CHAPTER 78

That night, as Emily tossed and turned erratically in her sleep, she thought to herself… part of her hated Miguel with a passion and never wanted to see him again; the other was sort of glad he came. Like he had told her earlier, she knew that he would never judge her for what had happened. He wouldn't treat her like she was broken like everyone else did. He would be a kind ear for her to talk to. But question was… would he even show up? Odds stated he wouldn't.

However, the odds were idiotic, as bright and early the next morning, Miguel was at the Cahills' doorstep, knocking on the door. Emily's dad opened the door and smiled as he saw him.

"Miguel! You're here early!" Emily's dad exclaimed, surprised to see him.

"Yeah, sorry. I hope that's okay. I wanted to try and spend the day with Emily." Miguel said. Emily's dad nodded.

"Oh, no, it's absolutely fine. It's just as well too. I have to be back at work today so it would be great if you could stay, at least until I get back."

"Yeah, sure. Sounds great." Miguel said.

"Right." Emily's dad murmured, before the smile faded slightly from his face. "Look, Miguel, I love you. I trust you. And I'm trusting you with taking care of Emily today. But she is still your ex-girlfriend, so if I hear that you've done anything to her…"

Miguel shook his head furiously and raised his hands in surrender.

"I swear, I won't, Henry. You can trust me." Miguel said. Emily's dad nodded.

"I do. I just… just keep her safe, please." Emily's dad pleaded. Miguel nodded, before walking into the house. Emily's dad left the house for work moments later, and Miguel made his way towards Emily's bedroom door. He knocked on the door several times, but with no answer. After a while, Miguel turned the doorknob, surprisingly it was unlocked, and he walked inside…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Emily was in the basement cellar, the door firmly bolted and locked shut, and Emily slowly shuffled around the room, desperately looking for a way out. She had been kidnapped 2 weeks ago and had been subjected to assault (physical, psychological and sexual) that nobody would even wish on their worst enemy. She had been beaten, raped, starved, but none of that compared to the darkness that was occurring inside her head. For when the doors slammed shut and her captors left, her demons took over the torture. They incessantly reminded her that nobody was coming to save her. They all probably thought she died in the car accident - the car accident that had killed Miguel too - so wouldn't even bother come looking for her. Her captors had constantly reminded her of this too, they wouldn't let her forget it, and that was a far worse fate than the physical torture.

However, Emily's thoughts were cut short as suddenly, she tripped on something! She tripped! For two weeks, she had scoured every inch of that room and she hadn't found anything to trip on once. So what was this? Emily leaned down to check it out, and to her great surprise, it was a keychain! One of the men must have dropped it by mistake when they came into the room and assaulted her last! On it were 3 keys, and Emily wasted no time scooping it up and using all of her strength to move towards the door. Day by day, Emily could feel herself getting weaker under the horrendous conditions she was being forced to live in, but she couldn't think about that now. This could be her only chance to escape before she died in this hellhole. Hands trembling, Emily brought the key up to the lock on the door and thankfully, the second key she tried worked! It clicked into place and moments later, the door swung open. Emily's heart soared. For the first time since she had been thrown in here, she was one foot towards escape. Emily limped down the dark hallway before her, turning right before making it to a staircase. Not thinking about what would happen to her if she was caught, Emily continued to drag herself up the stairs, up towards freedom. Ignoring all of the aching pains that were burning through her body, Emily forced herself to the top. However, just as she opened the door at the top of the stairs, disaster struck…

As Emily opened the door, she found herself staring in the eye of none other than the leader of the captors. The slimy man was smirking at her, looking completely relaxed. That's when Emily realised… they had known what she was doing the whole time. They had no intention of letting her escape, and only let her get as far as she did to screw with her head even more when they stopped her.

Sure enough, she felt herself being grabbed and lifted into the air and tossed over the man's shoulder, and she was too weak in her weakened state to be able to fight back.

"HEY! LET ME GO!" She shouted, pounding on the man's back unsuccessfully as he carried her back down the stairs and back towards the dreaded room. They made it back moments later, and Emily heard the door clang shut behind them. But the man wasn't done yet. He threw Emily to the ground with a massive thud, Emily's back screaming in pain as she hit the ground. He then sat on top of Emily and began to pound her face with punch after punch after punch after punch.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

An incessant rain of blows descended on Emily's face.

"Ow! Please! Stop!" Emily begged, but to no avail.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The punches just kept on coming.

"That's right. Cry, bitch." The man snarled at her as he continued to beat the living crap out of her. However, that's when Emily heard it. A voice from the beyond.

"Emily! Emily! Emily!"

Someone was calling her. There was no mistake about it. And the person who was calling her had an unmistakable voice. Miguel!

"Emily!"

The voice sounded a loud closer now. Suddenly, before Emily could react, she felt herself roughly yanked from the basement…

"Emily! Please wake up!" Miguel exclaimed, his eyes wide in panic as he stood over Emily's sleeping body, gently shaking her shoulders to try and wake her up, but he was unsuccessful. He had walked into Emily's room, only to see her thrashing around on her bed like a fish out of water. Alarmed, Miguel had ran over to her, only to see that she was dead asleep, and was instead trapped in a horrifying nightmare flashback.

Eventually, as Miguel kept calling her name, Emily finally managed to wake up and be relieved of the night terror she was previously trapped in. Emily's eyes snapped open and she shot up in her bed, head snapping around in her panic. As she saw him, she finally managed to relax and the adrenaline wore off. She trailed off into heavy sobs, all of her emotions coming pouring out unabled to be bridled due to her exhaustion, and at that moment, all history between Miguel and Emily temporarily faded. Emily practically collapsed in Miguel's arms, and all Miguel could do was hold her and comfort her as she cried.

"Shhhh. You're gonna be okay. You're safe. You're okay." Miguel whispered as his warm embrace wrapped around Emily. As he held her, a tear rolled down Miguel's cheek. Emily had been the most vivacious, lively person he had ever met. She lived every day to the very fullest and always seized every moment for joy. Now, seeing her so… broken. It made his heart shatter in a billion pieces.

"They were there…" was all Emily had to murmur through her sobs for Miguel to instantly understand what her dream was about. He winced in empathetic pain and tightened his grip around her slightly, Emily burying herself deeper in his embrace. Miguel didn't say anything, and merely let her cry it out. Eventually, the tears subsided and Emily finally managed to calm down enough for Miguel to let go of her. The two sat opposite each other on Emily's bed, neither speaking for a while, both waiting on the other to break the silence. When neither did, Miguel finally opened his mouth to speak.

"You want to talk about it?" Miguel asked. Emily looked up at him, her eyes filled with exhaustion, and she sighed.

"Not really." She mumbled in reply. Miguel nodded.

"That's fine. That's okay." He said calmly, his soothing voice reassuring her.

"You came." Emily murmured, looking down again and not looking him in the eye as she spoke quietly. "I didn't think you were going to come back. Thought you were going to bail again."

Miguel winced as he felt a stabbing pain at his heart. He wasn't pissed at Emily for saying that as, quite frankly, he didn't blame her. He deserved it.

Miguel took Emily's hands in his own and although she initially flinched at the contact, when she remembered who was sitting opposite her, she relaxed again. That small flinch didn't go unnoticed by Miguel, whose soul boiled with anger at whatever monster stole Emily's soul like this.

"Em, I swear to you. I'm not going to bail. I'm always going to be here for you. Whenever, wherever you need me, I'm there. You have my word." Miguel whispered. Emily looked up at him again, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. Her whole soul was wracked with pain, but it wasn't because of Miguel's words. It was because as she remembered the person Miguel was, all it did was remind her of the happily ever after that she could've easily had if the stars had lined up. She had found her soulmate, the person she wanted to spend her life with, but all of that was impossible now. She was, in her eyes, broken. Miguel didn't deserve the wreck that she was. It had been easier to hate him beforehand for what he had done as it had given her an excuse to hurt a little less. But now, as Miguel sat in front of her, she felt the full brunt of the pain.

"Thank you for being here." She whispered, before snaking her arms around him and hugging him tightly. Miguel put his own arms around her and though they weren't together, that feeling of his large arms around her gave Emily that sense of security she had been lacking since her kidnapping. She was home. She was safe.