Wished

14. Visiting

We stand outside the door, waiting for Newal, Ruth, Jordan and Maria. I look at the way people are stationed at them, and realize they must be officers patrolling the place. They give us suspicious looks, probably because we're three teens standing outside of a jailhouse.

Finally, Newal, Jordan, Ruth and Maria arrive and we walk into the huge gray building and to the front desk.

The woman at it gives as a hard look.
"What do you want?" She asks, suspicion lacing her voice.

"We would like to see Shawn Darren, please." Maria says and the womans jaw nearly drops.

"Shawn Darren?" She exclaims and we nod.

"You have ten minutes." She gets up, her black boots hitting the tile floor ringing around the room. The seven of us follow her, looking around. The place is dark and bland, and is filled with despair and sadness and anger. I wrap my arms around me, following the woman. We stop, and she gestures to a small cell, and says, "Mr. Darren, these kids would like to see you." Pain flashes across her face, before she regains herself, her face hardening again. "Time starts now." She turns around, hurrying down the hall.

We turn to Shawn Darren, looking at him and the cell. Only bars separate us, but it seems like so much more. He will always be the person accused of murder. The murderer of the Ramirez's. And we are just teens. Teens who have no clue what they're doing, and why this is happening. He looks back at us, with tired eyes and a scrawny body.

"Uh, hello." Jordan starts, looking at us with nervous eyes. "We have been investigating what's been happening recently with the robberys and killings."

"What brought us here was a diary. It talked about recent deaths and robberies. The girl who wrote the diary was named Tanya Ramirez." Zara says and Shawn Darren flinches.

"We looked deeper into everything. We think that these cases are related to the ones we're facing now. So, we looked into it more and we found you. But, we think your innocent. Somethings didn't add up, and we need you to answer a few questions of ours, if you don't mind." I finish.

"I've been here almost twenty years." He starts, looking at us with his dull eyes. "I was accused of murdering Tanya and Micheal. They thought I may have even killed Micheal's wife. But, I didn't kill any of them, I swear."

And I believe him. I can see it in him, the pain and sadness of being locked away, behind bars.

"Why did they think that you killed them?" Newal asks.

"Micheal's wife died a bit before them. So, we had a funeral. Then, we had the post funeral reception and we had food out, and with food comes silverware. I was returning some of the silverware which, included knives, and not just butterknives. When they were searching for fingerprints in the house, they found mine on the knives. And that was it. I pleaded guilty, but no one believed me. I was good friends with the Ramirez's, and still people thought I killed them. But, I can't blame some of them. During that time, with all the murders and robberies, people were scared. They thought that maybe they could relieve some fear by doing this because they thought maybe I was part of the robbery gang. They didn't stop, didn't even slow down. I thought they would realize this, but I was wrong too."

"Do you have any information about the robbery gang?" Ruth asks.

"Not much. But, this place echos alot with loud sounds. I hear the police men and woman talking once in a while. When they were reporting to the scene of a recent attack, they saw two brown haired men speeding off in a dark green pickup truck, but they were too slow, and the pickup truck got away, without them even getting the license."

"A pickup truck and two brown haired men. Noted." Maria says.

"I don't think we have any more questions, right?" Zara says, looking at us and we all shrug, shaking our heads slightly. But, I can't leave here with knowing there's an innocent man here, being locked up for something he didn't do.

"Maybe we can get you out." I say, looking at the bars and the lock.

"Arabella, you're really going to break him out?" Newal whisper exclaims and I shrug. "Do you want to send us all to juvie? Or jail!"

"We need to get him out though. He can't sit here for years more!"

"After the robber situation if figured out, then we can come back here and prove him innocent, I swear." Newal says, looking me in the eye. "But breaking him out right now is not goimg to do any good for us."

"True I guess. Fine." I turn back to Shawn. "My friends and I will get you out soon. We will prove you're innocent, I promise."

Shawn smiles sadly. "You're Lillian's daughter, aren't you?"

"You knew her too?" I ask and he nods, laughing slightly.

"I knew your whole family on your mothers side. I was good friends with your mothers brother, and I was good friends with her too. I was only a year older than your uncle and him and I would always play pranks on your mother."

I smile, trying to imagine younger thems, laughing together. Just then, the woman comes back, looking at the seven of us and then at Shawn.

"Times up." She says and we follow her reluctantly.

I wave back at Shawn, but he's already turned away.

. . .

A/N: Dramatic, I know. But there's all a reason for it...