Milk and Cream: Sequel to Coffee and Aspirin

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇ

Fear. Utter and plain fear. He called his name once more yet he didn't hear the sweet and calming voice of his beloved.

Again he called his name but to no avail. After three long hours, Jamie had to call it quits and drive to the police station. Henry was missing.

Jamie remembered Henry rushing out of Ms. Arielle's office, tears streaming down his red chubby face. He should have ran after him instead of holding back to confront his friend but he didn't.

Jamie blamed himself continuously, arguing with himself how things might've played out differently if he had done this one thing, or said something differently. Ultimately, he knew the real reason for his disappearance: Jamie sending him to Arielle.

He parked in front of the station, not caring that he was parked in the fire lane. Quickly, he turned off his car and hurried into the station.

There were two cops working the front desk, one was talking to another coworker and a twenty-something young man and the other had looked up from her computer when Jamie had entered.

"I need to file a report." The woman, who's name tag suggested that her name was Jen, swerved out of her chair and led Jamie to another room, talking to him on the way.

"Who is it?"

Jamie breathed in, calming him a bit. "My husband, Henry Klinks. He's almost 25," The two of them worked together to fill out the report when Jamie saw the young man from earlier catch his eye. He seemed guilty, perhaps concerned.

"Well," Jen sighed. "At this moment there isn't much we can do, but we'll send out cars to patrol the area, alright? I'll give you a call if we find anything out."

"Sure, thank you."

Jamie left the station with his chest feeling contracted and his heart hurt. It hurt so bad. Guilt, shame, regret, they all accumulated into one and eventually, Jamie would feel so terrible that he might not be able to do anything but worry.

•••
That evening, close to 8:00, Jamie entered the home. He carelessly threw his things around, not caring about it.

Klarissa's collar charm jingled as she jumped off the windowsill. She crept close to the door and sniffed around it, sitting in front of the door and not moving.

Jamie tried getting what needed to be done that night completed; feeding and caring for Klarissa, cleaning the bathtub, then making dinner, but he just settled for take-out.

•••
It was so dark. Incredibly so. So dark, in fact, that Henry couldn't see what was in front of him, not even his own hands; of course, he couldn't move them, but still.

The leathery texture of a blindfold told Henry why he couldn't see. Even with his eyes covered, Henry was able to release watery, salty tears from his eyes.

"D-Daddy..?" He croaked, throat hurting with that simple word. Henry tried again at maneuvering out of his chains but to no avail.

He wasn't sure how long ago he had been with his daddy but it had been far too long. Henry was still mad at Jamie for not telling him about Arielle, but it was slowly diminishing and becoming want.

He wanted to get out of here. He wanted Jamie — no, needed Jamie.

After all, Henry hadn't been... changed... in a while.

"Daddy... please..." his small voice echoed in the big room, his pleas ignored but not unheard.