Chapter Two: Sent Away
788 Words
Chapter Two: Sent Away"You can't do it! She's- she's eighteen!" Her mother's voice is a loud screech that echoes from down the hall all the way to where she is laying on the prison cell. It's a pretty nice place, all things considered. They kept her isolated from the rest of the prisoners in here and the nice police lady gave her a jacket to wear so she's not naked. The policewoman was very nice and understanding about everything, petting her hair and telling her it's alright. It's a lot for anyone and she shouldn't have gotten so close in the first place. She thought the man was taking advantage of her.
"She's too young!" Her mother screams.
"Just barely," a resonable-sounding police officer counters.
"What does that even mean?"
"That means we can't be sure if it was the first time she's been taken advantage of and it's too clear now that she is not getting the care she needs from you."
"She's our daughter! We raised her!"
"She's a cat shifter and one with visible animal characteristics. Says here she she scored-" the man pauses. And then when he speaks again, his voice is angry. "She scored fifteen on the cognitive scale. She should have been put in a facility years ago! It's not save for her out in the world and you know it. You put her in school." He sounds more and more furious as he reads what she supposes is her file. "You're lucky this is the first time she lost control and that Official Jennings is kind enough to not raise any charges against her. Technically, she did attack a police officer."
"We wanted to do what's best for her!" her mother fumes, but even she can tell that her mother is fighting a losing battle. Anything less than fifty means shifters like her need to be put in special facility to undergo special training so that they can be assessed again (yearly) in order to ensure that they will be able to be a contributing member of society. Less than thirty means it's unlikely she would able be able to be fit enough to return to society even after finishing all the training set up by the facility. A score as low as hers means she will be assigned to a home and be taken care of by someone with training to handle a Pet. She grimaces at the thought of being treated as nothing more than her animal.
She curls up in the bed and tries not to think about it, perking her ears back and curling her tail around her torso so she can mouth the fur there fitfully. She doesn't want to leave her parents and be sent away. She's too old to go into a home. There's probably mostly only children in there and she would stick up a lot and the others would make fun of her.
Fifteen. She didn't know she had scored that low. She remembers taking that test and a lot of yelling back when she was little. They probably had to pay a lot of money to keep her. Is that why they worked so hard? So they could keep paying for her? Maybe they do love her.
Then again, they never really spent much time with her.
"What are her options?" her father asks.
She whimpers and curls up smaller, wishing she couldn't hear everything, but she is too curious to stop.
"One of two things. Either she is sent to the training facility, where she would stay with the rest of the pups, or an Alpha pack could take her and bring her home straight away. She will need a firm hand. You've left her on her own for too long."
"She's not on her own. She has her family. She has us," her mother sniffles.
"With all due respect, ma'am, we only needed to ask two of your employees to figure out that kind of hours you keep."
"And the man? He gets away with everything, then?" her mother screeches.
"Hardly. He took advantage of a Pet. He is facing a charge of up to ten years in prison."
Her mother must have been appeased by that, because she stops talking altogether. "Can we see her again?" her father asks.
"Best you don't," the man says. "The department will be bringing you away for separate interviews later. There is a certain amount of leeway, since you are her parents and it is understandable that you don't want to part from her, but this is for the best."
She whimpers again when she listens and listens and her parents don't try to argue. They're probably disappointed with her.
She's not the child they want, not the want they deserve to have.
She curls up in the bed and falls asleep before long.
- Writer
