Motionless Masterpiece

I Hate Hospitals

[Josephine's POV]

I couldn't believe everything that had just happened right before my eyes. I had just gotten cornered by my foster parents who accused me of "snitching" again to my case worker who had called for some legal purposes she couldn't speak on over the phone and was planning to make a home visit in less than twenty-four hours.

I called them delusional, because me telling my caseworker who never believed me to begin with never did anything but make my life in this hell hole twenty times worse so I kept my mouth shut and had been.

They grounded me for my smart mouth and took away my only coping skill - my music and thats when I snapped and yelled at them, telling them that I hated them and asked why they just won't send me back. That's when my foster mother slapped me and so I yelled at her and then my foster father wrapped his hands around my throat and slammed me up against the wall, lifting me up slightly off the ground. I thought he was going to kill me, and part of me wanted him to so I could be free from the daily hell they put me through, but then a loud crash sounded somewhere in the near distance and I heard my foster mom scream as someone hit my foster dad knocking him out cold causing him to drop me.

I collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, confused by what had happened and practically desensitized to what was happening around me until a man was kneeling in front of me. He looked slightly scary as he asked if I was okay, and because he was a stranger naturally I inched away, but he did save me so I responded, explaining my neck.

Almost immediately he showed concern and expressed that he wanted to take me for medical attention and then to the police station. The medical attention I was fine with, but I was about to say no to reporting to the police because there was no way I would be saved from them. It would only make things worse for me.

As we started out the door police began to arrive at the house. My foster mother must have called them on my savoir. One of the officers came over to talk to the man that had saved me and as he held up his hands I thought they were going to arrest him and I was prepared to defend him.

Then two other men joined his side and one of them began to tell a story to the police, a story about my savoir finding out about a daughter he never knew about because of an ancestry dna app. Then that his ex girlfriend, the mother of his daughter had passed away six years ago. That his daughter was put into foster care and forced to live with abusers.

I turned my gaze to meet the dark brown eyes of the man that saved me as I came to quickly understand that the man talking to the police was referring to me. He continued on and explained that they were on their way to a concert they were performing in the city, but couldn't leave me knowing what they did now.

As I looked into my fathers eyes I saw pain. I recognized the look from my reflection that I occasionally saw in my mirror. There were so many emotions going through my head as I stood in the presence of my father, but the one I felt the strongest was gratitude.

My father came to save me.

As I followed behind my father and his two friends with my bag, I stopped just at the threshold of the bus. My father... Chris stood on the first step, watching me nervously.

"You're safe here." was all he said as he held out his hand. "I need to you know that." When I looked at his hand and failed to take it, he stepped back off the bus and knelt on the ground in front of me so that he wasn't towering above me. "I know you must be so confused right now, and scared, but right now I need you to get on the bus so we can get you to the emergency room."

I bit my lip, my eyes widening at I glanced up and saw my foster father walking out the door in handcuffs and thats when the damn of tears broke from behind my eyes. When he saw what I was looking at he quickly brought me into his arms and held me, rubbing my back soothingly.