There another chapter. I'm feeling better.

- Chapter 15 -

Ginoza

My head hurts…

My body hurts…

Everything hurts…

I'm not sure if I lost consciousness due to the pain that has been consuming my body or that I feel asleep due to exhaustion… Maybe both…

I don't know how many times he came, I lost count and frankly I don't care. It doesn't matter how many times that he did, once was enough to make me feel like total trash… I feel dirty, filthy.

His heavy arm on my back almost wants to make my skin crawl and only helps to remind me that he's still there right next to me. His body touching mine makes me want to vomit. I hate him, he disgusts me and everything I did only further fuels my nausea but I have to move, and I have to get away. If I don't I might never get another chance.

I carefully lift his arm that's now around my waist as I carefully crawled off the bed, trying my best not to disturb him and much to my joy he didn't bother to cuff my ankle again before he fell asleep.

I don't know if he simply forgot or if in his mind he believed that I wouldn't try to run away, that I wouldn't leave him. Hell I would stay with him; I'd rather jump off a bridge and die from the impact than to stay with him.

I quietly look around for where he threw the patient's robe on the floor, putting it on as quickly as I can without making any sound. Buttoning up the robe proved to be a bit harder to do with my hands shaking from fear or exhaustion. I don't know what it is for sure and I don't really have the time to stop and think about it only that I'm shaking like a leaf.

Once I finished buttoning myself up, I tip toe towards the cell door when the sight of the chain that had once held my ankle previously.

I know I should just get away as soon as I can, I shouldn't be walking back towards him but I still do, praying that I don't live to regret my decision as I cautiously reach out for the chain, carefully putting it around his wrist. I lock the cuff as quietly as I can and then I back away, never removing my eyes off of him as if at any moment he would wake and everything would be over for me.

He doesn't stir, always sleeping without a care in the world and after a few minutes of watching him I turn my attention to looking around the darken room but that proved to be rather a challenge. I can't see much and what I do manage to see isn't much use for me.

My feet are cold and I hope that I could find something that I could wear but I can't find anything and whatever I did manage to find could never possibly fit me at all and if I were to wear the oversized clothing it would just be a nuisance to my movements.

I step out of the cell and quietly close the barred door, making sure to lock it securely before turning away not wanting to see that mad man ever again…

If Kou would have been in my position, he wouldn't have cuffed that man's wrist; he wouldn't have locked the cell door. As much as I hate to admit it, Kou would have killed him right then without as much of a care in the world but I can't do it. I had so many chances to do it, to kill him but I couldn't…

I take the sheet off the bed, wrapping it around me before carefully opening the bedroom door and stepping out and quietly closing it behind me.

I'm greeted by the same room that I had been held in when I was first taken here, when that freak had been extracting my blood from my body. I wished that I never had to see this room again, just seeing it brings back memories that I'd like to forget. The lack of lighting doesn't help to make it less creepy but at this moment as I tip toe across the room, I don't see anyone nor do I hear anything that could hint that my new found freedom could suddenly end at any minute.

I know that there is someone else here but I've barely been able to see the other man but he seems to be rather passive and somehow fearful of the other. I feel sorry for him but I can't allow myself to become soft, I have to be selfish and think about myself or I might never be able to escape with my life.

Always holding the sheet around me tightly as if it's somehow a shield, I cautiously walk to the door. Carefully unlocking it without making too much sound, open it and quickly step out as I close the door behind me. What I got greeted with was not exactly what I was expecting. I had thought that I was in a complex, somewhere in the city but it turns out that this place is in the middle of nowhere.

I'm surrounded by trees and the ground is cold on my bare feet but even though the cold is stinging my skin, it still doesn't feel worse than being forced upon over and over again. I'd rather freeze to death than to have that man touch me again.

I start running the fastest that I could but being bare foot only makes it rather difficult to do and I don't even know where I'm going but that doesn't seem important at the moment. The only thing that I care about is getting as far away from this place as possible. The larger the distance I can put between myself and that house before he wakes up the better it will be. If he gets his hands on me again, he'll kill me for sure and I can only imagine in how much of a rage he'll be once he wakes up and sees that I'm no longer there.

It doesn't take too long for my feet to start aching as I enter the forest. The branches and the pine needles are stinging my feet and; the cold ground isn't helping and the night air isn't warm either. If the sun can only rise it will warm up the air a bit but considering that it's the middle of October, I rather doubt it will make much of a difference. If only I could find another home or something so I can contact the bureau and have the team come down but so far all I see are endless trees.

I pull the cotton sheet over my shoulders but I don't feel much warmth as the cold air seems to pierce me through. The night sky is without a single star and the moon is hiding being the large and thick clouds that are covering the sky making everything seem darker in the night.

I wish the moon had been out tonight. I could have used the natural light to help me see where I'm going if only a little.

A few times since I entered the forest I've been getting smacked across the face by branches here and there and the colder I get it feels like the branches that succeed into smacking my face seems to be hitting much harder but I know that it's not the case. It's me. My body is dropping, my endurance is diminishing and I know if I don't get out of here soon I'll be in big trouble.

I'm not sure how long I've been walking in the forest, I feel disoriented and losing track of time. I'm freezing; I can barely feel my toes and my fingers anymore. A few times I've stopped to try and heat them up but it didn't last long and my efforts just didn't pay off and I decided to just keep going.

I quicken my pace the best that I could but I soon gave up on trying to run after tripping face first on the ground a few too many times. The falls caused scraps to my hands and knees which I didn't need right now, I didn't need the added pain to the list of the other parts that were already hurting me.

Hours… It feels like hours have passed since I've started to wander around in the forest. Maybe it had been hours since I escaped my prison. I can't tell for sure but with each passing second, the crippling anxiety only keeps on growing as each sound that I hear makes me jump and what is worse is that I don't see anything which doesn't help to relieve me for my fear that's twisting at my gut. Fear that all of a sudden he'll pop out from behind me or I'll walk right into him and I won't be able to get away and he'll take me back to that torture house and I'll never see the light of day ever again.

A drop of water hits my cheeks as I look up to get a few more hit my face until it just starts down pouring hard and I pull the sheet over my head but it doesn't take long for the fabric to become completely soaked.

The rain is freezing and I'm surprised that it isn't snowing instead and before long even the patient's robe is soaking wet but I keep on walking. Walking is all I can do, I can't afford to give up now when I'm free. For what it's worth and what I've had to endure in those few days, I'm finally free.

I keep trying to go in a straight pattern, not attempting to go right or left unless I necessarily have to just in case I lose my way and I end up going in circles and go back there by mistake. That's my biggest fear that I'll return to that god forsaken place.

As I keep going the forest starts to get thinner with more shrubs than actually trees and then I feel a sudden rush of relief when I catch the glimpse of a house in the distance. There aren't any lights on, the people occupying it must be all sleep at this early morning hours.

I start running again, trying to ignore the rush of pain with each steps that I make and I fall face first again forcing me to abandon the sheet as I get up but only to stop again when I come upon a stream. I can only imagine how cold it must be isn't too encouraging to enter but I'm so cold and I don't even know if I'll be able to find another house for miles.

I take a deep breath and step into the freezing water causing me to gasp. I knew it was going to be cold and yet I somehow didn't think it would be this bad. I carefully walk through the water, my feet getting stung by the sharp rocks at the bottom and I can only imagine how badly cut and scrapped they must be at this point.

After a few difficult steps I finally manage to cross the stream without falling down and then I gather the remaining of my energy to bolt straight to the house. The concrete steps are so cold to my feet and although they are smooth they hurt my feet so much.

I start banging on the door like I'm a lunatic. With each bang I would do, I looked around just in case that he's there. I feel like I've become a paranoid wreck, maybe it's the cold that is starting to mess with my mind or that I'm just scarred of losing my sudden freedom that I never thought I'd have again but I don't want to go back. I'd rather die instead.

I keep banging on the door until I hear the door knob turn and the door opens.

It's over…