Callum is bored. Lethally so. The days blur together, disappearing into the dark expanse that is his mind. The tic in his jaw never really leaves, not since the death of his wife. He’d gotten out of the business when his wife became pregnant. She made him promise that they wouldn’t raise a child in the midst of his bloody career. So he did one last job and hung up his weapons. He put his demons to bed and locked them up in the farthest recesses of his mind. All because she asked. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done for her, all she had to do was ask and he laid the world at her feet. Retiring was a far easier decision that he imagined. Actually severing ties with the underground world had been a whole different monster to conquer. He was the best in the business, his employer didn’t want him to retire. The last job, it was meant to be impossible, meant to keep his hands drenched in blood until he died. But Callum didn’t fail, not when it came to his wife. The bodies piled high around him until he walked away, a free man.
The months after flew by. Watching his wife’s belly grow with his child had been an unexpected blessing, one that heightened his obsession with her. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, even when she complained about how big her belly had gotten. He bristled anytime anyone got too close to her. It was her steadying hand that kept him in line. Barely. When the contractions came, a nervous excitement coursed through his veins. But Callum had too much blood on his hands, too many sins staining his soul, at least that’s what he told himself. What was suppose to be an exciting time, turned tragic. The medical terms weren’t lost on him, even when the doctors used technical terms to try and conceal what was happening. In the end, his wife and child lay dead on the operating table. Never in all his years had he experienced such a loss.
It was devastating.
Suffocating.
Everything that was good in life was gone. In the blink of any eye.
No matter how much he wanted to, he never came out of retirement. Instead, he took up a new profession. His wife must be getting a good laugh up above when he signed his employment contract as a professor. Spending his days with idiotic college kids seemed an unlikely fit for the brutal man. Now, two years later, he sits in his office, brooding and on the verge of snapping. The anniversary of her death had just passed over the weekend. The last place he wants to be is here.
With office hours over, he packs up his shit and leaves, stepping into the brisk evening air. Walking to his car, a commotion catches his attention. That voice is familiar, one of his students. His least favorite student. She was nearly a spitting image of his dead wife. Except her eyes. His wife’s eyes had been a warm shade of brown, light like honey. This student though, she’s a far cry from his wife. She’s the bane of his existence. She’s a walking reminder of everything he’s lost. Yet here she is, not only in his class for a second year, but now she’s in the parking lot. Stop! Her voice is shrill despite trying to sound like she meant it. It’s enough to pull his stare in earnest. The male student is one he knows too, one that he knows had a tendency to get around campus, a new girl every month or so. If they lasted that long. He has her trapped between his body and a car, his wandering hands take liberties that aren’t his.
Callums upper lip curls his fists ball into tight fists. His self control is wrung tight and just waiting to snap. Long strides carry him straight past his car to the couple. She still struggles in the boys grasp, trying to push away his advances. ”Are you deaf?” His voice is low, dangerously so. The bass in his voice is a growl and violence dances in his eyes. It’s the misfortune of this student, this boy, for Callum to find him tonight, or all nights. As he grabs the kids collar, adrenaline bloods his system. The delicious kiss of violence is one he’s desperately missed. Jerking the college boy off his balance, Callum whirls his effortlessly so they are face to face. Hey! Protests fall on deaf ears. Rather than release the student like he should, Callum winds his fist back before slamming into the jaw of the student, knocking the jock to the ground.
The pain that spreads across his knuckles is like a high. The beast has had a taste and now he wants more. But he’s already liable to lose his job over this. Leaning down, he grabs the front of the dazed students shirt. ”Say a word of this and I’ll kill you.” He snarls before dropping the boy. Standing, he turns his furious gaze on the girl.