Taken Captive

Chapter 77

I didn't bother editing. just read and enjoy it. 

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"It's so dull," I whispered to myself as my tear-filled eyes blurred the vision of the tiny, almost broken piece of jewelry on the bed before me, "it used to sparkle so much. When Muffin gave it to me, it was so bright and smooth." 

Kara sat beside me, rubbing my back as I mumbled on about the most random things, "now it's so...dark and rough. It's weird to think that I assumed that was one of the worst times in my life." She nodded beside me, not saying a word. 

"I want to see Seth," I told her. 

She sighed, knowing why, "Nia, he's not going to plan a funeral until we find him. He's not going to give up looking for Callum and you shouldn't be giving up this soon either." 

It'd been about a week since going to see the crash site. Sinn and Jasmine left, they had their own stuff to deal with and they didn't need to be sitting here like ducks when there wasn't anything going on. They'd come back as soon as Seth and Jordan would find something. 

Axel's sleeping frame moved in my hold. I looked down at him and brushed his hair out of his face before gently rubbing my thumb across the tears that dried onto his face. He misses him and he's too intuitive to believe the lies we'd been telling him.

He just left for a work trip, he'll be back soon.

He's going to get more Christmas presents, he doesn't think Santa brought you enough.

He knows his uncle, he knows he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. 

"Why would I keep hope just for it to break me, even more, when they find his corpse, Kara?" I breathed, my body shaking as I held Axel tighter. 

She didn't respond.

I've lost my children, my mother, my father and now, the love of my life. The feeling of loss was what I came into this world to experience. I was given everything just for each thing to slowly be taken away, and for what? I didn't know yet. I couldn't understand or fathom that there'd be a reason as to why this was happening to me. What did I do? What could I have done differently? 

Abort Alex? Never work with Kara? Never allow Callum to ruin my life only to make it into something beautiful in the end? 

No. I don't regret any of it. Those choices led me to the people I now love the most in this world. But now I've lost almost everything and I don't know why.

"Baby?" Jordan's voice boomed through the front door downstairs as it opened and closed, followed by footsteps walking into the foyer, "we're back." He and Seth were out most days doing god knows what. They weren't getting any closer to Callum, the only hint we'd gotten was the collar. Otherwise, everything else was a dead end. 

They couldn't track him in any way, there were no trails that went far enough to give them a clue as to where Callum was taken, there was nothing. 

"I'll be right back," Kara said beside me, kissing my temple before slowly getting off the bed so she wouldn't wake Axel.

"Could you tell Seth I'd like to speak to him, please?" I asked her, taking the collar off of the bed as she nodded, walked out and closed the door behind her. I leaned back, adjusting Axel so that he was laying on my chest and caressed the now old, rusted metal in my hands. 

Such a tiny thing being an element of some of the biggest occurrences in my life was insane to think about. It brought me nothing but pain, first with Muffin then second with Master. It felt like invisible knives were digging into my neck every time I put it on.