Taken Captive

Chapter 64

Callum's POV...

"I got her, Rivera." A voice said, reaching the base of my eardrum. It felt like he was yelling, the sound, that irritating sound of his voice making my head pound harder than ever.

My eyes shot open and I looked around at the pitch-black darkness surrounding me. Wherever I looked, there was nothing. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me and blinked continuously, thinking my eyes weren't really open.

"Over here," The same voice said. I turned my head to where the voice was, my eyebrows pulling together when I was just met with more darkness.

"No, here," This time it was right behind me. I flinched, turning his way and this time was face to face with a man. His voice matched Dean's perfectly but I couldn't see what he looked like, his face was void of any features, just blank.

What the actual fuck?

"Look over there," He pointed to my right side. When I faced that direction, the sight in front of us made my chest ache. Every muscle in my body tensed, my heart felt like it stopped and my knees almost gave out.

Right there, the only thing visible to my vision other than all the darkness was a doggy bed. It was dirty, ripped up, in worse condition than before. Sitting on top with, not a collar, but a thick chain wrapped tightly around her neck was Nia. The skin was red and looked like it was being cut open by the tough metal.

She had tears in her eyes that she wouldn't let fall while gulping down some liquor in that damned baby bottle. There were earbuds blocking out any sound from her ears that were connected to that same phone she called me with.

But we saved her. Why's she back here? How'd this happen?

"You wanna know how this happened?" He asked, reading my thoughts, "You fell asleep, Callum."

What? No, no I didn't. I couldn't have.

"You did. You got so tired, too tired while watching her sleep and your eyes just fell closed." He said, "You know what that means, right?"

No.

"It means that you don't care enough to want to protect her."

No, it doesn't mean that.

"Yes, it does." He countered, "Why do you think it was so easy for her to fall in love with me? Because you just don't care enough, you can't keep her safe, you can't protect her. But you were doing so well, haven't slept in so long and have done such a good job hiding it."

I didn't go to sleep.

"You did. But hey, at least you tried, right? This is what you do, you make promises to yourself and the people that you claim you love. Yet you cannot keep those promises, ever. You're just too much of a fuck-up."

I know.

"That's the spirit." He patted my back, the feeling of his fingers squeezing my shoulder was all too familiar to that same hand that has haunted me for so long.

William.

But it was Dean's voice, "It's alright. You don't have to worry about her anymore, I took her out of your hands. She seems happy enough, right?"

No.

The bottle fell out of her lips and she let out a cry, "You did it again. You let me slip out of your hands that easily? You're selfish, Callum, selfish! You never cared about me. If you did, then none of this would've happened! It's all your fault! Everything!"