A Tortured Soul

Chapter 27

Justin lay quietly in his bed staring at the roof with his hands underneath his head. He had the room to himself because they still considered him a danger to himself and others. To keep him from escaping again a security guard was always standing watch outside of his door. There were three of them that took turns rotating shifts escorting him to and from the mess hall and the yard. After a few months of this they decided to ease up on his watch due to good behavior, but who could misbehave constantly being watched? They began allowing him to go to the mess hall without watch and figured if he did good with that they then move to allowing him in the yard without watch and eventually maybe even allow him to have a bunk mate. To no surprise it only took one time going into the mess hall alone for him to go right back under watch.

One of the other boys came and sat down by Justin while he was eating. Justin sat minding his own business trying to stay out of trouble, but unfortunately he was like a magnet that attracted trouble. No matter how much he tried to avoid it, it was always lurking around him waiting to pounce like a lion on it's prey. The boy looked at Justin, "Give me your trey." Justin ignored him and continued eating. "I said, give me your trey." The boy repeated. Justin continued to ignore him. The boy snatched Justin's trey from him and began eating what was left. Justin looked up staring straight ahead then turned slightly to look at the boy. "I told you to give me your trey, but you wouldn't listen." The boy said with his mouth full of meatloaf. Justin stood up, snatched his trey back, smack the boy in the face with the trey knocking him backwards off his stool, and began repeatedly smashing the trey against the boys head.

A crowd formed around the two which caught the guard's attention, he blew his whistle, called for back up, and ran toward the group. Justin stopped hitting the boy and stood up. "Maybe next time you will think twice before stealing someone's food fat ass." He said to the boy and threw the bloody trey at his head. The guard made it through the crowd and threw Justin to the ground, cuffed him, and took him back to his room. The boy that took his trey was rushed to the hospital to get stitches in the top of his head and in his face. When questioned Justin told the guards the truth, the kid stole his trey so he decided to beat him with it. Of course, they blamed the whole thing on him.

The other kid didn't receive punishment at all. "Why are you blaming me? It's not like I sat there begging him to taunt me so I could beat him up. Are you going to do something about him taking my food?" Justin asked angrily. "No, you started the fight, you caused him to go to the hospital, you were the one with the blood on your hands, so you get the punishment." The officer said smiling, as if he had some kind of vendetta against Justin and just wanted him to catch all the hell. "You are fucked up in the head, I didn't start the fight, he did, he took my food." Justin said. The officer laughed, "Ok, Tell me. Who threw the first punch?" He asked. Justin didn't say anything because he knew it was a trick question. Instead he gave the cop a dirty look, the cop smiled and walked away."

The kid came back from the hospital a week later. Last minute report came in to the receptionist at the main building for the Juvenile Center from the doctor and said that the child slipped into a coma and would not be returning that day. It took him a week to come out of it. When he returned he slipped out of the mess hall unnoticed and paid a little visit to Justin. "Hey." The kid said softly trying to get Justin's attention. Justin looked up, rolled his eyes and looked back up at the ceiling. He had been laying in his bed when the kid showed up. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry." The boy said and walked away. Justin shook his head in disapproval, he didn't want to forgive him because he caught all the fault for the incident.

After that the guards didn't give Justin another chance to misbehave. They kept him separated from everyone for the rest of his time there. When he was released, he was let go to Jack and May since they couldn't find his parents and the process began for them to have legal custody of him. He was thirteen years old when he got out. Jack and May were extremely excited to have him back and did everything they could to make sure he was comfortable staying with them. While he was gone they were working on getting a room set up for him and had been meeting with lawyers to find the best one to help them take custody of Justin.

JT and Tatiana were at school when Justin was released and their parents didn't tell them they were going to pick him up that day. They thought it would be best if they were surprised when they got home that way their excitement didn't interfere with their school work. Jack, May, and Justin were walking to the car eager to get home when something caught their attention. There was a man and woman yelling at each other and the man smacked the woman across the face and yelled for her to shut up. Before Jack or May could respond Justin was already running toward the unsuspecting man. He jumped up, wrapped his small arm around the man's throat jerking him to the ground, he climbed on top of the man and began slamming his fists into his face. A by stander called for the police that were standing on the other side of the parking lot and they rushed over pulling Justin off the man. "What are you doing kid?" The officer asked angrily.