Tranquility

Chapter 38: The Gospel of Josephine

**TW drug abuse, overdosing, mentions of child abuse, drunk driving, and sexual abuse**
September 5, 2010
Jo's POV

I skip down the large hallway and look around. The large ceiling feels so far up that all I wanna do is jump up and touch it. Or try too at least.

Suddenly someone grabs my arm and my large smile fades, this usually means I'm in trouble in some way. I don't like being in trouble. "Josephine..." I hear one of the goons grumble.

  "What Randy? I just want to go outside," I say and he gives me the look. It's the look telling me I can't do whatever I wanna do. "I'm a kid Randy it's not fair that everyone else gets to go outside. I need to expose my immune system to the germs," I say and he shakes his head at me.

  "You're wayyyy too smart for an eight year old," he tells me and I shrug.

  "That's what you get for keeping me inside," I tell him and he smiles at me. Shivers run down my spine even if I don't exactly know why.

His smile scares me.

  "Now can you let go of me?" I ask and he shakes his head and starts to practically drag me along behind him.

  "Your dad is gonna wanna know what you were doing. He's gonna wanna punish you," he informs me like I don't already know.

  "Orrrrr we can just not tell him," I say and his grip tightens. That grip, I hate it.

  "You know I don't have a choice," he says and knocks on the door of my dads office. I hear my dad say something about coming in, and Randy opens the door. "She was planning on going outside again," he tells my dad before pulling me in front of him to see mr dad.

  I don't think  he realizes that my dad doesn't scare me like he scares other people. I don't think he understands that I see him as my dad... someone I love.

  "Okay, come with me then, and let go of her Randy. She isn't a circus pet," my dad says and I go towards him. He picks me up and I rest my head on his shoulder.

"He scares me," I whisper in his ear and he sighs softly to me.

"Don't let anyone scare you Josephine, it's better to pretend not to be scared then to show it." He tells me and I nod. After some more walking he places me down as Randy opens the door. "Come on," my dad tells me as he leads me into the room.

"I need you to sit in the chair," Randy says and I look to my dad. I've been here before, I don't wanna be here again.

"Daddy please, please don't let him do this," I beg and try to run toward him when Randy grabs me. I put up a good fight as I try to get out of his grasp but it feels nearly impossible.

"Just sit her down, and do go overboard like last time. You nearly fucking killed her," my dad says and I shake my head over and over.

Randy forces me to sit in the chair and my dad leaves the room. He gets close to me so he can buckle the arm straps. Too close. "You're gonna stay quiet like you do in our little meetings, okay?" He says and I keeps shaking my head, letting tears roll down my face.

He gets the IV and starts looking for a vein like he's a doctor or something. He finally gets it in at some point and looks at me. "Remember, be quiet," he said and I look at him in pure fear. I feel whatever he's injecting me with go into my arm and I look over to see my dad.

  It feels weird, like everything is just... calmer. I feel dizzy in a way, like everything is swaying. I lean my head back and feel more go into my veins. It's... sickening. Someone bursts through the door and a gun shot goes off. "I told you not to go overboard! Are you too fucking stupid to understand that?!" My dad yells and it feels like there's an electric shock going through my body.