Promise from the heart

Chapter 3

One day, when his stepmother was passed out in her room, he went and stole some money from her purse.

Before leaving for school he went into the children's room. Brooklyn and Ezra were still fast asleep. Brooklyn had kicked off his blanket and his adorably chubby legs were spread wide in the cot as he cuddled into his little stuffed rabbit. Ezra were dreaming vividly, smiling widely as he kicked out with his legs. Probably another one of his superhero dreams, the older boy thought. Right now he was obsessed with Wonder Woman. He thought she was just the coolest.

Charlie kissed them both on the head before walking over to Julian who was watching him sleepily, clutching the pillow in his arms.
"Cha-cha mowning" he said with a sleepy grin, making the older boy utterly melt.

"Morning, Jules. I'm going to school now, but I'll see you soon, okay?" He said as he buried his face in Julian's neck, making the little boy giggle as he nodded.

He went down to let in the sitter and told her some random lie about his stepmother being down with the flu, as usual. He was sure she knew he was lying, but she didn't care enough to question him on it.

When half of the school day had passed, he went to the nurse's office and said he felt sick. Since Charlie always did well in school, no one questioned it and he was sent home. But home wasn't where he planned on going.

He walked into town, about a twenty minute walk and went to the local tech-store. He went in to buy two small cameras that could easily be attached and hidden. Charlie had read about surveillance in the school library.

By the register sat a young man in his early twenties who seemed to believe he was still a teenager and behaved accordingly. Not knowing if he'd let him make the purchase or not, the boy told him that they were for a science project, and that he was going to place them on his dog to figure out what a day in a dog's life was like. The guy however, didn't look up from his phone even once.

"18 quid" he just said dryly without looking up. Charlie gave him the exact amount and hurried out of the store in case the young man changed his mind and wanted to call his parents. He was in his school uniform after all.

As soon as he got home, and his stepmom was still out, he relieved the sitter early. She didn't question him since she was still paid the same amount. She just shrugged, took her bag and left the house.

There had been so many sitters Charlie couldn't be bothered to learn their names. But this would be the last one, he decided. No more.

Not wanting to risk Lucy walking in on him, he quickly went to work. The kids were taking their nap so it was the perfect time. He took the cameras out of their boxes and read the instructions. One he hid carefully among the spices in the spice rack in the kitchen, and the other, he hid in the children's bedroom. He knew all too well he was the only one who cooked and used the spices, so it would be safer there.

The young boy was clever so he was able to connect them to his laptop,  and made sure everything was recorded properly before going to check on the kids. The laptop was a broken one that his father had left behind. Charlie read all he could on fixing computers and managed to get it up and running again. His father wouldn't care and no one else knew he had it.

After a month or so, he had videos and photos of both his stepmother and her friends shooting up, but also of how she acted around her own children. The boy hadn't the heart to watch those videos though. There were also several ones of Lucy slapping and clawing at his chest, and her friends beating him up as his presence was "in the way" when they were high.

He collected everything on a USB and thought about what to do next. He had barely had a full conversation with his father since he was seven, or possibly further back than that, so as much as he wanted to go to him, that just wasn't an option. The fact of the matter was that even if he wanted to find his father, he had no idea where to even begin to start looking.

Charlie had no other relatives, apart from his mother's younger sister who had been away travelling since before he was born. She had come back for the funeral, or so he'd been told, but left halfway through and hadn't been seen or heard from since. For all he knew, she could be dead too.

He didn't want the school to know about his home life, nor did he trust they'd be able to help and so, he figured the police was the best way to go.

One day when Lucy was away travelling, most likely gambling, with her friends, Charlie decided it was time. He knew she'd be gone for a while, and she'd left money for the sitters but none for food. Not out of spite, he thought, but most likely because it didn't even cross her mind that her children needed food to survive. Not that their survival mattered much to her. Nothing mattered when she was high, and she was always high.

The boy phoned the school to call in sick and then called the sitter to cancel her hours as well. He followed his normal routine of waking up his brothers, changing the two youngest' diapers and helping Julian wash up. Once they were dressed and had some food in them, he let them play while he packed.

He packed his school bag with some snacks, toys for the kids and the USB. When he too was dressed and he had brushed all of their teeth, he placed the two youngest in their pram. He pushed it out the door, locked up and with Julian's hand in his, they were off. He didn't know where his stepmother was at that point, and he realised he didn't care. Today would be the day it all ended, one way or the other.

They took the elevator down and from the apartment building, they made their way to the police. It was only a ten minute walk, but he stopped by the playground first to tire out the little ones. After an hour of playtime, the two youngest fell asleep in the pram and the two older boys made their way towards the police station.

Julian was quiet as usual and held onto the older boy's hand with a firm grip. He sensed something was wrong, he always did, and Charlie didn't want to lie and tell him all was well, so he just said, "Everything is going to be okay eventually. I promise you that."

Julian nodded in response, curls shaking as he did.

Soon they neared the large brick building. It had a little ramp where he could push the pram up, and a nice old woman was kind enough to hold the door open for them. He thanked her gratefully and smiled a little. He was too nervous to smile properly.

"Such a good big brother," she said. "Here to see your mom or dad?"

"No" the boy said. "I'm here to report something."

He knew that if he stopped now, he would lose his nerve, so he walked into the building before the old woman could respond.

Once inside, he pressed the little button to get a piece of paper out that had his number on it.

There was a faint smell of regurgitation in the air, but he tried to ignore it. He sat down with the kids and pulled out a few of their toys for Julian to make sure he stayed calm and content. Ezra would wake up soon, but Brooklyn was out like a light and would be for hours as long as no one bothered him.

The waiting room was dull and grey. The chairs were black, with black PU leather on them, that was scratched, faded and even falling off some of them. They clearly weren't new, and the appearance of the waiting room evidently wasn't seen as important. There were only a few people there, but they were all staring at him, the young boy with three children with him. He decided to ignore them and focus on the task ahead. What should he say?

Soon enough they called his number. He turned to Julian and crouched down in front of him. Tucking a few of his curls back in place, he said in a soft voice, "Jules, I have to talk to them for a little bit. Can you be a good boy and wait here for me with your brothers? I'll be right back, I promise."

Julian looked up at him with his big, scared eyes. "Pwomise?" he asked.

"Pinkie promise." Charlie said and linked his pinkie finger with Julian's, squeezed and then kissed his round brown cheek, before he walked up to the officer.