-1Chapter 9:

Sephy:

I didn't recognise where I was went I woke up. My head felt light and airy, I didn't dare to sit up through fear that I would just fall back down again. From what I could gather from looking around the best I could while lying down was that I was in a bedroom of some kind. It was a fair sized room, with a light, calming yellow colour on the walls. I sat up slowly when I felt it safe and looked around properly. There was a plain wooden wardrobe on the other side of the room, and I had been lying on a wide single bed. There was no light on but the room was brightly lit up by the sun shining through the window. I stood up and walked to the wardrobe, when I opened it I found my clothes in there. Where was I? I wondered with horror, and then I remembered what had happened this morning. Or rather I remembered who happened with morning.

Kamal Hadley. I could no loner think of him as my father, let alone as someone important to my life like a Dad. He was just an evil twisted man, who I had the unfortune of being related to. This morning he had turned up at my flat when I was about to leave to go to Meggie's, he'd had a go at Callum, and I'd automatically defended him, and…I didn't remember anything after that, so I must've blacked out.

I put two and two together and got four, which wasn't hard with Kamal, he was so predictable. I had blacked out, and during that time he took me from my flat to here. That still didn't answer where here was but I found I didn't really care. All that mattered was that here was away from Callum, and I had to get away from here and back to there. There being Meggie's place where I could see Callum again.

Meggie! Did she know where I was? She had been expecting me at her place this morning, and I never turned up.

I realised I didn't even know what time of the day it was. It must've been daytime because the sun was shining brightly. There was no clock in this room, and I wasn't wearing a watch, so my only way of telling would be seeing if he was in this building.

A sharp pain shot through my stomach which shocked me so much I almost fell backwards. 'Shh Callie' I soothed. 'We'll be ok. We'll get back to Daddy soon, I promise'

It was a promise I didn't know how I was going to be able to keep, but somehow I had to. I just had to. I couldn't stay here knowing it was Kamal keeping me here. I couldn't stay away from Callum either. Callie needed him. I needed him.

I tried the bedroom door, half expecting it to be locked, but it wasn't. I walked down the stairs slowly, and walked into the front room. He was sat on the sofa watching TV. Well I say watching, it was more like the TV was on, and he was just looking at it. He turned and faced me as I came into the room.

'Princess' He said. The one word and the soft gentle voice that I so often longed to here when I was younger. It was hard to believe now that I ever just wanted to see him. That one word now made me hate him even more. 'You were out of it for ages' He continued.

'Don't call me that' I said through gritted teeth. 'Where are we? And more importantly why?'

'This, Persephone, is home' Kamal replied. 'And you are staying here.'

'What?' I shrieked. I stared at him in horror. This was so typical of something he would do. To say I was angry would've been a gross understatement, but it was more than anger I was scared, and I was desperate. I wasn't going to let him know that though, to him it would just be anger. 'What the hell makes you think you have the right to take me from the place I live, to some other place, that for all I know could be in the middle of nowhere and tell me I'm going to stay there?'

'I'm your father' he replied, his voice belittling and patronising, as well as angry. 'I'm your father and I'm not going to let you throw your life away to some…'

'Stop right there' I interrupted. 'Don't you dare say anything about Callum! You haven't got a clue. You think he's all bad because he got involved in a bad group…'

'Bad?' he scoffed. 'Persephone, he not only organised, but put into action your kidnap'

'You can't talk about kidnap, when you've brought me here and plan to keep me here against my will, because that is kidnap'

'I'm doing this for your own good, Persephone, not to try and get money out of someone. That McGregor is nothing but trouble…'

'No, you're the one who's nothing but trouble' I replied. 'You're the one who won't let me live my life, because it doesn't fit into your perfect image, or because it might ruin your reputation. You're the one who's holding me in this house, stopping me from seeing the one I love'

'You're 18 years old, you're not old enough to know what love is'

'What and you are? A son with some random woman, life with Mum when she's threatening to leave you all the time, and you threatening to leave her' I said 'You're a joke'

He stood up quickly and slapped me before I had time to even think about moving out of the way. 'You think you're so big and wise don't you, but the fact is you're just a little kid who's out of her depth. Now you're going to stay here until you see sense. McGregor doesn't love you, if anything you were a tool to him, a way of getting what he wanted. You and him equals never going to happen and it's about time to got that into your head'

'You can't make me stay here' I said, and walked out of the room, and towards the front door. He followed me out. As I reached the front door and went to turn the handle to open it, he pulled me away.

'You're not leaving, Persephone' He said.

I struggled against him as he pulled me towards the stairs. 'You're mad' I said 'This imprisonment'

'Upstairs, now' He pushed me towards the stairs. I grabbed hold of the banister to stop myself falling flat on my stomach. Once I regained my balance I walked up the stairs without looking back. Had it only been me to worry about I would've continued to fight against him but it wasn't just me. I had Callie Rose to think about and look after. I had to get away from here, but I had to be sensible in getting away.

I went into the room I had woken up in. I stared out the window, hoping to work out where I was. I didn't recognise anything around. There was nothing but rows of houses. There was nothing to signify specifically where this was. The sun was still shining brightly. I saw many Crosses walking around, like it was an ordinary day. It was an ordinary day for everyone else, just not for me. I tried to open the window. I don't know what I planned to do, shout for help maybe, but it didn't matter because the window was locked.

Feeling dizzy again I sat down on the bed, wishing more than anything that Callum was here.