Charlie looked even gloomier when he entered the shop than he had when he left.
He frowned even more deeply when he saw the look on Mr. Jenkin's face.

"What's wrong, something happened?" he asked the old mand who nodded.

"Sage Lawn called, they released Calie's mother this morning. You left your Cel upstairs. I tried to reach you sooner. Where is Callie any way?" he askled, he was fond of the girl.

"Shit." Charlie swore. "She's staying with friends, but I have to go again." he said frantically.

"I understand. Mr. Jenkins said as he watched Charlie race out the front door.

Erik had retreated to his room upon arriving back at the house from the beach. He hadn't agreed with Callie walking to Charlie's place but had offered no resistance. He didn't want her to think he was treating her like a baby or something. Cecily hadn't questioned him upon him arriving and telling her that he was going to go lay down and that Callie would be back in time for dinner.

He must have actually dozed off at some point. How long had it been since he's watched Callie walking away heading towards Charlie's place? He wasn't sure. It had been a while though. It wasn't really near dinner time yet so he wasn't terribly worried. He had hoped, though, that she would have called to let him know she arrived at Charlie's place ok.

He heard a vehicle arriving and then a pounding at the door. Cecily's voice called up the stairs telling him that there was someone there to see him. He got off his bed and headed downstairs to the front door. "Charlie?" he asked with a surprised look on his face.

Charlie was flushed, red, and agitated when he spoke, he almost looked furious. "Cecily says Callie is not here." He said quietly. His voice had a slightly different quality from earlier, less polish and more rough edges. His eyes held a glimmer of the madness within him.

Erik shook his head. He was bewildered at the moment. "She showed up at the beach just moments after you left earlier this morning. She said she was going to your place to talk to you and to get some more clothes. I wanted her to call you to come get her but she said she'd rather walk. Did... did she not show up?" His voice quivered slightly as he asked his question.

"No she didn't. They released her mother this morning." He said, it was definitely cold fury that burned in his eyes. "This is not good."

Erik's eyes widen. "Shit. We need to find her. We need to find her now. Something isn't right. Especially if she didn't arrive at your place. Hold on."

Erik turned from the door and dashed upstairs where he threw on his combat boots. He ran down the stairs and paused at the kitchen. "Cecily, I'm going with Charlie to find Callie. Somethings wrong. If she comes back here, keep her here. Please." He then headed back to the door. "I'm going with you to find her." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, fine, the van is running." Charlie said. He went out to the van and Erik followed. On the console between the seats is a Browning Hi-power.

Erik followed Charlie and got into the van. He glanced at the gun on the console, up at Charlie and then out the front window. "Where should we look first?"

"The Cabin, I know where it is, george followed her, so we could find it the first time." Charlie says, he has taken forgranted the other man does not know he's possesed, it's far more pressing and urgent to find Callie.

Erik didn't even ask who George was. Right now, he didn't care. His only concern was finding Callie. For now, he stayed silent.

Charlie drives like you would expect a maniac to, it's worse when he pulls off the road into the woods, using the van to beat a path to the cabin. He climbs out of the van pistol in hand and moves quietly to stand by the cabin door and listen. He hears nothing.

Erik jumps out of the van the moment it stops. Doesn't bother to close the door behind him. He follows Charlie up to the cabin door. Erik waits for a few minutes as Charlie listens for anything inside. Erik could only wait so long though. He brought back one of his feet and thrust it forward to kick in the door. His heavy combat boot knocked it inwards easily. He stepped aside and let Charlie go first since Charlie was the one with the gun.

Indeed once the door swung opened Charlie took point. The afternoon light through the trees revealed nothing immediate though the place had been tidied up since Charlie had last been here with George. He entered cautiosly and secured the rooms one by one.

"Dammit. There's nothing here. Now what? Where now?" The concern was growing within Erik more and more with each passing moment.

"I don't fuckin know, but if I have to, I'll tear the whole fuckin city apart." Charlie said as angry as he was worried. "I should have stayed with her." he snarled. (no he doesn't blame Erik at all, he blames himself)

"I should have insisted on her calling you to pick her up. Or at least walking with her so that I knew she made it safely." Erik was blaming himself. Very much he was blaming himself. "Come on. We've got to find her." He turned and headed back to Charlie's van. He hopped into the passenger seat and waited.

"I think Maybe you should drive, I Don't have a license, well it is mine, but, I couldn't pass the exam....George took it for me." Charlie says somewhat shaken by the fact she was not here.

Erik was confused by what Charlie had just said but there wasn't time right now to question it. His only concern right now was finding Callie, his only real friend. "Alright," he says as he moves over into the drivers seat. He waits for Charlie to get in before he slams on the gas and heads back for the inner city. "Where would the bitch have taken Callie?"

"Where would you take someone to torture them uninterupted? She could be anywhere.....beating her with a damned fire place poker again." Charlie said in frustration.

Erik almost slammed on the brakes as he whipped his head around to look at Charlie. "What???" Callie had told him about his mother getting drunk and beating her. But she'd never said anything about a fire place poker. This was almost too much for the man. He had to pull over and stop the van for a minute to collect himself again.

Callie... Callie if you can hear me... We're trying to find you Callie. We're trying to find you. He was crying out to her with his mind. He could feel her fear and horror. "We need to find her. NOW!" He slammed on the gas petal again and began tearing through the city in an attempt to try to figure out where the hell that monster of a woman would have taken Callie.

They looked everywhere Erik could think of. Frenzied searching, frantic, when those options were exhausted they searched the places Charlie could think of. Place they couldn't get into Charlie sent George into. Erik didn't question how exactly Charlie could verify Callie was not some where, he seemed willing to accept the man's word for it. At four am they were exhausted and still had no leads. Charlie punched the van as they went back to it after ransacking a condemned textile mill in a derelected part of the city.

"Come on. Let's go search the cabin again. Maybe there's some sort of clue there that'll point us in the right direction." There wasn't much more of this that Erik was goign to be able to take. He was nearly losing his mind with concern and crap. "We've got to find her man. We've got to find her." He was damn near close to tears as he said that. It could be heard in his voice. His hands were on the steering wheel but he'd not yet moved the van yet. He put his forehead on the steering wheel for a moment as he tried to regain himself, at least enough to drive the van again.

It was a few moments before he regained himself enough to drive again. He headed right for the cabin.

"We'l find her, of coarse you're right we over looked something."Charlie said sounding pretty broken himself. Though he did give the other man's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Thank you." for helping me look he said just before the van started again.

Erik nodded. "Thank you. For letting me help," he answered back. Yep. Erik had 'heard' the last part of Charlie's thanks. Erik had to drive a bit more carefully now cause he was tired plus his eyes were watery with unfallen tears.

"I... I care about her. A lot," he finally admitted as he turned the van to drive up the drive to the cabin.

Charlie can't even talk at this point, he'd being overwhelmed by not only his emotions from all of this but also George's. Both of them regard her as family. He simply nods wordlessly. We need to find her first then we can talk about how you feel about her.....and how we feel about that it should be a very strong thought since Charlie and George both think it instead of just one or the other.

He's out of the van with the gun already and looking around inside again with the flashlight he had in the glove box. He finds the fire place poker and picks it up as well while he looks around. "Here." he says hoarsely handing Erik the light.

Erik merely nods his head as he hears the words spoken in Charlie's mind. He climbs out of the van and follows Charlie into the cabin again. He takes the flashlight as Charlie hands it to him. He's feeling... lost... helpless. They've got to find Callie and soon. He can feel her pain. It's not good. It's not good at all.

At this point Charie is going through a desk having lit a lamp, he hasn't found any sort of clue and he's getting very frustrated. It occurs to him though, that the woman had lived in this house with Callie for a long time, and Callie had repeatedly told him how anti-social the woman is.....was it possible they were out here in the woods somewhere.....

She had been dragged five miles further into the woods away from the cabin. Her worst fears were coming true when she saw the old shack come into view. This was where her mother took men sometimes when she was bored. Though she had never been here before she knew what it was used for. Immediately started to protest and bleed as she dug her feet into the ground trying any attempt she could from going any further. Free hand reached out to try and grab hold of trees but it was useless motion. Her mother was a lot stronger than she was and fingernails only scratched bark as each tree went by.

When the reached the door of the shack her mother shoved open the door and threw Callie inside, causing her to fall to the floor once more. Door was shut behind her and locked. It was so dark that she could hardly see anything. Her mother lit a candle in a rusty lantern hanging from the ceiling which was the only light. No windows were every built into the building.

The place was foul smelling from all the things her mother had done to men here. In fact there was even a skeleton of one still in the far corner which as soon as Callie saw scooted the other way. Hand clinked against something metal and found chains sprawled out across the room. Through the faint glow of the candle she could see red stains on most of them of dried blood. It took her a moment to grasp everything that was in the room. Looking up at the ceiling there were knives hidden on top of some of the low beams and hooks dangling from the stronger beams. A single revolver was in the furthest front corner of the room hiding within the shadows of the beams and cobwebs.

”Time to teach you that you’re not supposed to lock your mother up. I took care of you!” Rather suddenly her mother had bent down towards her and slapped her across the face. Callie brought her hands up to her face to protect it which was what her mom was wanting. Grabbing some of the nearby chains she latched them onto wrists, binding her to wall though there were plenty of chains so that she could walk around half the room. It was just so she wouldn’t leave the building.

When her mother headed across the room she realized that this was a really bad situation she was in now. Chained to the wall she had no hope of reaching the door and instead scooted back into the far corner opposite of the skeleton’s resting place. A horrible feeling dwelling within her told her that she may end up joining him.

All of a sudden the voice of Erik was in her head. Was she only hoping to hear those words or was he really there in her mind? Any ideas that might be dwelling were suddenly wisped away as she saw her mom staring at her now holding one of the many knives that resided in the shack. It was a rather large hunting knife and looked extremely sharp. She was scooting up against the wall as if trying to knock the building down she was pushing into it so hard to try and get away but it was no use. Chains had reached their limit now and where restricting her from moving anywhere else. However she continued to pull against them hoping that somehow they might break. Metal rubbed against skin until it was finally raw and blood could be seen trickling down from underneath the chains. It made a wicked smile appear on her mother’s face.

”Now it’s time to show you what you condemned me to.” Which was basically torture in her words though the torture she had didn’t compare with what she was going to do with Callie. Though their had never been any meat at her house it was unknown to Callie that her mother did in fact practice eating human flesh and Callie was the target as she was unable to have some for so long. That was what happened to all the men she went with and messed around with.

She looked up as her mother was standing over her now and sat down on top of Callie around the waist pinning her to the ground.

”Why are you doing this!? Don’t you love me?” Callie was pleading with her, restricted arms were flailing all over the place and pushing against her mother’s chest to try and get her off. Her mother quickly pinned her arms down with one hand and with the other gently lifted her shirt up some. Knife ran across the surface making Callie flinch. Her mother leaned down over her body and whispered in her ear. ”You were dead to me the moment you denied what you were.” The girl’s eyes grew wide as she heard the words whispered in her ear. She had denied what she was when they moved here. That was when the abuse started. It made sense to her now in some horrible and sick way. The idea made her start to cry even more than what she had been. Her throat was parched from screaming and finally she gave up on the idea of doing so…for now.

Sitting up on her again Callie had stopped making any sorts of protests at the moment and remained there limp still staring at the ceiling. It was dark out. She could tell for there was no light coming from underneath the door. Her face was red and she just let her mother run the knife gently along her belly for a while until something happened she wasn’t expecting. With a quick motion a slice of skin was torn away from her body sending her screaming in pain. It wasn’t enough to reach muscle but it was still bleeding rather badly now. Eyes closed and turned away as her mother placed the skin in her mouth and started chewing it.

”Been a while since I’ve had something so good to eat.” Callie was crying horribly now to the point of exhausting almost all of her tears. Her stomach was searing with pain now. With a sudden will of wanting to get out of this alive she takes one loose arm and hits her mother straight in the gut sending her backwards off of her. For a moment her mother was just stunned at the suddenness of the retaliation. After gaining her composure again she stands up.

”Somebody’s still a little feisty.” She heads over to the dark corner of the room and reaches up on one of the beams. Callie’s eyes grow even wider as she sees the gun in her mother’s hand. Again she starts to plead with her. She turns over off of her stomach and tries to crawl but she doesn’t know where she’s going. The shot was fired and a sudden burning sensation was in her leg. Another shot was fired this time shattering her left ankle. The other bullet was in the left leg as well and the crawling immediately stopped as she toppled over, back against the far wall. Blood had been sprayed on the floor and wall from the close proximity of the gunfire. She laid there in shock for quite some time. Her mother was just standing there with the gun pointing at her and watching the blood start to stain the floor. The girl remained motionless as she had the distinct feeling that if she moved that another shot would be fired off. After what seemed like forever her mother came at her again after setting the gun on the ground behind her and picked up the knife again. Grabbing Callie by her hurt foot she pulled her away from the wall which caused Callie to scream again as her mother’s nails dug into the bullet wound. Her shirt was soaked with blood now in the front as well as her pants legs starting to become bloody as well. The pain was so unbearable by this point she actually wished she would just die for a brief moment. But no. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t leave Charlie and Erik behind. Not when they cared so much about her. But yet everything seemed so utterly hopeless and despair was starting to set in as she remained almost completely limp.

She was turned onto her back again so her stomach was facing up. Knife cut it down the middle so she could get to the stomach easier. Callie just looked away as the knife sliced some more skin again and she let out another piercing scream. It was cracking though now from all the screaming she had done. The flesh was swallowed and another slice was taken off sending yet another scream into the air. Charlie….Erik…. Her thoughts seemed weaker and filled with hopelessness.

Finally she couldn’t take it anymore. With a last ditched effort she shoved her mother off of her again, sending horrible pains through her stomach. Her mother is stunned once more but not nearly as much as the first time. Callie dives for the gun that was carelessly thrown aside, exposed stomach hurting like nothing she had ever experienced as it hit the wooden floor. She turned around, gun in hand and sees her mother hastily trying to get up and head for her to grab the gun away. Without looking she fires one shot in the direction she knew her mother was. Opening her eyes she sees the shocked look on her abusive mothers face. Blood was starting to stain her shirt near where her heart was located. Eyes grew wide as she watched the woman she thought loved her more than anything in the world fall to the ground backwards. She moved for a little bit and then suddenly fell motionless. Eyes were still open but it was obvious that life had left them. Her abuser had finally gone.

Quivering hands drop the gun on the floor and she sinks down against the floor again on her side curled up into a ball. The only sounds that were there now was her slow pounding heart and the chains clanking against the ground as she moved her sore arms around to cover her face, making her face almost completely covered in blood from the blood on her hands. She was crying into them. Pain was felt all through her body but none more so than her stomach. Oh god it hurt so bad.

Hands fell away from her face as she rolled over on to her back and stared at the ceiling blankly, heart rate was slowing down dangerously from all the blood loss. Hopefully somebody had heard the last gun shot she had fired. Her throat hurt too much to try and call out anymore.

Gun shots. “Charlie! This way!” he screams as he dashes out the door and heads around towards the back of the cabin. Erik’s face is being hit with low hanging branches as he runs. He doesn’t care. He can hear screaming and another gun shot. He reaches the building after what felt like forever and hits the door with all his might. It crashes open. He doesn’t know what the hell he’s going to find inside. He doesn’t care. He can feel Callie’s pain and it’s driving him over the edge.

Throwing caution to the wind, Erik bolts inside. “Callie?” he calls. “Callie where are you?” He kept moving through the building trying to find where he felt Callie the strongest. He stumbled over something but it didn’t move. It wasn’t Callie. He ignored it and continued with his search for her.

He finds her. It’s not a pretty sight. “Charlie!” he screams through the building. “Get the van! Now!” He drops to the ground beside Callie and cradles her head on his lap. “Hang on Callie. Just hang on. We’ll get you to Cecily. She’ll be able to fix you up. Come on Callie. Don’t you dare leave me.”

Charlie peeps in the door behind the gun and then gets told to get the van. He does but he does resent it. It takes him only a few minutes to run back and start the van and then drive it pell mell through the trees he gets it as close to the shack as possible and grabs some of the blankets he keeps in the van. He then goes into the shack. Seeing the body he gives it a vicious kick. "We should wrap her up." He says as he crouches with the blankets and listening to Erik talk about Cecily.

She doesn’t move when she hears the door burst open but she does flinch. With everything that had happened almost every noise was making her twitch. The floor below her was covered in blood by the time Erik and Charlie had reached her. Her face was quite pale as she looked over and saw a form standing over her which shouts causing her to flinch again.

However she has the opposite reaction to Erik’s touch as he places her head in his lap. She starts to thrash violently afraid that she was going to be hurt again. ”No! Please!” She’s screaming at the top of her lungs, chains rattling as they hit the floor next to her. Crying started again and a hand grabbed hold of Erik’s shirt and latching on with a tight grip as if she would never let go. Another form is next to them now and she flinches however the thrashing has stopped as it’s causing more pain.

Finally getting a better look she realizes that it’s Erik and Charlie. She looks over their forms for a moment. A hand tries to reach up and touch his face to see if he’s real but it was restricted from ever reaching due to the chains. She starts crying again.

Hearing her screaming just about broke the man. He heard the chains rattle as she reached up and clung to his shirt. “Shh...,” he told her softly. “It’s ok. It’s all going to be ok. We’re here for you. We’ve got you. I’ve got you honey. Just hold on.”

Erik had, by now, gotten the chains off of Callie’s wrists and was holding her in his lap, rocking her back and forth. Tears streamed down his face. He looks up as he hears Charlie’s voice right next to him. He nodded his head and lifted her so that they could wrap her in blankets. Once she’s wrapped securely in the blankets, Erik stands up, still holding onto Callie.

“Charlie... please... take us to Cecily. She can fix this. She can make Callie better again. Please Charlie.” His voice was choked and pleading. Tears streamed down his face as he held Callie close to him. You’re going to be okay Callie. Don’t leave me, he pleads with her through his mind while he waits for Charlie’s reply.

Charlie just nods, he's so choked up with conflicting emotions right now, his and George's but he still wants to help Callie. He gets up and goes to the Van which he left running. "Buckle her in, this will be bumpy." is al he says when Erik gets her in the van.

She could feel herself being lifted and she cringes with pain again. The skin where the chains had been were rubbed raw and looked awful from how much she tried to pull away. Head rests against Erik’s shoulder, eyelids drooping. It was so hard to stay awake all of a sudden.

Wrapped in the blanket she was carried outside which made her close her eyes with the rising sun. It seemed so bright out compared to the shack. She was motionless as he helped her into the van. Eyes rested on the form of Charlie as he started the car, Erik was next to her. It was all too much to bear. Finally the pain got the better of her and she passed out.

Erik carries Callie to the van and gets in with her. He sets her on the seat and buckles the seatbelt. She slumped over and he knew that she’d passed out. He puts his arms around her again and brings her head to his chest. One hand reaches up and moves her hair away from her face. Tears are still rolling down his face.

As soon as they reached Cecily’s house, Erik thrust open the door, unbuckled Callie and began to lift her out of the van. He headed towards the house yelling for Cecily the entire way.

Charlie doesn't even turn off the van. Once they're out he puts it back in gear and pulls away from the house. He drives around for a long time aimlessly, now that Callie is found, George is in control again, Charles flitted off to avoid reality in dream planes, leaving George just feeling.....empty.

Erik glances over his shoulder as he hears the van leaving with a stunned look on his face. Charlie was leaving? What on earth? Why? Why wasn’t he going to hang around to make sure that Callie was going to be ok? He didn’t have time to stop and dwell on this at the moment though.

He rushes through the front door still yelling for Cecily to come and help Callie. His words are frantic as he’s suddenly unsure of where to set Callie. So he stands there, holding her, while waiting for Cecily.

Cecily rushes to the door and takes the girl from Erik. "It's good you got her here. Come." she says carrying the girl inside.

"You will need to be ready to take her from me, as soon as I am done, this will weaken me greatly." she explains as she unfurls her wings. They gel and crystalize into magnificent solidity and she draws tham around Callie and herself. For a few minutes the room is unbearably and terribly lit as Cecily uses her power.

Then it is returned to the pale daylight of an ordinary early morning. Cecily's wings Disapate and she hands Callie back to Erik. She then slumps to the couch and seems to sleep.

It was with great reluctance that Erik let go of Callie. He knew that he needed to though if Cecily was going to be able to help her. He follows behind the angel like a lost puppy and stands by, waiting. He nods his head slightly to show that he understands. He watches with wide eyes at everything Cecily does. He squeezes them shut when the room is suddenly lit up.

He’s there and ready to take Callie the moment Cecily’s wings dissipate. He stands there for a moment and watches as Cecily slumps onto the couch. He’ll come back and check on her in a few minutes. For right now, Callie is the absolute center of her thoughts.

He turns and carries her upstairs and into his room. He goes right through his room and into the bathroom. He sets her down on the closed toilet and balances her there. With his other hand, he reaches over to turn on the water in the tub. He reaches over and grabs one of the towels and holds it in front of her so that he can remove her bloody clothing. He’s holding the towel in front of her so that she’s not entirely exposed in front of him once he gets the bloody clothes off of her.

Once the tub is filled enough, he turns off the water and then lifts her into the tub. He sets her gently down into it and picks up a washrag. Warm water is now being places on her head as he tries to remove as much blood as he can.

The next thing she knows is water can be felt all around her and the wiping sensation of the wash cloth on her face. Eyes groggily open however vision is blurred and all she can see is the rough make out of Erik’s form next to the bathtub.

”Erik?” Voice was whispering and barely audible. A hand reaches up and holds on to his outstretched arm. After a few moments of just letting him clean her face she starts to cry again.