POSTED: The Home

(Signed: Blacksheep Fiction = Swan)

Swan
Chapter 1



“Didn’t I tell you that I didn’t want to see you in front of me anymore, Ms. Swan?” The high and mighty Judge Crowley said a stern look on his face. He wasn’t the old kind of judge. In fact, he was the youngest high tier judge in Washington before you get to the supreme and federal judges. He was also a pervert and liked to be spanked. I grinned and winked at him.
“Well, Tyler, you usually say that another way.” I grinned, watching his face redden and the guards on either side of me shift uncomfortably. “It was usually something along the lines of ‘Don’t let me see you in front of me again…unless you’re on your knees.’”
The guard to my left coughed hard to cover his laugh while the judge stood looking down on me from his slightly elevated desk. Maybe he just had height issues. It was probably smart that he asked for a private meeting to discuss my release from the neighborhood friendly mental holding facility, here in his chambers then out in the court room. He would probably drop the axe right now if I pulled that in front of everyone out there.
“Isabella, there is no need for this attitude.” He said patiently, but the gritting of the teeth as he spoke told me I was probably on his last nerve. He sat back down in his comfortable looking rolly chair. “Who do you have representing you?”
“Don’t call me Isabella. Me, I am representing me.” I said rolling my eyes. “Just because I have money doesn’t mean I want to spend it on some dick head that can say ‘Your honor, I believe my client has learned that helping someone of this society doesn’t come without its consequences,’ when I am perfectly capable of saying it myself.”
“When you have two charges of assault and one of kidnapping—”
I cut him off losing my temper instantly. “Those women were beating that little boy! He was only 10! They almost killed him. Yes, I punched those bitches and I would have done worse if I didn’t have to take the kid to a safe place.” I didn’t realize I was advancing on good old Judge Crowley until one of the guards jerked me back. “This was a fucking hospital and when the police came I told them exactly what happened and didn’t even put up a fight when they were going to arrest me.”
“You stabbed the mother of that child in the neck with a sharpened pencil, Ms. Swan. That is violent and erratic behavior to be letting out on the streets again.” The Judge said calmly.
I narrowed my eyes at him and sneered. “It looks like no matter how many times they promote you, Tyler, you will always be a scumbag lawyer.” I snapped. “Look at the shit that led to my ‘violent and erratic behavior’ and you will see that the woman was gloating about fighting to get custody of the kid again just so that she can teach him a lesson. I stabbed her in the neck but the cop that took me down heard it too and she is now facing charges of beating this kid for the 10 years that he has been alive.”
Tyler sighed and laced his fingers as he looked me over. I just glared on. What the fuck can he do, send me back to the facility. Oh no, don’t send me back to a warm bed, three awesome cooked meals and a staff that knows me by name and the brand of cigarettes I smoke. That would just be the worst.
“Isabella—”
“Don’t call me that.” I snapped.
He sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Bella—”
I jerked against the guards hold again, seeing only red. “Don’t fucking call me that, either.”
Tyler was up on his feet leaning forward on his desk making our faces only about a foot apart. “I knew them too!” he yelled at me making me bite my lip hard. “I knew them and I cannot tell you how sorry I am that they died the way they did and that you had to be there to see it, but this is not going to bring them back!”
I am pretty sure there was blood forming where I was biting my lip. “Yeah everyone is so sorry, but look how far that got them. Look at what everyone did to bring justice to their name.” I spit on the floor in front of his desk. “Nothing. That is what everyone did for him and that is what everyone did for me. Nothing.”
“I am not letting you back out on the streets so you can go on some twisted revenge scheme that doesn’t lead you anywhere but back in front of me in my courtroom again.” Tyler snapped. “Next time it will be murder charges. I don’t care how noble you think your actions are, there are police out there that will take care of things the right way.”
“Yeah the police, yeah right.” I snorted, sitting heavily in a hard leather chair that was in front of the tall desk.
“Your father was a damn good cop, so don’t you dare sneer at the mention of police.” This came from the guard to my left, whose name was Newton, which made me lift an eyebrow. I had gone to school with him once upon a time, even made out with him in the back of his mom’s busted up Civic, even though he was three grades ahead of me. He knew my family before it happened.
Funny I never even realized it had been him who was guarding me.
“You are going to be on parole with Mike here, who by the way volunteered for the honor, since all of your past parole officers refuse to deal with you any longer.” Tyler gave me a sharp look and I shrugged uncaring. The past parole officers were horny bastards and didn’t like it when I tried to use it to my advantage. “You will also be assigned a personal counselor, Jared.”
“A personal what?” I groaned laying my head back on the chair looking at the ceiling. “So I have a fucking shrinky-babysitter up my ass 24/7?”
“Yes and on top of everything, you are being sent back to La Push, to the La Push home for Women wearing an ankle monitor for at the very least 9 months.” Tyler said, impatience creeping into his voice again.
My head shot up. “What? Seriously? The home for the meth heads and alcoholics, seriously, please tell me how the fuck that is supposed to help me?”
Tyler just stared at me. He either didn’t have a reason or didn’t want to rise to the delicious bait that I had set out for him. Dick.
I sighed standing up and heading for the door when Tyler cleared his throat, obviously wanting me to turn to face him, so instead I just stopped walking and looked at the door. “Ms. Swan, I will only tell you this once, because there will be no next time. If I see you in my courtroom again, I will search max penalty for everything you are charged with and have you locked away for good. Do you understand me?”
I lifted up my cuffed hands and flipped him off as I left the room.
I was lead back to the holding cell to wait it out. Knowing Tyler, he would wait the whole 48 hours before sending over the release form so I can be shipped from my cozy little spot in Spokane, to the fucking boondock-middle-of-nowhere La Push. I sighed, watching as Mike Newton closed the cell door with probably harder force than needed.
I sat on the metal slab that stuck out of the wall that they called a bed and stared hard at the floor, as if it would provide me with sudden knowledge of a way out of this one. Well, it wasn’t prison at least.
I scrubbed my face not really ready for this. I hadn’t been back to La Push since I was 16. 10 years hasn’t even come close to preparing me for what memories will be assaulting me the second I am back on La Push soil. It’s as if the very air there holds something different. They could keep it. I want nothing to do with La Push any longer.
It wasn’t as if I were the only one. Lots of people left, especially after the crime got so bad that people just weren’t safe walking around after dark any longer. Jobs left La Push when Sam Uley sold out his construction company to some pale face bunch and scampered off to Seattle or wherever he is now living off his fat loot.
We got left with strangers roaming the reservation. My father, Charlie Swan was the police chief of Forks, but often took care of La Push too. We even lived there. My mother was native. Charlie once told me it his idea of paradise was just where he was, in La Push, which was before everything.
There were angry tears running down my face that I wipe away with a harsh swipe of the back of my hand. I was home, with my mother, when it happened. She was trying to help me with my homework and I was giving her attitude. You know it’s funny, I can close my eyes and think really hard and I don’t think I can’t bring up my mother’s face, but what I see is how I remember last seeing her. My dad on the other hand… Charlie had just come home from work. I can still smell the aftershave he used. I can hear the creak of the leather gun holster. My father was my hero.
He came in and gave me hell for giving my mother a hard time. I listened to him. He always seemed to embody the whole cop thing. It was as if the job was picked for him the second he was born.
He was in the middle of telling us about his day when there was a knock on the door, but he never got to walk over and check. There was a shotgun blast to the handle; I remember seeing the buck shot just spatter the door. My mother screamed. I remember that scream even to this day, it was so loud and as the three masked men came into the house, they were yelling at her to shut the fuck up. I was yelling at her to shut the fuck up. She was so stupid. She just wouldn’t stop screaming.
Charlie was using his calm cop voice and trying to talk to them, but they just took his gun and put one of the people on him, sawed off shotgun barrel in his mouth. They were making horrible jokes. The laughter was an unforgettable cruel laugh.
They smacked mom and dad yelled at them from around the gun, but when they started advancing on me, he really started to struggle. Lifted by my hair, I am forced to face my father.
“Charlie, you never told us that you had such a grown up daughter.” I kicked at one of them when he tried to lick my face and got punched in the ribs. “Mmm she is feisty too.” The one holding my hair jerked, forcing me to sit up again, looking at Charlie, I saw tears streaming down his face. We were staring at each other when I heard a struggle off to the side and one of the other men shout out before a loud gunshot went off. I flinched screaming.
“Ah fuck that bitch bit me!” he exclaimed walking back to his two buddies. Charlie was breathing hard; his eyes not leaving mine, tears were a constant flow from his eyes. The man that just joined us was walking towards me. “What about you sweetheart, do you bite?”
Charlie was shaking his head fast and fighting and the one holding the gun into his mouth pumped the shot gun. “Now why don’t you settle down before your pretty daughter watches us blow off your head?”

The one holding my hair let his grip loosen and I fell to the floor in a pile of anger and pathetic whimpering. There was a trail of blood that was making its way across the floor since the house was so old and uneven. I didn’t have to follow it to know it was my mother. Lying with what use to be her face looking at me, her limbs awkwardly bent. I just stared at the hole in her face.
“Go ahead and say your last words to your baby girl, Chief.” One of the men said pulling the gun from Charlie’s mouth. “You are going to watch us make her a woman. If you fight then she will watch us blow your head off and we will make her a woman on top of your dead body.”
I looked up at Charlie and just felt my self inches from completely losing it. He licked his lips and was giving me a pointed look. “Pray baby, you hear me, no matter what happens, pray.”
I nodded hard understanding; it was our code for looking up without anyone knowing. He taught this to me when I went through self defense class at the police station when I was 12. We were not a religious family at all, but when the man dropped me, I half fell under the table and I put my hands together and looked up to the heavens to start praying. I saw taped to the underside of the table was my dad’s personal gun. P15 with the safety removed, it’s what I learned to shoot with.
I looked at Charlie and cried harder. “I love you dad.”
He nodded and I reached up fast pulled it free, pointing it at the man holding the shotgun to Charlie and squeezed the trigger as I breathed out, shooting the guy in the man parts. The other two jumped and everything went into chaos. I crawled out from the table and ran to Charlie, handing him the gun and we headed for the door as fast as we could.
It wasn’t fast enough.
There were two shots and Charlie jerked in my arms twice. I got hit hard in the back of the head. I have no memory of anything else from that night.
I shook my head, coming back to the present, habitually playing with the stippled scaring on my arm where the buckshot hit when they were aiming for Charlie.

“Get up Swan; you’re going to the bus.” Newton said as the cell door was opened once again for me making me tilt my head as I turned around in the usual position so they can cuff me for transport. I heard him laugh behind me as he slid the handcuffs over my wrists. “I guess you pissed him off enough to where he wanted you out of here as soon as possible.”
I snorted nodding, letting him lead me out. We got into the small passenger van that was rigged up with bars and rails so that it past state prisoner transport regulations. Yes, there are regulations for that. After Newton got me locked in, he got into the front passenger side of the van and fell silent with a thick stack of reading material in his lap. My file no doubt.
I stared out the window, hating every mile that brought me closer to La Push.
The reservation itself was beautiful and the people, before the pale faces started showing up, were like one big family. Charlie and my mother were actually close with a few families, not that I remember them anymore.
When we got about halfway through the seven hour drive, they stopped off and got some fast food and let me eat one handed with the other hand cuffed to the frame bolted railing in the door. I was looking at Newton as I ate, thinking about La Push and Forks.
“How long have you been in Spokane?” I asked over a mouthful of burger. Hey I have manners but if you are going to only let me eat like a chained animal then I will act like one.
Mike rolled his eyes and leaned forward with a napkin, wiping my mouth. I grinned at him. “However long it has been since the hospital to now.”
I frowned cocking my head to the side. “What do you mean, you came up for me? Awww, Mikey that is so sweet.” I smirked.
He snorted and stole one of my fries before looking off into the quickly darkening sky. “Yes, but as an assignment. I work in the parole officers division in La Push. Since no parole officers in Spokane will take you on and they were sending you to La Push anyways, I volunteered for the job. I thought it might be easier for you if you knew me.”
I thought about it as I took another large bite of my burger. He was right, it was a little easier to swallow knowing that the parole officer wasn’t some douche that saw you as just some case and not a person. I nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Mike, I really appreciate that.”
“Well you keep that in mind when you get to the women’s home, because I don’t want you giving me shit when we get there. Ms. Sue is a nice woman and I don’t want you giving her shit either. We may be friends Swan but it’s my job to keep your shit in line. So, no getting cute.”
I smirked as he wiped my mouth again and winked. “Does that involve spankings, because I am totally down for that…?” I feigned innocence. “I mean… No, no whatever you do, don’t spank me.”
Mike put the rest of my food in my lap and closed the door, letting me keep my free hand so I can continue to eat. I appreciated that.
We got to La Push in what seemed half the time. I was not ready for this. When Mike slid open the van door he saw it clearly all over my face because his whole demeanor changed from the friendly guy I knew growing up, to an officer of the law, in charge of controlling me. “Alright now, Swan. You’re going to be fine. There is nothing here you need to fight.”
I am looking around wild eyed and seeing people peeking out from windows and the porch, watching me. “Give me a smoke.” I said inching back into the van.
Mike was shaking his head tugging on the cuffs lightly. “Come on Swan, you know I can’t do that. Just come on out and meet the nice people and they will make sure you are calm and –”
I sighed scrubbing my face and looked out the front windshield seeing two large people heading towards the van and I snapped my head back to Mike. “Bullshit, those guys don’t look calm at all, Newton. They are going to stick me with shit to make me sleep and keep me all fucked up like the hospital. No, fuck this shit Mike. Take me back, I’ll go to prison instead.”
Mike looked up at the house and growled out orders. “Hey, seriously you think charging the van is a good idea. No, go back up in the house and stay out of the way.” He looked back at me and nodded. “Okay listen, I will let you have a smoke if you come out here. I don’t want you smoking in my nice van, okay?”
I narrowed my eyes at him but made my way back forward and slowly out of the van looking towards the door again for anyone else trying to rush up on me. Mike fixed the cuffs so they latched in the front. He reached in his pocket, pulled out my pack of smokes handing them to me, and waited for me to put one in my mouth before lighting it for me.
I took a deep drag and felt instantly calmer.
“Better?” Mike asked, watching my face. I nodded and jumped when a short, pretty native woman appeared next to me. Mike smiled. “Swan, this is Sue, she is no threat. She will keep those two boneheads away, right?” Mike was nodding towards the front door of the house and Sue nodded smiling brightly.
“They are trained to assist in drop offs of this kind, I had not yet informed then that it wasn’t needed, I apologize.” She beamed at me and I only nodded. Her niceness was creeping me out. I finished my smoke and Mike walked with me towards the door only to be stopped by Sue. She looked pointedly at my wrists.
“Is this really needed, I mean we are going to have to have them off while she is here, you might as well show her that we trust her now, just as much as when you are not here.” She said smiling sweetly.
I smirked at Mike as he sighed, reaching into his pocket and grabbing the key to unlock me. I rubbed my free wrists and followed Sue as she continued walking into the house and up the stairs.
“You are going to have the large room at the end here. It is so large because it is a shared room.” I made a face and she just smiled unlocking the room and then handing me the key. “You are sharing there—”
She pointed to another frame with a curtain halfway across inside the room that was joined to an identical room. No solid door, no lock, no handle. “This is going to be Jared’s room, whom you will meet tonight in about an hour when we have our first meeting. You are welcome to wash up and head down to the kitchen if you would like. There are plenty of leftovers from tonight.”
I looked over at Mike who shrugged and bent to one knee as he grabbed my ankle. I held still, knowing the drill. It was not my first ankle jewelry that the state had issued me. Ms. Sue was obviously not happy about this but she kept her mouth closed and gestured around the room. “Now you can decorate if you like, but please nothing like paint or that requires you to make holes in the walls.”
I nodded looking around. Mike got finished and then held my arms looking down at me. “I put my cell number in your duffle. If you need anything or you are prepared to do something that will get you sent back to Tyler, call me.”
I looked up at him and wanted to glare, but really, he was the closest I have been to a person in 10 years. I nodded and grinned. “See ya, boss.”
He nodded and headed for the door and I looked around again, plopping on the bed with a little bounce. It was a good three seconds before I realized Sue was still in the room. I sat up and looked at her.
The weird constant smile was still on her face. “Was there anything you wanted me to wash?”
I shook my head and she nodded brightly and headed for the door closing it behind her. I sighed and shook my head.
Alright, so this is the new home. Shit.