Hi, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME XD I'm sorry it's taken this long for me to update, I know lots of you said you liked it when I updated every couple of days, but college is back now, I have tons of work to do and also University applications to sort out. Anyway, sorry for the wait.. :/

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, because I love finding out what you think. I'm aware this story has gotten a bit out of hand now, and tbh I wasn't planning on making it this long, I wasn't even originally planning on going into any detail about who was harassing Kris but people seemed to want to know so I came up with something and then it got violent sorry... :/

Hope this is ok :)

Three days later

Tao is damn right, I don’t like his plan one bit, but so far it’s the only idea we’ve come up with. Over the last three days, after I down right refused, he’s persuaded me to let him try it. To say I’m uncomfortable is an understatement, however I know that if they do take him then it’s worth a try.

It’s late in the day, from what we can tell, due to our already having been given dinner, and we hear Tao’s door open. A cold feeling of panic settles inside me as we watch the same men as before walk in. They make a beeline for Tao who’s still not strong enough to fight them off and I’m left shouting in fury as they drag him out again. As I watch him being pulled from my sight I’m filled with terror. What if he’s not strong enough to survive this time?

Tao’s POV

I fight hard, trying not to let them take me, but I’m still not recovered from the previous torture session and I’m weak compared to normal. It’s no surprise to me when I’m restrained and taken out. I can hear Kris panicking and even through the fear that starts to overrun my mind, I’m so, so grateful that this is me not him.

They take me to the same room as before, as though trying to remind me of what they did to me last time. I struggle as hard as I can, but not hard enough, as they drag me to the centre and chain my wrists up again. I hiss in pain as they fasten them tightly and the metal bites into my already damaged skin.

Knowing it’s futile to struggle against these restraints, I try to twist around to see what they’re doing whilst trying not to agitate the wounds on my wrists even more. I eventually give up trying to see them and close my eyes, trying to block out the sound of Kris’s shouting, the anguish in his voice hurts, wishing this didn’t have to happen.

I take a deep breath, trying to prevent myself panicking. All my years of meditating have paid off and I feel my mind withdrawing in on itself in order to combat the pain I’ll soon be feeling. At least it can’t be as bad as last time… right?

The first stab of pain takes me by surprise and I’m unable to stop myself crying out in shock. I hear a laugh from behind me, presumably from the guy who’s hitting me. I’m not sure what it is but it feels wooden and definitely not smooth. After hearing my first reaction, they seem to be enjoying themselves even more and start hitting me harder.

I hiss in pain as they repeatedly slam it into my back, my lack of shirt making this all the more painful and I feel my skin splitting. I wonder how long I can hold out and after a few minutes of letting myself cry out in pain and getting closer and closer to actual unconsciousness, I decide to initiate my plan.

After a particularly hard hit, I cry out, slump down and relax my body, forcing my face to go blank as the sweat runs down it and ignoring the horribly sharp pain from my wrists, feeling the sensitive skin tear. My eyes shut and I feign unconsciousness, which isn’t too difficult as the pain is pushing me close to blacking out anyway.

I hear them muttering to each other before they hit me again. I force myself not to react, inwardly yelling in pain as they hit my sore and torn back. I can hear Kris yelling my name and I’m unsure whether he’s just playing his part or is really panicking.

I keep my breath shallow as I hear one say “get some cold water”. I hear the other move away and sense when he returns. I will myself to remain convincing, already aware of what they’re going to do. As the cold water suddenly slams over me, I let out a shocked gasp and my eyes open slightly before I roll them back in my head and slump down again.

One of them lets out a hiss of frustration as I appear too far gone to come round again and he hits me once more, before cussing and growling to the other. “This is ing useless. Let’s just stop now, I expect Wu gets the message.”

I force myself not to move, pushing down my anger as they confirm that the only reason they’re doing this is to hurt Kris. I hear them leave and remain motionless, hoping they’ll disappear like last time.

It seems my prayers are answered when I hear someone come in and start muttering to themselves after apparently seeing my back. I recognise his voice as that of our jailer and breathe a mental sigh of relief. I’m fighting to remain conscious as he unchains my wrists and the pain shoots right through me considering I’m basically hanging from them.

I slump to the floor, not acting at all as my legs give way. He catches me and I stay limp, allowing him to drag me out of the room, his hands gripping me under my arms and I can feel him twisting to glance behind him as he reverses us out.

I hear him muttering something like “they really shouldn’t go this far, he’s just a damn kid,” but my attention is caught but Kris’s voice as he speaks my name in panic. He’s close and although I feel so exhausted right now, I force myself to act, reminding myself that this may be the only chance we get. I wait another second or so, listening to Kris’s constant stream of worried rambling until he sounds like he’s right by me.

I snap open my eyes, confirming my thoughts, and see that Kris’s door is almost right next to me. I muster up all the strength I can in my weakened state and brace my foot against the floor suddenly, causing our jailer to stumble slightly. I use his surprise to my advantage and twist out of his grip, staggering to the side and throwing my full weight against Kris’s door. The push bar gives way and the door swings open.

I move out of the way, letting Kris out before slumping against the wall next to the door. I glance down the corridor, but there’s no one in sight and my attention returns to the two men next to me as I hear a loud thud. Our jailer staggers around in disorientation after Kris apparently slammed his head into the wall. Their skills are unevenly matched, however Kris has adrenaline and anger on his side and I watch in relief as Kris shoves him into the cell that he just exited, before tugging the door firmly shut behind him.

There is a moment of tense silence as they both glare at each other through the small opening in the door before I hear a quiet word ‘go’. I’m too tired to react to that, but I’m shocked that he’s just letting us go and I’m also very suspicious, but we’re not going to complain.

Kris wraps his jacket around me gently before helping me up and supporting most of my weight as we try to quietly head down the corridor.

Kris’s POV

We decide to head in the direction our Jailer always seems to go, and after a moment, we reach a doorway into a small, simple room which consists of only a few basic items including a table, chairs and a kitchen style work surface with a sink, kettle, a few draws and a microwave.

I can tell that Tao is close to blacking out so I set him down on a chair to rest whilst I check through the draws for anything that could help us. I grab some water bottles and some sandwiches which are on a tray, apparently ready for our next meal and shove them into a bag, thanking God for our good luck.

There’s one draw which seems to be locked, so I use a knife from another draw to force it open. I’m filled with surprise when I find our phones. No way. I pass a suspicious moment wondering if they put it there deliberately, but in the end I decide that they wouldn’t have expected us to escape.

I switch them on, checking that they’ve got enough battery, in the hope that the signal might be picked up by my father who should be monitoring for it.

Tao’s still barely responsive as I wrap some bandages from the draw around his wrists, before I hoist him up again and have to practically carry him, though I have no complaints, this is the least I can do after what he’s had to go through for me. I decide to head up when we reach a narrow flight of stairs, hoping that my hunch is right and we’ll reach ground level soon. My theory is that we’re underground, because in our time here I’ve not seen one window and it’s damp and cold.

We wander around for over ten minutes with enough luck to avoid meeting anyone yet, but when I spot the first window I’m also greeted with the sight of someone standing by it, maybe on guard but I’m not sure. He’s well dressed, maybe too well dressed to just be a guard, so I steer us in another direction, trying desperately not to make any noise that could give us away.

We wander around aimlessly for a while, and I can feel myself getting increasingly tense; I’m sure we’re going to be discovered soon. We’re taken by surprise when someone walks out of a doorway in front of us, and he lashes out without even thinking when he sees us. I’m forced to drop Tao in order to raise my arms in our defence and, probably due to my desperation to keep Tao safe, I manage to beat him. Luckily the experience didn’t make too much noise and I push him back into the room he’d exited before gently picking Tao up again and moving forward.

It feels like forever has passed as we dodge people everywhere, frustration building as we find possible escape routes which are blocked by too many people to take on at once, when finally we reach a door in a quiet section of the building and I can see a road through a small window in the door. I glance around before propping Tao up against the wall and deciding to risk the noise as I start breaking the door down.

I try to keep as quiet as possible, but this is challenging, and eventually I decide to simply focus on speed. It’s a moment of pure relief when the door finally gives and I pull Tao through, scanning the area for any threats. The air is cool and sharp and Tao seems to stir slightly, becoming more focused.

We head across the road, pushing through the thin hedge there and out into an overgrown field. Glancing back, I see no pursuers but push forward as quickly as we can, wanting only to get as far away from here as possible. We’ve got few provisions and we desperately need to find some help, especially for Tao.

I allow us a moment’s pause after a while without seeing anyone after us, and let Tao rest whilst I pull out our phones and dial my father’s number, nearly crying with relief when I hear the sound of the call going through, showing that there’s enough signal. I wait with baited breath for a moment before I hear the blessed sound of the call connecting and my father’s frantic voice speaking my name.

“Yifan? Yifan?” he says, emotion audible in his words.

“Dad?” I reply

“Oh thank God, I’ve been trying to find you for days, where are you? Are you ok? Is Tao with you? Is he ok?”

I cringe slightly at the barrage of questions but try to answer them one at a time, “I don’t know where we are, in the middle of nowhere it seems, can’t you trace the call? I’m ok but Tao’s in bad shape, he needs help dad.”

“I’m getting the call traced now; we’ll soon have your location. What happened Yifan, we were sent audio files of you and Zitao screaming, what did they do to Tao?”

I force back tears as I reply “they tortured him. They hurt him and made him scream just so I would hear.”

I hear my father gasp, “my God, Yifan, I’m so sorry. I feel like this is my fault, I underestimated these people, I thought the protection I’d got for you would be more than sufficient.” He pauses for a moment, “I’m going to get you out of there ok? I’ll make you both safe and then I’ll tell you everything. Just remember that I love you ok, even though sometimes I don’t show it.”

“Ok,” I reply trying to push away the feeling of blame as I’m filled with frustration that I don’t even know why this has happened.

I hear my father speaking with someone else and after a moment he says “Yifan, we’ve traced your signal, now we know why we couldn’t find you. You’re in China. We were looking in the wrong country damn it.”

I reel for a moment in surprise but then realise that really I shouldn’t be that shocked because everyone we dealt with whilst we were there spoke in Chinese.

“The men I have in China are no where near you; it’s going to take hours to reach you. You need to find somewhere to hole up for a while, somewhere safe where they won’t find you.”

I glance down at Tao, who’s obviously in pain, and say “ok, please hurry.”

We hang up and I crouch down to brush the hair out of Tao’s eyes. He forces his eyes open to look at me and even in his condition a small smile forms on his lips. I feel a rush of affection towards him and lean down to press a soft kiss to his mouth, “they’re coming to get us, we’ll be ok.”

He nods slightly and lets me help him up, wrapping one arm gently around his waist to help support his weight.

After a long while, several hours at least, it’s obvious that the huge house we were kept in was in the middle of nowhere. It’s night time, we’ve drunk most of the water already and are both exhausted, Tao more so, and I’m just about to stop for a while when I hear Tao mumble something about a light. I frown, glancing down at him but he seems to be too far gone to elaborate so I stop for a moment, looking around.

I’m filled with hope as I spot the light he must be referring to in the distance. I change our direction and head towards it, hoping that this won’t be a let down and that we might actually, miraculously find someone who can help us. I’m aware that this could be a risky thing to do but Tao needs help and rest and really there’s not much choice.

It takes us a while to get close enough to see the source of the light, but I’m filled with relief when it becomes clear that it’s a house. Maybe they can help us.

I don’t pay much attention to the building as we approach, just heading to the door and knocking. It’s opened eventually by a middle aged lady in a dressing gown. Her eyes widen rapidly when she sees us and after a moment of tense silence as she examines our poor condition she simply steps aside and lets us in.

After directing us to the lounge where we collapse on the chairs, she disappears off to the Kitchen to get us some water and food. As we eat she watches silently before heading upstairs. A moment later she returns with a man following her. I’m immediately tense at the sight of someone new, but after studying his reactions as I explain what happened to us, he doesn’t seem much of a threat.

It’s obviously painful for Tao when I peel my jacket off him gently, the dried blood on his back making it an uncomfortable experience. I clean his back with wound disinfectant, not even bothering to stop the tears of horror from falling as I see what they’ve done to him. He hisses in pain as the solution stings his cuts and I try to be as gentle but swift as possible before patching him up as best I can with the items they’ve given me.

They let us sleep on their sofas, promising to help us and giving Tao a plain t-shirt and black jacket. Before I go to sleep, I wait until they’ve gone upstairs before getting out my phone and ringing my father, I explain where we are and he traces the call, updating his information on our location.

After a short quiet conversation I hang up, eager to get some rest. I check on Tao, who’s almost asleep already, covered with a blanket. I his hair for a while, soothing him to sleep, aware that he might get nightmares tonight. Thankfully the sofas are close and when I stretch out on mine I can hold his hand comfortably as we sleep.

As I slowly drift off, I’m hopeful enough to think; maybe we’ll be ok now.

Voila, I know it's probably not what you expected but yep.

Feel free to comment, cry, rant, rave, fangirl, whatever takes your fancy :D And feel free to mention other things too, I like talking to you guys in general not just about this fic :)