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HARDWIRED

Hannah_Barron
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Synopsis

Chapter 1 - One

Juvie. Its hell.

The place where any criminal under the age of 18 is kept. Locked away from the outside world. Locked away from creating any more damage to the corrupt world, at least... more than what they had already created. The whole point of juvenile detention centers is to keep the delinquents away from the outside world for so long that when they get out, they forget everything bad and become brainwashed by anything and everything and start a new page. It's supposed to mentally break you until you have no idea what you're doing, all you know is how to follow orders.

Endless hours of filling in boring and pointless exercise books, for what? A half an hour lunch of nothing healthy and then outdoor training.

It was the same for everyone, every day. Not just for Jack Gilinsky, but for Josh, Kile, Aaron, and many others amongst them.

Some of them were in there for crimes they hadn't committed, but most of them deserved to be there. Some kids complained, some stayed quiet. Some started fights, some just hid away. Some were productive in their spare time; others just slept their day away.

Polar opposites crowded the cells of the detention center. Yet somehow the delinquents always felt alone. And that was how Jack felt, every minute of every day. He'd never known what it felt like to be loved.

Although Jack felt alone all the time, he felt like it was a deliberate punch in the face on visitor's day. The rules were that up to four people could visit, take you out around the area, on three conditions. You had to be related, you had to wear a wrist tag and an officer had to tag along with the group.

Today, the 4th of March, it was visitor's day. Everyone had left around 3 hours ago, leaving Jack and around 7 others alone in their cells.

Jack decided that since he had nothing to do until lunch, he would just sleep. But clearly, God had other plans. He had been staring at the ceiling for around half an hour before the lock of his cell had started to clank and the sound of a key turning made him close his eyes and pretend to sleep.

"Gilinsky. Get up. You have a visitor." A guard's voice sounded as the door creaked opened. Jack couldn't help but open his eyes and sit up at the word 'visitor'. The officer stalked over to him, indicating for Jack to hold out his wrists. Jack stood, towering over the officer's height of 5"6'. "I don't trust you."

Jack laughed at his comment, before holding his wrists out.

Not long now. 2 more weeks.

The guard glared at Jack before leading him out of the cell. They walked down multiple corridors before they reached the visitor's room. As the guard pushed the door open, Jack spotted a middle-aged man sat at the table in the middle of the room, it was none other than his brother, Landon.

The guard halted by the door, watching Jack carefully as he made his way to the table. Jack glared at the older man known as his brother, before pulling out the chair with his foot, deliberately making it scrape against the floor. Landon flinched at his actions, before watching him as he sat down on the hard seat opposite him. His little brother had changed so much.

He'd gone from an innocent-looking child that could barely fend for himself, into a muscular teenage boy that looked rough from sleepless nights in this hell hole.

Jack slouched in his seat, purposely placing his cuffed wrists on the metal table in front of them.

"You... you don't look the same," Landon stated obviously, stumbling over his words. Jack chuckled at this, before shaking his head.

"It's been 8 years, this is what juvie does to a kid," Jack replied smartly. Landon sighed, before starting to fiddle with his fingers. "What made you come and see me now? Why not years ago?"

"I-I don't know. I guess I was hurting and I couldn't get over what you did. I kept thinking about how much of a monster you were."

"What changed? I still killed people. Our family. I'm still a monster."

"Not just our family."

"Beca doesn't count."

"She counts just as much as the next person!"

"She was an animal."

"That doesn't make it okay!" Landon shouted furiously. Jack leaned forwards in his seat, narrowing his eyes.

"It does to me." He replied calmly.

He sounded crazy, they both knew that.

Landon felt anger bubble up inside of him. How could he be so ignorant? How was he proud of what he did?

"I'll never forgive you for what you did. I'm ashamed to call you my brother." Landon spat. Jack felt a small sting in his heart, his only family member left was now rejecting him.

Your fault idiot.

"Then don't." was Jack's simple reply. He stood and turned, heading for the doorway. "We're done here."

A hand on his shoulder made Jack instinctively turn and swing his hands, hitting Landon forcefully in the face. Landon stumbled backward as officers rushed into the room, grabbing Jack's arms to restrain him. Electricity pumped through his body as they pressed their taser batons against his restrained figure. He yelled out in pain, before sinking to the floor.

"Hold him still!" was one of the last things Jack heard. An officer progressed towards him with a syringe, as Jack faded in and out of reality. The pain from the electric shock was almost unbearable. The last thing he saw through his slowly blurring vision was the blood sliding down Landon's cheek.

-

Jack stared at the ceiling above his head, keeping his arms folded under his head. The sound of the cell door opening brought him from his thoughts. His cellmate had clearly just come back from his day out. 

"Jack! I heard what happened!" His cellmate practically shouted, as he noisily clambered up onto the edge of Jack's bed.  Jack opened his eyes, to get a glimpse of his 'friend' before closing them again. "You really need to watch yourself... you're going to be out of here soon."

"Kile... please, be quiet for once," Jack pleaded, propping himself up on his elbows.

"You'll go to proper prison if you don't behave," Kile warned, scowling at him. Jack rolled his eyes and went to kick Kile off the bed. Kile quickly jumped down from the bed, landing on his feet.  

Kile was a small kid, around 5'7; he'd been accused of murdering his neighbor, but it was clear that Kile didn't even have it in him to hit someone. Clearly he had been falsely accused. He had brown hair that fell into his hazel colored eyes, which made him look permanently scared. Maybe he was.

When Jack had first been brought to the youth offenders jail, Kile had been pushed around and made to do things he didn't want to. That was until he befriended Jack when he had stood up for him. Kile had been Jack's shadow ever since. Jack didn't mind, it was nice to have someone to keep him company, even though sometimes he wished that Kile didn't speak so much. 

Jack jumped down from his bed, making his way over to the east wall of his cell. This was his special wall. Whenever Jack had felt stressed or uneasy, he would find a piece of wallpaper that was peeling from the wall and just rip it. Sometimes he punched it, sometimes he found a piece of rock and etched writing or drawings into the stone wall, and other times he just ripped off pieces of wallpaper. 

"I'm gonna miss you when you leave Jack," Kile stated, breaking the silence. Jack ignored him and continued to peel off the wallpaper. "It's not going to be the same without you here."

"Kile. Be quiet." Jack ordered, scratching the back of his head. Kile progressed towards him, tilting his head sideways as he watched him. 

"Did you really kill all those people?" 

"Kile shut up."

"You don't seem like a killer."

"Kile!" Jack spun around, catching Kile by the collar of his jumpsuit. "Shut up!"

Kile nodded before scuttling over to the other end of the room. Jack felt a little niggle in his chest, he felt bad for shouting at him, he was small and fragile and needed someone to look after him. 

"I can't wait to see my parents," Kile spoke up again after around 2 minutes. Jack sighed and turned around, glaring at him.

"Well, I'm sure they would love to hear about how your cause of death was too much talking," Jack threatened, throwing a piece of wallpaper in Kile's direction. Kile flinched and moved away, giving Jack a scared look. 

"You scare me sometimes," Kile stated in a low voice. Jack's heart sank at his words, he didn't want to scare people. He swallowed and turned back to the wall, continuing to pull off pieces of wallpaper. 

Just as he was about to pull off a piece of wallpaper, the sound of keys in the cell door sounded. Jack turned around as the door opened, glancing at Kile. An officer stepped into the room, glancing at Jack.

"Gilinsky, the warden wants to see you."