CAPTIVITY

41. Exhaustion

(Jonathan POV)

I finally reach my house at around 3 am, pulling into the driveway and tiredly scanning into front door using the embedded chip in my wrist as my key. 

As soon as I step foot inside, I toss my keys on the counter and go to lay down on the couch. Too exhausted to make it up the stairs to my bedroom.

As if I could sleep anyway with the hundreds of millions of thoughts and ideas running through my head and stressing me the fuck out. 

Each one holds its own scenarios that eventually lead me to think of my own demise. 

But I have to stay strong, I always have to stay strong. For Ash, AJ, Fin, the girls. I sit on the arm of the couch and slump over, staring down at my brown leather boots. Kicking each one off with a gentle stretch, thinking of the work that had to be done later on, at 6 am in the office.

The cold that surrounds me along with the silence left unfilled creeps up behind me, the little hairs on my arms prickle up to let me know something feels wrong. 

Something must be wrong. 

But this time it wasn't Ash. I knew that. It couldn't be Ash, it wasn't an Ashley sense that was tingling kind of feel. 

I get up once more with a small groan, clearly showing my age in the creek of my middle-aged bones. I walk down the hallway to the bedroom of my two little princesses. Not bothering to open the door because I knew they were with their mother for the weekend. 

I walk to the next room which was AJ's and slowly test the door. 

Surprised to find it unlocked, I open up the bedroom door of my eldest son and he sleeps soundly in his bed, his headphones wrapped up in his ears playing white noise while his glasses were crooked to his face.

 I leave the door open as I enter, slowly coming forward and taking off his glasses. Placing them on his nightstand before pushing back his fluffy light blonde bangs and gently kissing his forehead. 

AJ had been through some tough shit with me and I was proud of him for being able to handle it all. He was more of a third parent to Fin than a brother. He was there to take care of the kids when I needed him too without asking twice. I was embarrassed of myself for having to rely so heavily on my sixteen-year-old son but with Ash in the hospital, it was a lot to handle. 

I leave my son's room and gently close the door behind me. Walking out into the hallway once more and crossing over to the next room which contained the wild animal that is my youngest child.

 I open the door to find his room had been perfectly untouched from when I last left it, with the small exception being my son was no longer there.

"Finley?"

 I call into the room, turning on the lights and scanning the room before I erupt into full-blown panic mode. "Fin!" I look in the closet, his bathroom, under his bed but my six year old was nowhere to be found. 

"FINLEY!"