Shadows In Durango

*****Vincent's POV*****

Sinking down into the sofa by the window, I rip open the top of the white envelope and waste no time on removing its contents.

I empty it out onto the coffee table in front of me, my eyes scanning everything as it falls out.

"What the fuck?!" I say out loud, taking a moment to spread it all out before me for a better look.

This was fucked up...

Deciding that now was the time to call my father to explain everything, I retrieve my phone, rub a rough hand down my face and hit the call button.

It rings, and then rings some more, before it rings out completely and goes to voicemail.

"SHIT!" I grit loudly, before hitting the buttons to call my mother this time.

It rings once or twice, before she answers, her false tone filling my ears.

"Vincent? What's the matter baby?" She asks, as I take a deep breath to prepare myself for dealing with her.

"I'm looking for Dad." I state, as the line falls quiet for a moment.

"Oh... well he has company in at the moment..." she informs me, as I feel the bile rise in my throat knowing exactly what that meant.

How she could just stand by for so many years watching different women enter their home to please my father was beyond me.

But I guess she didn't care, since she was regularly passed between the men herself...

What a fucked up family!

"GO TELL HIM THAT HIS SON CALLED AND THAT ITS IMPORTANT! GET HIM TO CALL ME BACK!" I yell, before ending the line, suddenly riled again that he couldn't just answer when I actually needed him. Bastard.

Deciding that I had no other choice, checking my watch and seeing that it was approaching four and that school would be over soon, I hammer a quick text to Daryl telling him to call me.

I needed to talk to someone with some sense. Somebody from an outside perspective who could tell me what to do.

To my surprise, Daryl calls me almost instantly, as I swipe to answer it - placing it on speaker and putting my phone to the side to look over everything laid out in front of me. "Vin?" He questions, his voice filling the quiet space around me.

"Daryl, I've fucked up." I admit, hearing a silence fall between us - as he probably took a second to bask in my admission.

"What's happened? Is Sofia alright?" He asks, as I clench my jaw in defence but choose to ignore him.

Asking me dumb questions as though I was incapable of keeping her safe... but perhaps he was right this time.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

Maybe I was incapable of doing just that...

"She's fine, she's taking a bath." I deadpan, as he sighs heavily before I hear the school bell ringing out in the background of his call.

I then hear him talking to someone briefly, saying a quick goodbye as I squint down at the phone not recognising their voice.

It certainly wasn't Reid...

"Who was that?" I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Some new kid called Ashton, I had to show him around instead of doing detention." He explains, before I hear a door slam signalling that he had gotten into his car.

"Thought you had replaced me already." I attempt to joke, but Daryl doesn't give me the satisfaction which causes me to roll my eyes.

"What's happening, you said that there was a problem?! Did you just call to rub shit in some more?!" Daryl's patience quickly plummets, as I sigh heavily knowing that there was serious shit to discuss. "Alright, ok, you're right. Stuff hasn't gone great today... I hate to admit it, but I shouldn't have brought Sofia here with me..." I trail off, hearing him start up his car as he listens to me.

"I told you." He grumbles, as I nod to myself knowingly.

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"I know you did, but things have gotten intense today..." I choose my words carefully, unsure of what to make of everything that had happened so far.

"What do you mean by that? What's happened?" Daryl pushes me for more as I begin to reflect out loud.

So far he was the only one who called when I needed somebody to help me think straight, and for that I was grateful...

"We went out earlier, on what was supposed to be a chilled day, and when we got to the zoo, some random guy approached Sofia whilst I was in the bathroom taking a piss. I literally walked out to find him trying to drag her off..." I explain. "What the fuck?! Who was it?!" Daryl fumes, as I rub my chin.

"Some dude who had recognised her from a missing person poster at the bus station... said there was a hefty reward up for her." I explain, hearing him groan slightly in frustration.

I could tell he wanted to curse me out but was holding back, knowing I should have listened to him from the get go.

"So what did you do?!" Daryl questions, as I furrow my brows in annoyance.

"Well I didn't exactly thank him did I?! Obviously I beat the little fucker to a pulp and left him there! After that, we had a taxi driver take us to one of the biggest bus stations and we found the poster. I ripped it down and I've got it with me, there's a number on it which I think might be her Fathers or at least somebody connected to him..." I explain, grabbing it out from my pocket and straightening out the crumpled paper.

There she was, Sofia's face, smiling bright in a cheer uniform - obviously taken from when her life was normal, I'm assuming before her Mom died.

It was sad to think that the person in the picture at the time had no idea what her life was going to become...

"So what now? Are you coming home? Emma said Sofia text her and said she would hopefully be back tonight?" Daryl questions, seeming stressed and wanting her back in our town. As did I...

But I feared now that things wouldn't be that easy...

"Hopefully, if my father fucking answers my calls! I brought her back to the apartment to be safe, only to discover that one of the dumb receptionists let some random men up to my floor... now they know what number our apartment is and better yet, they've left an envelope which is why I called..." I tell him, before my phone begins to ring.

I glance at it, expecting to find my father's name, but instead finding that it was Daryl requesting to switch our phone call to video...

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With a grumble, I quickly swipe to accept it, seeing his stern set face appear from inside of his car.

"Show me what it is." He asks, as I flip my camera and scan over the coffee table contents, giving him a moment to digest it for himself.

"What the fuck..." Daryl responds, as I start to pick up each thing to give him a better view.

"You've been getting tailed..." Daryl states the obvious, as I feel suffocated in our apartment - trapped almost - knowing that we had been followed the second we had gotten into the city.

"This one's the worst..." I grab one of the photographs, holding it up to him, swallowing the desperate lump forming in my throat.

"What is that?!" Daryl asks, unsure of it at first with its dark quality, but I knew...

The picture was the one amongst the stack that haunted me. The first night we had arrived, when I had left Sofia behind to go to the meeting, sending her to the spa downstairs, it was a photograph of her, in a robe, seated on a large bed in what I'm assuming was the rainfall room she had gone to.

But who took it?

"It's Sofia in the spa, the night I left her here for the meeting..." I admit, before hearing Daryl curse under his breath.

"Vin this shit isn't fine! You need to bring her home! Do you think it's her family? Or the people working with your father? Who would be doing this?!" Daryl rants, as I shake my head to think.

"I don't want to rule out her family completely, but I think they wouldn't waste time like this. If they were close enough to Sofia without me being there they would have surely taken her by now... which makes me think that this is a threat to either me or my father... the envelope said 'Walker' too." I explain everything I know, feeling relived to be sharing my racing thoughts out in the open.

This was quickly becoming intense, and after what had happened with Sofia earlier, I didn't know whether to relate the two or not...

"Is there anything else? A note?" Daryl asks, as I move the contents around and find the small piece of paper containing a number.

"Just this phone number, but it's different from the one on the missing poster, I already checked that too." I state, as Daryl nods on the video call in thought.

I would have to call it, but I wanted to speak to my father first - see if he knows what's going on or who could possibly be behind this...

There was roughly around twenty pictures inside, some of me on my own, a couple of me walking with Sofia, and the worst one of her in the spa... alone. Time was seeming to run out, and if I can have it my way, I'll be on a flight home - tonight!