Set Me Free

'...he would leave her alone.'

"But part of surviving is being able to move on."

Daniel's POV

Daniel thought about visiting Elizabeth over the next couple of days. Every time his mind wondered, he would imagine seeing her again, seeing her somewhere else that wasn't that prison.

To see her in the outside world could change everything between them. They met through extreme circumstances, had no choice but to accept each other as a life line. Now they were both free, things might be different. Daniel couldn't help but fear that she would no longer feel anything towards him, that her feelings were based on the situation and not on him. He couldn't help but feel that now she was outside, now that had some perspective, that she may regret ever saying that she loved him.

That thought terrified Daniel more than anything he had ever gone through while living in that warehouse. He meant it when he said, that he loved Elizabeth and honestly believed that she meant it too. Now that he was here, now that there was no longer the idea of death hanging over both of them, he couldn't help but feel that she would no longer mean it.

He knew that he should leave it alone, allow her to get on with her life, allow her to forget him. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He had to know, he had to know what she was feeling. He couldn't forget about her, he had to know if her feelings were real. Even if it meant that she never wanted to see him again after that, even if she did wish to forget him, he had to know if her feelings were true, he had to know that she did feel something real while they were together.

Most of all, he just wanted to see her again. He wanted to see her happy, free, living her life. He was used to seeing her scared, broken, captured. He wanted to see the real Elizabeth, the one everyone else knew.

He was still trying to figure out who he was outside that warehouse, who he was without his father. It had been so long since he was free that he didn't know who he was outside of captivity. It was something he was desperately trying to figure out.

He knew that at some point he would need to get a job, to become a part of society again. For the last couple of days, he had been hiding in his room. When he first left, he was so excited to be out again, to feel the breeze, to be a part of the outside world. Now, he was terrified. What if he had forgotten how to talk to people? What if people found him weird? What if he was never able to fully be a part of society again?

He was most afraid of the questions he may face. His CV would be blank for the last six years, he never finished school, he had no qualifications. How would he explain to people why he basically dropped off the face of the earth for six years? He wouldn't be able to tell people the truth; they wouldn't know how to handle the idea of him being a victim of imprisonment. He was no longer like normal people, his normality was stolen from him the moment he set foot in that warehouse.

He was a man with a dead mother and a jailed father with no life experience apart from being able to get blood stains out of clothing. He wasn't exactly desirable employment material.

"Daniel," his uncle says as he enters his room, "come on, you can't stay locked up in here forever."

Daniel wanted to point out how wrong he was, that he was the expert at being locked up. It was what he was used to. However, from the look on his uncles face, he knew his mistake the moment he had said it.

"I'll come down soon," Daniel tells his uncle. Lucas simply nods before retreating out of Daniel's room.

Lucas had been trying to get Daniel to go out for the last couple days with no result. Today may just be the day that that changed.