Emma still couldn't see anything. Her entire body ached from being in a cramped trunk for so long and her head ached from the anger she felt towards her captor and the lack oxygen she'd been receiving because of the gauze and the duct tape covering her mouth. At least now the vehicle had stopped moving and hopefully, she'll be able to find some way to escape.

When the cold autumn wind hits her face, Emma tries to breathe it in, clear her head as much as possible.

"Well, Emma, welcome to your new home."

Emma's skin crawls slightly at his words. He sounds very satisfied with what he's done and she knew he wasn't through with her yet.

Emma feels the two strong arms pick her up. She immediately wants to struggle against him, find a way to get loose but with her arms and legs bound, she wouldn't get very far. She'd be more likely to hurt herself and anger Arthur than anything else.

Arthur had gone into the cabin in advance and seen what it looked like. The place was covered in dust and cobwebs. It appeared to have been a nice place at one point with a nice chandelier, wide windows, a stone fireplace, plus couches, animal heads mounted in certain places, a small dining room and a kitchen that must've been comfy to cook in at one point. But it seemed that time had taken its toll on the place, the dust and cobwebs had overtaken practically everything, decorating the chandelier, the windows were clouded and gray, the fireplace was boarded up, the couches had various holes in them exposing springs and stuffing, the animal heads looked like demonic creatures, the dining room was covered in empty beer bottles, likely from various hunters looking for a means of escape and the table was missing a leg. The kitchen was also quite filthy, piled high with dirty dishes. The entire cabin was gloomy and smelled musty, clearly, no one had been around to care for it in a long time, which was perfect for Arthur. It wasn't much, but it could work.

Arthur brings Emma in and drops her on the dusty and rutted couch. Emma grunts angrily and tries to kick at Arthur with her bound feet.

"Don't be so angry," Arthur says. "I'm about to let you go, but if you keep this up, the woods is an awfully cold place to sleep."

Emma sighs angrily and tries to calm herself. She knows fighting with Arthur will get her nowhere, at least not right now. She lays still for a few moments to gather her bearings.

"That's better," Arthur says. He then reaches over and removes the tape from Emma's mouth, which fortunately was loosened by her own work. "You can scream as loud as you want, no one will hear you out here. There's no phones, no Internet, not a single person here… except us"

"Well, how am I supposed to know that when I can't see," Emma snaps back.

Arthur sighs and removes the duct tape from her eyes. Emma's green eyes blink furiously as they try to adjust to the limited light the cabin was providing.

"You're a monster," Emma says, trying to move into a more comfortable position on the couch.

"You realize that phrase doesn't bother me anymore,"

"Right because the last time I said it, you strangled me."

"I realize that I lost my temper there, but believe me, now that I know I'm safe, everything will be much better."

"For you maybe," Emma mutters. "You expect things are better in a place like this?"

"I'm not concerned," Arthur says. "You'll be cleaning it soon enough. I'm sure as a mother you've cleaned up hundreds of messes before."

Emma grinds her teeth together at the very sexist comment and bites her tongue to prevent herself from lashing out at him.

That means he'll let me out soon, then I can escape.

"But I will have to get a few things like food and cleaning supplies, why don't I show you your room,"

Arthur picks Emma up again, bridal style and walks towards the stairs. Emma immediately tries to lean over and bite Arthur, maybe get a shot at his neck.

"If you bite me, the stairs are an unfortunate place to fall down from."

Emma sighs impatiently and leans back.

Arthur takes her up the creaking stairs, down a narrow hallway. There's a crumbling bathroom with mold growing up from the tiles and down from the ceiling. The hallway is thick with dust and the floorboards creak with every passing step. Arthur takes Emma to the end of the hall, into a dimly lit bedroom with a small twin bed in the corner. The room smells of stale whiskey and rotting wood. It also smelled that something might've died in there as well. Arthur places Emma on the bed.

"I won't be gone for too long," he says. He then kisses Emma's forehead, causing her to turn away in anger.

"I will never give you what you want," she hisses in between her teeth.

"It's not like you have much of a choice," Arthur says, before shutting the creaky door. He then finds a heavy stone nearby and moves it in front of the door. He knows that Emma will attempt to escape, and he needed to prevent that.

He then goes down the stairs, listing all the things he will need in order to make this place a home for the two of them, and a prison.

Once the car starts, Emma braces herself. The sounds of twigs and gravel underneath the tires slowly fade into the distance. She then begins to turn her body to survey the room for anything that might cut her bonds.

The room was empty for the most part, except for the bed, a nightstand, a closet, ugly wallpaper to cover up the wooden walls and a clock that was broken at twelve minutes after 3.

Using her strength, she rolls off the bed and looks under it for anything that might help her. Worse comes to worse, she ends up using a spring from the mattress again.

…

I need to stop using Gwen's credit card, Arthur thinks to himself. The cops will be able to track it.

He pulled into the town that took almost an hour to get to. He pulls into a hardware store to get some things he's sure to need. More chains, bars for the window, cleaning supplies, a hunting knife, etc. He tries to act as casually as possible.

"Lot of stuff you got there," the hardware man at the cash says.

"I'm fixing up a place," Arthur says.

"Really?"

"Yeah, my wife insists on not staying in a crumbling cabin, even though it would build character."

"Where is it?"

"Uh… hard to say really, we only just got here, but out there, pretty far."

"Well good luck to you," the man says. "Cash or credit?"

"Credit please."

Next, Arthur goes to a pharmacy, picking up medical supplies and pregnancy tests for Emma.

"Hoping for a new addition to the family eh?" the woman behind the counter asks him.

"That's right," Arthur says.

He's getting slightly annoyed with these people's sudden interest in his life. It's a small town, he must expect that the appearance of a new face would be interesting to them.

He goes to a used clothing store to buy things for himself and Emma. Lastly, he visits the local supermarket, picking up a mountain of food, which surprises the teenage bagger, fortunately, he doesn't ask very many questions.

Arthur drives home, knowing what he must do next.

…

Arthur spends most of the night putting bars on all the windows and installing new locks on the doors, several on the room where Emma is staying. Emma is still struggling to find something, anything to free herself. She manages to go to the closet and only finds some rusty hangers and a mountain of old plaid shirts and pants. Nothing of any use. Arthur does find an old rifle that might be useful for keeping Emma in line and he also gets the power going into the cabin.

Once the place is fairly escape-proof, he goes back to Emma. He finds her on the floor, panting and upset by her predicament. Arthur looks down at her.

"Duct tape is man's best friend," he says with a grin. He holds the hunting knife and the stun gun out as if to warn Emma about what he's going to do next.

Emma is ready to kick the weapons out of his hands at a moments notice. She knows that Arthur is going to cut her loose and she wants to be prepared.

Arthur rolls Emma onto her stomach and puts his knee on her back to hold her in place.

"You can run all you want," he says. "We're miles from the nearest town and no one can hear anything out here."

Emma feels the cold blade graze the back of her neck, sending chills down her spine. He slowly brings the knife down her arm towards the duct tape.

"All ask from you is cooperation and I promise…" he says as Emma feels her hands being freed. "I won't hurt you."

Emma immediately tries to turn and attack Arthur, but she hears the crackling of electricity and her body goes stiff from the stun gun. Her face goes down against the filthy floor and she can't move her limbs any further. Arthur cuts her legs free and he gets off her. He waits until Emma starts getting feeling back in her body. He puts the knife on his belt and grins up at her. Emma leaps up in an attempt to attack him but stops when she sees the stun gun.

"I want you to start making this place a bit more homelike," Arthur says.

Emma doesn't say anything, just stretches her limbs which are so stiff from being in the same position for so long. Her joints crack and she feels much relief. She stands, ready to run and attack, but with the gun and knife, she knows better than try to attack. She was just freed, she doesn't want to end up in the same position again.

"I want you to start cleaning and I have nothing better to do so if you try to run, I'll hit you again. I'm willing to be the stick behind the stubborn mule to make sure she does things right."

Emma glares at the man in anger. She wants so badly to wrap her hands around his neck, but if she tries to hurt him, he'll hurt her back. He'll put his own hands around her neck and strangle her into submission or very well kill her.

"I will present the reward of food and a night without the cuffs if you cooperate," Arthur says. He waves the stun gun in front of Emma. "Your choice mule."

…

The cleaning takes days, close to a week to complete. Emma is forced to clean the kitchen and the dishes, mop, and dust the floors, tear down the boarded-up fireplace and start a fire. Arthur is the only one who will chop wood, but he watches her from the window, a brand-new hatchet gleaming in the sunlight. Emma does her best to repair the broken table, get rid of any rodents in the place and overall be Arthur's housewife. Much like Cinderella, she was treated as a slave, but unlike Cinderella, she was chained up whenever Arthur felt like it.

He had begun to feed her regular meals, even though he would force her to cook most of them. She'd have to help him repair the bathroom, but they could only get cold water from the rusty shower head. Although she feels great relief to have her limbs free, Arthur is always over her shoulder, breathing down her neck with the knife and the stun gun ready. She was constantly watched by Arthur and stunned, chained to the bed and unnecessarily gagged in the evening times. Arthur would then have his way with her and leave her alone and naked on the bed, locked inside the room.

The next day the cycle would start all over again.

Emma knew she may have to kill Arthur to get out of this hellhole, but so far he had a hold on her, still forcing himself on her to get that baby. Emma just prayed that it wouldn't happen. She couldn't bear the thought of carrying this man's child.

Every night, she'd think more and more about Henry, Killian, and her friends. She needed to find them and they needed to find her by any means necessary. She couldn't stand living with this monster. She had to get out.

…

Another week had gone by and Emma was feeling weaker than ever before. Despite the hot meals and hygienic privileges, she was often tired and much weaker. She was dizzy more and more and couldn't stay on her feet for only so long. Arthur might've thought that he had finally threatened her into submission, but Emma knew otherwise. Something was wrong, Arthur hadn't drugged her in a long time, so it couldn't be that. It all became very clear one day.

Emma is scrubbing the bathroom, trying to clean the sink as much as possible. Arthur was outside, doing God knows what when Emma feels suddenly very ill. Her stomach turns violently and she barely makes it over to the toilet. She vomits the contents of her breakfast into the grimy bowl. Her head is pulsing and her limbs feel weak.

Once her stomach is empty, she attempts to stand up. She has to hold onto the sink for support. She's sweating as well and she drinks some water from the faucet. The sink suddenly sputters and stops working. Frustrated, she goes under the sink to look at the pipes. Down there, she sees a bunch of the medical supplies that Arthur bought and Emma's heart drops when she sees the pregnancy tests. She swallows hard and tries to avert her eyes.

You're just not feeling well living in this dump, she reassures herself. She fixes the valve under the sink and shuts the cupboard under the sink to forget about it.

It won't happen. She thinks

My apologies to Tazzy Devil. I'll do my best not to make it too repetitive, I'm still working out on how to further my story. Please keep the reviews coming and maybe even offer me ideas.