't have to take someone's life, much to my relief. But I was wrong. Tida threatened me. Said that if I didn't make at least one kill, I would be added to the pile of dead bodies. In a hurry to survive, I took a blind shot, it hit a middle aged man, right in the chest. The gang was impressed, I was appalled, the whole journey back to America all I could taste was bile. That's how bad the guilt was. I didn't get a good nights sleep for weeks, until the day I decided I'd had enough. The next day, I came here, Opal Hill County Jail, and told a slightly younger sheriff Linkin everything I'm telling you now. He thought I was twisting the story, that I was behind everything. So here I am, with a seven year sentence, which I am four years into. Next question?"
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Stella's POV

"What? Jonah! I'm not going to ask you anything! You've just told me your whole past, I'm so sorry I had no idea!! You expect me to ask you another question, to just move on like you didn't just tell me something significant? No! I won't hear it!" I turn away, my nose in the air, like a pure snob. "Stella, it's fine, you need to know, you deserve to know the history of where you are, the people you meet, why everything is the way it is. I will not leave you, not for a moment, until you know as much as I do." His words shock me. Does he actually care? I feel my expression soften. "Okay, tell me more. What was...why was Linkin drunk???"

" Linkin lost his younger sister a little while after he got promoted to sheriff, which was about 5 months before I came here. She was his everything. He would always have pictures of her around his office, talk to her on the phone every weekend. But when she passed from leukaemia, he shut her out, he shut everyone out, all in an effort to try to forget her. He started to drink, the rest of the county found out, and they nearly sacked him, but Linkin promised he would stop as long as he could keep his job. So he's still sheriff, but he's not the same. Maybe, when he, you know...hit on you.... maybe he was attracted to you in that moment, maybe you reminded him of his sister..." "But that doesn't explain why he kissed me," I propose. "True, I guess that's still unknown," he replies, "what next?"

" Why such a small amount of people,?" I ask, not as curious as I was about Jonah, but still somewhat eager to know the answer.
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Jonah's POV

"That's an easy one, everyone either hates that it's so rusted, old and gross that they beg to be transferred or that they want to be somewhere else because it's closer to for their family and friends so that visits are less of a struggle. The people here, are the ones who don't give two hoots about where they are."

"Fair enough, " she states. "Now, one last question." Uh oh. I thought I was ready, but I don't know how to explain this without losing the possibility of a friendship with her. Do I lie and play it safe or tell the truth and risk it? "Why am I the only girl?" She squeaks. I decide to go with option two. She deserves the truth.
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A/N: Okay I know that this is all dialogue but it's just some background and key information because there would be lots of gaps in the plot without it. This will be in two parts because it's so long and there is so much to say! Thanks for reading and I be back soon for another update!!
Xx Adriana ❤️💙