Hidden Pain ( BOOK ONE )

Chapter Three

Jennifer was only a few minutes away from home, but stopped when she saw about three or four cop cars pass her at the speed of light. She stood there and watched as police men busted down the front door. Was she finally free? She thought, of course not, for there is always something stopping her from being happy. Always. She finally got the courage to move and she ran to the house. She ran inside. It looked as if a tornado had went through it. Her mother was on her knees, begging for the men to not take her husband away as they dragged him out of the house. As he was struggling to get out of their grasp, Jennifer noticed that Noah was no where in sight and that scared her. She's supposed to protect him. Did she fail him too? "Jenny!"

Jennifer tensed up when she heard the voice of her brother crying for her. It was coming from her bedroom. She rushed into her bedroom and saw a tall man dressed in a black suit. He was trying to grab Noah. Jennifer freaked out, her heart felt as if it was about beat out of her chest. "Leave him alone!" She yelled.

The man turned and smiled softly. "Jennifer Munroe?"

She wondered how he knew her name, she wondered a lot of things, she was driving herself crazy with how many questions swarmed her mind. "How do you know my name..?" She asked. The man gave her a apologetic look as he slowly walked up to her and in result caused her to step back in fear. "Step back..." She said, her voice shaky.

"I'm not going to hurt you..." He reassured her, but she couldn't help but still feel scared of him. She never knew who to trust or what to trust. How could she with the childhood she endured? That's not the right word, she always laughed when someone said something about her childhood because it wasn't a childhood, what child has to raise her little brother all alone because her fathers a drunk and her mother lives in the mindset of being forever 19 and also suffers from bipolar disorder? What child has to learn to numb herself to the pain her father inflicted upon her and stopped her mother from killing herself multiple times? The list just goes on and on.

"Just leave me alone." She said. He stepped closer and eventually, the only thing behind her was the wall. She couldn't stop her mind from saying over and over again, he's going to hurt me. She kept repeating it. She didn't know how to stop, but as soon as he grabbed her, it stopped. Everything stopped.. Her mind and her tears. "Help..me..." She could only say before falling into the man's arms, probably out of pure exhaustion.

Jennifer slowly opened her eyes to a bright light, making it almost impossible for her to open them completely. She squinted until her eyes adjusted to the light and she slowly sat up. She didn't know where she was, none of it looked familiar. She looked around a little more and saw the man from before. "Where am I?" She asked.

The man quickly looked at her and stepped closer and said, "You're in the hospital..." She looked around for a moment. "Do you remember what happened?" He asked.

She looked at him then looked down. It was all so blurry and faint, but she could remember some details. "I passed out and.." Her eyes suddenly became wide as her heart started to race. "W-Where's Noah? Is he okay?!"

The man placed his hands on her shoulders comfortingly in an attempt to calm her down even if it was just a bit. "Hey.. hey! He's fine, he's safe."

She sighed in relief and started to feel relaxed again and she looked over in the corner of the room. She could faintly see a woman. "W-Who's that..?" The man looked over and gestured to the woman to come over.

She stood up from where she sat and walked over. She went on to say, "Hello, Ms. Munroe. I'm Ava Presley. I work for child services like Caleb here.." Her voice slowly faded away as Jennifer got lost in her own thoughts. She thought, Everything is going by so goddamn quick and I can barely keep track! She was frustrated and frankly, didn't care about any of this. She just wanted to see Noah. "And I'm here to ask you a few questions about your parents and Noah." Jennifer nodded slowly and glanced over at the man whose name is apparently Caleb. He smiled at her and placed a hand on her shoulder to show his support and to let her know that she could trust him. She looked back up at Ava when she asked, "What is your father like?"

Jennifer looked down. She knew this question was coming, just not so soon. She looked back up at her, she saw that she was ready to write everything that was about to come out of her mouth, thinking it will help her in any way, but Jennifer didn't believe there was help, not even hope. She gave that up a long time ago. "My father is terrible. He hurt me and my mother, threw us around like rag dolls, bossed us around. He made us numb."

Ava and Caleb looked at each other then back at Jennifer and Ava asked, "He made you?" She didn't understand what she meant.

Jennifer nodded. "Whenever we cried or showed any emotion he would.."

"He would what?"

She sighed. "He would get abusive and eventually we understood and never showed emotion." She said it so calmly, like it was nothing and that just made the two worry for her even more.

Regardless, Ava continued to write on her notepad and asked, "And what about Noah?"

"What about Noah?" Jennifer asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"Did your father ever hurt Noah?"

She shook her head. "No, he didn't..."

Ava looked up at her. "Why not?" She asked.

Jennifer looked up at Ava from her hands in her lap and said, "I'm starting to feel like this is an interrogation." She tried to sit up, but Caleb once again made her sit back.

"You haven't fully recovered yet." He said softly.

But Jennifer shook her head and said, "I can't- I won't sit here and get interrogated-"

"Jennifer, this isn't an interrogation, I'm just trying to figure out any way to help you-"

"Don't you get it?! I don't want your help!"

Caleb looked down and Ava sighed. "I'll leave you alone, but we need to talk about this." Caleb gave her a sort of sidelong look, like he was telling her to leave it alone and let Jennifer process everything that happened earlier that day. She then looked back at Jennifer and said, "Another time, when you're ready..." She left the room after that.

Caleb crossed his arms and looked down at Jennifer. "You okay?" He asked, but she chose to not respond. Her hands were balled into fists because she was trying not to snap on him too. She was truly so grateful for everything he has done for her, she thought she couldn't get mad at him for asking a question out of concern for her. "Jennifer?" She looked up at him. "Are you okay?" He asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. When do you think I can go home?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Home? You can't go home. You're coming with me and we're going to find you a new home."

"What about Noah? We can't just leave him alone. He needs his sister to take care of him, he needs me-"

"Hey.." He grabbed her hand. "We'll figure something out." He said and she just nodded.