Set Me Free

"And it's then that I fully breakdown"

"You know that a good, long session of weeping can often make you feel better, even if your circumstances have not changed one bit."

Tears escaped my eyes without my knowledge or consent. I didn't want to show this kind of weakness, to show that they could break me. However, the damn had been broken and now there was nothing I could do but let the tears stream down my cheeks.

I tasted blood in my mouth, my blood. It was running from my nose and I knew that if I were to catch a glimpse of myself, I wouldn't be happy with what I saw. My eye was throbbing and slowly starting to swell. At this point, it was becoming difficult for me to keep it open.

"And action."

I stared directly at the camera, unsure of what they wanted me to say or do. Did they want me to plead for my life, to beg for my father to settle the debt so they would set me free. I wasn't ready to give them the satisfaction of watching me plead for my safety.

The elder man walked around to stand directly in front of the camera, blocking me from view. Once again I couldn't help but flinch away.

"Joseph, we have something of yours that I'm sure you will be wanting back," he speaks, stepping away to reveal me to the camera. He was speaking about me as if I was an object, something to have, to be kept. In that moment I knew that I wasn't human to these people, I wasn't anything of value. I was merely a tool in their game to get back something they needed. It was then that I felt the most at danger. They could kill me and not even bat an eyelid.

"If you want to see her again, all you have to do is pay off your debt. That £50,000 that you owe me will work as the exchange for your daughters life." I nearly choked at the amount of money that was owed. My father didn't have that kind of money and he certainly had no way of getting it.

I was going to die here.

"It's time you decided what's important to you. The money, or your daughter." I was praying that it would be an easy decision, that he would do anything in his means to get me out of here. I wasn't sure that would be the case though. I was thinking of the man that raised me, not the man that I know him to be now.

"I will give your daughter a moment to talk some sense into you, a moment to beg you to save her."

And suddenly the spotlight was on me. I had nothing to say, no words to describe the fear I was feeling at this moment in time. I couldn't think of a way to plead for my safety, to make my father see sense and rescue me.

"Please," I finally muster, "please daddy, I need you. I have never asked you or needed you for anything in my life, but I need you now. Please, save me."

I stopped talking and the man shut the camera off after my silence. No one spoke for a moment and silence fell over us. I didn't know where we went from here, what the plan was. All I wanted to do was hide away and to sob into the flimsy thing they called a pillow. I just wanted to be alone.

"Daniel, take Elizabeth back to her room," the elder man speaks.

Daniel, the man that escorted me to this room, is by my side in a flash, waiting for me to stand. My legs feel stiff, and I know that if I attempt to put any weight on them, I would topple to the ground.

Daniel bends down until we are eye to eye, looking over my face and at the bruises that form there. He doesn't look happy.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he whispers gently at me, so quiet that no one else in the room can hear, "just let me help you stand." He offers me his arm as support, giving me the decision as to whether to accept it or not. It's the first time someone has given me an choice to make since I've been here, the first time someone's given me a say.

I accept his arm.

Slowly, we stand. His support is the only thing keeping me upright at the moment and I'm grateful that no one has to watch me pathetically fall to the floor. They have already embarrassed me enough for today, for me to fall before them now would be the ultimate sign of surrender.

And I wasn't ready to surrender yet.

Daniel leads me out of the room, one arm wrapped around my waist and the other holding tightly onto my arm.

This isn't to keep me in my place, to keep me from trying any sort of escape or running. His gesture is to keep me supported, to help me walk. Once again, I wonder about the nature of his behaviour and how contradictory it is from my other captors.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask. He doesn't turn to look at me, doesn't acknowledge that I have spoken. Instead he continues to walk with me clinging to him like a lifeline. "Why are you helping me?" I ask again.

Since I've been here, no one had listened to me, no one has answered me. I need answers, I need to understand what is going on here and the world I had just entered.

And I needed to know about him.

He was different than the others. He didn't have their dead eyes or their joy within the menace. He seemed so out of place here that I needed to know how he ended up here as well. Was he being held against his will?

"Everyone needs help once in while," he finally answers me. His voice is deep, dark and sultry. He speaks just above a whisper and I almost have to move closer to him to hear exactly what he is telling me.

"Usually that help doesn't come from a kidnapper."

He once again doesn't answer me. Maybe he was at a lost on how to answer, maybe there were no words to explain why he was being so nice. Maybe he was unsure of the answer himself.

We finally reach the place that had been described as my room and Daniel unlocks the door. Once in, I realise just how cold it was in here and how I had nothing more than a thin blanket for warmth.

"Get some rest," Daniel tells me, "I think they may have more plans in store for you tomorrow."

With that he leaves the room, and leaves me alone.

I collapse down onto my makeshift bed, my head fully buried into the pillow.

And it's then that I fully breakdown.