Author's Note: I'm sorry for the absence, I've just been really low lately and it's been hard to find the motivation to write, but I finally managed to get a chapter together and I hope you will like it :)
CHAPTER 25
It worried Mozzie that the first thing he saw in the van was blood and he turned towards Keller, giving the man a demanding look.
"Don't worry Moz, I told you that your little buddy was fine. I can't however guarantee that he's in one piece, but he's fine"
He really didn't like the sound of that, but he didn't dare to argue with the man.
Keller truly was a sick man and Mozzie was not going to risk pushing the wrong buttons and causing the little guy to get hurt even more.
Mozzie got into the van and Keller slammed the door shut and seconds later he could hear the engine start.
The drive wasn't too long and they soon reached their destination. Mozzie looked at his watch and saw that only half an hour had gone by.
The door was opened and before Mozzie even got the chance to adjust his eyes to the light, he was grabbed by the wrist and dragged out of the van.
He didn't get the chance to take a look on his surroundings before he was dragged inside.
Mozzie immediately looked around, trying to spot Neal. He saw a man and a woman sitting by a table, talking to each other and he saw four men who were most likely Keller's goons but he saw no kid.
What if Neal wasn't even here? What if Keller kept him somewhere else?
"Where's the kid?"
He asked Keller but the man chose to ignore him until they reached a chair placed in the middle of the room.
"You and I are going to have a little chat"
"Not until you release Neal. That was the deal, me for him."
"I'm sorry but Neal belongs to James now"
Keller pointed at the man at the table and Mozzie didn't even want to begin to imagine what the man was planning to do with the child.
It seemed that Mozzie's instinct to not trust Keller had been correct and he was glad that he had reached out to the FBI.
Clearly he couldn't let them know that he had backup on the way, so he used his excellent acting skills to yell at Keller, pretending that he was really getting betrayed with no back up plan at all.
Keller just smirked at him, amused by the anger.
In the background he saw the man, James, get up from his seat and walking towards a door.
Mozzie hoped that they kept Neal in that room and he opened his mouth to shout to him, hoping Neal could shout back and confirm that he was there or at the very least provide him some comfort by letting him know that help was on the way.
Keller didn't like this idea though, so before Mozzie even had the chance to call out for Neal, the man hit him right in the face. He instantly checked if his nose was broken, and by the time he had established that it wasn't, the door was closed again and James was gone.
At least Keller had basically confirmed that the kid was here, unless he had some other prisoner in there that he didn't want Mozzie to know about.
James emerged from the room after a while, wearing a big smile and a blood stain on his white shirt. The sight of the blood sickened him and he went from hoping Neal was unharmed to hoping that the boy was even alive.
Mozzie glared at the man as he walked over to the woman again, at least the woman seemed unsettled by the blood while James didn't seem to care that it was there.
James just continued smiling as if this was the happiest day of his life, and Mozzie knew that if he ever got his hands on James he wouldn't show any mercy.
The silence of the room was interrupted by Keller's phone, but before Keller even got it out of his pocket, a loud bang was heard and seconds later the door flew up.
The words 'Freeze FBI' had never before sounded so lovely in his ears and he got up from the chair with a smirk on his face.
Mozzie looked at Keller who looked both confused and scared before he decided that it was a good idea to reach for his gun.
Keller pointed the gun at Mozzie and it took him a couple of seconds to realize that Keller would not hesitate to shoot him. Once that realization hit, he threw himself out of the way.
He reacted way too late though and he felt the bullet hit him as he fell to the ground.
Mozzie heard another gun shot and Keller fell to the ground as well.
He could hear someone talking to him, but he couldn't make out the words as his consciousness was slipping away from him.
The last thing he saw, before his world went black, was Peter kicking in the locked door.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Time was slipping away from him again, and he didn't know how long he had been in here.
Had it just been minutes, or had days slipped him by?
The last time a week had slipped him by and he didn't know if he could handle that again.
This room was colder and darker than the other room and the silence was already messing with his mind.
His head was still hurting and despite knowing that you shouldn't fall asleep after a possible head injury, he was getting closer to sleep by the minute. At first he had been positive that Peter would show up any minute and that he would have to stay awake until then, but with time he started to believe his father's words more and more.
Maybe his father wasn't trying to scare him, maybe he was telling the truth and no one was coming for him.
The door opened and his dad stepped in again, and Neal bit his lip to prevent a whimper.
His dad wasn't even mad this time, he wasn't even drunk. No this time he hurt Neal because he enjoyed it, and to Neal that was the worst part.
He started out by taunting him, doing his best to scare Neal and to try to manipulate him into believing things that weren't true.
Neal did his best to ignore his words, but it was hard to not get hurt by his father's insistence that the Burkes didn't care about him and that no one was coming for him.
When he didn't give his father any response the man did what he always did, he got physical.
His father lifted him up, forcing the boy to stand up.
He then asked Neal to look at him, but he had a hard time focusing and his slow reaction only managed to agitate his father.
He punched Neal right in the face, in the same way Neal had punched him earlier. Luckily his father had been smart enough to not hit too hard, but he still managed to cause a nose bleed.
Neal whimpered at the additional pain before his dad lifted him up into his arms.
The man surprised Neal by hugging him to his chest, in an almost loving embrace.
The blood from his nose smeared on his dad's shirt but he didn't seem to notice or care.
Neal's need for closeness and comfort got the better of him and he threw his arms around his father's neck, hoping that the man had a sudden magical change in personality.
His hope was short lived because as soon as he threw his arms around his neck, his dad embrace tightened to the point where Neal had difficulty breathing.
His father had just taunted him again, and this was probably the worst one since it gave him an image of what his dad could have been like.
He was released and his father left the room, apparently satisfied with his torture for now, and Neal returned to the corner.
A sudden bang caused him to jolt awake. He hadn't even noticed when he dozed off.
Another bang was heard, the sound all too loud in his head. He heard more sounds from outside of the room, and he put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes, hoping that nothing bad was going on.
All of a sudden a couple of strong arms grabbed him and he cried out, not wanting his father to hurt him again.
Yet again his father was pulling him into an embrace but Neal wasn't going to fall for it this time so instead he used his last strength to try to escape his father's grip.
His dad, however did not budge and instead the embrace just tightened. Neal could hear his name being called but he didn't listen to it until his head was carefully pressed against his father's chest.
It was the smell that caused him to stop fighting the man, because the smell of alcohol was vacant and instead there was a familiar smell in its place, a smell he couldn't really place but it had caused his body to relax.
"Calm down buddy, it's just me"
The warm, caring voice was like music to his ears and he had to look up to really believe it.
It wasn't his father that had grabbed him and once he realized that he sobbed before throwing his arms around Peter's neck.