Cherry Bite

Cherrybite- Miss forbidden 5

Callum <8bite

The silence sustained itself a little too long, and Callum wondered if in fact he had been hearing things and she was actually still asleep. It perturbed him somewhat. He opened the door wider still and took a step in, allowing a little more light to seep into the room. This, combined with the fact that his eyes were starting to adjust to the dark, was enough for him to catch sight of her standing there. She was petrified in the true sense of the word; made as stone. Why didn't she move at all? They always made some sort of movement. Sometimes they retreated defensively, on rare occasions they would attack, quite often they would put their trust in vain words - reasoning, bargaining, pleading - which they hoped might extricate them from their plight. It was part of the routine, part of the challenge. They would always 'fight' or 'flight' in one form or another, and in doing so pitch their power and will against his. Of course, it was always his which prevailed.

But from this girl....nothing. It was disappointing in a way...disarming in another, making it difficult to know how to proceed.

He placed his hands behind his back and stepped forward calmly, getting a closer look at her. He'd always been selective about his girls. That was the way of the world was it not? The magnitude of a man's conquest lay in the beauty of the girl he conquered. And so many guys bragged about how they could get 'any girl they liked'. Total shit of course. Not only did they not know what Callum knew about what it really meant to triumph over a woman, but not one of them had been able to choose their marks in the way Callum had. He'd had some beautiful girls down here, that was for sure. But this girl here...she was quite something else. He looked her over for a few moments, giving her a lengthy opportunity to answer his question. But her stillness bothered him.

'How can you call it strength when she's not even resisting you?'

Callum blinked hard and shook his head, silencing the voice of the past. This was a test, no doubt. It was harder then the previous tests, but that could mean only one thing; he was getting stronger, and his trials were becoming more difficult accordingly. He walked up to her slowly.

"If you had the choice," he said flatly, "would you prefer to be back exactly where I found you?"

He looked directly into her glistening eyes, trying to imagine what was taking place behind them, and how he might best provoke a reaction.

"Did you feel safer standing there than you do now?"

Calzone <8bite

The coffee got better as the night went on; that is to say, as the senses dulled and focused their response more on the effects of the caffeine than on the taste. The percolator had been broken for months, and the vending machine was the only remaining source. When that went out-of-order, things got ugly on the night shift. Calzone really hoped that didn't happen tonight.

The sound of ringing phones got less and less frequent as the bars around town emptied and the usual 'excitement' died away. It was well into the timeframe where the police offered a more or less token presence, redirecting the patrol cars to minor disturbances and drunken wanderers who'd gotten lost on their way home. He closed his eyes, trying to cringe away the headache induced by the fluorescent lights and the caffeine which struggled to suppress the tiredness. The phone went again, and he heard officer Portman answer in the standard form. It was all just background noise...until he heard five key words that kicked his mind into a state of alertness.

"When did she go missing?"

Calzone opened his eyes and tilted his head in a futile attempt to hear what we being said on the other end of the line. He listened as Portman seemed to endure the explanation, and watched as the young cop shook his head and sunk back into his chair with the phone to his ear.

"I'll make a note of that sir. I should inform you that a person does have to have not been seen for at least twenty four hours before we can file a missing person's report, but I'll put a call out to the cars to keep an eye open for her. Do you remember what she was wearing?"

Portman didn't even take notes while the man on the phone described the missing girl, and then ended the phone call with another set of off-the-shelf platitudes.

"Hey Portman," Calzone called over, "what was that about?"

"Some girl went on a date and didn't arrive back at the expected time." Portman said with a snide tone. "And surprise daddy's worried about her. Can't blame him, she's probably in the back seat of her boyfriend's car right now. Lucky bastard - even when her dad described her she sounded hot."

Calzone frowned. "Did you get the caller's number?"

"Well it's the last one to call so I can check..." Portman dialled the call-back code and scribbled down the phone number on a candy wrapper, then passed it to Calzone, who grunted in thanks. The assistant chief returned to his desk, looked at the number, then after a moment's pause picked up the phone and dialled. The other end picked up after just two rings.

"Yes?"

"Mr Chantilly?"

"Speaking."

"It's Assistant Chief Calzone, at Bridgeton Police Department. You reported your daughter missing just a few minutes ago."

"Yes, yes, oh God have you heard anything about her?"

"Sorry sir, no. I just wanted to get a couple of detail from you to help us investigate. You told my colleague she was at the Pavilion cinema in town with her boyfriend. Do you have his name and number?"

"Yes, it's Julian Arundel, but I already called him. He says she was just outside the cinema and when he went out she was gone. He hasn't heard from her since and she's not answering her cell."

"I'll take his number all the same sir, just in case we need to ask him anything."

Mr Chantilly obliged and Calzone wrote down the new number. He then thanked Mr Chantilly, promising to do all he could (how painfully familiar those words sounded...) and to inform him as soon as he knew anything. He put the phone down and got up, pulling his heavy jacket on and grabbing his keys.

"You're not going out there you old' dog?" Portman sneered. "I'm telling you you're gonna find her in a steamed up jock ride. She's not missing until she's been gone a day."

Calzone stared at Portman expressionlessly for a long moment, before setting off briskly for the exit. As he passed Portman's desk, he tossed the tape into the officer's lap.

"Take a listen to that," he called back as he walked away, "and tell me if you wanna be the guy who did nothing while that was happening to someone's daughter."