A Tortured Soul

Chapter 20

Justin explained his situation to Johnathan's dad little by little and watched tears form in the man's eyes and slow slide down his cheeks. His eyes grew cloudy, cheeks turned puffy with a slight pink color forming just on the top of his cheek bones. The man was in utter shock and disbelief wondering how a parent could do such unspeakable things to a child, their own child in particular. As Justin wrapped up his story (skipping the part in the antique shop because obviously everything else was to much for the man) he stood and began to walk away. He didn't want to sit there and watch the man blubber all over the place.

"Justin wait!" The man spoke in a scratchy low tone although tried to yell his voice just wasn't having it. Justin turned around slowly and look at him blankly. "You can stay with us if you want to." The man continued. Justin smiled and thanked him.

For the next few days Justin stayed locked in his room thinking about his next move. He wasn't sure if he wanted to stay or if he wanted to leave. Meanwhile Johnathan's dad made an appointment with a trusted doctor that he has known for years. He didn't want to risk taking Justin out in public just yet because he figured his parents would be looking for him and he may also have a search party after him due to his escaping juvie.

The doctor agreed to make a house call because of the circumstances that the man shared with him. The man went upstairs and called for Justin to come out of his room so the doctor could do an evaluation.

"Hello! You must be Justin! I'm Dr. Seth Waller, it's very nice to meet you!"

Justin stared blankly at the man. He had a few strands of silver hair mixed in with his light brown hair and in his short scruffled beard. He wore a long white coat that all doctors seem to have and a stethoscope rested around his neck. underneath the coat he was dressed in a nice black suit with a smiley face tie that didn't seem match anything he had on other than the goofy smile on his face.

Dr. Waller studied Justin's appearance, he noticed a cut on his neck that seemed like it continued down his shirt. It looked like it was healing but might possibly be slightly infected from lack of treatment. "Justin could you take your shirt off for me please?"

"No. You can do whatever it is you need to do while my clothes are fully in tact."

"You have a scratch on your neck and it looks like it goes further down, I just wanted to see where it stopped."

Justin placed his middle finger at the top of his neck as if he was giving the doctor the bird and with a straight face glaring at him he traced the scratch down to where it ended just slightly above his pants line. He watched the doctor's eyes follow his finger and widen as he reached the end of the mark.

"Wow, it goes that far huh?"

"Yes."

"Where did you get a scratch like that?"

Justin remained silent refusing to answer the question. He didn't want anyone to know that that specific scratch was from Jason tracing his body with a switch blade he found at Debbie's antique shop. Especially since he didn't tell Johnathan's dad about that part of his encounter with his parents.

"Ok, it's going to be a little difficult with your shirt on but can I listen to your heart and lungs?"

"Sure, why not?" Justin said with a slightly sarcastic attitude.

Dr. Waller took his stethoscope from around his neck and began first listening to Justin's lungs. Nothing unusual there, next his heart. Dr. Waller stood listening for a while longer than he did the lungs. He noticed and off beat rhythm that struck concern, normal heart beats have a steady pace but Justin's seemed to skip two beats at a time.

He took about four steps back from Justin looking at him as if he just spotted and alien wondering how he is alive with a heart beat like that. "This is odd and I have never heard anything like it. I am afraid I need to take him to the office and do a body scan." He finally said.

The man's ears perked up. "What do you mean? What is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure but his heart is not beating properly."

"Well, can we go now?"

"Yea, the office is closed so no one should be there, Let's go."

"Johnathan, come on we have to make a run. Come on Justin."

After the scan Dr. Waller studied the picture and realized he wasn't going to see anything useful there. No blockages were present and nothing else stuck out that may be the cause of Justin's off set heart beat.

"Ok, nothing here, lets try the ultrasound so I can watch it beat."

He put Justin in an big black cushioned chair and leaned it back so that he was lying down. "Look I know you don't want to take your shirt off but you kind of have to right now. I need to see what is wrong with your heart.

"My heart is fine."

"No, I'm sorry but it's not."

"Fine, but it's not coming all the way off I will pull the collar down enough for you to put that weird thing in the right place but that is it."

"Thank you."

Justin pulled his shirt collar down and the doctor squeezed some warm gel on his chest. It stung his scratch a little but not enough to make him squirm or grunt so the doctor wouldn't want to look at it again.

Dr. Waller stared at the screen watching Justin's heart beat. It was beating at a steady normal pace. "That's odd." He turned on the sound so he could hear it as well as see it. "What the hell is going on?"

"What is it?" The man asked.

"His heart, it's looks to be beating properly but listen, the sound doesn't match the movement."

"What does that mean"

"I don't know, I have never seen anything like this before. When I worked at the hospital I seen some pretty weird stuff, even after I was promoted and got my office building, still a lot of weird stuff, but everything was able to be explained. I don't there is anything in the medical books that can explain this."