One Moment - 1. Chapter 1

One Moment

Chapter 1

Matt looked at the building before him. It didn’t look like a prison, in fact it just looked a little like a one story schoolhouse except with a lot less windows. There wasn’t a big chain link fence topped off with barbed wire, nor any armed guards at a gate, no this place certainly didn’t look like a place one couldn’t run away from he thought hopefully. His social worker, who was babbling on as usual from the front seat of her car had said it wasn’t a prison, but the more she described the place the more he’d feared he’d never be able to escape.

He hadn’t even been able to escape from the hospital, a place that wasn’t even set up to keep people locked inside. Granted he’d barely been able to move the first week or so he was there but this past week he should have been able to make it. His damn body was just so sore he couldn’t bring himself to move fast enough to run away from all the people that were trying to stop him including the guard they had put outside his hospital room door.

He found it incredibly ironic that now, everyone was so intent on helping him out, when no one even gave him a second thought when he was starving on the streets after he’d first arrived in the damn town. Now he didn’t want anyone’s help. Now he had more important things to tend to, things he feared deep in the pit of his gut that he was never going to get to help with, if he didn’t get away from this place.

Casting a sidelong glance ahead at his Social Worker, who he’d yet to actually talk to he wondered why she was still yapping away instead of the two of them getting out of the car. He couldn’t get out, he’d already checked, his door was locked and the button that said ‘unlock’ on his door did nothing when he pressed it.

“You are very lucky to be able to come here Matthew, this place only takes a few kids pro bono each year.”

He rolled his eyes as this was the fifth time he heard that, as at the same time he cringed at her continued use of his full name. He figured he couldn’t really blame her for that, as he’d not bothered to speak up and tell her it was just plain Matt. He didn’t like her though, and it was obvious she had little use for him. She acted as if she should receive some kind of award for helping him out, something he hadn’t wanted and hadn’t asked for.

She always talked nice to him, but it was the way she looked at him that he couldn’t stand; a look that contained a mixture of disgust and arrogance. A look that told him she thought he was sub human and he ought to get on his knees and grovel in her presence, that she was such an incredible person to help the likes of him.

He looked to the doorway of the building in front of him as two men walked out and came straight up to the car. It wasn’t until they were both standing right outside the door where he was sitting in the back seat of the car that he finally heard the lock disengage, he sighed inwardly realizing she had been waiting for the men. Men, Matt realized, as he looked them over, that his weak state had no hope in hell of getting away from. From the look of them and their well-pronounced muscles, he didn’t figure he could have gotten away from them on his best day, which only deepened the fear and despair that filled his being. How in hell was he ever going to get away from this place?

One of the men opened the door and Matt sat there like a rabbit caught in a trap, his heart beating a little faster as fear over took his despair now that the car door wasn’t separating him and the burly men. He flinched as a big hand wrapped itself around his bicep, taking a deep breath to try to ease his panic, these men wouldn’t hurt him, would they?

“Come on son,” Mark Elgers said gently, the hand around the boys arm feeling the tension radiating from him. “Everything’s okay, we’re just here to make sure you get inside.”

Matt glanced at the man’s chest hearing humor in the man’s voice and not liking it.

“We were tipped off you have a tendency to run.” The man finished as Matt slowly moved his legs out of the car so his feet were on the ground and shakily stood up, his body protesting as it had been doing every time he stood up over the past week.

With the one man holding firmly to his arm and the other man walking right behind him as they made their procession to the door the men had come out of, Matt was too nervous and confused to even think about running even if his body had been up to it.

The one holding his arm reached out and opened the door in front of them and the three stepped inside into a small office with two women, each sitting behind a desk. One desk was directly in front of the door they had just walked in, the other against the left wall just on the other side of a large wooden filing cabinet.

Both women nodded a hello and smiled at him, something he didn’t have in him to return.

“Matt,” the man beside him spoke up. “This is Janice and Clair, you won’t see them too much, they mostly stay in this room greeting visitors and doing all kinds of data entry, paperwork and dealing with numbers and stuff like that.” Both women chuckled as Mark shivered in distaste before they both got up and shook a very reluctant Matt’s hand who was eyeing them pensively as he robotically went through the hand shaking ritual.

It wasn’t exactly a ritual for him, he couldn’t remember ever shaking anyone’s hand, let alone adults, usually adults just didn’t bother with that kind of formality with kids, at least as far as he knew. Once the women were seated again he heard a click and another door just to the left of where they’d walk in opened all on its own.

Mark looked at the boy, smiling at his obvious surprise at the door opening on its own. “This door is locked at all times, you either have to have a master code badge or be behind Janice’s desk to get it open.” He shook his head and smiled at Matt who wasn’t looking at him but still staring at the door. “You won’t get past it Matt, so there’s no need to even try.”

Matt’s stomach turned as he figured no less than a really big axe would get him through the door once he was on the other side, and he highly doubted they let the kids in this place carry around really huge axes. He couldn’t go past that door, his mind and his gut were telling him once he was back there he’d never ever get out, he wouldn’t ever get to do what he had to do.

He stiffened his legs, refusing to walk as he started twisting his upper body to get out from under the grasp of the man’s hand, which only tightened with his futile attempts, he couldn’t stop though he had to get away. He jerked his arm downward, twisting it at the same time as he propelled his body away from the man.

All that seemed to result in was him breaking into a sweat while he gasped for air and the man’s arms going around his waist and picking him right up off the ground like he weighed no more than a bag of feathers.

Despite his sudden exhaustion at his tiny burst of energy, that quickly came and went, Matt reached down and tried to pry the man’s arms from around his waist as he felt himself being carried through the door. He looked up with wide eyes as the door slowly moved back into a closed position and clicked, the sound he was sure, of the lock moving into place.

As Mark slowly lowered Matt’s feet back onto the ground, he could feel the boy deflating in his arms.

“I’m sorry bud, I know you don’t see it now but this isn’t a bad place.” He walked around to face Matt who was still staring at the door, the look on the boy’s face tore at his heart, and he couldn’t remember anyone looking quite so terrified to be there. He reached out and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, while Matt’s eyes stayed glued to the closed door. “One day, hopefully soon, you’ll see that.”

Matt pulled his eyes away from the door; he was still trying to catch his breath as he moved his hand up and wiped the trickles of sweat from his forehead, his despair over being trapped preventing him from centering on the fact he’d gotten so worn out so fast.

He looked around and found himself in a long hallway to his left on the opposite side of the door was a bench with a small table beside it that held a flower arrangement. Ahead of him was a long hallway with several doors lining both side of it and one doorway at the very end.

He watched Mark walk forward towards a door that was down the right side of the hall just a ways past where they were standing, no longer holding onto him. Matt figured that was because there was no chance in hell of him getting away now. Mark turned back to him as he reached the door while the other man that had been with him walked on past it and through the large open doorway that was on the left.

“This way Matt.” Mark coaxed as he gave two knocks on the door then opened it and stepped back giving Matt enough room to enter.

Matt looked at Mark, looked him in the face for the first time. His face was nice enough, but he knew the man couldn’t be that nice. After all he was the one that literally carried him here, into this hallway, into this place where there was no escape.

He pulled his eyes away from the man’s face and walked slowly forward into another office, this one slightly larger that the last one. He wanted to call the man an asshole as he walked past him, but thought better of it. If he had to stay here, the least he could do was keep a low profile so maybe they’d let him out faster. Of course by then it would be too late, chances were it probably was already too late.

His eyes fell on a man sitting behind a desk, a man that looked a lot older than Mark but still had a nice enough looking face, his hair was graying and he had small round glasses on that made him look like a college professor or something. All he needed was a pipe or something to round off the affect.

“Matthew, I assume.” The man said standing up and extending his hand.

Matt looked at it but made no move to get closer to the desk, let alone reach out and take the man’s hand. This room and this man were making him even more nervous though he couldn’t quite figure out why.

Seeing the boy did not intend to shake his hand Jack Marshall sat back down and moved his hand about indicating the many places to sit in the room, among them two full size couches and three armchairs. “Have a seat son; you’re going to be in here for a while.”

When the boy still didn’t move he repeated himself a bit more sternly and was pleased to see the boy sit, even though he’d chosen the seat closest to where he’d been standing, the one right next to the door.

“My name is Dr. Marshall; I’m what you boys refer to as the ‘shrink’ around here.”

Matt’s gut clenched as his hands tightened their grip on the arms of his chair, he figured he must have known that, that must have been why this room had made him so nervous the second he walked into it. The last thing he wanted or needed was a shrink.

“You will be meeting with me every other day, at least to start, so that I can evaluate you and see what your needs are.”

Matt wanted to tell him he didn’t have any needs, that all he needed was to get out of there but he couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth. They all knew he didn’t want to be there in the first place. Obviously, they didn’t care at all about what he wanted.

The man put both his hands up on his desk and smiled. “I’ll tell you right now not talking only ensures a longer stay. Just keep that in mind.”

Eyeing the man as a lump rose in his throat, he could only bring himself to slightly nod his head. He didn’t like threats and what the man had said sure sounded like a threat.

“Your social worker has been out here quite a bit in the past few days, filling out paperwork, filling me in on what she knows about you, dropping off clothes and necessities for you. You are very lucky to have such a good social worker; most wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to get you into a place as nice as this.”

Matt bit his tongue and forced his eyes not to roll in their sockets, he was God Damn tired of being told how lucky he was. He was ready to scream that he didn’t want any of their damn help, it only made him lucky if he actually wanted it. He didn’t want it.

“I’m going to give you a run down of what she’s filled me in on, I’d like for you to jump in if something doesn’t sound right to you.” Jack Marshall didn’t bother to ask if that was okay, he had a very good idea the boy wouldn’t be jumping in at all, he could only hope that something he said would spur some kind of reaction.

“You are originally from Mercer, West Virginia, where you grew up in the home of your mother and father. Eight months ago, you ran away from home. After a couple of brief phone conversations with your mother, your social worker has concluded that things were probably pretty rough for you at home. We believe that is why you ran away and we are not going to try any reconciliation.”

Matt inhaled slowly; he wasn’t sure exactly what reconciliation meant but going on the rest of the conversation he assumed it meant that he wasn’t going to be sent back there.

Noting the slight look of relief on the boy’s face Dr. Marshall continued. “We are also under the assumption that things didn’t work out too well for you on the streets, partly because they never do, and partly because of your willingness to sell yourself.” He paused as a look of alarm came over the boy’s face hoping he’d say something. After about thirty seconds of silence the doctor continued.

“Again I must express how lucky you are, lucky that man didn’t kill you that night at the truck stop and lucky you weren’t just sent off to the youth labor camp as prostitution in this state is against the law, punishable by jail time. We, as well as your social worker, are concerned that you chose that route, and that you would rather do that than ask for help.”

Swallowing hard Matt fought the waves of anger and frustration that were coursing through him. He’d asked everyone within a five mile radius for help, asked them all if he could work for them; he sure wasn’t ‘Mr. Lucky’ back then.

“You okay?” the doctor asked in hopes he’d speak.

Matt eyed him evilly and gave one firm head nod while biting down sharply on his tongue.

“You kind of look like you want to say something.” Jack could see a lot more than that on the kid’s face, he actually looked like he wanted to jump across the desk and kill him. Still though he wasn’t surprised when all he got was a terse shake of the head.

“So as an initial assessment I believe our course of action in your therapy will be to work on your self image and self esteem, you certainly can’t have any respect for yourself if you are so willing to sell yourself like that. Wouldn’t you agree?” His remark was responded to with another hateful look before the doctor continued.

“Now I’ll tell you a little about us.” He didn’t miss the slight relaxation of Matt’s shoulders noting there was some relief that the topic wouldn’t be about him anymore. “We are actually a part of a much larger program. This facility is only one of dozens all treating young men and women with different degrees of needs. The home you are in now houses twelve boys and is one of the more therapeutic homes set up for boys with a greater need for guidance and structure.”

“Many have had run ins with the law and this place was an option for them over the Youth centers. Most of their parents pay a good sum for them to have that option; again this is where I stress how lucky you are to be able to take part in this program at no cost to you or the state. We realize it’s not fair that only kids who have parents with a lot of money can get into a program like this so we extend the offer free of charge when we can.”

Matt looked down at his lap, not happy that he was not only locked in this place but apparently locked in with a bunch of rich snots whose mommies and daddies shelled out big bucks to protect their precious bratty kids. He’d never been rich and had always been teased at school by the rich kids, he’d never had the best clothes, never had the latest cool things kids were supposed to have. He knew rich kids well enough to know if you couldn’t spend way too much on clothes that you didn’t count to them. You were a mere maggot, a wad of gum on the bottom of their shoe, an annoyance they felt they had to put up with.

“In this house there are four levels. You start out with a clean slate on level three, that gives you basic privileges, TV, snacks, phone usage limited to five minute calls once a day, you get to stay up until 9pm and have free time from 7pm until 9pm.”

“On level four you get all those privileges but your phone time goes up to ten minutes and you get to stay up until 10pm with free time still starting at 7pm.”

“On level two you lose your phone usage and have to go to bed at 8pm which only gives you one hour of free time.”

“Level one is the lowest you can go, on that level you still go to bed at eight but you have no free time, any time that would normally be considered free you would be assigned extra chores. You have no phone time, no TV time, and no snacks.”

The doctor sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. “We already know you want to run away. Therefore, we are going to implement the ‘three foot rule’ with you. That means you are to be no more than three feet from a staff member at any given moment. If they can’t reach out and touch you at any given moment you are too far away. You don’t have to worry too much about making sure you stay that close, the staff is trained to stay that close to you.”

“If you try and get away from the staff member assigned to you, you will go down to level one, any attempts to escape all together will drop you down to level one, anything you do that may cause harm to yourself would cause you to go down to level one. Any swearing or not doing a chore, or leaving something out will cause you to drop down to level two. To go up a level you have to have five good days, days with no broken rules, getting all your chores done. You also get bonuses for extra good behavior if the staff sees you doing something that benefits another client or staff member, you get extra points and can actually go up a level in as little as three days.”

Matt’s head swam as the man went on and on and he felt himself having trouble keeping his eyes open, not that the speech wasn’t boring as shit, but he also couldn’t remember actually being awake this long in the last two weeks. He wondered if the man actually expected him to remember all this crap, he already had forgotten what the man said in the first part of the conversation and he doubted he’d remember much of any of it by the time he’d actually get to leave his office.

“Well you look really tired.” Dr. Marshall said about ten minutes later. “We can finish this up tomorrow. Now you’re not going to be on a regular schedule these next few days, your doctor wants you to stay in bed. So I will have someone show you to your room and the bathroom and we can take you on an official tour once you’re feeling more up to it.”

Matt was more than relieved to hear that, as he was sitting there wondering what would happen if he just fell right to sleep during the ‘big speech.’ He really didn’t think he was going to be able to hold off sleep much longer.

Just as if the doctor had magical powers or something, the door behind him opened and the same man that had carried him into the place was standing by his chair. Matt stood up figuring this would be the man that would take him to his room, he didn’t care as long as he was able to get in a damn bed and go back to sleep. This was all becoming a huge nightmare, one he actually had to go to sleep to get away from.

He followed the man out of the room and into the large hallway then down an even larger hallway that led to the left off the first one. As they walked he looked around, on his left a doorway led into a very large kitchen with a white tile floor and deep red walls, he’d never seen a kitchen so big. Of course, he’d never seen a kitchen that had to serve twelve people three meals a day every day either. A little further down the hall on the right was a larger doorway where he saw the largest living room he could have ever fathomed. On the far side past several couches and chairs was a very large TV which was about all he made out before he turned his head in the other direction. There he saw a dining room that had a huge table that took up nearly the entire room leaving only enough space around it for chairs, a couple of plants and a big grandfather clock that stood in the far corner.

They came to the end of the hall and turned into yet another hall this one running perpendicular to the one they’d just left but parallel to the first hall he’d been in. It stretched out on both sides of him and he followed the man who walked left then took a right into yet another very large room.

Matt’s stomach knotted as he saw he was not going to have a room to himself. This was something he had pretty much figured out, but what he hadn’t figured on though was sharing it with five other people. Apparently, the 12 boys that lived in this house shared only two bedrooms.

Four beds were set up against the back wall while two, were set up opposite each other coming out of the sidewalls, one to his right and one to his left. The right side of the room also held a desk with a comfortable looking office chair behind it. There were a couple of boring pictures on the walls and to his left was a screen thing that looked like it partitioned off a small corner of the room.

“Your bed is right here.” Mark said, looking back at the boy that had stopped just inside the doorway.

Matt looked at him then to the bed Mark indicated that was one of the four coming off the back wall. It was the one to the right out of the two in the middle. It had an ugly green plaid bedspread on it like the five other beds in the room and a chest of drawers at the foot of it.

Mark put his hand down on the chest seeing Matt eyeing it from his spot near the door. “This is already full of your clothes. Your social worker brought them out a few days ago.”

Confused Matt slowly walked up to the chest. He didn’t have any clothes, the only clothes he’d owned he’d worn to the truck stop that night and he didn’t figure there was much left of those. He opened the top drawer and peered down, his eyes widening when he saw the drawer was indeed full of clothes. He looked up at Mark, his confusion so profound he decided to actually talk.

“These aren’t mine.” He said shaking his head.

Mark smiled at the boy glad he was actually talking. “She bought them for you, they are yours now.” He didn’t miss the pleased look on the boy’s face before he looked back down into the drawer and gently ran his hand across the clothes. Mark got the distinct feeling the boy never had clothes as nice as these before. Not that these clothes were top of the line, in fact he was pretty sure they were Wal-Mart specials, but apparently to this kid they were still something to be happy about.

“Your pajamas are in the bottom drawer. Pick some out then go behind that screen, that’s where you change if you don’t have a shower first.” He paused for a moment then continued, “Speaking of that, do you have to go the bathroom?”

Matt shook his head as he leaned down and pulled a pair of red and black flannel pajamas out of the bottom drawer, he ran his hands along the incredibly soft material as he pushed the drawer closed with his foot and stood back up.

He walked to the screen stiffening up as the man followed along, he walked behind the screen and turned around quickly his heart leaping into his throat as the man was right there, behind the screen with him. “What are you doing?” he asked finding that talking was too important to not do it at this moment.

“We only have to do this the first time. I have to watch you change just to make sure you don’t have any weapons on you.”

If he weren’t terrified over the situation Matt probably would have laughed at the very idea of the likes of him actually carrying a weapon.

“You don’t have to take everything off, just down to your underpants; you’ll just have to shake those out a bit.” Mark stared at the boy while the boy stared at him, he was thinking there wasn’t any way the kid was going to do it when suddenly he started pulling off his shirt. Mark cringed just seeing the fading bruises that covered Matt’s chest and back, not able to imagine how it must have felt to receive them all. “My name is Mark by the way,” he said, realizing he hadn’t introduced himself and wanting to get his mind off the condition the boy’s body was in as well as figuring the Matt wouldn’t mind a little conversation to maybe ease the discomfort of stripping down in front of him.

Matt didn’t acknowledge him as he slowly turned back to the man and lowered his pants.

Seeing he had boxers on and glad of it Mark said, “Just put your fingers in the waistband, pull them out a bit and shake them up and down.” He was very relieved to see Matt do as he was told and even more relieved when the boy covered up his body with the pajamas. He watched as he gathered up his clothes then motioned for the boy to follow him.

They left the screen in corner of the room and Mark led him to one of the wicker baskets that lined the right wall. “You just toss your dirty clothes in here; once you’re feeling better you’ll know your laundry day, if you don’t know how to do laundry someone here will teach you.”

Matt nodded glad he didn’t have to worry about that now as all he wanted to do was climb in bed and get some sleep. Luckily, his bed was just where Mark led him next.

Matt pulled back the covers and crawled under them; he rolled onto his right side, pulled the blankets up high around his shoulders, and was fast asleep seconds after his head hit the pillow