**Poor Darcie! ....let's see what happens next...**

The memory was too strong for me to bear, that I just managed to stifle a sob. I was still punishing myself for being so naïve, what I had done had cost me dearly; I shouldn't have taken anything for granted.

There still was a series of crunching of the leaf litter, speeding up, this situation reminded me of what the monstrous boar had made me endure everyday. Every night I'd try to hide from him, but I'd fail. I didn't want to remember what he'd done to me anymore, but the flashbacks just wouldn't stop.

Consciousness was coming back to me, and I stirred slowly. My nostrils burnt, my stomach wouldn't settle, rolling and heaving, I couldn't think straight. It felt like a hangover, "So, you're finally awake, it took you long enough, three hours. Geez! It's 11:35. " I stiffened as the man's voice came from my right, as real and loud as ever, so this wasn't a dream I realised that I was in a really serious problem. I couldn't see anything- was I blind folded? But out of the left corner of the blindfold I saw through a slight tear that we were on a road just about empty a few cars passed by but there seemed to be no chance for me to capture anyone's attention. The van's windshield and windows were heavily tinted no chance of anyone seeing I was in distress. I tried to speak, or make a single sound, but it came out muffled, my mouth was covered with a gag. "Ha, ha, ha, ha!" he laughed at me, and that did it, I wanted to reach out to his fat neck and strangle him, but something restrained me from doing so, a hard type of rope was digging into my soft, pale flesh. The pig had tied me to something stable- there was no way I could do anything that would help me to get away from him.

"I tied you up so you wouldn't be able to see the way to my house or how to get away, you'd better not touch the blindfold- or I'll kill you".

The next half hour was unbearable my mobile phone in his pocket kept ringing, finally he lost it, started to scream "YOU STUPID GIRL-CAN'T YOU STOP THESE PEOPLE CALLING YOU?" I heard the window roll down and then the loud whipping wind became very audible, but a different noise for a second accompanied the wind, like a low shattering of plastic and micro-chips, and then a thud and a skid of expensive sounding leather, I shied away from the sound… there went my stuff. The window rolled back up and he grunted, clearly satisfied with himself.

I was able to see most of the whole ride, but I wasn't letting the brute know that, I just stayed quiet, and tried to remember the turns he took. He didn't talk to me anymore he seemed as though thinking –scheming of what to do to me next.

Finally he stopped the van in front of an old house in the middle of nowhere; a bushland, the last road that had any cars- was an intersection about a mile away from where we were. He hopped out of his small truck and came to my door to tow me into his house. Hell was just around the corner, waiting to greet me.

The long days and nights passed slowly, feeling like eternity, every night was the same; I was abused at night and then left inside his locked house during the daytime.

The lack of food and nutrition- not to mention the constant stress and sleepless nights (-and days-) had caused me to lose too much weight. There were scars and new bruises constantly forming all over my body. Sometimes he gave me food, "To keep your strength up just enough." he'd say, usually the food was contaminated but I had to preserve my strength for a plan I was making up.

Having access to the whole inside of the house seemed an advantage if I knew how to use it. Usually, when "Her-man" came home, one night in every week, he was drunk and his words slurred.

My idea was to play along with him, to pretend that I was starting to like him so that I could gain more access to things I needed to escape with. I was stashing away some tit bits until I had enough under a loose floorboard in the room where everything happened, where I was locked. "Hi!" I'd force myself to pipe up whenever I saw him, it was so intolerable, but I had to try. His face usually lit up with evil, mischievous lust every time I greeted him, he was eager to get started every night...

I spent another week preparing myself to run away, and soon I was ready to escape, I waited for the night's hours to gather. This was the night Herman usually came home drunk, if I could just distract him, he'll forget to lock the front door and the bedroom door, allowing me to escape.

The goods I was taking with me were two days worth of food all bundled up in a piece of cloth, I found under the bed. I hadn't eaten for days just to save this food. I was so nervous and excited by the fact that I may be free soon that my appetite returned suddenly. When I was just about to get hold of a precious stale biscuit, the front door creaked open. I stuffed the priceless bundle under the bed and picked up a pillow from the bed as the bedroom door unlocked.

"Pillow fight!" I screamed at the barbarian as he entered, faking enthusiasm, oh how he loved stupid games. I was always the victim to his unnecessarily tough games, but this time I was escaping- finally. His eyes were red, his face was red and he clumsily stumbled around the room. His reaction was slow, but he turned to look at me and grinned idiotically, he lunged for the bed and landed on his face, the door was still open and he couldn't see me, he was reaching out for a pillow to lunge at me. I saw the opportunity and kicked him somewhere around the head before grabbing the sack filled with goodies. This time his reaction was fast, he yelped in shock and skilfully grabbed my leg with speed, but his hands were sweaty and slipped. He tugged at me again but this time caught my sac, there was no time –regretfully, I let go of the bag and ran out the bedroom door then to the front door which granted me freedom. I ran outside, turning my head to see him running to the door.

The adrenaline was my only source of energy as I ran flat out to the only place which would camouflage me, the bushes were just a few metres away. If I could just get there before he saw me.

Total darkness enveloped me, as I was in the leafy zone. His footsteps were not too far away, quite close actually. I kept running anyway, even though gashes on my arms and legs ripped open with a stinging sensation. The warm fluid spilling all over me gave a sense of reality.

**tbc...