Set Me Free

'...he may be tempted to visit'

"Sometimes the best way to save someone is to walk-away."

Daniel's POV

"What are you doing here?" Daniel asked the man before him. He didn't expect to see anyone here, let alone him.

"I'm here to see her, I come here quite a lot actually," he confesses, looking beyond Daniel at the gravestone behind him.

The man before Daniel was his uncle. He remembers him from his childhood, however he hadn't seen him in years, long before his mother's  death. Daniel's uncle Lucas and his mother were identical twins, and were extremely close growing up. That is until Daniel's mother met his father. Lucas hated him with a passion and believed he would drag his sister into the messed up life he lived.

Oh how right he was.

He had come to see Daniel a few times as he was growing up, however Lucas and his mother finally stopped talking not long after Daniel turned twelve. He never saw him again after that, he didn't even come to his mother's funeral.

"I guess I feel guilty about not being there for her, for not protecting her against the man I knew your father was. That's why I come here so often, to try and redeem myself somehow," Lucas admits.

Daniel understood why he came to visit, he imagines it's why his father does the same.

"This is the first time I have seen you here however," Lucas admits, finally directing his attention towards Daniel.

And so, for the second time that evening, Daniel tells the whole story. Lucas waits patiently, taking in all the details of the world Daniel had been living in since his mother's death. Once Daniel is done, Lucas takes a deep sigh.

"Jesus," he mutters, "that's intense."

He didn't know the half of it.

"So what now?" Lucas asks, "you have no where to go?"

Daniel simply shakes his head as looks around the grave yard. It was beginning to get dark and he knew he had to leave soon if he was going to make it back to the bench before the sun went down completely.

"Follow me," Lucas tells him before walking back towards the entrance. Daniel watches him for a second, wondering if he should follow the man he hadn't seen in nearly ten years. His curiosity won out however and he began to follow his uncle through the grave yard.

They didn't speak for the entire journey, just simply walked side by side along the street. Daniel didn't know what to say and wasn't in the mood to make small talk. He simply wanted to figure out where he would be staying for the evening.

Eventually, they stop in front of a tiny cottage with a white picket fence and a bright red front door. The whole house looked like it belonged in a Disney movie.

"This was your mother's house," Lucas admits, "before she met your father. I've been living here since her death, somehow it reminds me of her. This was always her dream home."

Daniel looks at the house before him and tries to imagine his mother living there. Growing up, Daniel had lived in a three storey townhouse filled with modern elements. He found it hard to imagine his mother living in this little cottage, content with village life.

"You coming?" Lucas asks from the front door. Daniel had been so lost in thought he didn't even see his uncle move up the pathway. He quickly follows.

The cottage on the inside was warm, as if someone had only just recently put out a fire. It was filled with ornaments, pictures, vintage furniture. It was a world away from the home he had lived in, however it was everything he remembered his mother to be. She had a loved for the old, the used, the repairable. She found things like this a challenge with the idea that there was always a way to make the broken fixable.

The pictures hanging on the walls were of Daniel, his mother and her family. A whole wall was dedicated to memories, memories Daniel could spend all evening looking at. He wanted to remember his mother like this, smiling, happy and surrounded by those she loved. She lost that a little towards the end, so consumed with his father and the danger he faced daily. It was nice to see that the moments she was truly happy were captured.

"There's a spare room upstairs, it's yours if you want it," his uncle tells him. Daniel can barley believe it. He started today off believing that he would be homeless, now he had been offered a home, a real home.

It had been so long since Daniel had felt like this, like he was truly at home. For years, he had lived a life where he felt unsafe, endangered. Now, he had somewhere he was safe. He had family.

Daniel makes his way up to the spare room not long after. It was warm and what most people would describe as 'cosy'. All Daniel could see was a bed, a real bed with real blankets. It had been years since Daniel had somewhere comfortable to sleep, somewhere warm.

So he laid there, on his new found comfort and thought about how his life had changed.

48 hours ago, he was still in captivity, 48 hours ago, he was on the cusp of watching the love of his life be murdered. Now, he knew that Elizabeth was safe, he was safe and his father was where he belonged, finally behind bars. Hopefully, he could put this all behind him, move on with his life and finally join society.

He could get a job, a house of his own. He could make friends again, go to happy hour after work and shop on weekends. He could do all the things that normal people do, he could be apart of the world again.

Daniel couldn't wait.

And yet, there was apart of him that thought about what it would like to do all these things with Elizabeth by his side. She could have shown him how to live again, shown him all the things she enjoyed doing. He could meet her friends, her family, be apart of her world.

Now, that was just a distant dream. He didn't know where she was or how to find her. He didn't know if she even wanted to see him.

Maybe she wanted to put this all behind her too, maybe she wanted to forget everything she had experienced there, himself included. The thought hurt. However, Daniel knew that it was needed, that it was better this way. She needed to move on, to enjoy the life she had been freed to live.

Now Daniel had to do the same.

He spent that evening flicking through the TV, it being so long since he was able to watch anything. The men that his father worked with often had the TV on while they were working, however Daniel was never allowed to sit and watch too. He had missed it.

He finally settles on the news when he finds a story that interests him.

"The three men that performed the kidnapping are currently in custody where they are due to face court in the coming weeks," the news reader reports as she stands outside the local hospital.

"The victims father, Joseph Nicholl, is also being held in custody as a accomplice to the organisation. It has been said that the kidnapping was a direct threat to Mr Nicholl for a theft within the gang. Mr Nicholl's attorney has not commented at this time. For now, the victim, Elizabeth Nicholl, resides in the hospital behind me as she attempts to heal both physically and emotionally from the horrifying ordeal she has faced. Back to you in the studio."

Daniel was memorised by the story, the story of what he had lived through there on the screen for all to see. Daniel didn't know that Elizabeth's father was in custody or that she was currently in the hospital recovering.

It was nice to know she was being looked after, and now he knew where she was.

Because you never know, he may be tempted to visit.