Chapter Six

Callum's mobile ringing brought him out of his thoughts. He awkwardly pulled his mobile from his pocket and held it to his ear.
'Hello? Sarge, it's Sally, um, can I bring my cat?'
'Your cat?' he asked surprised.
'Yes Sarge, my cat Basty, it s a tabby.'
'Oh, um, yeah, I suppose so, is it housetrained?'
It's a cat, Sarge, not a dog and yes it uses a litter box.'
'Sure if you want.'
'Thanks Sarge. See you soon.' The phone went dead but remained attached to his ear.
'Bye Sal,' he whispered putting the phone down. Callum slumped back and closed his eyes.

Emma was in front of him, he stared afraid to move. She was within touching distance and as he reached toward her she took a step backwards. Callum tried to follow but his legs wouldn't move. Emma's face remained blank, no emotion appeared on her face as he tried desperately to reach her. Sally appeared beside Emma, her face equally blank. Beside Sally his sister appeared, followed by woman after woman, all of which he cared about. The last person to appear beside Emma was someone he hadn't seen in nine years. Indie, she hadn't aged though, she should be 15 but his memory of her was only aged 6. These people had formed a circle around him and without warning they all thrust their arms out towards him. Callum fell into a freezing pool of water, he tried to swim but his body wouldn't work, he screamed at them to help, he begged but they just laughed at him. The cold was hurting his body and the water devoured him, throwing him into darkness.

'Sarge! Sarge, wake up!' Sally screamed, shaking him frantically. 'Sarge wake up!' Callum jumped awake, sitting bolt upright he stared at Sally who was staring back at him, fear clear in her soft features. He reached out and touched her, when he was sure he could he grabbed her and hugged her tight. Relief flooded through him as he realised it was all a dream. There was no Emma or Ashley or all the other people he saw in his nightmare. Just him and Sally, that's all there was. Sally was hugging Callum back, tight. She wondered what he had dreamt about.
'You alright now, Sarge?' she whispered gently. 'What was it?'
'I had a nightmare about you, and Emma and some other people, you were laughing at me while I drowned.'
'You've been having a heck of a lot of nightmares and hugs, haven't you?'
'Coz I feel better with you, in the car, in the hospital, here. You keep me safe.' Callum mumbled.
Sally was silent, she hadn't been able to believe what he was saying, was he admitting that he loved her, to her actual face?'
Callum took a deep breath, looked up at Sally smiled and said 'so where's your cat?' Callum's abruptness took Sally by surprise she sat there gaping like a goldfish for what felt like forever before she realised she was being asked a question. 'Uh, what?' she asked blinking a couple of times.
Callum smiled, 'your cat, Basty.'
'Oh, he's in his travel cage. I'll go and get him.' Sally wondered towards the front door. She returned a few seconds later carrying a light grey plastic box with a blue plastic mesh door. Inside a large tabby cat lay on its stomach with menacing green eyes looking out at him. Callum stared back at Basty but Callum's eyes looked wary, he didn't seem to want to touch the cat and his original cheerful face disappeared and was replaced by how he looked when he had woken up. Sally noticed this and put the basket down with the door facing away. 'Sarge what's wrong?'

Callum looked up and he couldn't explain, he couldn't bring himself to tell her that he was scared of large cats. He hadn't expected Sally to have a huge cat. Callum thought back to when he was five and his stepdad covered his top with catnip, their cat, Tiger had practically gone insane, it had launched itself at Callum. He still remembered screaming and crying, trying to push the cat off while his stepdad, Ian, just laughed. At the end of his torture Callum had been put in his bedroom with a toilet roll to stop the bleeding.

'Sarge? What's wrong? I can get a mate of mine to look after him if you want?' Sally asked while Callum s flashback ended.
'Um, yeah maybe that's best.' Callum muttered miserably embarrassed that he was a 6 foot 2, well built man and the cat was, well a cat.
A ring on the door brought them both back to the present.
'I'll get it.' Sally said straightening up and making her way to the door, 'it's probably Stevie or someone from the nick.'

Sally couldn t have been more wrong...