No loose ends.

Troubled Teen Incident (1)

Something that takes time for me to accept is the fact that I can be a real prude. Maybe it's normal as I get older, and you know, how I'd come to handle other situations in this line of work. Sometimes I simply can't spare any patience, I just dread what I'm walking into during some of these escorts. And that's when I start mouthing off like Steve, these kids leave mostly a negative impression on me when I first meet them, it's not well, cool. But it's inevitable, walking into these rooms, looking at how they got the place decked out, their computers, their gaming consoles, crappy movies nobody ever liked when they came out, terrible music groups they worship, and it just gets inevitable: "Boy, this kid is into some pretty stupid shit!". That's what you start thinking. I feel sad when I think this, I'm not here to judge character, I genuinely think what I do is positive. Jenny was like that. But man if I have to look at a poster for Killer Klowns From Outer Space again, I will feel ill until I'm allowed to rip it to pieces. Jeff had one, this kid we're talking about, stupid kid. I hate the fact that it's likely one of the last few things Jenny had to sore her eyes with. Of course maybe they didn't let her get as far as his room, then you get the other horrible thought of all those kids ambushing at her in the corridor.

There were, indeed, more people involved. This had been some kind of cult thing. Jeff's parents weren't in on it, I can also confirm that for you. He simply walked up to these maniacs with his situation and the collective figured it was a coincidence too fun to not take advantage of. One of my earliest findings, on my own hilariously pathetic excuse for an investigation when I marched up to his room, was Jeff's crappy little vlog. He didn't take his personal computer to whatever hole he's in right now, the machine was still on and yes I did take a look at some of his recordings. It's mostly Jeff identifying himself as his handle Raum Flight dressed in black, talking about videogames or how some tripe from the past changed everyone's life irreversibly, and he had a fuckton of uploads showing this. Tons of people watching and subscribing as well. So there's that, he was just another kid who was into some pretty stupid shit. On of his subscribers did catch my eye, this girl from Lexington, blonde, well kept, very beautiful. Her parents were upset when they saw a selfie she took with a homeless woman in the background dancing on a cracked fantasy as she panhandled, they figured the little lady needed a big lesson in humility, so we got called in. It was just Jenny and me for that escort and it was around like one year ago. She was really calm about it, she was expecting us, she complied the whole way. I didn't take a look at her room but she wouldn't strike you as another slag Hot-Topic goth punk or whatever label they use now, she was just another privileged girl enacting a privileged trend, she took the whole thing well, and we didn't see her again after she checked in. Jenny broke down in tears after we completed this work. I was the only who was able to speak to her in private about it, she told me she was insanely frightened the entire time. It was exactly like when she got fired, the kid was horribly calm. Expecting her for the big trip to the gymnastics academy, eyes peeled wide. Then at a moment's notice with just one turn of the back, she pulls out this razor from her mouth and slits both her wrists, ripped right through her whole skin like a fish getting stripped. Then she just grinned at her in showcase. What haunted Jenny the most was how she felt like peacefully closing her eyes with that grin still installed. 

They can be such freaks, these privileged kids. And these are my prudish thoughts, you walk into these plastic hamster cages that their rooms are, how they are devoid of any character or any personality they could develop on their own, everything store-bought, living like well groomed pets with every perk. And their blogs, their vlogs, just trends and trends, look at all the stupid things they feel like archiving and jiving. And they do not have any care for it, they're convinced they're very much fighting some nonexistant good fight as individuals acting like freaks. Jeff was such a freak, he was waiting for us right there in his all whites. He was standing outside his house at night, wearing only an a-shirt, boxers, and a pair of socks. He was calm about it, he even lay on the ground as soon as he saw us drive by, both hands behinds the back of his head as if we were gonna take him in handcuffed. It was so ridiculous to me but Jenny was so scared. Steve stayed in the car, and I'm the one who got out first. I somehow felt angry when he said he was expecting me, that he caught wind of the whole thing looking into his dad's e-mails. I just wanted to cuss him out right there, and just...leave. Tell his parents to look someplace else now, we don't want their business, I was just too goddamned offended with this little hare and how clever he must've felt. Jenny summoning the courage and walking out stopped me from that, and we talked. We convinced him that we weren't going to hurt him, it's nothing like the internet claims, I was not gonna tase him, I was not gonna hogtie him, and yes, you're cooperating like this, you're doing great I'll keep that in mind. You little dickhead. She, then tells him, he has to get dressed. Can't just parade a minor around like that at an airport. And I just stood there like an idiot watching her going in, I just stood there like an idiot with my back turned, and they walked up to the car, they slashed Steve's throat, left him there with his seat belt still zeroing right in on me. I only noticed because one came from the left side of the house and right in front of me, they were huge, wearing some kind of blueish jumpsuit, their faces were incredibly pale and, I was just, I couldn't make anything else out.
"Hey man, hey, hey. Come here..." - one of them called out as they started chasing me, one that came from behind, I was pretty sure it had to be the one that took his knife to Steve. There was absolutely nothing in his tone of voice, other than sounding my age maybe, and he was just calling out to me. "Come on, come here. Come on."
And Jenny's scream just blared out from that house, and I just ran again.

I hid something like, four blocks away, some bushes in an opulent abandoned house by the neighborhood. I managed to see their minivan, saw Jeff, leaving the place with his new family. Waited for what seemed like two hours, nobody arrived, no cops or anything. I knew I should've been the one making that phone call but, nothing occurs to you when something like that happens. So I just went back, took a look at what they did to Steve, went to see what they did to Jenny, how they left her there. Jeff's parents, I could hear them sobbing in their master bedroom. Then finally went to his room like I told you. Watched some of his uploads. The last one, it was just him saying goodbye, he felt just excited about the big trip, and that pretty little girl from Lexington, walking in from his window wearing that jumpsuit. More of those kids were jumping in as the recording finished.

That's how it went down. I am not interested in an explanation, no idea why my first action was play sleuth, but really keep whatever you got classified and the Hell away from me.

END
- AA    

A little spontaneous, a little planned out.

How has your week been? I've been alright. I'm the type that reads comics. I'd show you my haul for this week but Crossed Badlands is there and I don't think you people would want to see the wrap cover I had picked out. I also got Shigeru Mizuki's Showa book, it's very good, you should all read it.

Anyway as the title implies for this entry, I've had this scenario in my head since like 2 weeks ago but I'm writing it from scratch right here, and all in English this time for more people to enjoy. Let me see how far I can take this tonight.

Troubled Teen Incident

 You wanna know what happens when somebody blasts a kid's loved ones right in front of him? He doesn't lie around next to their cold dead bodies after the whole thing's over, that's stupid, that's what the animals do. In real life, the kid runs. Runs like all Hell from the loudest thunder cracking he's gonna recall for the rest of his life and the unsightly face of somebody in their lives in complete pain. I know this because I've made that run myself when I was younger, and this whole clusterfuck I'm about to warn you about began with this kid I had met making that run. He had run straight at me when it happened to him, I felt like all the help in the world he could need, because that's exactly how he looked at me as he rushed out. Kids aren't clowns when they watch someone get hurt, what they do is run for help. I was there in the canteen getting everything ready, it was my shift, I didn't hear any blasts, but as soon as he told me I understood it was just too serious and it needed to get handled promptly. I told him to stay inside, tell the orderlies, and do exactly as they say. I rush out to that hill not thinking twice, this was wrong, he's not here to make that run, he's here because his parents told him to stay put. He was doing fine, why the fuck would someone walk in and hinder all that? Some kinda crazy backwoods drifter running around here raising some ruckus and scaring the kids, I need to kick his ass straight out of these premises, and I need to do that yesterday. I find the guy, looked like your average hobo working some oddjobs, checkered shirt, snowcap and filthy dead beard. Ran straight at him without saying anything, he had a big log in his hands he had used as a club, and he was slow as Hell, he raises that log with both hands and I just came in lowering it, knocking his face away. He falls straight down like nothing, I make him lie on his belly before putting his arms in place and prop him back up pulling his shirt. He whimpers like a lamb as every hobo you ever met that just got caught doing something stupid would do, and I smack him in the back of the head asking him "The fuck you think you're doing?!" - as if I had been raised by filthy saracens, and I drag him away. It was over as quickly as it had started. Now you might assume that there was some controversy shortly thereafter over my...violent treatment of this individual I had assaulted for the mere act of trespassing on our premises, something that could've been resolved verbally and more responsibly by just warning him to stand down before resorting to...bricks, in my fists. But, you should understand, the situation had already gone out of hand by the time I had arrived. By the time the kid had made his run. This was in Boise, Idaho. I now work in Davenport, Iowa. I had to leave Idaho because two kids died on my watch. Some drifter, snuck into a for-profit adolescent treatment facility one afternoon, and clubbed two kids being treated there, with a log.

Went through the motions, it's worse than Hell. My side of the story is something I would want to get wiped off my mind, along with that entire year. I honestly want to lose an entire year of my life, not having any idea what the fuck had happened and how I lost all that miserable time. Now I'm not saying this to be dramatic, I just don't want you to get the wrong impression if I tell you that the fallout was worse than the controversy itself. I was well aware this was nothing you could easily recover from, I knew that they were gonna shut the place down and I had already ironed out the details for my transfer. I had some good connections, and they were great, they'd consistently put a good word for me. But what came before that jump was just an extreme nobody expected. First it was the press, something I actually thought we could handle because the journalists worked the garbage news. Then it was the bloggers, then the testimonies from our former charges, patients, people claiming we had dealt with them, and then ultimately it came down to every kid I had escorted stood up and described my job as kidnapping. Now, there's a certain, procedure for us to escort the troubled adolescent from his household and into our facilities. It only sounds like kidnapping on the TV screens and computer monitors because we advise the parents to not give prior knowledge to increase the boy or girl's anxiety, and prevent the threat of self-harm. And Lord knows, we've seen our share of cutters, it is the most disgusting thing in the world. So basically, we get scheduled by the parents to drop in on the kid's life, unannounced, more often than not during nights, and we escort them. It's the transport service, it's statewide. For this job in question I left Davenport for Louisville. I was to work with two other contacts, Jenny and Steve. Steve's fatter than me and bald, he sports a broken nose, I had a black eye in my face. We've both been getting into fights lately because when the bloggers put the spotlight and your workplace, and label you a kidnapper, you get people with too many time on their hands. You get vigilantes, you get stalkers. You get followed around from your workplace and to your home, to your loved ones, and they take pictures. They then proceed to post these pictures deep buttfuck on the internet on some...image boards, I dunno. And with all that unwanted attention your job suddenly becomes a hilarious risk. My fiance at first was incredibly supportive and wouldn't listen to what all these stupid had to say, but her brother managed a flight at his own expense to kick my ass, deliver her ring back, and tell me to stay away from his sister because he caught wind on how and why she's been getting some creepyass phonecalls. I arrived to Louisville completely sore, but ready for work. I don't want to ask Steve how things are, we just sit there quietly in the rental car offices waiting for Jenny. His cool enough to let me bum him two cigs and by the second one she had finally arrived, still dressed as if she were working in a courtroom. She would escort kids too but, legally. Until she caught a bit of heat of her own.

We kicked in silence, into gear as soon as we had met up, Steve wanted to drive and that was a plus for me because it was almost midnight, I felt dead tired....

(continuara) -AA