Juvenile

Locked Away

 With the click of handcuffs the rest of her life was gone. They gripped her wrist so tightly it was a wonder they did not snap in half. Without effort they shoved the girl into the back of the patrol car. One might expect the teenaged girl to struggle or at least argue as teen-aged girls seem to excel at. Instead she simply sat, eyes wide, staring into the back of the leather seat in front of her as though it might give her answers. In her head the images of what had just happened replayed again and again but she still could not accept them as real.

"Your name is Hayley Mattison, correct?" the officer asked the shaken girl.

"Y..yes, yes it is." she murmured, her voice quaking

"You went to the high school on the east side of town?"

"Yes... I do."

"No, you did." The officer stated coldly

The girl's heart sank. Her worst nightmare was nothing compared to the reality going around her. A lump of conflicting emotions welled up in her throat and threatened to leak from her wide eyes. Her whole body shook with fear but she could do nothing but silently quiver.

"Do you know where you are going?" the officer pressed.

"The p-police station?" she spoke softly, trying to hold back the oncoming flood of emotions.

"No." the officer replied, "in cases like yours, especially since you are not old enough to be tried as an adult, we are called to take over. You are going to be kept safe and away from society with other teens like you. "

Hayley did not respond for there was nothing else to be said. Painful silence filled the car while she watched the surroundings fly by. She saw bits of her own reflection through the windows of passing cars, only it did not feel like it was really her. She tried to absorb all the details of her surroundings, the tall dark trees that became taller and darker as day shifted to night. The brilliant colors that lit up the sky as it set in the distance. The clouds, illuminated by the fading glares of the sun as it was being tucked away until the next day. The way the stars popped up, one by one, in the darkening sky until the only light was the headlights beaming down on the road ahead.

She held in all of these details like it were the last day she would get to see them because it might as well be. After several hours of watching her freedom slip away, the car finally came to a stop outside it's destination. The destination being a large building that give out a dreadful air.

"This is your home now." the officer stated, "The Safety and Care Center for Unnatural Children."

Hayley gulped and rightfully so. "Safety" and "care" are the last words that would come to mind in front of such a facility. The windows were like eyes, glaring into those who dare try to peer inside. The gate around with its barbed wire and large walls screamed prison camp. Whatever this place was "safety" and "care" had no business being in its title. But as the officer said, it was my new home.