when love holds you hostage

Damien's POV

I watched her as she walked away.

Her back straight. Her steps careful.

She wasn’t the same girl I knew.

The girl I remembered was different—

bright, stubborn, full of life.This woman?

She felt… controlled.

Distant.

Broken in ways she didn’t even realize.

—

My mind drifted back.

To where it all began.

—

Years ago, I was kidnapped.

Seven months.

But even before that… I was already alone.

An outcast in my own family.

My father never cared if I lived or died.

My brothers despised me.

I was treated like something disposable—someone who didn’t belong.

So when I was taken, no one came looking for me.

Those seven months felt endless.

Dark. Silent. Heavy.

Until she arrived.

She looked young. Nineteen, maybe.

Terrified.

She cried for days.

Nonstop.

Her voice filled that dark room until even silence began to feel strange without it.

But then—

she stopped.

Just like that.

No more tears.

No more begging.

She had accepted it.

Accepted us.

—

The first time she spoke to me, her voice trembled.

“Why are you here?”

I told her.

She told me hers.

We talked.

Shared our stories.

And slowly… we became close.

Best friends.

Always together in that same confined space.

And together, we started planning our escape.

We studied everything.

The guards.

The routines.

We acted obedient, just enough to gain trust.

We waited for the right moment.

—

Then one night… it came.

The door was left slightly open.

Our chance.

We didn’t hesitate.

We ran.

Dogs were released on patrol.

They saw us instantly.

And they came.

—

One of them lunged at me.

I froze.

But she didn’t.

Annabelle stepped in front of me without hesitation.

She took the impact meant for me.

And her scream shattered everything.

—

Before I could reach her, she slammed into me, shoving me back hard.

“Listen,” she hissed, fast, urgent. “You didn’t try to run. You didn’t see anything. You understand me?”

I blinked—stunned.

Her grip tightened. “You go back. You act calm. You act useful. Like nothing happened.”

“They’ll know—”

"No", they wouldn't as long as you play it right, she snapped.

Her eyes burned into mine. “I’m the one who got away. You have to play clueless. Got it?”

Another shout echoed closer.

She gave me one last shove away. “Go. Now. And we try again another day

And this time—I turned back running to the outhouse where we were locked.

—

I never forgot what came after.

She was caught.

Dragged back.Her feet barely touched the ground as they pulled her through that place.

And then the lashes began.

—

The sound of it still lives in my head.

Each strike cutting through the silence of the night.

As her screams echoed filled with pure agony

They were sharp enough to send a shivers down anyones spine.

She took it all.

Every punishment.

Every blow meant for both of us.

She never once called for help.

She never once begged them to stop.

She only endured.

Like she had decided that if someone had to suffer… it would be her.

—

When it finally ended, she was barely standing.

But what broke me even more… was the next morning.

—

She came back like nothing happened.

Smiling.

Talking.

That same bubbly energy in her voice as if her body hadn’t been torn apart the night before.

As if her screams hadn’t echoed through the walls.

As if she hadn’t taken the punishment meant for us both.

—

But I knew.

I saw the way she moved more carefully.

The way she hid her pain behind every step.

She was broken… but refusing to show it.

—

There was an old man among them.

A kind one.

He noticed her wounds when no one else cared.

He treated her injuries quietly—the lashes, the dog bite, everything.

His hands were gentle, careful.

And he warned us.

Soft voice. Heavy truth.

“Don’t try to escape again,” he said. “Next time, it won’t end like this.”

—

But Annabelle didn’t listen.

She never did.

—

Even with pain still fresh in her body… she smiled at me.

At us.

Like she was the one comforting everyone.

Like she wasn’t the one who had just been broken hours before.

—

And then she said it.

Someday… we will be free from this place.

—

She said it like she believed it.

Like no matter what they did to her…

No matter how many times she was broken…

They could never take that hope away.

Then came the storm.

I still remember how it started—quiet at first, like the world was holding its breath. The sky darkened too quickly, the wind shifting through the trees with a strange violence, as if something was about to break open.

And then it did.

Rain came down hard. Relentless. The kind that swallowed sound and turned everything into chaos.

That was when everything changed.

—

The guards started panicking first.

Voices rose. Doors were being checked. Movement everywhere.

Something inside the compound had gone wrong, and for the first time in months… fear wasn’t just in us.

It was in them.

—

Annabelle grabbed my hand immediately.

“Now,” she whispered.

No hesitation.

No fear.

Just certainty.

—

We ran through the forest.

As branches cut at our skin, the ground uneven beneath us, as our footsteps made prints in the mud. As splatters of rain fell on our eyelids making them painful and blurry.The darkness felt alive..every sound behind us feeling too close.

Our heart began to beat a little too fast.

But our pace didn't waver, every step was heavier than the last.

Behind us, shouting started.

Then alarms.

Then dogs again. But we didn’t stop.

—

This time, everything was different.

The storm was louder than them.

It swallowed their commands.

It blurred their sight.

It gave us something we had never had before.

A chance.

—

My chest was burning as we ran. My heart was already failing me, the pain sharp and familiar, but worse now under the pressure of everything.

I slowed without meaning to.

Annabelle felt it instantly.

She turned back mid-run.

“Don’t stop,” she said breathlessly.

“I can’t—” I started.

But I didn’t finish. She grabbed my hands pulling me further. Until we reached the stream.

—

It was small. Hidden between trees. Quiet in a way that felt unreal after everything we had endured.

We collapsed there at the same time. We had finally reached a point where I couldn't take a step further.

For a moment, there was only breathing. Only silence. Only the sound of water moving like nothing in the world had ever gone wrong.

Annabelle went first.

She knelt and drank from her hands, like she hadn’t seen water in days—which she hadn’t. I followed, trying to steady myself, trying to catch my breath.

That’s when it started.

My heart.

—

At first, it was just discomfort.

Then the pain grew worse. It something sharp and unbearable radiating through my chest.

I bent forward, trying to breathe through it, but it only got worse.

Annabelle noticed immediately.

“Damien?” she called.

“I’m fine,” I lied through my teeth.

As I bent forward, trying to breathe, but the pain in my chest only grew sharper.

And I knew it.

I wasn’t going to make it running like this.

—

My strength left me slowly, my knees weakening until I nearly collapsed.

—

“We need to keep moving,” I said, forcing the words out.

“You can’t even stand,” she replied instantly.

“You should leave me,” I added quietly.

She stopped completely.

Then shook her head.

“No.”

—

Before I could say anything else, she moved behind me.

“Get on my back,” she said.

I frowned even through the pain. “That’s impossible.”

“I didn’t ask if it was.”

—

And she meant it.

She bent down and lifted me.

Not because she was strong enough.

But because she refused to accept I would be left behind.

—

So I climbed onto her back.

And she carried me.

—

Through the forest, she kept moving.

Step after step.

Even when her breathing broke.

Even when her legs shook under my weight.

She didn’t stop.

Not once.

—

Until finally… the road appeared ahead of us.

A thin line of hope in the distance.

We made it.

Barely.

—

We used the last money I had hidden.

And boarded a bus.

—

Those two days on that bus felt like something outside reality.

We were exhausted. Starving. Injured.

But we talked anyway.

About life.

About dreams.

About what we would do when we were finally free.

For the first time in months… there was hope in her voice.

And I held onto it.

—

When we reached the police station, I knew it was time.

I stood in front of her for a moment, unsure of how to let go.

So I kissed her forehead.

Soft. Careful.

A promise I believed with everything in me.

“I’ll come back for you,” I said.

“I’ll marry you.”

She smiled.

And I left.

—

Five years passed.

—

I rebuilt myself from nothing.

Fought. Worked. Won everything there was to win, the best business man of the year,. everything.

But I never stopped looking for her.

I sent letters.

At first constantly.

Then less.

Then only when the silence became too heavy.

But her replies changed.

Cold.

Short.

Distant.

Like I was becoming someone she no longer recognized.

—

Until I found out she was getting married.

—

I rushed there immediately.

But I was too late.

She had already said yes.

Already belonged to someone else.

—

That moment broke something in me.

Because I never understood why.

—

After that, I kept sending letters.

Trying to reach her.

Trying to understand her silence.

But she never gave me answers.

Only coldness.

Only distance and hostility.

—

So I stopped waiting.

And started searching.

—

I sent investigators.

Followed every trace of her life.

Until I found her again.

—

And what I saw didn’t make sense.

She was still married.

But not happy.

Her husband was abusive.

A drunk.

A man who is slowly destroying her life while she stayed and smiled like nothing was wrong.

She wasn’t the same girl anymore.

Not the one who ran beside me.

Not the one who carried me when I couldn’t walk.

Not the one who chose survival with me.

—

So I came back.

Not for love.

Not for memory.

But for answers.

—

Because I really need to understand why she choose to become someone I no longer recognize.

And I’m not leaving until I get that truth.