Running From The Big Bad Wolf

15.

I don't know how long I blacked out for, but I knew I was being carried over someones shoulder. I tried thrashing and screaming, wanting to go back inside the house. To Rhydian.

But I couldn't do much damage. I was gagged. My hands were tied and I heard doors open to a car and I was thrown in and the door slammed shut.

I wanted to shout for Rhydian. For my little boy. He wasn't in the car. Only I was. I tried to get the gag off, I tried to get my hands out of the ropes, but nothing would work.

I was in a van. I could feel it moving and I tried to get up and thrashed about.  I tried to open the door, screaming in to the gag. I ran in to the walls, the doors, trying to open them. Trying to get back to Rhydian.

The car tilted suddenly and I landed against the wall, hitting my head and slumping down, closing my eyes again...

I groaned from the dull pain in my head, the dull pain in my neck. It was a constant thump. I felt the mattress under me, the blankets. It didn't feel like the back of a van.

I shot upright, my eyes opening and gasped. Wide eyed, I looked around the room. Everything was the same. Exactly the same as I remember it all.

The pink lacy wallpaper Eli and I did when I was fifteen was still on the walls. The same blankets on the bed. The same doll still sat on top of a foot stool in the corner of the room. The posts of my bed held the sheer lace up top.

I was in my bedroom. The room I grew up in. The room I was held a prisoner in. Oh no. No, no, no, no! Climbing out of the bed, I noticed I was no longer tied or gagged.

I went to the windows and noticed they were nailed down. I couldnt open them. I turned and ran straight to the bedroom door, my hand on the handle as I pulled it open and heaved in air upon seeing him.

I stepped back a couple steps, petrified.

Axel stood in front of me, heading in to my room. He still looked powerful. He still looked handsome. But I was too scared to think any more past that. I wanted Rhydian. I needed him with me.

But I didn't dare breath a word about him. Especially to Axel. Everything I do is to protect my son. To protect him from the cruelty of this world, to protect him from the crimes in it and to protect him from his father.

With my head high, I stormed up to Axel. "Let me go." I stated, no, demanded.

Axel smirked at me, his eyes as dark as ever and I hated that. It reminded me of Rhydian.

"I demand to be taken back from where I was taken!" I yelled at him.

"Why?" Axel asked me and I could see the confusion on his face. "You were willingly staying there?"

"Unlike here, yes, yes I was. I wasn't a prisoner. I wasn't held at ransom. I was there on my own free will!" I told him. I can't let it be known Rhydian is still there. I hope he is alright and not being mistreated.

"Sorry to break it to you, buttercup, but you were a prisoner. You were at ransom. Eric contacted me three days ago stating he had you."

My jaw dropped and my eyes went wide. "That's not true!" I said softly. Oh no, Rhydian. Then my head snapped up at him as he raised his hand and ran his fingers through my hair. I slapped him away, telling him not to do that. "Why would you even agree to that?"

Axel's eyes went dark. "Because I've been looking for you for a very long time, Caity."

I stilled. "Wait, you didn't know where I was?" I asked gently.

Axel kept his cold glare on me. "No." He finally answered and I bursted out in tears.

"Motherfucker!" I screamed out. That fucking bastard! He convinced me that Axel was coming. He pretended to be nice to me. Now Rhydian is there, alone. If I just stayed in Wales, I wouldn't be here. Axel didn't know where I was!

"You were his hostage!" Axel yelled at me and I glared at him.

"You killed my brother!" I shouted back, pointing my finger in to his chest. "You murdered him!"

Axel looked confused again as he batted my hand away. "No I didn't. Eric did. He killed Eli. He found out Eli was a mole. A spy. My spy and killed him in front of me. We met up to trade. But Eric turned the tables on me. He shot Eli right in the back."

My blood ran cold again as another sob left me. I did all this to protect my son and now he is in the hands of my brothers murderer.

"You knew where he was the whole time!" I screamed at him.

"Yes! I did it all to protect you! If Eli didn't ask me to do that for you and him, Eric would have had his hands on you sooner! I did it all to protect you! To protect you from what Eli did, what I did, what our world does!" Axel was panting, his teeth showing as he growled.

"If you just stayed fucking put, none of this would have happened."

I stood up and backed away from Axel. "Yes. If I stayed put. Where I was. Away from you. Away from Eric. If I stayed where I have been for the past three fucking years!"

Axel narrowed his eyes as he came closer. "No. If you just stayed put in this fucking house!"