Bleeding Custody

Little Max Gaurhart sat in between his parents to watch a movie about strange humanoid beings dressed up in boxes. The movie was actually a DVD the parents bought for his third birthday and they finally decided to watch it with him. However, they did not find it as comical as Max had.
   
Unfortunately, they were so engrossed in the film that they didn’t notice a burglar break into their house, taking everything he fancied. It wasn’t until seventeen minutes later that he ran into the family who owned the house when he walked into the living room.

The father saw this miscreant from the corner of his eye, stealing the precious family portraits. “Hey, stop right there!” he said as he stood up, surprising his wife and son with his tone. With that, the burglar turned to face the father.

“What is it, you maggot?” the criminal said in disgust.

“You better put back all of our things if you know what’s good for you.”

“Who’s gonna make me?” The burglar pulled out a small pistol. That was when the mother became noticeably nervous.

“Excuse me, sir,” she said softly, “we have a small child.” The burglar looked over Max with disdain. He spat in the child’s face before replying with, “Explain why I should give a hoot.”

“Y’know what? Just give us our stuff back,” the father said as he got up to strike the burglar. However, he was cut short by a bullet that went through his eyeball, causing him to fall through the floor, dead in an instant.

“Daddy!” Max cried out. The burglar then went to shoot Max’s mother in the chest. Blood was forced out of her mouth as she sat back on the couch, she being newly dead.

“Mommy!” Max shouted as he went on his knees. Realizing his parents were just murdered, he began to cry like the child he is.

When the sound of a police siren was heard, the burglar realized that he had to run for his life. “Outta my way, kid,” he said as he shoved Max aside. The criminal busted open a window to escape; that was when the police barged into the house, their guns loaded and ready. However, all they found was a sobbing child surrounded by two bleeding corpses.

“Hey, kid,” a kind cop said as he approached Max. “Are you okay? Where’d that killer go?”

“H-h-he killed my mommy and daddy!” Max blubbered. “He took our stuff… and he w-w-went out that window.”

“It’s okay, son. We’ll catch that bastard if it’s the last thing we do,” the cop said while helping Max to his feet. “In the meantime, we’re gonna take you to a place for children like you.

“C’mon, I’ll help ya pack.”


About twenty minutes of packing later, the cop drove Max to the local orphanage. He exited the car to help the child out of the back seat and took him inside the building. The officer went to the owner, who was sitting at the front desk.

“Ms. Skella, this is Max,” he explained. “His parents recently passed, and I was hoping you’d have some place for him here until further notice.”

“Of course, officer,” Ms. Skella cheerfully replied. “And such great timing too. We have plenty of room.”

“What do you think, sport?” the cop asked Max.
Max shyly hesitated for a couple seconds before replying with, “It’s cool.”

“This is where you’ll be staying for a while. Anything bad happens, feel free to call, and our forces will be here as soon as possible.”

“Gee, thanks a lot, officer.”

“No problem, Max.” The cop then made his way out the door before pausing to say one more thing. “By the way, call me Matthew.” With that, Matthew went back to his squad car and drove off.

“Okay then, Maxy,” Ms. Skella replied. “I’m gonna show you your room.” She proceeded to walk Max to his quarters. “You may have to share with a few other children.”

“That’s okay with me,” said Max. When they reached their destination, Ms. Skella opened the door for him. “Oh children,” she called out. “I have a new friend for you.” Three children, all about Max’s age, ran over to surround him.

“Hey, you’re the new kid, right?” a slightly chubby kid asked. When Max did not answer right away, a skinny black kid with blond hair replied,
“Aw, he’s probably too shaken up right now.”

“Now, now, are we all being nice?” said a short haired girl in a flowery dress, her tone of voice clearly imitating that of a prim and proper adult.

“Children, I’d like you all to meet your new roommate, Max,” Ms. Skella said.

“Hi, Max,” the children replied in unison.

Max simply waved back and smiled meekly.

“All right, children,” Ms. Skella said, “Ms. Skella has to take care of a few errands. Be sure to make Max feel right at home.” She then walked through the hallway.

As soon as Ms. Skella was out of view, the fat kid walked up to Max and said, “Hiya, Max. I’m Pat. He’s Leonard and that’s Shannon.”

“Hey, dude,” Leonard greeted casually as he went to shake Max’s hand.

“How’d you get to be here?”

“Yeah, how did you?” Shannon asked curiously.

Max stammered for quite a bit before, after gaining some courage to speak, he said, “M-my parents were shot by a bad man. He was taking all our stuff. Before the police could stop him, he went out a window and ran away.”

“Aww, that’s so awful,” Shannon said as she hugged him.

“Yeah. I hope the cops catch that dude someday,” Leonard replied.

“C’mon pal,” Pat chimed in, “here’s where you’re gonna be sleeping.” He led Max to an empty cot, where Max laid his suitcase. Max then climbed onto the bed, opened his bag, and got out an old comic book. One of the other children recognized it almost immediately.

“Hey is that the first issue of ‘Spider-Man: Chapter One’?” Leonard queried.

“Yeah. In mint condition too,” Max replied.

“Can I see it after you’re done?”

“I’ve got plenty. I always seem to get the same copy of it in vintage collections, so you can have one.” Max got out another copy to give to Leonard.

“Hi Max,” Shannon said as she made her way toward him. “Are you hungry?”

“A little,” said Max.

“Do you want half my candy bar?” Shannon got out a Snickers, broke it in half, and gave one half to Max.

“Gee, thanks,” Max replied. He was surprised at how kind his roommates were. Even though he sorely missed his parents, he had a feeling he was going to love life in a children’s home.


“C’mon, Max, ya think you can do it?” Pat called. Twelve years has passed since Max moved to the orphanage, so he and his friends were now teenagers.

Max was getting ready to conquer an obstacle course Leonard had planned on the playground. As soon as the signal from Pat was given, Max ran as fast as he can. He climbed up the ladder, slid down the slide, spun around a carousel, sat on a swing, and, after building up momentum, launched himself as far as he could, perfectly landing on his own two feet. Everyone on the playground applauded, even Ms. Skella, who was walking towards the kids.

“Yes, yes, an excellent display, Max,” she congratulated, “but now it’s time to go inside.” Ms. Skella was still so visually stunning that it was almost as if twelve years hadn’t passed, ‘almost’ indicating that she had a few grey patches in her hair.

After dinner came charades. It was Friday, so today was the day when the children decide what game they’d like to play. After Shannon won (no one guessed that she was imitating an Egyptian walk), it was time for everybody to go to bed.

For many nights, the memory of his dead parents being gunned down haunted Max to the point where he couldn’t sleep. Tonight, however, was one of the rare occasions in which he was able to sleep peacefully. However, he wasn’t totally asleep.

At midnight, a crashing sound was heard that woke almost everyone in the house up, including Max. He managed to wake up Pat and Shannon, nut not Leonard, since he was a very heavy sleeper.

Max led Pat and Shannon out to the hall to alert Ms. Skella, who, unbeknownst to them, was already awake when she heard the front door click open. They managed to run into her.

“Oh, thank God you children aren’t harmed,” Ms. Skella said with a sigh of relief. “You heard the noises, did you?”

“Ms. Skella, what’s happening?” Shannon hastily queried.

“Let’s check the cameras.” With that, Ms. Skella led the children into the camera room. They were watching surveillance footage from the camera in the front lobby, showing a middle aged man dressed in all grey walking through the front door and spraying the lens with spray paint.

“Shannon, go call the police,” Ms. Skella demanded. Shannon went to find the main phone at the desk. “Pat, turn all the lights on,” Ms. Skella told Pat before he went to find every light switch he can. Max, however, was frozen in fear after seeing a glimpse of the burglar’s face. After about ten seconds, he went to walk out of the room.

“Max, where do you think you’re going?” Ms. Skella wanted to know.

“That guy on the video looked very familiar somehow,” Max replied. “I’m gonna go see why that is.”

“Wait, I’m coming with you,” said Ms. Skella.

“No!” Max shot back. “I don’t want you to risk your life protecting me, just like my parents did. It’ll only make me go through another hell, and I don’t want that anymore.

“If I don’t make it, you’ve been an excellent caretaker, Ms. Skella.” With that, Max walked out the room to confront this criminal. After walking for quite some time, the hall light started to click on, and he began to hear footprints. Fearful of his life, Max sped up his pace before bumping into the burglar. Max recognized his face almost immediately.

“So, you and your little friends thought you were gonna play hero, huh?” he taunted while holding the necks of Shannon and Pat.

“I… I…” Max stuttered. “I know you…”

“You do?” the burglar asked, confused to why he said this. After five seconds, he finally understood. “Oh yeah, that’s right. I haven’t seen you since you were a toddler. Do you scream at night because the memory of me blowin’ holes in your mommy and daddy terrorize you so?”

Max remained speechless, a victim of rage and wrathful vengeance.

“Max, please run,” Shannon gasped.

“Yeah, he’s too strong for us,” Pat chimed in. The burglar tightened his grip on the two children.

“Shut your mouths or I’ll shut ‘em for ya!” the burglar threatened.
Max began to ball his hands up into fists and blindingly punched out at his parents’ murderer. The burglar released his strangleholds on Shannon and Pat, leaving them gasping for air, before getting out his pistol and striking Max with the back of it. This caused Max to kneel down on the floor, looking up at his adversary with dread.

“This is gonna be real sweet,” the burglar said. “I planned to kill you when you were a baby, but since the fuzz was on my tail, I went soft. Not this time.” He inserted only one bullet into his weapon, cocked it, and aimed it at Max’s face. In a worst case scenario, before the burglar could shoot, a child leapt up on his back, causing the killer to drop his firearm trying to get Leonard off of him. Meanwhile, Max picked up the fallen pistol.

Pat and Shannon shot Max looks, indicating that he was out of his mind. “I’m sorry,” he simply whispered before shooting the criminal in the foot, causing him to lay on his side as he held his foot in pain. About a minute later, the police arrived. Shannon was confused at first because she was caught before she had a chance to pick up the phone.

As the criminal was cuffed and dragged into a police car, Officer Matthew recognized Max immediately as if he had just seen him yesterday.

“Max, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal,” Matthew commended, “I dunno how you did it,
but you caught our man.”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Max said in between gasps for breath. “I had to make him pay for my parents’ deaths.”

“It’s a good thing you did.” After Matthew said this, Ms. Skella walked into the lobby. As Matthew walked out, he said to her, “Thanks for the call, Ms. Skella.”

“Always a pleasure, officer,” she replied. As the police drove off, the kids stared at her in disbelief. “You called them?” Pat queried.

“I had to,” Ms. Skella explained. “I had a feeling he’d catch you guys, so I called just in case it happened.

“I’d like to thank you Max,” she continued. “You saved this orphanage. I’ll be planning something big for you in the morning. Until then, let’s all go back to sleep.” Everyone then walked back to their quarters, with Pat, Leonard, and Shannon carrying Max to their room. Max felt a huge weight come off his entire body. He had stopped a dangerous criminal. He knew his parents would be proud of him.