Locked Away - Book 1

Chapter 22

"Where've you been?" Roger is as pleasant as always.

I ignore him and walk to my room.

Remember... no bleeding, no fights, stay calm, rest.

I sit down on my bed and throw my bag against the wall.

How am I supposed to rest?

Every time I close my eyes my heart starts racing and I can hear that laugh. I can feel its breath. I still feel it touching me.

"Hey!" Abby barges into the room and my first instinct is to check that my sleeves are covering the scars. "Long time no see." She clearly wants to come in for a hug, but know's better.

"Yeah."

"As talkative as ever I see. Get your project done?"

"Oh." Forgot about that. "Yeah. Took a while, but it's done now."

"Well good job. You must be happy to be back in your bed." Not at all.

"Yeah."

"Okay, well there's leftover pizza in the fridge and I'll be back in the morning before school."

"Sounds good."

"Good." She walks out and the second the door closes my body flops down onto the bed.

"Oh my god," I whisper to myself as I rub my hands across my face. "What the fuck."

I stare up at the ceiling. I look at the little spikey speckles. My eyes, heavy and stinging, begin to close. Everything begins to go dark.

"Hehehe." Its laugh snaps me awake.

I check my phone. I was asleep for no more than ten minutes.

Fuck!

I sit up against the wall. I look at my phone. I start scrolling through Tyler's Instagram. I smile at every photo. All the funny ones. All the sweaty sports ones. And all the cute family ones. It makes me think.

Who are my parents? Are they the reason this is happening?

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to know who my parents are. I've tried looking it up. Asked my caseworker a few years ago, but she said they had no idea. Couldn't find a record of me. I wasn't suspicious of that before... but now I think it could be weird.

I spend hours looking through the internet. Looking for missing children. Looking for any articles regarding me being found. And as the sun starts to rise and as my brain begins to mush, I've found almost nothing. I found out that I was found at the Walmart on Courtright Rd in Martin, Tennessee. An article says I was found in the Home section crying. The police looked for my parents, but they were never able to be found. That's when my fun Foster Care journey began. Other than that, I found thousands of kids who went missing during that same week. That's it.

A knock on the door wakes me up just a little.

"Yeah?"

"Hey." It's Abby. "Have a good night of sleep?"

"Yeah." No sleep at all.

"Well have a good day at school."

"Thanks. Goodnight." She laughs.

"Goodnight."

She leaves, I get up, then get dressed, then head out for school.