“Who?” Dante teases. He slinks towards me, his dark fractured eyes sucking in what little light there is.
“You said you had Oscar...”
Dante takes a deep breath. “Ah, you mean my nephew? He’s here.” The cruel slime ball stops some odd fifteen feet away from me and leans against the head of a big oakwood desk. “Would you like to see him?”
The last thing I want to do is play along with any of Dante’s sick games, but I’ve come too far to play dumb now. “Yes...”
An evil smirk crosses Dante’s thin lips and my heart drops. What has he done to my baby boy?
Suddenly, he slams a clenched fist against the oakwood desk and I jump in shock.
Quickly, silence returns to the dark office... until a soft buzzing sound cuts through it all like a knife. My eyes dart around the darkness, desperate for answers, before landing on a growing sliver of light just behind Dante. He turns around just as the buzzing is replaced by a click. Then, there’s only more silence.
The new light source silhouettes Dante’s spindly body as he steps towards it. I can’t see around him, but the motherly instinct in me forces my feet forward, deeper into the shadows.
... Then I hear it.
The soft sob of a waking infant.
“Oscar!” The cry that escapes my trembling lips isn’t quite so soft.
“Shh!” Dante immediately hisses in response. He turns back around to me with fire in his eyes and a thin finger up to his lips. “He’s sleeping.”
That’s a lie. I know the sound of Oscar waking up. Sure, he may have just been taking a nap, but he’s awake now. Mama’s here.
Finally, Dante steps aside, and I get to see what I came for.
Ahead, in a square box behind a sliding panel, under a light that is far too bright for a baby’s sensitive eyes, squirms Oscar.
Before I can think better of it, I'm moving towards my son.
“That’s far enough,” Dante lashes, one hand pointed towards me and the other towards Oscar. He’s much closer to my baby boy, and I know that I have to do as he says, or else...
I reluctantly stop in my tracks and drink in the sight of my love.
Ozzy stretches out, yawning and gurgling as he wakes up from a late afternoon nap. He’s wearing the same onesie he was taken in, but he doesn’t appear to be hurt in anyway.
“What do you want?” I ask. Somehow, the shakiness has left my voice. I guess I’m fully concentrated now. My goal is clear; Oscar’s safety is all that matters.
“You,” Dante smirks.
A chill skates down my spine but I hold it together. “You already had me,” I remind him.
“No, I didn’t, not like I wanted to.”
A greasy sickness builds up in my gut at the thought of all those nights I laid awake waiting for Dante to come into my room and force himself on me. “Why didn’t you?”
“I was busy,” he snarls.
“What changed?”
Dante’s mouth opens, but no words come out. It seems obvious to me what his honest answer would be, but Dante’s anything but honest. “I found some free time,” he lies.
Bullshit. There’s a fucking war happening outside of these walls. He hasn’t found anything but a renewed sense of envy. Angel finally got me back, and now, all of a sudden, Dante can’t stand that he ever let me go, that he never took advantage of my captivity. It’s the only answer.
Still, I know what I have to do. “So, what happens now?”
“Now, you give me what I want.” Dante licks his lips and my skin crawls. It takes all of my will power to keep from retreating. Instead, I stand my ground and let him wander over from Oscar, towards me.