Five: "The Light in Your Eyes and the Dark of Your Heart."

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A sob broke past Calum's lips, completely unwanted because it only brought another quick kick to his chest as he tried curling up into himself

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A sob broke past Calum's lips, completely unwanted because it only brought another quick kick to his chest as he tried curling up into himself. He was happy, he would be strong one day but right now all Calum could think about were the degrading words Ashton were spitting at him.

He messed up and he wish he could've taken it back but it was much too late to save himself from Ashton's burning rage against him. He cried softly as he took his punishment, praying that Luke wouldn't come upstairs because it would only make Ashton question and beat him about his own made up fantasy of Calum cheating on him with Luke like last time.

He really did appreciate that Luke had tried to save him, the blond did save him for that moment but it only made it worse. Ashton waited till they left and his anger boiled over, having simmered for hours in his heated core, until he burned Calum alive. He never told Luke that the outcome had been worse than if he would've just let Ashton slap him around for that short while, that if Luke stepped in the torture would go on for hours instead of minutes.

He quieted down even more, blood polling into his mouth and clogging up his cries but he couldn't spit it on the or else Ashton would only add to the blood spill. He choked on his tears and blood, the scarlet red drooling down his chin and over his chest when Ashton had him by his hair, eyes glossy and face tear stained as he stared up at the older man.

"Next time you talk back or dare to go out of what I say, I'll cut your tongue out and make sure I don't hear that attitude, understood?" Calum only choked on his blood more, Ashton tightening his grip more as he spoke, "I said understood."

"Yes-Yes, Sir." He gagged past the blood, tumbling after Ashton down the hall.

His heart sped up, body becoming more alert from his groggy state as he was dragged down the hall to the bad boy room. He would've protested but his blood was beginning to mix with his bile and if he spoke, he would've emptied his stomach and mouth all over the floor. His breaths stuttered, the Maori boy pushed to his knees in the room.

The door shut with a slam, the only dirty strip of light came through the crack under the door as he pressed his palms to the concrete, cold floor as he tried to calm down. He closed his eyes, choosing to stare at the darkness behind his eyelids than the darkness surrounding him in the room.

He could smell the bleach from his last cleaning, the woozy feeling starting to cloud his thoughts as his breaths sped up and his throat closed up. He held his hands up as he moved over to the wall, emptying his stomach of its blood and bile into the corner of the room. The acid in his stomach stripped his throat raw, Calum starting to dry retched as his stomach and throat muscles flexed painfully in sync as he heaved.

His mind went light once he got himself to stop, his dry retching turning into violent hiccups as he dropped to the floor and crawled away from the disgusting corner. He gave up once his body told him to stop moving, arms buckling and dropping him onto the cement as his body ached and cried for any type of soothing on it.

He couldn't give himself that. He could only wait until Ashton let him back out and he was alone to care for himself as much as he could without going out of what he had. He sobbed on the floor, biting his fist to stay quiet so Ashton wouldn't come up and make him shut up.

His tears stopped, eyes raw and itchy as he closed them and laid on the floor pliantly. He knew the more time he spent, the more nightmares would resurface after he spent so much time trying to repress them. They flashed violently behind his eyelids.

Calum hated this room with a passion. He hated this dark, these four walls that felt like they closed him in, the floor stained in his blood and the chemical smell more than he could ever hate Ashton. Maybe he should hate Ashton more because then man was the cause of this room but actually sitting in the dark or waking up in it was the worst thing in the world to Calum.

He learned early on that just taking his time and sitting in the dark was the best. His first times he cried and hit at the walls and doors for Ashton to let him free, only getting a reaction sometimes but Ashton has learned the leaving Calum in the room longer was what broke the boy more.

Ashton could slap, punch, kick, cut, and spit at Calum all he wanted but the only time Calum ever really broke down and began to have his brain break apart was when he was left alone. It started off for hours and moved onto days quickly, Calum left in the darkness drenched in his own blood, bile, and piss or surrounded by it when he finally caved.

The days after were just as horrible as being in the room, having to clean the mess of the room for the next time he was locked away and having to surround himself in the memories of his own inhumane isolation.

When he woke up, the doors was open, the kiwi mixed boy pushing himself onto his unsteady footing and slowly walking over to the door. He peeled off the sticky note and read over Ashton's scribbled handwriting. Clean the house, clean the room, wait for him to come back was all the small yellow colored page read, not that Calum expected anything different.

He limped over to the bathroom, cautious of causing any type of mess as he held his side in pain. He leaned on the counter, easing himself to drop onto the floor with a whimper as he opened the cabinet, setting the things he needed on the counter before pushing back up to his feet.

He sadly met eyes with his reflection, turning the shower water on and waiting for it to heat up as he stared at himself. He gently touched at his face, wincing away from his own soft touches as he felt at his features.

His lip had bursted, skin dried out and cracked, cheeks covered in small welts that had swelled and turned red mixing into purple, he had a trail of blood from somewhere in his hair trailing down his temple and clotting on his eyebrow, where another slit had formed and trailed around his eyes, smudged from him rubbing it in his sleep.

His clothes were dried in blood and bile, the sickly look matching to his smell from passing out in the dark room. His eyes were faded, crystallized almost, like he was dead but that's only on the inside.

He stripped off his shirt and stepped out of his jeans and underwear, looking at his tainted skin that was marked in an endless amount of deep scars and ugly mixtures of bruises. Splotches of red, purples, blue mixed together terribly, taking away from his olive toned skin as he dragged his dark brown eyes until he met his eyes again.

He smiled at himself, bottom lip trembling as a few tears slipped down his face as he looked at his pitiful reaction that stared back at him.

"I'm happy. I'll be strong one day and then I won't be a disappointment or an embarrassment. I'll never be in the dark again."

His words sounded empty but as they bounced off the mirror reflection and embedded themselves into his soft, scarred skin, they felt like promises.

{~~~~}

I flipping hate the isolation method of torture a lot and I felt like a douche writing this chapter and doing that to Calum.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. What do you think of Ashton's "bad boy" room for Calum?

And, that's all. Au revoir....

Edicius {5SOS;CASHTON&CAKE&MALUM}✔️Where stories live. Discover now