A Small World

In Hiding

"Two escaped mental patients are on the run. They can be considered dangerous so be aware. Acedemicia Jury and Victor Smalls." A picture of me and Victor pops up onto the TV. Great, now we're wanted.

"Victor I'm scared." He looks up from his phone and he smiles a little.

"It's going to be okay Ace," He stands up and lays next to me in the bed Andre let me sleep in. "Look at me," he slides his fingers under my chin and makes me look up at him. "We're gonna be fine." I look into his eyes for what seems like forever. I believe him.

"Okay." I give him a hug and he wraps his arms around me in a protective bear hug. He's like a father figure to me now. I feel so safe with him around. "Are you okay?" I look up at him.

"Yeah I think I am. I don't know. I'm just trying to be a responsible adult and keep you safe."

"What about you?"

"I don't matter that much."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't." We sit there in silence with only the TV in the background. I turn it off after 5 minutes pass by without a word said from either of is.

"Tell me about your life."

"Okay. Well I was born in Austin, Texas on July 6th. I was the middle child. I had an older sister and younger brother. She was 5 and I was 5 when my baby brother was born. My parents were pretty bad. My dad was an abusive alcoholic and my mom was a prostitute so different guys would come over each night while my dad was our drinking. He'd come back in the middle of the night drunk off his feet. He usually threw bottles at us or the walls and yelled mostly at my mom, but at us to until he passed out of the couch or ground. One night everything changed. My dad he..." he paused and took a breath.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay. It's just still hard to talk about."

"Okay, take your time."

"My mom wasn't home one day. My sister was 15, I was 10, and my brother was 5. And he... he came home drunk and he locked my brother, me and my sister in the basement. He grabbed rope and tied us up on a bed and... he raped us one by one in front of each other. He took my sister's virginity. And our innocence. He even got my sister pregnant, but she ended up having an abortion. We went to the hospital after my mom came home and saw what he was doing to my baby brother and pulled him off him. We got examined and poked and things when inside for hours. My dad was sentenced to 25 years in jail after we testified in court two months later. He died in jail when I was 16 by another inmate who found out what he did. We each had so much therapy. 4 years of it. My sister and brother got over it, but I didn't. It just got worse. I kept having dreams and ended up screaming and crying every night. I developed major depression. I was taking so many pills for it that I felt like a drug addict. On October 30th 2006, I tried to to commit suicide for the first time. Hanging. The rope broke since it was kind of old and my mom came home before I could retry it so I stopped. Along with that, I was bullied badly. Broken noses and fights and people spitting and kicking and punching and slapping me every single day for no reason. I still don't know why til this day. December 12th of that same year, I tried to commit suicide again. Pills this time. It didn't work because my sister found the empty bottle next to my bed and took me to the hospital. I lied and said I though taking the pills would help make my headaches go away. The believed me. I got my stomach pumped that night. After that, every suicide attempt ended up failing until my brother found me trying to hang myself one day. That was the last straw and they checked me into that hospital. I've been there since I was 20. I've tried to escape many times before. Like 20 different times and finally gave up at the age of 21. Then you came along and helped me."

"If your father was in jail, how did you get that cut?"

"It was when I was 9. We got into a fight and he got a knife and cut my face. My mom came home and saw me lying on the floor in a pool of my own blood 10 minutes after it happened. My dad was already passed out on the ground next to me with a bottle in his hand. They stitched it up at the hospital, but it left a permanent scar on my face."

"I don't know what to say now."

"You don't have to say anything about it. That's my life story. A bad story, I know. But not every life is a fairytale. Now tell me about yourself Ace."