Novella 1: He's Still a Little Boy

Preview

Noah gasped, waking up. He sat up and looked around. Tears came down from his eyes.

"Breath... in... and... out... in... and... out."

He tried to breathe, but it was raspy. His heart was racing. He heard the door open. It was Natalie.

She didn't say anything. She just sat down with him and leaned his body on her's.

"It's going to be okay," Natalie said.

"Oh my god," he sobbed. "It was all terrible."

"You must be Joey."

"Yes, hi," he said.

"Okay, I've got a couple of ground rules. You must call me Ms. Mara. You are not allowed to have any electronic devices or games at any time." She ripped his bag off of his shoulder and opened it. She took out the D.S device and the scrabble three-game sets.

"Wha-- you can't take those!" he said, he said reaching for his bag.

"You are living under my roof. You will live by my rules. And you will never talk back to me again."

"He looked at her with tears in his eyes. "My sister and her foster mother gave me those," he said with a shaky voice.

"Yes, I heard about your situation with your sister. From now on, there will be no talk about those girls and their mother."

"They're my sister, cousin, and second mother. I can talk about them if I want."

"What are you crying for?"

"Ms. Elinore didn't tell you?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the fifth anniversary of your parents' death. Let it go."

"Clearly that girl gets you into a lot of trouble."

"News flash! There are new rules. Every time you talk back or raise your voice to me, you are grounded for one day. You've already talked back to me five times so you are grounded for five days. You are not allowed to leave this room unless I instruct you too. When I am not here and I find out you've been out of your room, there will be consequences."

He was chained to his bed most of the time when she was home and was never let out of the house. He was given food once every three days but always had some water on his nightstand.

"Sit down!" she barked at him.

He sat and she turned on the bright light. She tied his hands to the chair and then his ankles.

"You will sit here and you will not sleep at all. If I catch you sleeping, there will be consequences."

She left the room and he tried not to cry.

After two days, she let him out of the chair and took it away along with the ropes.

For three days, he walked around the room. She beat him every couple of hours.

"Jess," he said and collapsed on her. She caught him.

"Joey!" she cried. "Audrey! Help!" she screamed. She started sobbing. "No, no, Joey!" she sobbed.