It Takes Time

29

Y/N had lost all concept of time since Haruto had locked her in the basement again. She wasn't sure what time of the day it was, or even what day it was. Y/N hated the basement. Haruto knew how much she hated it, which was probably why he had locked her in here. He wanted her to suffer for ever leaving him. When she had come back from work that day, Shouta had confessed to her, they had a huge argument.

Haruto had made her quit her job and then he had locked her up in the basement. He hadn't given her any food the first three days, almost as if he had forgotten that she was down there. And when he came down, he got so angry at her, that he beat her, before leaving her with some leftovers. Y/N was incredibly hungry, but she felt like she could barely keep the food down. After that, he brought her some food every once in a while. Y/N didn't know how much food she was getting a day, because she had no way of telling the time.

The basement was damp and completely dark. That was one of the things she hated most about it. There was one small light, but the light switch for that was outside the door, so it was always up to Haruto to either let her have some light or let her live in complete darkness. Most of the time she was in complete darkness.

It felt like she was going insane. At first, she had started pacing around the basement, but since she couldn't see anything, she would often bump into things and hurt herself. So, she had taken to just lying down on the old mattress that Haruto had put down for her and conserving her energy. Thankfully, he had given her a blanket, since it good incredibly cold in the basement during the night.

Y/N was sure that Haruto would never let her out of there again, that she was going to die in this dingy old basement. She wished she had listened to all the things that Shouta had told her back when she was still free. She might have been free and far away from Haruto now, if she had listened. It made Y/N feel terribly stupid. Maybe this was what she deserved for being so stupid. Maybe she couldn't hope for anything better.

After a while, she had started begging Haruto to let her out of the basement, at least for some time. Finally, he relented and let her out one time. She wasn't allowed to go near the windows or anything, but she could see it was the middle of the night and she finally could breathe much better, than downstairs in the damp basement. She only was out in the house for about half an hour, but it made a huge difference.

Some time later, she noticed that Haruto had forgotten to lock the door leading to the basement. Y/N knew it was a stupid thing to do, but as soon as he had left to do his shopping, she made her way up the stairs slowly. It wasn't easy to head up there while she was in so much pain, but she made it. She made it all the way to the window. Through the curtains she could see that it was daytime.

She wasn't sure whether she should open the curtains, just to get a look outside. She wasn't sure whether she'd have a chance to escape even. She was weakened from eating so little all the time. She knew she wouldn't make it far if she left right now. Maybe it was better not to look outside. Maybe that would make it easier for her to accept her fate. But then she had put her hand on the curtain, and she heard a knock on the window and when she looked out, there was Shouta. Right there, looking at her through the window.

Y/N had been sure that she was hallucinating. That she was going insane. But then he was trying to talk to her. Before she knew what she was doing, she was trying to open the window, but of course it was locked. She was crying. But Shouta found a way to talk to her. And that gave her enough hope to keep going. She had gone back to the basement and closed the door, pretending that she had never left.

Of course, Haruto noticed the unlocked door and he got angry at her, beating her again. But Y/N found it easier to bear, now that she knew that Shouta was still looking for her. She just had to stay strong and wait. She didn't know how long she would have to wait, and she had no idea how much time was passing down in the basement. All she could make out were Haruto's footsteps above her, the sound of the door opening and closing, and some other indeterminate sounds she couldn't place.