A Tortured Soul

Chapter 19

     Justin was alone which didn’t bother him because he was also now free of his parents beatings. He could go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted. The struggle for food and water was his only problem. He found himself growing weak and desperate to eat so he did the only thing he thought possible. He stole from local markets, fruit and premade food sitting out free for him to grab with no one noticing. In order for him to blend in without throwing suspicion about being in the stores alone he walked close to families pretending to be there with them.

     This worked for about a week until a family noticed what he was doing and ratted him out. The police were called and he was sent back to juvie. Unfortunately, the police already knew who he was and had his parents number in his file. Now he had to find a way out before his parents could pick him up. His charges were for stealing and failure to appear.

     The officer that picked him up last time called his parents and told them he would be spending time in juvie until his next scheduled court date and may possibly spend more time afterward depending on what the judge says. Justin wasn’t about to stay there or go back to his parents. He only stayed long enough to gather food in a pillow case to take with him when he escaped. Three days later he escaped while they had yard time. He simply crawled through a small space between the gate and the side of the building that wasn’t secured properly. ‘They really should fix that.’ He thought to himself and laughed.

     Hours later Justin ended up on what he thought was a long abandoned dirt road which actually led to a rich neighborhood. A red Chevy truck pulled up next to him and stopped. The man in the driver seat leaned forward and look at Justin with concern. “Hey kid are you lost?” he asked. “No.”
“Where ya headed?”
“Nonya town.”
Justin replied.
“Alright wise guy, you need a lift?”
“No.”
“Where ya from?”
“Just left your mom's house.”
“Aha, good one.”
The man said giggling slightly and threw his truck into park. He got out and walked around to stop Justin from walking. “Alright, so I have lived in this neighborhood for twenty years and no one is ever walking down this road especially a child by himself so what’s really going on?”
“If I told you I would have to kill you.”
“Well tell me and get to killing.”
     Stunned by his response Justin looked up at the man before him. He was clean cut and dressed in nice clothing. He had a slight gut which was only noticeable if you looked hard enough. Then he turned his head to the kid in the truck. He recognized him to be Johnathan from school. A loner just like him, the kids never really spoke and was always reading. Justin looked back at the man in front of him.
“So who are you? Some kind of pedophile that goes around scooping little boys up off the side of the road to take them home and stuff in your dungeon? It puts the lotion on it's skin.” Justin mocked.
“Boy you are just full of fun aren’t you? Hate to burst your bubble incase you are into that kind of thing or if that’s what you were hoping for but no, that is my son Johnathan.”
“I know who he is.”
“Oh really? You two must got to school together. Johnathan do you know this kid?”
     Johnathan nodded his head. Apparently the kid did pay attention to more than just books.
“How could you know anyone when your nose is always buried in a book?” Justin asked. “Just because I read a lot doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s going on around me.” Johnathan responded.
“Ok great, so what’s your name?” the man asked.
“Puddintaine ask me again and I will tell you the same.”
“Haha, you are something else. I like you.”
“I’m sure you like all the little boys.”
“His name is Justin dad.” Johnathan said.
“Well, Justin alright! So what’s with the outfit?”
     Justin was still wearing his jumpsuit from juvie because he had nothing else to change into since they took his clothes. The conversation continued for a little while and the man finally broke through to Justin and convinced him to get in the truck. The man took the boys to the mall, bought them lunch and Justin some new clothes. After that they went home, as they were pulling into the driveway Just was amazed at the home. It was a large two story brick house with double doors, a second floor deck held by four pillars. It seemed big enough for a pool to be up there, for all Justin knew there could have been a pool there.
“Since you seem to like quotes so much, here’s one for ya. Welcome to our humble home!”
“You live here?” Justin played along.
“We live wherever we want.”
“Wow!”
     Walking inside the room seemed to open up as if you were entering a football stadium.  It had a high rise ceiling with a single chandelier hanging in the center of the room that burned bright enough to light the whole room. To the left was a kitchen big enough to be an entire restaurant decked out in stainless steal appliances and black counter tops and an island separating the kitchen from the dining room. To the right was a stretched out spiral stair case leading to the second floor. In front of him was a huge plasma screen TV with theater like chairs placed in a half circle in front of it.
“Surround sound?”
Justin asked.
“Absolutely! You cant have this theater set up without surround sound. Johnathan why don’t you take Justin upstairs and show him the fun rooms.”
     Johnathan waved at Justin to follow. They ran upstairs and went to three different rooms, first the game room. It was packed with old arcade games and all kind of different game consoles.
“Any game you want to play is in here.”
The next room was the sports room.
“These are all table top sports games like air hockey, ping pong, basket ball, foosball, basically any game you might find at….say, Chuck-E-Cheese or any other fun game place. Nest we have our pool room which is just a temperature controlled pool so we can swim no matter the weather.
“Boys! Come down here a minute would you?”
Johnathan’s dad called.
“Justin, let me ask you some serious questions before we get any further into wherever this is going.” He continued.
“Ok.”
“Now I don’t want any jokes I want to know facts. Why were you in a Juvie jumpsuit and where the hell are your parents?”
“I was caught stealing food from Super 1, and I would rather avoid the parents part of the question.”
“You can't avoid it. I need to know answers.”