Taken

Chapter O7

-Ryan's P.O.V.-

"Did you love her?" Lily asked and smiled tugged on my lips as I remembered Maria, she was beautiful and so was her personality. I loved her, she was my first true love, and she loved me too. I remember it was the fifth time I had visited her...

"Ryan? Is that?" She called and I turned on to lights to see her beautiful brown eyes sparkling.

"Hey, Maria." I said and leaned down to hug her, she tried her best to with the chains.

"I thought you weren't coming." She whispered in relief into my ear which tickled it, I pulled away and pushed her matted hair out of her face.

"I come every day." I smiled at her and she shrugged.

"I just thought because Jackson had hit you that you wouldn't be able to make it today." Maria said, referring to earlier where I had to hit her but I didn't hit her 'hard' enough so Jackson lashed me. He was terribly drunk.

"No, I'm going to come every day. I need to see you every day." I said and choked out the words. I was in love with her; she was so strong and understanding.

"I need to see you every day too." She whispered and raised her hand to my cheek, not caring that the chains were scratching her. I stared down at her rosy lips then back at her eyes. "Ryan?" She asked and I snapped out of the daze I had fallen in looking into those eyes.

"Yeah?" I answered and came closer to her, our faces a couple of inches away.

"Don't let me die..." She said, tears threatening her voice. My heart sunk as I softly held the back of her neck and laid her forehead against mine.

"Never, Maria. I promise I'll get you out of here someday." I told her and I saw the tears start to come out of her eyes. It was so hard to see her so sad, so terrified and I hated it.

"Y-You can't leave me either." She told me and I nodded my head.

"I'll never leave you." I promised and she slightly smiled, I stared down at her lips before leaning in. I pressed my lips against hers and only seconds later she kissed back and I tried so hard not to break the kiss with my smile.

As soon as it started it ended, sadly. I heard Jackson come through the front door and I had to pull away.

"I love you, Maria." I said before standing up and bending down to kiss her head one last time before running out of the room.

That was the day Maria died.

I remembered Lily was still there staring at me so I nodded my head. How I'd give anything to have her back in my arms. That day I sworn I would never love anyone except her, I let her down. I broke our promise. I had to do something to make it up to her, so I'm keeping myself from love and waiting for her.

"Have you ever loved someone?" I asked Lily and she pondered for a minute, but still looked at me.

"I think so..." She trailed off and I tilted my head, you're supposed to know who you love, right?

"You think so?" I asked her and she nodded.

"He's my best friends, I just don't know if I could see us together like that...as much as I want to." She said mumbling the last part and something shot through my stomach. I had this feeling when Maria used to tell me about her boyfriend she had before Jackson kidnapped her.

It was jealously. Oh, no. No, no, no. I was not jealous, I was demanding my body to stop that feeling.

"I'm sorry." I sighed and she shrugged and looked around the room. She looked just like Maria except eye color, her's was a dazzling blue. Maybe that's why I was jealous, because she just reminded me of Maria. That's it, nothing more.

"I'm stuck here, there's not hope for us now so whatever." She sighed and brought her knees to her chest. I nodded my head and bit my lip.

"Well, you have me." I blurted out and immediately felt so stupid that I wanted to bang my head against the desk in front of me. Why the heck did I just say that? She giggled which made me smile; I had never heard that come out of her mouth.

"But you're not like Dylan." She said and right when the words escaped her mouth she bit her lip. I'm not sure if she wanted to stop herself because now I knew his name or she thought it would hurt me.

It came our pretty harsh, I admit it. What was so special about him? I guess I can't really blame her, my father did kidnap her but I've been nothing but nice to her.

"I didn't mean for it to sound that way." Lily said barely above a whisper as her face turned red. I walked over and sat next to her, throwing the blanket over myself as well.

"It's fine. You're not like Maria." I retorted realizing my snappy tone as I said it. She looked over at me but I didn't look at her. "Jackson still won't be back for a couple of hours. You can sleep." I informed her and turned away from her, snuggling up in the warmth.

I wasn't worried about her escaping, the doors lock from the inside and I'm the only one with the key to unlock it, same with the windows. It's not that I don't want her to escape, it's just I know if she does then Jackson will hunt her down again and trying to kill her loved ones. I couldn't have that.

She moved slightly next to me and I closed my eyes trying to sleep and succeeding.

When I woke up I looking right at Lily, her eyes closed as she lightly snored. My arm was around her waist and she was leaning onto my chest. I blinked a couple of times until I realized what I was doing.

Before doing anything else I looked to my wall clock. Jackson would be home any mi-

"Ryan!?" I heard him scream and pound on my door. Lily's eyes shot open in horror as she looked at our position but before she could notice I jumped off the bed.

"One second, dad. I'm getting dressed!" I yelled to him but he just kept slamming his fist against the door. Then it stopped and I knew he was going to Lily's room. "Lily, you need to hide." I said taking her shaking body in my arms.

"W-Where?" She asked quietly and I pointed to under my bed. She scurried under it as I heard the pounding return.

"Ryan! Where is the girl!?" He screamed on the top of my lungs and I rushed to open the door.

"S-She's not there?" I asked her like I didn't know a thing and he smacked me across the face.

"Where is she!?" He screamed in my face and pushed me to the wall, blood started to pour from the back of my head and I fell to the floor. I could see Lily underneath the bed crying, I tried to rip my gaze away from her without my father seeing but I was too late.

Jackson walked over to my bed and fell to his stomach to see Lily.