Jia: Prologue

Prologue

    A disjointed family on the run. That's all the girl knew about her life. It wasn't by any means a sane family, but it was the only kind of it's structure that she knew. Chaos seemed to follow the trio everywhere she went, which would most always stem from her mother and her lover. The two had dangerous baggage that they hid from society, two minds with previously great potential. With all the crimes they have committed along with the mother bearing a child, they had their doubts that their lives could ever be considered 'normal'. 

    Arianna once had big plans of becoming a nurse. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Arianna had fallen in with a gang and the once naïve young woman became influenced by their actions. Shortly after she got out of juvenile detention for a failed robbery attempt, she met a young man by the name of Julius. The two hit it off almost instantaneously, showing each other new techniques involving crime. Arianna eventually ran away with him to Arizona, committing such crimes as assault, robbery, and arson. The couple wanted more, and they implemented their first kill upon a five person family. Soon, more murders came shortly afterward. The two were almost like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.

    The two eventually hit a snag. Arianna found out that she was pregnant three years after their big getaway. Julius didn't want anything to do with the unborn child, despite Arianna's insistence that she be there for the both of them. He attempted to ditch and start his own life, but Arianna wasn't going to have any of that. It was either the life of their child or his. 

    Just as Julius was preparing to leave, Arianna got into her truck and ran him over so that he would be left without a way to get free. After she was sure he wouldn't be able to move is legs, she took a dull knife and stabbed Julius in the chest twenty times. Arianna buried his body out by the highway before taking off. Eventually she found some solace in Shawn, and the rest was history. Their lives would never be average.

    That fact would be further cemented within the little Ohio town where the three currently resided. They lived on the outskirts of the city, free from the constricting crowds. The small abode was in the safety of the warm shade. The home carried a very ancient appearance as if it were created in the early nineteen hundreds. Because it hadn't been properly renovated in some time however, it stood out like a sore thumb on the end of the dead end street.

    Inside, little Jia was playing with her small collection of dolls. Her door was kept shut in an attempt to block out the noise between the adults, but to hardly any avail. There was silence for a short time, though it wasn't enough to keep the two from bickering. Jia sighed in defeat, thinking herself foolish to believe that would ever happen at times like this.

    "What do you mean you don't have the money?!"

    "Look, babe. That asshole said he'd pay me back yesterday. Didn't know that cheap ass would just take the coke and run."

    "Well maybe if you weren't such a shitty salesman, we would have enough money to pay rent!"

    "Arianna, please! Just give me some time!" The man became desperate and began searching for a slip of paper. "I'll find him and beat him till he forks it over. I know I have his number somewhere."

    "Oh, quit trying to cover your ass, Shawn!" Arianna continued to berate him. "How the hell are we supposed to get food to eat if you keep being lazy?"

    "Will you just shut up?" Shawn exclaimed. "I'm trying to think."

    "That's all you do, Shawn! That's all you fucking do! That's why I always have to do the damn work around here!"

    Shawn laid a hard slap to Arianna's cheek. "I told you to shut the fuck up woman!"

    Arianna stumbled backwards as her head jerked to the side from the force. She placed her hand on where the stinging sensation was, then turned to look at Shawn dead in the eyes. She glared at him with an unforgiving bite to the lip. Arianna sped towards him and punched him in the jaw. Shawn retaliated by punching back. Punches were being thrown and bruises were starting to take form. They were not done there though.

    That's when things started to break. From there, she chased Shawn around the house, throwing things in his direction hoping to give him a concussion. The two cursed and exchanged insults with varying degrees of offensiveness. Sadly, this was the reality that Jia lived with. Each time the fights scared her, and they lasted for what seemed like ages before a chilling air filled the house. Arianna and Shawn would keep their distance from each other, typically using Jia as a sort of pawn, before they made up and were once again happy to be in one another's presence. 

    This wasn't the case today. The duo were at each other like wild animals, wishing that one or the other was dead. They clawed, bit, stabbed, threw around and strangled the other while leaving a trail of broken glass and wood in their wake. Hardly anything left untouched in the household because to them, anything could be used as a murder weapon. Unless Jia somehow got into the fray, the two wouldn't stop.

    A couple sirens in the distance initially failed to catch their attention. They were all too caught up in the violence to care for what was happening outside. But as the volume increased they noticed two police cars pulling into their driveway, they immediately stopped and knew what was going to happen.

    "Shit, it's the cops!" Arianna said, annoyed and distressed. 

    "Let's hurry up and get out of here!" Shawn began to retreat to the master bedroom to retrieve whatever artifacts he could gather in a swift motion. 

    Arianna followed suit with Shawn and made a crude attempt of packing her belongings in a duffel bag. The two assisted each other with getting other miscellaneous items in different bags as fast as possible. They discussed escaping through the back door and getting away with the truck. There were holes in the plans, but the stress wasn't making them think straight in this situation. Jia wasn't able to understand what was going on, and the sirens weren't making it any better. She retreated to her room and hid in her closet, crouching and clutching her doll close to her chest.

    Suddenly there was the sound of a megaphone booming outside. "Arianna Horenso and Shawn Wilson! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up or we will have to come in ourselves!"

    "Fuck!" Arianna yelled. The pounding at the door was like a ticking time bomb. At any second, they would all be discovered if they didn't move fast enough. They were fighting a losing battle. Their life on the run would soon be over.
    
    The little girl became more terrified by the minute, bargaining with the heavens to make it all stop. She cried out loud and held her palms tight over her ears. "M-mommy..."

    Jia yelped as she  heard the sound of cops barging in. Three of them tackled Arianna to the ground as she tried to ditch Shawn, but then quickly remembered about her daughter. She started to cry out her name. "Jia! Jia!!"

    Jia came rushing out of the room, only to see both her mother and Shawn apprehended. Shawn was the first one out the door while Arianna looked back at her daughter with tears forming in her eyes. Her sanity broke with each step away from her daughter. "No... No!!! Not my baby! I need my baby!!!"
    
    "Mommy!" Jia tried to run after her, but was held back by another police officer.

    The poor girl's world became twisted and turned. Sounds were no longer clear to her. Her vision was blurred. She didn't know what to do besides reach out for her mother as she was taken away. The light in the girl's eyes disappeared that day.

    She felt like a ghost. Nothing.