Fear.

Ice cold fear.

That's all I felt.

Here, right in front of me was the man who had hurt me more than any other person had. The man who still haunted my nightmares to this very day.

That monster was now sat in my living room, on my couch, right before me. His cold grey eyes stared at me as an evil, disgusting grin appeared on his thin lips.

"Alice....."

His words were slurred and sloppy. Ryan was wasted. What had I ever seen in him? He was a beast.

In fact upon closer inspection, I saw that the beer smell had clearly been him. There were empty bottles everywhere.

"How are you here?"

He let out a drunk laugh as his head rolled back slightly.

"I got released early. Good behavior and very close friends on the inside. My case was reviewed after some incident where you were deemed....unstable. Apparently you claimed that some guy kidnapped you.... did me a favor though. Even made them reconsider those bruises of yours, they believe you made it all up, hurt yourself on purpose."

I was shaking like a leaf now, barely able to hold my own weight. He hadn't even served a full year!

"Anyway, it wasn't hard to get your new address but then I saw the place was empty. Broke in through the window..... anyway, I got here yesterday and don't intend to leave, At least not without you."

I gulped and directed my gaze down to the floor. If I had learnt anything from being Ryan's girlfriend, it was how to behave correctly. Never look him in the eyes unless he was speaking to you, in that case make sure you give him your full attention. But don't be too invasive, then again always ask how his day was so that you come across as interested about his life but not at all snoopy. Most importantly, always do as your told. Never say no, ever.

"Where did you go last night Alice, you weren't here?"

That's right, he didn't know about Antonio. I couldn't tell him though. His reaction wouldn't be good, he would either lash out and call me a liar or would punish me for seeing another man. I needed an excuse, and a believable one at that.

"I err..... I had to stay over night at work..... there was this patient and I had to study their sleeping pattern."

It was complete and utter bullshit but Ryan was so drunk that he'd buy absolutely anything that I said.

"Well I'm back now. Things will go back to the way they were. Go make some dinner, I'm starving."

Before he even had the chance to call me back over, I hurried off in the direction of the kitchen to make dinner, like Ryan had requested. I waited for a couple of seconds before rushing to the front door. I searched my pockets in a panic to find my keys so that I could leave. The sooner I got out and searched for help, the better. I had no clue how the hell I would reach Antonio. I knew that he'd be tracking me and keeping an eye on my location so maybe I could make it seem as if I'd escaped. Then again, I didn't want to get punished and it was very doubtful that Antonio would believe the truth. What was worse, abuse from Antonio or Ryan?

Just as I pulled on the door knob, allowing some moonlight to spill through the gap and into the hall, it slammed shut right in front of me. I knowingly lifted my gaze up and sure enough, a hand rested on it's frame. I slowly turned to face a furious Ryan.

"Give me your fucking keys."

With familiar tears spilling from my eyes, I handed over the literal key to my freedom. As soon as the metal dropped into Ryan's hand I felt my stomach clench from Ryan's harsh kick. As soon as his knee made contact with my body, I doubled over onto the floor. I was severely winded and all the air had fled from my unprepared body.

"Nice try."

Ryan sniggered under his breath, in turn wafting the over powering scent of cheap beer my way. He turned and walked back in the direction of the living room, not before giving me another instruction.

"Dinner Alice. Now."

I let out a sob, accepting all I could do was wait for Antonio to return home. The only problem was that I didn't know when that would be. It could be anywhere from a day to a month from now, I didn't know if I could last that long. I grabbed onto the door knob, hauling myself back up to my feet while trying to regain a healthy breathing pattern.

"What the fuck is this Alice?"

Ryan screamed at me, while gesturing to the pan of ruined pasta. I hadn't been focusing on the food so now the whole meal was overcooked and mushy.

"I'm sor-"

"SORRY DOESN'T FUCKING CUT IT!"

He screamed in my face, knocking me off guard when he swung the pan at me. It didn't take long for the pain to take over once I fell to the ground. The still boiling water had mostly missed me, landing on the floor, but I was still splattered with it as well as having taken a blow from the heavy and scorching hot pan. I let out a moan of pain and then another when Ryan started to kick my already bruised body, leaving no recovery time between each powerful blow. It didn't take long for my consciousness to fade.

When I woke up, I was in the same place that Ryan had left me, pasta still all over the floor. I sat up and instantly hissed in pain. My stomach was on fire, having taken most of the hits, and I felt dizzy from the disorientation of sitting up too quickly.

Once I had successfully gotten back up on my feet, I noticed that it was now morning time thanks to my clock that was situated in the kitchen. The sun could also be seen through the window, surrounded by happy blue skies. The weather was anything but corresponsive to how I currently felt.

I doubted that Ryan would be up yet but it was ten in the morning so I figured I should start to make some breakfast for him. Always have breakfast ready for when he woke up and never eat without his permission.

I had no choice but to bite through the pain, having found none of my usual pain medication in my cupboards. Antonio had clearly removed all of them which left me with no relief from whatever hurt Ryan would inflict on me.

I pulled out some bacon, eggs and bread before preparing the food. I'd only make enough for one large portion. I knew that Ryan wouldn't let me eat, he never did after a lashing out, but I hoped he would offer me something if he had more than enough. I know that it seemed to make sense to sneak something before hand, but if I did that he'd know. He always found out. It just wasn't worth it.

"Smells good."

My head shot up towards the direction of the voice, my body jumped in shock.

"Thank you."

Always acknowledge his compliments.

Ryan walked over to the table and pulled out a chair, leaving all of the work up to me. However it didn't take long for the food to cook and Ryan to be served his hot meal. Without even looking up at me, he began to scoff down his food. He was always starving when hungover. It was obvious that I wasn't going to eat this morning, I suppose that there was always lunch....

"What happened to the phones?"

I frowned for a moment in confusion before I realized that he was referring to how Antonio had taken them all away or at least cut them.

"I didn't use the landline so was getting rid of it and my mobile broke."

He nodded simply before bringing his attention back to his plate. He was never the brightest.

I on the other hand, still hadn't even sat down. That was another thing that I needed to wait for permission from Ryan to do. My aim was to get out of this house as unharmed as possible and that meant following every single one of his stupid rules.

I knew that my time with Ryan would be hard to cope with. I was just getting used to being with Antonio and being his wife- shit.

The ring.

I hesitantly glanced down to the sparkling ring that was on my finger and gulped. Ryan hadn't noticed it yet but God help me if he did. I had to get it off. Now. I turned around and walked over to the kitchen countertop.

"What are you doing?"

I looked over my shoulder to Ryan and smiled sweetly.

"I was just going to get you some orange juice."

He grunted in approval, it was an animalistic sound- like a cave man would make, ignoring it I scurried off to the fridge.

Ryan was too occupied with eating to notice me slipping off the ring and tucking it away on one of the kitchen shelves behind some jars. Wearing it on my clothes would be too risky but he'd never go through the cupboards, as if he would cook anything. I was a maid to him, meaning he'd never have any reason to touch the shelves. I then grabbed a glass to pour his juice.

I had managed to last the whole day without any additional beatings, but due to the lack of food was extremely lethargic and exhausted. For that reason, I was more than ready for bed by the time my chores were finished. I'd been allowed to shower and had now changed into my pajamas.

When I stepped out into the bedroom Ryan was already in bed. I cautiously climbed in next to him but my heart hammered in my chest when he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

Please no.

I instinctively tried to lie back down, wanting nothing more then to go to sleep but Ryan took that as an opportunity to get on top of me instead.

It didn't take long for his clammy hands to unceremoniously yank off my clothes and his alcohol scented mouth to clamp over mine, preventing any pleads from leaving it. I could do nothing but silently cry as Ryan continued his disgusting assault on me, more specifically my body. I knew that he had seen my tears however it didn't stop him. He only cared about using my body for his own pleasure, for sex.

It didn't take long for Ryan to finish and once he did I rolled over onto my side, void of any emotion. I allowed his repulsive body to close around mine in an unwanted hug as I focused all of my attention on the bedside clock.

I just had to last until Antonio returned home. He'd come back for me soon. He would save me.