Days had passed and my current situation got no better. The cold seeped in from all directions and I shivered violently, even my coat that I had on at this point didn't do me justice. The last that I had heard about weather was from Greg, he had told me that it had snowed a good couple of feet on one of his many visits down here. He had gotten comfortable enough to remove whatever the hell he had tied around my mouth to keep me quiet. He also expected me to make a decent conversation with him since, and as I quote, "he was being generous enough to let me live." But it didn't work that way. I kept my mouth shut most of the time which only resulted in me getting injured in some way, his favorite thing to do was slap me until I passed out.

    My entire face felt swollen and my stomach rumbled loudly as if it was its own creature. I hadn't had anything to eat since I got here let alone anything to drink. He figured that if he deprived me of food and a drink, I would eventually give in and start talking to him but sadly he thought wrong. He had tried on numerous occasions to rile me up by talking about Brian and Chris in a negative way but it did nothing to change the heavy silence that clung to me.

After dozing off on accident once again, not like there's anything better to do, I heard the steps from upstairs creaking as I assumed Greg would be coming down for another daily chat. I had memorized his work schedule and figured that it was right around the time he would get off from work since my phone had died yesterday. Last time I saw, I had over a hundred messages from Chris asking where I was and if I was okay, which Greg had taken "care" of for me by simply texting Chris back telling him that it was a simple false alarm and that I was sorry I caused him to worry so much.

    I didn't get anything back from Chris after that. There was a short silence that followed after the creaking had stopped, then there was footsteps echoing from above me and the shifting of the rug until finally the door creaked open. I blinked a couple times from being blinded by the light that came from the room up above me. Once I regained my eyesight I spotted Greg smiling down at me, he climbed down and then took his usual spot in a stool not too far away from me.

"Hello my dear, have you decided to speak yet?" He asked with as much sweetness in his voice that he could possibly muster.

I remained silent and simply stared at him, he began to shift around in his seat from being uncomfortable. Which annoyed me to no end, he has no right to be uncomfortable on a seat while he has someone trapped in one of the creepiest places possible.

"I wish you would speak so that I can finally feed you and give you water. Look at you, you're practically nothing now." He said, referring to the way that everything that once had fit me perfectly was now hanging loosely off of my small, malnourished frame.

A sudden thumping from upstairs caught both of our attention and then in the next second, the door from upstairs sounded like it had shattered. A loud voice echoed throughout the entire house.

"Where is she!" The voice screamed, and in that moment I had realized it was Brian, tears filled my eyes and threatened to spill over but I kept my composure.

Loud footsteps echoed and then stopped right at the top of where I assumed was the basement door, from the sound of it, Brian wasn't alone and he had brought backup along with him. Greg looked at me and growled, He got up and in the process had knocked the stool over, he approached me and slapped me hard enough that I began to black out again before climbing back up the ladder he had to get down here.

"I'll deal with this." He said in a dangerous voice as he closed the door and dragged the rug back over the door. I began to panic, even if Brian did have backup, would it be enough?

"I'm down here!" I started to scream, surprising myself with how loud I was even though I hadn't had water or food in days. There was loud thumping and then a loud smack as if someone had their head bashed against the concrete floor of the basement. Tears ran freely down my face now as I listened to the shuffling and loud smacks echoing from above me.

The seconds seemed to tick by slowly and turn into hours before I finally heard the rug slide back from the rug and the door creak open. I looked up and blinked repeatedly to adjust to the blinding light from above. Brian looked down at me with a victorious smile despite the many cuts and bruises he had all over his features. He climbed down the ladder and limped over to me, he knelt down in front of me and then took out what looked like a laser pointer and aimed at the leather tied around my wrists. Before I knew it he had already cut one of the ties, I waited patiently and once he had finished with all of them, I got up and tackled him into a hug.

    I was happy that he had come looking for me, I couldn't help it and soon enough tears were rolling down my cheeks once again as I squeezed him to death. He merely laughed despite the situation and rubbed my back in a comforting manner before standing up and carrying me up. I looked around and saw an unconscious Greg laying on the floor, I began to panic.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt you now." Brian said in a comforting manner while carrying me up and out of the house.

"But what if..." I began to say but was instantly cut off by him yet again.

"The police are on their way, they know the situation..." He finished answering my question that I hadn't even gotten to ask fully.

"But how did you know? How did you even know where to find me?" I responded back, I don't understand how he managed to find me.

"I used one of those tracker things to track your phone, from there I proceeded to hack into your phone camera and audio so that I could figure out what happened exactly. I then filmed a portion of Greg's interactions with you and the surrounding area and sent it into the police. They told me they would take care of it but they were being too slow so I decided to take care of it myself. I used chicken wire to tie him up after I knocked him out. I gotta admit he put up one hell of a fight." He answered my question simply as he set me in the passenger side of his car. "But we are taking you to the hospital first before anywhere else." He added on.

"But I..." I began to protest but he gave me a look, I sighed in defeat and slumped down in my seat. "Alright." I finally finished in a defeated tone.

He climbed into the driver's side and shut the door, locking it as he started the car up but he didn't pull out of the driveway yet. He looked over at me with tears in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry that I didn't get to you sooner, I wasn't thinking and when I got the last text I thought it was truly nothing until I got to your place only to see the door busted and everything a mess. Link is okay, he was hiding underneath your bed and wouldn't come out but I managed to convince him to come out with some food. I took him to my place for safety along with everything else you owned clothes wise. I don't want you living by yourself anymore after this incident." He quickly explained as a few tears left a trail on his features, I leaned over and gently wiped them away.

"Please don't apologize Brian, it's not your fault that it happened. I should've been more careful with him. He was always... A bit unstable in high school but I didn't think he would go to such lengths to try and get me to talk to him again." I said softly, then I reached over and turned on the heater to full blast. I sighed softly when I was engulfed in warm air. Not a moment later we were pulling out of the driveway.

After the trip to the hospital and back to my apartment to pick up a few things, we were on our way back to his house since he insisted that I don't live alone anymore and I didn't have anywhere else to go. Not that I minded it at all, I just found it to be an odd situation to be in. The trip to his house seemed short lived as he talked about setting up the guest room so it would be my room. Once there I climbed out of the car and waited at the front door for him, I stepped aside and he unlocked the door. I sighed softly in relief before turning and hugging Brian again as tight as I possibly could. I released him after a few moments had passed by and began to walk through the house.

"Link?" I called out, waiting for my precious cat to come. It only took a moment before a ball of gray fur had launched itself at me. I laughed quietly and caught him, he began to purr and meow loudly as he clung onto me for dear life.

    The ball of fluff that I affectionately call Link refused to even let me put him down so I had to carry him as I walked up the steps. A not too amused Scooby met us at the top and simply let out a bored meow before wandering off. Brian followed me up with the bags of stuff that we had brought over from my apartment and lead me to the guest room. He opened the door for me and then walked in after I had.

The room was painted a beautiful light blue color and the flooring was a dark oak color while the trim around the door and the windows was white. The windows were uncovered but that would be easily fixed since I had brought my favorite black floral curtains along with me. The dressers and bed were a beautiful pale yellow color and it really pulled the room together and gave it a vintage feel to it. Which I didn't mind at all because I loved vintage stuff.

"I don't know what to say." I spoke quietly as I turned to Brian with a small smile, I can't believe he would be letting me stay here. I don't even know how to express my gratitude to him.

"Don't say anything and just accept it. I want you to be safe and I'd rather have you stay here than out on the streets with nowhere to go." He said while setting the stuff down. "I'm going to go... make dinner and if that doesn't work then I'm just going to order food." He added on before putting in one final thought. "Please decorate however you'd like." He then turned and went downstairs.

"Well Link... Looks like it's just you and me now..." I said while managing to remove the cat from me, I set him on the bed where he could watch me but of course like all cats he decided to go against my wishes and rub against my legs and walk in between my feet while I was working on organizing all of my stuff and hanging stuff up. I heard various pots and pans crashing in the kitchen and Brian cursing loudly.

"I'm going to order pizza!" Brian yelled up to me from the kitchen as another loud thump echoed from there.

"Alright!" I hollered back down, while the shock of the situation hadn't completely worn off, I was just happy to be alive and out of there at this point. I couldn't have asked for anything more than what I've already got and I will forever be grateful for Brian and him letting me live here with him.