"One more day," he said five days ago. 

"Just stay a little longer," he said twelve days ago. 

"These are only to keep you safe," he insisted as he wrapped the splintered rope around my wrists. 

With every breath of wet air I took in, dust came from the deepest pits of my lungs in return. The air that surrounded me was hot and moist, but my skin remained cold to the touch. Though it felt that I had cried for hours, the tears never reached my cheeks. 

There were days where he'd untie me and show me the world, and there were others where he'd take a thick scarf and wrap it around my eyes to keep "it" away. He never told me who or what "it" was, but I still questioned when I could. Whenever he'd let me.

He never told me his real name. I only knew him as Kai. 

"I love you," he always told me. Every time his fingers would brush against my skin, I would cringe. Whenever he approached me I would cower away in fear. 

I didn't know him; I'd never met this man before in my life. 

I would wake up screaming from the endless nightmares just to see him there waiting to comfort me. He would rub my back, run his fingers through my hair, ask me if I needed anything- all the things he could think of from the top of his head. In response I would shut my eyes and scream harder in hopes that he would disappear when I opened them again. 

No matter how hard I screamed and cried, 

I just would not wake up.

Time went by in chunks of light and dark that shown through the drapes that hung from my small window. As the time would go, along went my strength. I was becoming weak.

He would feed me and give me water, but my thirst was never quenched. The surface of my face incaved into my cheekbones, the bones of my ribs tickled my fingertips when I ran them down my chest, and my hair started to break from the ends up. 

I needed to escape but the the reality of it all was almost impossible. I never entertained the thought of fighting him because I knew I was no match. There's nothing out there for me any ways, as he would say. 

I began to play with the ropes that held my wrists together in front of me. Without much effort I easily pulled my hands free. Dumbfounded, I used my newly freed hand to pull the loose ropes from around the other hand. I was confused at how easy it was to pull free- like he never tied them tight to begin with. I could've done this the entire time. 

Dismissing the thought, I gathered up the little strength I had to climb up the stairs to the entrance of his basement. I turned the door knob, and to my surprise it was unlocked. 

The ropes were loose, and the door was unlocked.

He was mocking me. 

To keep the hinges from creaking, I pushed the door slowly towards the wall. Once there was a big enough space, I squeezed through the crack and made my way to the front door. 

The journey from captivity to freedom couldn't have been this easy.

And I've never been so right. 

Kai was standing at the doorway holding his key in the middle of the door frame- where the lock would be if I had never opened the door. 

The one second that we made eye contact felt like hours. If only I had that long. 

Kai lunged himself into my abdomen and knocked me backwards onto the ground, kicking the door shut from behind him. 

I fought him back with as much strength as I could, but he was too strong. He grabbed my neck and began pushing his hand closer and closer to the ground. I thrashed my legs and tried to reach for his neck, but couldn't manage to grab hold of him.

I was losing sight, but was still able to see his gleaming keys that were an arm-reach away from both of our bodies. 

I grabbed them and tried to jam them into his neck. 

It didn't break skin, but it distracted him enough to let go of my neck. With the one second it took him to grab his own neck, I rolled him off of me and ran to the kitchen. 

I nervously rummaged through his drawers to find a large knife but he didn't have any sharp enough. 

"Goddamnit," I cried as I searched through his cupboards. 

That's when I saw it. A telephone. I grabbed it and quickly dialed the police, 

"H-Hello? Yes please send help I'm in-" 

Kai grabbed the phone and chucked it across the kitchen before grabbing my neck again. 

"What the hell do you think you're do-" 

He looked at me with wide, pain struck eyes before slowly reaching to his neck- where I had stabbed him with a dinner fork. 

"Y-You-How could-Y-You," was all he could say before he fell to his knees. 

I sprinted from the kitchen to the front door where there were police gathered everywhere. 

Apparently a nosy neighbor saw rough-housing from the window and called the police on us. 

I was finally safe, and hopefully would return to my family and friends.

"Yes, twenty-one year old, Xi Luhan, was arrested earlier this afternoon for attempted murder. Once stabilized, he explained that he had been in a relationship with nineteen year old, Kim Jongin, for months and snapped once their relationship started heading south. In other words, he began to abuse him. At least that's what we interpreted from. His exact words spoken were, 'I'd never hurt Jongin; he was the love of my life. If I didn't get away from Kai, I wouldn't ever see him again.' He obviously has demons and psychological issues that need to dealt with before he's released. We'll bring more of the subject once we get more details." 

"Why did you stay with Kai?" asked the older male in the suit. 

Luhan shrugged my shoulders. 

"He had me tied up and locked away. What choice did I have?" 

"Luhan, that was all in your head. That never happened. You interpreted your abuse as.. I'm embarrassed to say... I don't know what you did." 

"Look at me! I've been kept away for.." Luhan paused to think, "For a while. Just too long." 

"Okay, well.. You tried to kill Kai. Are you aware?"

"Yes. I hated him."

"You also tried to kill Jongin in the process," the man added in.

"I don't believe you," Luhan muttered. He ran his fingers through his locks and placed his head on his hand. 

"Why is that?" Asked the man.

"Because I loved him."

There's heavy symbolism involved in this story and it's overall... Confusing? I've been told that the point isn't very clear. If you have trouble, just comment and I'll happily explain it! Please upvote!