Faith, Hope, Trust

The End Of The Torture

*Janae's POV*

I wake up to a pounding on the basement door and people shouting my name. I quickly shoot up and open my bedroom door. When I open it I see 2 big men holding my dad and a 4'10 girl right in front of the door. 

'Hi Janae, I'm Amy and we're here because this house isn't suitable for you to live in. I'm here to talk to you and make sure you're okay and if you have any questions and to have a look at your cuts and bruises,' she says stepping a little closer to me.

Behind her are these two burly men with my dad and he's cursing and screaming at them and then shouting at me but I can't hear him. Everything is muffled and my head is spinning. Then Amy grabs hold of my arm and leads me to the couch with my back to my dad.

'Janae it's okay just breathe,' she says calmly not letting go of my arms.

' I....I didn't call you,' I say shakily focusing on my breathing.

' I know hunny' she says 'Your school sent us out because they noticed some bruises scrapes and gashes over the past few weeks, is that when he started abusing you?'

'N-no,' I answer 'It's when I stopped trying to hide it as much.'

I look over as my dad is getting put into a cop car. Lucy stands up and puts her hand out guiding me to follow her. I stand up and we start walking down to the basement I know all too well. 

'We're gonna pack your stuff up now okay sweetie' she says picking up an empty rucksack and walks over to my chest of drawers to help me pack. 

I walk over to where she is, take the bag from her, open the chest of drawers and start putting my clothes in and Amy goes into the bathroom and takes my makeup and hair curler and put them in my bag. I then see a pile of photos and I drop my bag. Amy comes in, sees what I'm staring at and walks over to me, putting her arm around me.

'Are you okay sweetie,' she says and I simply shake my head. I slowly walk over to the photos and hand them face down to her. She flips them over and I see her face flicker for a second.

'Are you okay if I put these in my folder,' she asks walking over to her bag.

'Yeah,' I say 'but can I see them first,' reaching out to take them. She hands them to me and I start looking through them. They are photos of all of my cuts,bruises and gashes.

'I took these so if anyone ever found out I could show them these so it wouldn't be an adults word against a child's, I'd actually have evidence,' I say. 

'I get that,' she says ' A lot of kids who have dealt with this write diary entries or take photos because they think the police will believe the adult and not them but a 99% of the time they will believe you Janae, you will get away from him,' she finishes and I smile. 

I turn around, finish packing my clothes, not that there is many and we walk out to her car.

'Today I'm going to bring you to the CPS station and get you registered on the foster care system okay,' she says.

'W-whats the CPS building,' I ask.

'CPS stands for Child Protective Services and its just a building not too far away where you can stay until someone fosters you,' she says as if she has many times before but not in a diminishing way, like she's excited for me and it somehow makes me feel at ease.

We pull up to this big building that kind of looks like a school. Amy parks her car and we walk inside.

'Hey Ames,' the receptionist says  'and this must be Janae, hey Janae I'm Katherine but you can call me Kath, I'm also someone who helps with children just like Amy does.'