Breaking Their Hold

Melissa’s face went pale of color when she saw the boy sitting across from her; the boy that Jimmy had called ‘Pierre.’ Was he the same Pierre that had appeared outside of her window last night? She was in the process of trying to wrap her mind around the confusion she was feeling when someone touched her arm lightly.

“Hey, Melissa, are you okay?” Brian’s voice brought her back to reality. Melissa blinked once, before smiling, not wanting anyone to worry about her. They already worried too much, and she didn’t want them to.

“Yeah, I was just…zoning out.” She replied. Pierre was the next to speak.

“Hey, you’re the girl that was in Shannon’s room last night!” He exclaimed, though keeping his voice quiet in case Nurse Phillips was listening in. Melissa gave him a confused look, and shook her head.

“No, that’s my room. I’ve been there since I got here.” She told him. He scrunched his face up, as if he were thinking about something, and then shrugged, a bright smile on his face.

“Hmm. Must have taken a wrong turn last night,” He replied, before looking at Jimmy. “I scared the shit out of her last night.”

“What?” Jimmy asked, his voice edging worry. Melissa touched his arm lightly, and he frowned at her. “I can’t help it if I get worried for you, Melissa. We all do. Especially now that—“

“Ms. Baker, if you have finished your breakfast, return to your Cell immediately.” Nurse Phillips said sternly as she walked over to them. “And Mr. Bouvier, what are you doing on this side of the cafeteria?”

“I was saying hello to James, Brian, Matthew, Jonathan, and Zackary.” He said. “If you’d like, Nurse Phillips, I’ll return to the other side.”

The nurse smiled at him; out of all of the patients at Haverly Hospital, Pierre was among the most obedient and receptive to treatment. “No, that’s alright, Mr. Bouvier.”

With that, the nurse followed Melissa towards her cell, stopping only at the nurse’s station to prepare a needle full of a sedative.

-x-

Hot, angry tears blinded Jimmy’s eyes when he returned to his Cell that afternoon for Meditation time. All day, he had been being attacked my memories of the past that he’d long since tried to hide in his mind, for fear of losing his sanity. The memory that had been bothering him the most, though, wasn’t of when he had been taken from his parents, but rather memories of Melissa…

”Jimmy! Look up in the sky! There’s a plane!” Melissa cried fearfully, running towards the ten-year old Jimmy and hiding her face in his chest. She had been only seven at the time, and had grown up afraid of almost everything.

“It won’t hurt you, Mel,” He reassured her softly. “Those planes are only for the bad kids. They won’t take you.”

“But they’re so big, Jimmy!” She sobbed, clutching at his shirt. “Zacky’s not home, Jimmy. What if the planes came and took him?”

“I’m right here, Mel,” Zack said, walking out of the house. Upon hearing her elder brother’s voice, Melissa turned around and faced her brother, a relieved smile on her face as she ran and hugged him. “I was over at Matt’s place. We were listening to some music.”

“The Misfits?” She asked him curiously, knowing that most of the music Zacky listened to was outlawed by the Government. Zack nodded, kneeling down to his sister’s height.

“Yeah. Matt sang your favorite song, too. He wished you were there to hear him. He sang it ‘specially for you.”

“Hatebreeders?” She asked him, pouting her lips. He smiled, and ruffled her jet-black hair; one of their many similarities in looks.

“You betcha.” He told her. “And he did a mean rendition of it, too.”

“Did you play your guitar?”

“Of course I did,” He scoffed. “Missed a few notes, though. I’m getting better.”

She smiled, and hugged her brother, before turning around to see Jimmy, her best friend.

“We should go in,” She told them both. “It’s getting dark, and—“

“—And the Government doesn’t like kids out after dark. We know, Melissa. Sometimes, I swear you know the laws better than they do, kiddo.” Jimmy laughed at her, ruffling her hair.

That had been the first time that Jimmy had realized that he felt things other than just friendship for Melissa. Sure, they’d been young; nothing had happened. They were both innocent back then. It had been what adults adoringly called ‘puppy love.’ And she’d had a crush on him, too; she’d told him that a few years later…

Jimmy watched Melissa’s face as she laid on the soft, green grass of his backyard, her eyes closed as she took in the warm sunlight shining down from the sky. She was all of thirteen, and beautiful. He took her hand in his own, and looked up at the sky as well. When she felt his warm hand on her flesh, a blush crept onto Melissa’s face, and she tried to hide it to no avail. She finally turned to look at Jimmy, who had given up on trying to find anything interesting in the clouds, and had resorted to looking back at her again. Their eyes met, and both of their hearts fluttered.

“Why are your eyes so blue?” She asked him, before giggling at her own question. He smiled, and shrugged.

“I’ve wondered the same thing sometimes,” He admitted. “Why are your eyes so green?”

She laughed, and scooted closer to him. “I don’t know, either. If I ever get to Heaven, I’m going to ask God, though.” She told him.

“Make sure to tell him thanks, too.” Jimmy told her. She looked at him, a bemused look on her beautiful, glowing face. Sunlight looked good on her, Jimmy thought to himself.

“For what?” She asked.

“For making you so beautiful. Much more than your brothers, and even Zina.” He told her quietly. “Out of the four of you, you’re definitely the most beautiful.”

At Jimmy’s statement, Melissa blushed, averting her gaze. “I’m not beautiful.” She muttered quietly. “Certainly not as beautiful as Zina.”

“Yes, you are. There’s no arguing it.” Jimmy told her sternly, before laughing lightly.

“Jimmy?” She asked him suddenly, making his eyes meet hers yet again.

“Yes?”

“I…You…I think I like you as more than ‘just friends.’” She told him. “I don’t feel the same way about Matt and Brian and Johnny as I do you. My heart gets all fluttery whenever we hang out, and it’s hard to breathe sometimes.”

Jimmy chuckled, causing her to blink, before blushing furiously and turning away. Before she could fully turn her head, though, Jimmy touched her chin with his fingers, leaning up on his side so that he could look down at her.

“Come with me,” He told her, smiling as he grabbed her hand and took her into his house. She followed him, until they were in his bedroom in the basement. He sat at the piano in the corner of the room, and pointed at her to sit on the bench next to him. She did, and he began playing a beautiful melody.

“If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine...
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you.

When Jimmy finished singing the poem, obviously written by himself, Melissa didn’t know what to do. But Jimmy did. He pressed his lips against hers. It was a soft, innocent kiss; not heated, and sexual. It was beautiful.

That had been their first kiss. A few weeks after that, he’d asked her out on a real date, and they’d gone to Ruby’s on the pier, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. They had been young and naïve; completely unaware that within years, they would be unable to even think about carrying on a relationship with one another, for fear that they would be arrested.

And then, the worst memory Jimmy had of her. It was something she hadn’t done to him, or something that he had done to her. Neither of them had done anything. It was all the Government’s fault. The Government had been the ones to ruin their lives; to split them in half. He remembered that day more clearly than he would like. He had been with Melissa when they’d been taken…

“Jimmy, it’s getting scarier every day,” Melissa whispered against Jimmy’s bare chest, her head lying on him while he played with her long black hair with his fingers idly. He sighed, and looked down at her with his blue eyes.

“I know. This time, I agree. It’s getting worse.” He told her. “The guys…We’re not going to be doing any more shows until all this stuff clears up. Eventually something’s got to give, and someone’s going to overthrow Schlagger.”

Schlagger. The 21st century’s version of Hitler, without genocide. He had been elected as president when the Policies had only been minor; when the Government was only taking kids who did really bad things, like murder and rape. But when Schlagger had been elected, he had made the Policies so much worse than they’d already been. He was notorious for splitting apart families; having children taken away seemed like his favorite pastime. He had them put into institutions under many different guises, the most common of which was juvenile delinquency. Of course, he had extended the Policy into every family’s home. Children were strictly forbidden to leave their homes without Government consent after six o’clock at night. If they were caught, they were taken to a jail, and then moved to an institution. The most fearsome of which was Haverly Hospital.

“He’s not going to go away,” Melissa whispered. “Jimmy, what we’re doing now…it’s illegal. They could…They could take you away, if they found out.”

“Shhh,” He whispered against her hair. “It’s not going to come to that. I promise. We love each other; even the Government can’t take that away from us.”

But Jimmy didn’t want to admit that she was right. He also didn’t want to admit to her that he, too, was scared. So many of his friends had already been institutionalized. Jason and Matt Berry had been split up; Matt had been sent to Haverly Hospital, and Jason sent to another one in a distant state on the east coast somewhere. Matt had been taken to Haverly, but had been released shortly after. He’d come back completely changed; he had come back thinner and weaker. But what scared Jimmy most was that Matt had come back quieter, saying that maybe they should stop the band until Schlagger was taken out. No one in the band had had the heart to say they wanted to continue. They were all scared. They had every right to be. There was no grey area when it came to the Government’s Policies. Almost everything was illegal.

That was when they heard a loud crashing sound downstairs. Immediately, Jimmy sat up on the bed, and grabbed Melissa. He pushed her towards his closet.

“Stay in there. Don’t come out. Do you understand me?” He asked her quietly, handing her a hoodie of his so that she could cover her bare arms. “Don’t say a word. Whatever you do, Mel—“

“Freeze!” A voice called loudly from downstairs. The voice was cold, and devoid of any emotion. “We are Government Security Staff, and we are here on order of President Schlagger. It has come to our attention that you and your husband have been harboring a boy that we have been looking for.”

Melissa looked at Jimmy, and tried to pull him into the closet with her. He refused, and met her eyes with sad ones.

“They’ll find you then, too, Melissa.” He whispered. “I’ll be damned if I let them take you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jimmy’s mother said from downstairs, her voice traveling up to Jimmy’s bedroom. “Which boy are you referring to? We don’t harbor anyone from the Government. We’re good people.”

“The fugitive’s name is James Owen Sullivan.” The man said. “Government birth records show that he is your son. If he’s not here, where is—“

“Melissa, I love you, okay?” Jimmy whispered to her. He stepped into the closet, kissing her lips lightly. “Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t get yourself caught. Don’t follow me downstairs. Stay here. Mom will make sure you get home okay tonight. When you get home, stay there. Don’t leave for anything.”

“Jimmy, I can’t let you go like—“

“I heard something upstairs,” Another different, but equally cold, voice said from downstairs.

There was a silence, before the first one spoke again. “Suzanne Sullivan, you are under arrest under a violation of Code 224.” He said. “Handcuff her, and then take her to the van. I’ll go investigate.”

“Stay here.” Jimmy said, closing the door to the closet. Melissa clamped a hand over her mouth; she could still see Jimmy through the crack in the closet door, where it bent. The man walked into the room, and for the first time, she saw what a Government Security Staffman looked like. He was tall, but not quite as tall as Jimmy. He had broad shoulders, and a distinctive scar on his face.

“Are you James Owen Sullivan?” The man asked gruffly.

“Yes,” Jimmy said proudly. “And I have no idea why you’re arresting me. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“You are in violation of Code 221. There is ample evidence that yourself and several other fugitives were operating an illegal band, and performing music that was not cleared through the Government.” The Security Staff told him. “You are believed to be a dangerous criminal, and a potential threat to the safety of the nation. That is your reason for being arrested.”

“No!” Melissa screamed from the closet, opening the door. “No, you can’t take him!”

“Who’s this? Is she on our list?” Another one asked. His voice sounded familiar to Melissa; he was the one who had just arrested Jimmy’s mother downstairs.

“I don’t know. What is your name?” The Security Staff man who had just handcuffed Jimmy demanded, turning his cold, slate grey eyes on to her.

“Melissa,” She said proudly, though fear was evident in her voice. “Melissa Baker.”

“Baker…The name sounds familiar. I believe we’ve arrested her brothers and sister already, haven’t we?” The man asked his companion, before nodding in her direction. “In any case, we have to arrest her anyway. She was in association with a wanted fugitive.”

Melissa never said a words as they handcuffed her. She couldn’t meet Jimmy’s worried gaze as they were manhandled down to the van.

That was the last memory that Jimmy had of freedom with Melissa. After they’d gotten to Haverly Hospital, they had been allowed to see each other for brief periods of time. The Doctor had advised that they be allotted time, because they were obviously close. He thought that ‘perhaps it would help develop their maturity.’ But eventually, that had stopped, and they had been ordered to surrender their relationship, or face worse consequences than being stuck in Haverly Hospital. So, for the sake of Melissa’s safety, Jimmy had broken up with her. She understood now why he had done it; and she still knew that he loved her, even though it was against the law.

He only wished that they’d see a day when their love wouldn’t be illegal.