The sun had risen and the daylight filtered through the window. I was locked in my bedroom again. And whatever tools I could use to get out were all removed. There was nothing here. Nothing but my bed and an empty table, some flowers and the window. Eric said this was punishment. Punishment for trying to escape from him a few weeks ago. Still, I must flee from here. Eric is the man that bounded me here, forced me into a marriage and taken my future into his hands. He was the one that kidnapped me, and destroyed my dream. Yes, the dream of being a singer. It was all taken away by this person who claimed to be in love with me. "Love" was nothing but a lie, an excuse. All he injected was fear into my very being, made me live in such frightful terror.

Even if the servants had said that Eric was actually a good person and just tended to go to the extreme with the company of people, I must still escape from him. But here, my room had nothing. Nothing for me to use to get out. And I laid silently on my bed, sometimes on the floor, just thinking of escape plans. But then suddenly one day, when it was evening, there was a sound of something dropping and crashing into the grasses next to the window.

Immediately I turned and looked at it. It was an old, rusty telephone. Probably one of the servants had dropped the phone here, just for littering. But my eyes had sparkled. Perhaps this phone could still be of use. From the window railings, I grabbed the phone. It was certainly broken, for its cable had been smashed probably in accident.

So it was practically useless, for it cannot be used for calling. I sighed heavily. But as I looked at the phone, twirling the wire while lost in thoughts, something struck me. The wire! Yes! definitely the wire would fit into the door lock. Immediately I started to try pulling the wire out, for I had no scissors or sharp thing that I could used to cut the plastic wire. I pulled until my fingers were red and rash, burning with the biting friction. But I managed to tear one part of the plastic out. Next, I tried to pull the other part of the wire out, and yes, I did it at the cost of aching fingers.

Excitedly, I fit the wire into my pocket, and quietly let down the telephone back to the grasses outside the window. Then, I covered the phone with bits of mosses and plants, until it had finally camouflaged smoothly with all the trees and grass outside.

Now I would wait. Wait for night, when everyone was asleep, and I would crawl out of this house and finally escape.

I had been sitting and staring at the floor for a while now. At first it was for minutes. And then the minutes became hours. A servant came in concerned, and she had asked me to lie on my bed instead of sleeping in a sitting position. I had agreed, and I lay on the bed with eyes closed. But I never slept.

Each moment I was straining my ear for any sounds. At every half an' hour, a servant would come in to check that I was in my bedroom. But at last, the visits had started to stop, and so did the hustle and bustle of a noise the servants made had died down. It had to be night. I finally opened my eyes. The fresh dark sky had loomed over all the trees and plants.

This was it.

As quietly as I could, I took the wire from my pocket and started twisting it and turning it, silently picking the lock. At last the door had swung open. I crept across the empty hallway, and towards where light was streaming from. And finally I saw a door at the end of the dark hallway. And from its glass panes, I could see it all- freedom.

Swiftly, I picked the lock, opened the next door stealthily, and I ran out. I let my lungs drink in the fresh air of the night. Outdoors. It was such a sweet feeling, to be out in the open, and not chained like a prisoner to my bedroom.

And now here was where my mission had started: To get out of this wretched place, back to the city, and back to home. But first I had to figure my way out of here, and time was not exactly by my side. I had heard that today was when Eric would be out to deal with some business, and any time around now he could be back.

What should I do? Run into the forest ahead of me? But it would be too obvious that I went in there, and traces of broken branches would immediately confirm my escape there. At this moment, an idea had struck me deeply in my mind.

There were dry drains, and I could actually fit into them. No one would know I tried to flee by that route until it was too late, and the drains could easily hide my trail.

I quickly slid myself into the drain, and started sprinting. Wherever the drain would go to, it had to lead to the city in the end.

However as I ran, there was a sound of a car pulling up at the backyard of the mansion. Eric had returned. Immediately I dashed across the drain, running as if flying. For there would be no doubt that when Eric first returned, he would check on my bedroom as the first priority. After I managed to run out of that prison, I had created a decoy of me lying in the bed. Practically it was black strips of paper for the hair, and cushions and the blanket to fake the body, and then I locked back the door. But in a few minutes Eric would find out the truth.

He was too hard to trick, for certainly he could simply see through fakery as simply as pie. The house was quiet at first, and suddenly it went into haywire, for all the servants had woken up. The noise had shaken up and lights were flashing everywhere. I took this as my queue to flee. I sprinted across the drain for as fast my legs and thighs could take me, far away from the hot pursuit that I knew was about to come.

He opened the creaking door, and there under the moonlight, was her hair. Her hair? He thought. Without hesitation, Eric lifted the bed covers.

She was not there.

There was panic swirling in him, and so much of fear. Fear that she was missing, that she had slipped through his clutch successfully, and he would never be able to see her again. Immediately this fuelled his panic as he opened the bathroom door.

It was empty.

In that moment he had raised his voice in such a hateful and furious way, as his pace began to quicken.

"Where is she? Who was supposed to check on her?" His voice had crackled in such utmost fury and volume, and all the servants has started to arise, now frantically scrambling around in fear.

"You!" He had pointed at a certain old man. "You were assigned to check on her! She is MISSING!" With a swing of the arm, he slapped the old man so hard that the elderly man fell.

"Find her!" His voice screeched so piercingly loud at all the scrambling servants.

In his eyes, there was nothing but pure fury and anger.

Eric flung the door in such burst, that there so a very deafening "bang". Just as he was about to enter the forest of trees, he stopped. Quickly he retraced his steps… back to a dry drain. There were strands of hair in that drain. He picked up that little bit of hair. There was no doubt it was Christine's.

He started the car and sped off into the dirt road of the forest. There was only one extremely horrifying thought that had fuelled all his energy. The thought that had no doubt made him very frightened even if no one could tell he felt fear. It was... the thought of never seeing Christine again.

There was nothing more but an endless trail in the drain. But still I ventured on, for sooner or later I had to reach somewhere. And at last there was a dead end. I brought myself to get out of the drain, and there in front of me, was a rather familiar street. The abandoned old place of buildings, rubber, debris and so on. But I knew this place, and that not so far, just about walking a few streets or so, there was a police office. And I knew the police would take me away from Eric after I told them about my kidnapping ordeal.

But just as I was about to take the route to the police office, I could hear a car screeching as it reared up the other side of the road. There was only one person with that very car to come to this abandoned place for me- only Eric would do so.

Instinctively in fear, I dashed for an old, abandoned mall building. As I ran, I could hear it- even if it was as soft as a hushed whisper. The definite sound of footsteps pacing. I sprint to the 2nd floor by the stairs, and as I do so, I turn around me.

I could see the very glare of blazing, golden eyes. Eric. And he was coming. I dashed straight into shops with the clicking sound of Eric's boots following behind. Then suddenly I saw a dead end. Immediately I flung myself to a cramped room of a shop, and Eric walked past me, unseeing I was there. But his footsteps had reduced to a halt.

Oh no.