Give in. Just let it happen... It won't hurt so much if you just relax... Relax. The idea made his skin crawl. Uncle Samuel had raised him from a toddler. He was only 2 or 3 when he was taken in by the still young and still attractive man. But what woman wants to date a guy who has a kid already, right? Joshua's parents died. The father from a homicide and the mother from depression and eventual over dose. He was with his uncle for a year and a half without incident... Then things started to get a lot worse.

Sam started to feel the difference of having the kid. Josh started to wear on his nerves. He started feeling lonely and like... Maybe he would never find that perfect girl now because he has this kid. It pissed him off to no end, so he started to blame it on Joshua and started to take it out on him. He won't give details of exactly what happened, because he would simply rather move on. So many times he wanted to just give up, but he kept thinking that if he could just hold out a little longer then he could move out. He could be finished with Uncle Samuel. He wouldn't have to take it anymore. Joshua would be free. But he just couldn't ever give in. Josh kept fighting him. Pushing him away and begging him to stop...

This last time... He pulled a gun on Sam. "Happy 18th birthday!" His uncle started, but this was the line. No more. That he was able to hold out this long amazed him in retrospect. When he was younger, he thought that maybe he deserved it. Maybe he did something to make this happen. Then it was that his uncle was nice enough to take him in. Always bought him nice things and helped him with homework. The more he spoke with other people... Even other adopted teens his age, the more he figured out that this was not normal. So he had to give Uncle Samuel a choice. Let him walk out untouched or he could get shot. That isn't the way things worked out.

Sam was able to get the gun from him and turned the tables swiftly. Joshua found himself staring down the barrel but instead of feeling fear, he felt strong indifference. He was either walking out of here or dying. There was no way he would live with this any longer. Josh heard Sam yelling at him but did nothing, then turned to head for the door. As soon as the door opened, the bullet was tearing through his body. He felt the searing sting, then cold ran through him, before he finally dropped to his knees... then everything went black.

Apparently the neighbors saw everything. They called 911 and the local police were on the scene in seconds. Another minute and EMS was there. He had already lost a lot of blood and Samuel had gone back inside the house and locked the door. When Josh woke up he was in the ICU. They said he was dead for 10 seconds. Then his heart started beating again. 10 seconds. No one knows what happened really. He was flatlined and seconds later he was opening his eyes. Then he just went back to sleep. Alive, breathing, and, oddly enough, smiling. He was finally free and he'd defied death... Or so they thought.

Now alive and well, Joshua is in search of what he sought for so long. He is 19 and doing his best at living on his own. He hasn't seen Uncle Samuel in some time, simply happy with assuming the asshole is in jail. He lives in a two bedroom apartment with a small puppy as of right now. Josh tends to avoid intimate situations with both genders. He has a severe trust issue with people and finds it very hard to share any part of his past. He would like to learn more about his parents, but even that search is hard to pursue, because it involves so much that he doesn't know. Currently, he is not attending any university or college. He doesn't have the money or know much about Federal Aid. He isn't even sure if he would be able to pay them back... ever. He has a serious problem with authority and tends to be more quiet than most, leading many who meet him to assume he is shy... Not to say they're wrong.