TW: This chapter contains mentions of violence via kicking, a person in a kidnap situation, and cursing, which may cause triggering or discomfort in others. Read at your own risk.

xix

The next time Amu woke up, she was in a different room. She wasn't sure how she hadn't even felt someone moving her but she was a heavy sleeper so it was possible. Or maybe she was drugged again so she wouldn't wake up mid transport and struggle. She looked around; the new room was larger and a bit brighter than the first room she woke up in. She also didn't have her hands tied anymore. Her ankle, however, had a chain with a ball on the other end, probably to prevent her from moving silently as well as slowing her down in the event she tried to run.

Amu wanted to cry, but she didn't even have the energy to, nor did she think she had the tears left in her. She wondered how long she'd been in there for. The room had windows, but they were much too high for her to reach and had a layer of dust so thick it was practically blocking whatever light that came from the window from properly filling the room. It also looked like she was in an underground basement type location, since what she could see just looked like ground. Because if this, she could barely even tell what time it was, either. She sighed and curled up, with much difficulty due to the ball and chain attached to her ankle.

"Screw you, Yamabuki Saaya," she muttered bitterly to the empty room. "I had some sympathy for you before but…now I know you're just a bitch. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

The third time Amu woke up, though she hadn't even remembered falling back asleep in the first place, she was not awoken on her own accord. She was rudely awoken by a sharp pain in her side, which continued a couple more times. She immediately recognized it, from all the nightmares she experienced it in, as someone kicking her. She groaned, not wanting to open her eyes because if she did it would mean that it wasn't a dream. The shouting and cursing was when she started feeling afraid. She reluctantly opened her eyes and tried to glower up at her attacker.

A large, both height and weight-wise, man stood over her with his arms crossed. His glare for her was probably a lot more intimidating than her glare probably was at him. He looked like he was debating whether to kick her one more time, just for fun. Amu sat up, a glare still directed to the man, who stood unmoving.

"Get up," the man finally said in a deep, raspy voice. "Or I'll have no choice but to kick you again. Of course, I'd have no problem kicking you again, but I don't think you'd want that, now would you?"

Amu sighed and reluctantly followed the man's orders, not wanting to get kicked again. Her ribs were already hurting enough with the little amount of kicking he's already done, which made it hard for her to stand up without feeling intense pain. It even kind of hurt to breathe. She had a feeling that, much like her dreams, she would have to deal with even more pain if she stayed here for an extended period. As she used the wall as a stabilizer, she belatedly realized that the ball and chain on her ankle was gone. It was a relief but she had a sinking feeling that wherever she was going next would have a different much worse method to keep her from running away easily, though.

Amu didn't like this at all. It was bad enough that she had to experience these things in her dreams. Now it was real; she couldn't escape it as easily as just waking up anymore. Part of her was screaming for her to run but the part of her that still had memory of her dreams reminded her that if she tried anything her captors didn't like, she would get hurt even worse. She had to play along for long enough to figure out how to get out without getting caught, or at least until she figure out how to attract an outsider's attention.

The man forcibly took Amu's wrists and attached some handcuffs to them. The cuffs had a chain, which extended off of them probably so the man could hold it like a leash to make sure Amu didn't run off immediately. Amu couldn't help but be glad it was just hand cuffs on a chain at the moment; she would feel humiliated if it ever turned into to an actual leash around her neck.

It was then Amu noticed the weapon in the man's other hand. It looked to be a metal baseball bat. Amu gulped as the man explained, while waving the bat around, that if she did anything he didn't like, he wouldn't hesitate to hit her with it. In fact, he almost did hit her, just to prove he wasn't bluffing. Luckily, when Amu winced and closed her eyes tightly, the man just chuckled. She heard the bat thunk to the ground and get dragged along the ground as he very harshly tugged Amu forward. Amu had a feeling she would be in for a lot more pain if she didn't obey every single word her captors said. Maybe that was why she remained so calm, if you could even call it that considering Amu was constantly in a state of anxious and terrified, with no way of expressing it.

It had been a week since Amu had gone missing. One agonizing week where no one knew where Amu was nor whether she was safe or not. Tadase had spent three hours every day looking for any abandoned looking building that could potentially be held in. He had informed the police as well, and they were doing their own searches as well, but could only do so much with so little evidence. Tadase hoped Amu was okay, or, at the very least, not dead.

Tadase had a sinking suspicion that where ever Amu was, she was likely being tortured, and if by some miracle, she wasn't yet, she was going to be tortured if she misbehaved too much. Tadase had already had the sneaking suspicion previously that, if Saaya couldn't kill Amu, she would at the very least make attempt to make Tadase less attracted to her, be that by disfiguring her or anything else she could think of. How shallow but on brand of Saaya to think Tadase exclusively cared about looks. Though it made sense, since Saaya clearly only liked Tadase because of his looks. What Saaya didn't know was, although Amu's cute face was a bonus, Tadase liked Amu for Amu, not for her looks. At that point, Tadase's attraction was more than physical.

What worried Tadase even more, though was, from the little Amu told him about her dreams, he did recall that a lot of them involved her being kidnapped and tortured. Which was exactly what was likely happening to her now. He hoped Amu wasn't having too much trouble. He hoped Amu trusted him enough to know that he would be going to the ends of the earth to get her back safe and sound. Whether it took a week or a month, or more, he wanted Amu to have some hope that someone would come for her.

He could have involved more than just the police. He could have hosted a big search party, besides the one that was already in existence, specifically for abandoned buildings. But he didn't. He didn't want to draw too much attention to it. He even specifically told that to the police and spent hours trying to convince them not to tell Amu's parents about the very specifics of the case. The only person he had help him occasionally was Ikuto, who helped drive him to whatever new location he had found. He wanted to do this himself, not because he wanted to be some kind of saviour but because he wanted to involve as little people as possible, like Amu would have wanted.

Unfortunately, within the week, Tadase had only found 2 or 3 abandoned buildings and spent all 3 hours walking around them, checking the windows and doors for any sign of activity. One of the buildings was so large it took more than 2 days to search it thoroughly. None of them had Amu in them. He would normally spend the first hour of his searches looking for an entrance and seeing if there was a way he could discreetly get in. Then, he would check the surrounding area for fresh footsteps. Finally, he'd sneak inside the building, if possible, and see if anything was inside. All while trying to make sure he didn't get caught for trespassing. More times than not, this required multiple days.

Tadase never would have dreamed that he'd be trespassing and doing 'urban exploring' at abandoned properties. Yet there he was, for the sake of Amu, breaking probably every possible trespassing law in existence. For her, he'd risk getting caught, even if it meant finding her just one day sooner. Even if he got caught once and let off with a warning, he knew he would just go right back to it. His criteria for an 'abandoned' building were the very obvious No Trespassing sign, boarded up windows, doors locked with chains, and graffiti. A lot of these buildings were either in the poorer neighbourhoods or near the outskirts of town.

On the eighth day, Tadase had somehow found the location of a building he had never heard of or seen in his life. He thought he had known the city like the back of his hand, but this task was proving that he lacked a lot of knowledge on abandoned buildings. Then again, why would he normally care about an abandoned building? The building was in a neighbourhood he rarely frequented. It was a rather large, concrete building, with barely any windows at all. Any windows there were, were blocked off by either cardboard or wooden boards. It had a very ominous vibe to it. Tadase felt anxious and scared even just approaching it. According to his research it had been several things over the years; originally a holding place for the mentally insane, back when people didn't care as much about mental illness, and then it was a factory, then it had been an animal rescue center, which Tadase found hard to imagine. It had been abandoned for over 10 years, however, with seemingly no intentions of tearing it down.

Regardless of how scared he was of the place, he knew if he wanted to find Amu ASAP, he would have to swallow his pride, man up and check it out. He pushed past his anxiety and slowly approached the building. It was a little past dawn, dark enough for Tadase to not be as noticeable in all black, but still light enough for him to see his surroundings. Just in case it got dark while he was there, which it likely would, he had a flashlight as well. The first problem for Tadase was figuring out how to get in the building. With little to no windows and the front door blocked off, Tadase could only hope that some hooligans fooling around had just made their own entrance, or that there would be fresh footprints that lead to an accessible entrance.

Wherever Amu was, whether she was in this building or another, Tadase suspected that she would be sleeping, or trying to sleep, by now. Providing her captors allowed her to sleep. It bothered him to think about Amu's living conditions; she more than likely didn't have a bed, blankets, or anything. Unless the captors were feeling generous, she probably wasn't getting much food, either.

The building itself wasn't all that interesting. Along with the minimal amount of windows, the building itself had cracks everywhere, even a few holes that allowed him to see inside the building a bit. Unfortunately, though, none of the holes were large enough for him to crawl through, and also not large enough to see anything that would be of use. Moss was growing along the foundation and the concrete had a disgusting combination of…whatever substances it was exposed to. Tadase could only guess maybe rain, mud, probably human feces and urine and…Tadase could have sworn he saw what looked to be dried blood on one wall. It definitely didn't help the intimidation vibes this building gave off

What especially perked Tadase's interest, however, was the fresh footprints in the mud along one of the wall. They were several prints all on top of each other so it made it hard to make out a direction but that was enough for Tadase to believe that someone, perhaps even multiple people, had been outside, recently, walking around the building. And they obviously weren't his own footprints because he hadn't walked past the wall he spotted them. He followed the tracks as best as he could but due to how muddled they were, he ended up walking in a circle.

While he was investigating another hole in the wall, Tadase heard a blood curdling scream of pain and anguish. He spun on his heel and tried to listen for what direction it was coming from. Tadase wasn't sure if he was hearing things or not, but it sounded an awful lot like Amu to him. He checked his watch. His allotted three hours were almost up and all he'd managed to do was walk circles around the building. He had to find the source of this before he headed back. Whether it was actually Amu or not, at least he would have some kind of lead.

Part of him prayed for Amu, or whoever it was, to make some kind of noise again, just so he could pinpoint the exact location better. Of course, though, that would mean whoever it was would have to get hurt again, or whatever it was that caused her to scream like that, which was not something he wanted. He pushed the thought out of his mind and decided to just base it off where he thought the noise had came from. Which, unfortunately for him, he suspected it came from all the way on the other side of the building from him.

Amu had tried to run away again. No matter how many times her conscience told her not to, she would always try again. She thought, this time, she thought she had planned her escape well. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Usually, her consequences were always the same; a baseball bat to the knees and/or a tranquility shot to shut her up and make her immobile. This time though, the man was much more aggressive and threw in an extra hit to her ribs. She screamed in pain. Her ribs were currently the most sensitive part of her, as she would always be woken up with a swift kick to the ribs whenever she was needed. It didn't help that, due to only being fed approximately once a day, her ribs were starting to show through her skin.

By that point, Amu was sure that several of her ribs were fractured or broken, as well as her both of her kneecaps. It was a miracle she was still somehow walking, even if it did hurt with every step. Amu didn't even know how much of the shit she'd been put through could be fixed if she got saved. No. When she got saved.

There were points where she thought she had gotten used to the pain but somehow, they found a way to make it 10 times worse. She did notice, however, that she was becoming slightly tolerant to the tranquilizer they used. Which occasionally worked in her favour; she was sometimes able to pretend to be knocked out cold and then would attempt to sneak away when they thought she was unconscious. Of course, that always ended in the same result that it did this time around.

This time it was especially bad, though. This time, perhaps finally catching on to what trick Amu was playing, there was no tranquilizer. Amu had grown to liked the tranquilizer because it sometimes allowed her to briefly forget about her pain. Not having the tranquilizer, especially with the extra hit, made Amu feel even worse. It didn't help that the man all but threw her back into her room, her back hitting the wall with a harsh thud and maybe a small crack. Amu was surprised her spine hadn't completely broken yet.

She clutched her torso as the man closed and locked the door behind him. She wiped away tears she hadn't even realized had fallen and painfully got to her feet, stumbling to the corner of her room, where she had saved up some water. The only way she would be able to get more than the tiniest bit of food and water was if she restricted herself and rationed.

This had been the 4th or 5th room Amu had been locked in. All the other ones she had managed to consistently escape from. This one, though, she could only escape when the door was left unlocked, which was rare now. The one benefit of this room was that it was one of the only other windows, since her first room, that wasn't blocked by wood or cardboard. And it wasn't as dirty as the first one so at least she was able to tell what time of day it was. She still had no idea how long it had been, though. It honestly felt like weeks, maybe even month. She had tried to keep count, but it was hard when most of her previous rooms had either no window or a blocked window. She had given up properly counting after day two.

She gazed up at the grimy window, not really expecting to see anything, since it was already dark. At first, all she saw was the shadow of the grass and the faint light of a very distant lamppost. Then, she could have sworn she saw movement that wasn't the grass. Amu wasn't sure if she was seeing thing, but they almost looked like a pair of legs passing by. Amu's eyes widened as she jumped up, immediately regretting it because of the pain that shot through her legs and up her back. Regardless, she hobbled up to the window.

If this was a person and she wasn't going crazy, then Amu could possibly get saved soon. She extended her body as far as she could to reach the high window and tapped against the glass. She really hoped the person was still close enough to hear a sound that quiet. She also hoped that it was just a passerby and not one of the people who worked with her captors. She waited for a bit, but nothing happened. She tapped the glass once more, a little bit louder than she intended. She briefly hoped that the sound didn't somehow alert her captors. When there was still no result, she continued tapping until either her arms (or legs) gave way or someone came; whichever happened first.

Just as Tadase was getting ready to leave the abandoned building for the night, he he heard a noise. At least, he thought he did. Dismissing it as either nothing or some sort of random environmental noise, he was about to continue walking. However, the sound continued. Three knocking sounds, every couple of seconds. It was too consistent to be not man-made. Could someone be trying to get his attention? Could that someone be Amu?

His heart pounding with adrenaline, he spun back towards where he had just been and listened very carefully. Knock, knock, knock. It sounded faster this time. Where was it coming from? It had to be coming from a window, right? It sounded like someone knocking on glass. But…Tadase could have sworn he had checked all the windows; even the occasional one that wasn't boarded up.

He checked his watch. His allotted three hours were up. If he was out any later, his father would notice and wonder where he had gone. Providing his father didn't already know, since his father had always had a way of finding things out, especially in regards to his son. He decided to throw caution to the wind and hurried to the row of basement windows along the side until he found a few in a row that weren't boarded up. He knelt and peered into each one, looking for any sign of life.

Finally, he saw what looked to be a figure pacing, or rather hobbling, in the middle of the room of one of the windows. He peered closer just to make sure he wasn't seeing things, even rubbing his eyes. Indeed, there was someone inside the room. He knocked on it with his finger and hoped for the best. Whether it was Amu or not, he had definitely found someone. The other question was, if it wasn't Amu, was it another person held captive or was it just a homeless person looking for a place to sleep?

The knocking was returned as the person all but jumped at the fact that they had actually gotten a response. Tadase was in a pinch. Should he stay to confirm this person was Amu or should he go home and check on them tomorrow? There was no saying whether they'd be in the same room when he returned though… He decided to shine his flashlight into the window, hoping not to accidentally blind the person. He was both surprised and relieved to see a familiar pair of honey-brown eyes squinting their at the sudden bright light. Clearly, the other person was just as shocked.

Amu hadn't expected to get a response. She also hadn't expected someone to shine a flashlight into the room. The sudden bright light not only blinded her slightly but also startled her and she found the urge to quickly check her door to make sure that one of her captors didn't somehow notice the noise or light. She felt relieved to see or hear nothing from outside her room; at least not from inside the building.

Her attention drew back towards the window, blinking past the bright light to try to see who it was. Was it the police? Or maybe just some random jogger? She squinted and her eyes widened as she was met with what looked to be two familiar crimson orbs and blonde hair. It was…Tadase?! Amu had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn't going crazy or seeing things. For a second she thought maybe the tranquilizers had some kind of hallucinogen in it or she had just gotten so used to it that she had ended up getting some new kind of side effect but then she remembered…he didn't use the tranquillizer. And the person who looked like Tadase was still there, staring at her with wide eyes.

A/N: I decided to change up my trigger warnings a bit, taking inspiration from the trigger warnings in webtoons. I may or may not change the other chapters but...that might take some time so I probably won't Following this chapter they will all be consistent tho.

I've very belatedly realized while trying to edit/re-write ahead that...I never actually finished this original story so now I have to decide a good place to end it off. I definitely don't want it to be as long as the original, since even with that not being complete, it was at 32 chapters, while I've managed to edit it down to 26 chapters so far. If I can conclusively end this story in 3 more chapters, I will. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I hope everyone has their big boy pants on because these next few chapters are gonna be tough. there will probably be a trigger warning on every chapter up until...maybe 24 or 25. (I deflate the tension with a LOT of fluff after, which made me rather soft writing it lol)

See ya next chapter whoever is reading this!