Philophobia

I'm Coming Too

***

Jack thought back to a BBC show he'd watched once. An antelope had laid still in the knowing mouth of a cheetah after it had been caught. The beast gnawed away, painfully slow.
He'd always wondered why- the antelope looked healthy enough to fight, awake enough to recognize what was happening.

It wasn't until now that he understood.

"Jack...," His mother's arms slipped around his back, fingertips pressing hard into his skin, "God I was so scared. I thought you'd been-"

She broke into racking sobs. Her tears were like acid to Jack and he flinched, doing everything he could to look away.

"Dad isn't here yet, but I promise he will be soon," She put a hand to his face, sliding it across his cheek, "You-," she stared into his eyes, "I knew it. The officers confirmed it. Drugs, Jack? In New York!?" She released him, rubbing her eyes, "I've been waiting here for weeks after we got word there were sightings of you here. All this money and worry and you've just been-" She paused. Her lips pursed in a disappointed silence.

The officers requested he move forward. The woman he'd first seen in the police car was wet, wrapped in a blanket in the rain a few feet to his left, under a willow tree. For once, Jack wished he really did have drugs so that he could pretend all this shit wasn't happening. The two men started leading him towards the building doors. The police car he'd gotten out of was gone.

A police woman behind him spoke up, talking on her radio device. He caught only a few words.

"Yes we've got...offender...mentally unstable scheduled for a...yes, house arrest." She relayed.

Jack froze. The taller of the two policeman eyed him and urged him with words he couldn't understand. The ringing in his ears was getting louder. The station loomed in front of him. Doors wide open, ready to consume.

"House arrest." He repeated under his breath, the way a child would when learning a new word. In the midst of his stupor, it all came together.

If he went in that building he was never getting back out.

And that's when he lost it.

He slammed his foot against the back of the tall officers knee, causing him to stumble down. The shorter one shouted, surprised, and began trying to push Jack to the ground.

"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!" He yelled, blue eyes ice cold and teeth bared, "I didn't survive on the streets for years just so you could take me back to-"

He was cut off by the shorter officer successfully pushing him to his knees. The taller one grunted, rose up, and motioned to someone Jack couldn't see. He struggled against the grip, eventually able to rip his bound hands away from the officer. He whipped around and nailed the man with the top of his shoe directly in the groin. The taller man yanked his arms from behind, causing him to yelp. He kicked back, flailing, just as another officer pulled out a weapon he didn't recognize, clicking it on. Jack instinctively ducked, thrashing and yelling all whilst streams of tears fell down his wet, bitter face.

His mother had the audacity to watch from doors, hands over her mouth in shock.

"PLEASE, STOP!" He cried, as multiple officers came up from behind, pushing him to the ground. Concrete hit his knees, and then his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. He gasped as the woman with the weapon approached, which looked to be a taser.
He couldn't move. All he could do was yell.