Harv's POV

Waiting for Crys to come home is taking longer than it usually does. We had planned on going out to see a movie tonight, so she knows what time we need to leave our place to get there on time. Even when she has to talk to a teacher or go to the library, she isn't this late home.

It's making an uneasy feeling grow inside me, as irrational thoughts pile up in my mind. 

She should have been home half an hour ago, but I'm hoping she has just been caught up at college. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

Another half an hour goes by before I hear a frantic knocking constantly banging at our front door. Rushing over to see who it is only to see Parker and Travis on the other side of the peephole. Parker looks almost sad as he waits, while Travis looks jittery and panicked.

"What do you w-" I start to ask as I open the door.

"Crys was taken!" Travis cuts me off, his are eyes wide and frantic as his voice sounds almost shrill.

He pushes by me, Parker following slowly behind. 

"What do you mean?!" I ask, taking a menacing step towards him.

Anger is bubbling through me, I swear if he's done anything to her I'll kill him for it.

"Easy there, he had nothing to do with it," Parker says, as he tries to block me from his cousin.

"Bullshit!" I yell as the twins walk over to us from the lounge room.

"Wow. Wow. Wow, calm down everyone." James hushes us, looking confused about the two new people in our place.

"What's going on?" Jeremy asks moment after a moment of silence between us.

"Crys was taken from college." Travis tries again.

"What do you mean 'she was taken'?" James asks cautiously, ushering them to the lounge room couch.

After we all sit down around the room, Travis starts to explain how he was at the college to pick Parker up. I was surprised that he was honest and told us he spotted Crys before she left and that they had spoken for a little while before he had to go back to the car.

"I was waiting for Parker to get to the car for maybe a minute or two after, then this black van jumped up on the curb further down the street. At first, I thought nothing of it, but then I realised it was near where I was talking to Crys, so I went to make sure she was okay." He says quickly. The panicked look that's still there is making fear course through me at an incredible rate. 

"That was when I heard her scream though, it was so full of fear and panic. I ran towards her as fast as I could, but I was parked pretty far away and didn't get there in time. These two guys in masks were dragging her into the van, I tried to get to her but they took off before they even shut the door." He finished explaining, his face full of guilt and remorse. 

Crys was really taken...

This didn't feel real though, people don't just get kidnapped in broad daylight like that. 

Leaning back in my seat, I tried to think of ways to check where she was. Surely this was all some kind of sick joke! 

Please let this be a sick joke...

Pulling my phone out, I try calling her number as my first attempt in proving that.

"We're sorry, the phone you are calling is either switched off or unavailable." The machines monotone voice told me.

I repeatedly did that a few times before giving up, after only receiving the same message over and over. Next, I decided to try the Find My Phone app, hoping to see she was just inside the college or anywhere really.

Except it to come up with nothing...

Fuck!

This can't be happening!

"Her phone's off, and find her phone has nothing," I explain sadly, realising everyone was watching me as I tried to get in contact with her.

"What do we do now?" Jeremy asks, looking worried but determined like his brother.

"I think this much is obvious. Let's make a few calls." James says, standing up to grab his phone.

***********************

Crys' POV

Slowly waking up to a foul smell and a pounding headache, I groan in annoyance that Harv must have dropped his guts in his sleep.

Again. 

Waving my arm around to hit him for it, I'm met with the feel of an empty and scratchy bedspread. Consciousness hitting me instantly, I slowly peel my eyes open to be greeted with a strange room. Quickly sitting up, I look around frantically as memories of what happened to me fill my mind, making fear and panic resurface throughout my system instantly.

Realising I'm alone at the moment, I attempt to calm myself down a bit so I can try to figure this all out. A panic attack won't do me any good right now.

Looking around the decaying bedroom, the first thing I sadly notice is my sore ankle, or more so, the metal chain secured around it. The next thing is that my pockets were emptied and my bag isn't anywhere in sight.

Though that should have been expected, I guess. 

The room itself is horribly disgusting. The once possibly cream walls have got all shades of mould growing over them, with the wallpaper peeling off in most places. Even the ceiling had mould on it, as well as a few areas on the dirty brown carpet. The metal frame bed that I'm sitting on is creaky and tattered, but thankfully, it didn't look as gross as the rest of the room. The most annoying part, aside from being chained to this damn bed, was the windows that were sealed shut, except for the few cracks of light trying to peer in. 

I dare say this house is considered condemned, judging by the look of what I can see. 

My mind starts racing as I try to get my foot through this horrible chain, desperate to get out of here before someone comes back in here. The frantic and frazzled thoughts racing through me are making me dizzy, but I need to get it together if I want any chance of getting away from here. 

The chain rattles on the metal frame as I try to twist and turn my foot free of the restraint, only to apparently succeed in making my captor aware of my conscious state. I can hear the heavy thuds of their shoes as they came closer to the cracked door, my anxiety growing with every step taken towards me. 

Each step seeming to go in time with my pounding heart.

As the door slowly opens with a groaning creak, I was met with a familiar smirk that I had hoped to never see again.

He looked horrible compared to his appearance growing up, and that's saying something considering how bad he looked at the trial. His short brown hair is greasy and sticking in all different directions, while his clothes are stained and his skin is covered in a layer of dirt. The same green eyes that he shared with my mother, now looked kind of deranged, though they still held the familiar anger and hatred that they always had towards me. 

"Nice to see you again, my darling niece." He spits at me, his once nice teeth are now tinged in a yellow smile.

Too scared to even think of a reply, I try to back myself further away from him as he takes a step into the bedroom. It continues like that until the chain goes tight and digs into my skin.

I couldn't do any more to get distance between us, and that knowledge alone terrifies me to my core.

"What? No greeting for your uncle? That doesn't seem very polite, does it?" He calmly scolds me like you would a small child.

"You're not my uncle," I whisper, terror vibrating through my being.

"I am! No matter how much you wish that I wasn't." He chuckles, moving closer to the bed after shutting the door.

"W-Why are you doing this to me?" I stutter, wishing that I could talk him out of whatever he has planned.

"Why?" He asked with a chuckle, scratching his chin in mock thought. "Well you are the reason I went to jail, now aren't you?" He asks menacingly, anger and hate plastered across his decaying face.

"I-I didn't m-make you do what you did," I say without thinking, instantly regretting it when I feel the sting of a slap on my cheek.

"Everything would be fine now if you had just stayed still!" He roars in my face.

Not a moment later I'm face-first into the mattress with a throbbing jaw, it takes a second to realise he just punched me.

"All you had to do was die! This is all your fault!" He ranted, pacing back and forth in front of the bed while I slowly sit up again.

"You and your fucking father ruined everything! Me and her were best friends, then he just came and stole her from me!" He yells, pulling a knife from his pocket.

My lip begins to quiver in fear of what's to come. Will he just stab me and be done with it? Or is he going to torture me first? Maybe by some miracle he'll do nothing, maybe this is all mostly empty threats.

Deep down though, a part of me knows that's not true.

"I'm sorry dad got between you two," I say, clinging desperately to talking my way out of here.

"You are not! You're exactly like him in every damn way. The black hair, the blue eyes. If I didn't see her pregnant with you, I'd think you weren't even hers!"

I don't know what to say anymore, this is the most he's ever told me when it comes to why he hates me.

He's never really told me an understandable reason for his actions before now, and if it's because dad took mom away in his eyes, how can I possibly talk my way out of this?

"Please let me go, uncle Mike." I plead, tears silently streaming down my face as fear consumes me. 

I can see my hands shaking, and feel my body quiver with fear.

He just laughs at me though. Almost manically, before taking a few steps closer to me.

"I am never letting you leave here!" He yells in my face, a smile still plastered on his own. "I'm going to make up for all those years we've been apart, my darling niece." He spits out.

***** Violence warning*****

A hard blow lands on my stomach seconds later, causing me to start coughing violently as I try to regain my breath. My head is yanked up by my hair to meet his sinister face, a wide smile on his face as he lands another punch to my ribs. 

He continues to land hits over my entire body, his psychotic smile never leaving his face as he lands blow after blow everywhere he can reach.

He must have spent twenty minutes tenderising the living hell out of me before he decided he had finished his fun for now. Though it felt like an eternity to me. 

As he stands back to look down at his handy work, the joy he's gotten from doing this to me never leaves his cold eyes. He lands one final hit to the side of my face, before straightening his ratty clothes out.

***** Violence finished *****

My body is no doubt littered with bruises of all shapes and sizes after he decided he was finished with me. Everywhere from my head down to my thighs hurt, as I try to curl into a ball while silently sobbing. 

"Your fear of me is so strong now, it's great! You practically knocked yourself out with a panic attack when I sent those two to retrieve you." He starts laughing at me again.

I want to just cry all over again after hearing him say that to me.

There isn't a spot on my body that isn't sore or bleeding right now, thanks to his ring cutting where he hit a few times. My vision is starting to get blurry and I feel like I need to empty my stomach, but I do my best to push through it and stay awake around him.

"You'll be here a long time, Crystal. I've made sure of that." He sneers at me before walking out of the room and slamming the door so hard it vibrates behind him.

As sore and scared as I'm feeling, I can't help but see a positive to this situation after experiencing what's to come.

My brothers are safe and sound at home, and Harv isn't involved in this mess or hurt. 

I'll endure all the pain Michael dishes out to me if it means that those I love are okay. The necklace Harv gave me for Christmas still hanging around my neck, reminding me that he's safe and it could have always been worse. 

Slowly shuffling as far away from the door as the chain will allow me to, I curl up into myself. While keeping my eyes on the door that keeps Michael at bay, the flow of tears never stop as the anxious thoughts start to consume me. 

The sick feeling only growing as my vision starts to get invaded with black spots. Finally coming to an end when I empty the small amount of food I had in my stomach onto the bed, next to me. 

The urge to give in to the black invading my vision gets too strong for me to hold off. With Harv's necklace tightly held in my grasp I silently beg for someone, anyone, please find me soon.

Please.

Help me...

-----------------

Sorry for the delay with the chapter, I had a bit of a brain fart.

4.7k reads though, so that's pretty amazing!

Getting towards the tail end of this book too