[Trigger warning: This Chapter contains abuse and strong language. Reader discretion is advised.]

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The screen flickered violently from the impact before finally going black.

"You fucking bastard! You ruined my time with my girl!" Jacob roared at the top of his lungs before pushing himself to his feet.

"I’ll kill you for touching what belongs to me," he spat, madness swirling inside his dull yellow eyes as he strode towards a bookshelf at the far end of the room.

Then, without hesitation, he pulled out a thick green book.

A low mechanical groan immediately echoed through the room as the bookshelf slowly began sliding to the side, revealing a hidden door concealed behind it.

Jacob pressed his thumb against the biometric scanner beside the entrance, and with a soft click, the door unlocked.

The moment it opened, it revealed a dark staircase descending deep below like a bottomless pit leading straight into hell itself.

Closing the door behind him, Jacob began descending the staircase as sensor lights flickered on one after another the deeper he went.

The moment he reached the bottom, warm, dim lights illuminated the hidden space, revealing a small grey-walled room with no windows and no visible exit besides the staircase behind him.

The room was eerily silent.

At its centre stood a wrought-iron bed, where a blonde-haired woman lay weakly atop a thin mattress with nothing to cover her skin. Heavy metal chains restrained both her wrists and ankles, the cold steel digging cruelly into her pale skin.

She stayed so still that at first glance, one might have questioned whether she was even still alive.

The sight of her blonde hair instantly brought a twisted smile back onto Jacob’s face.

Slowly, he approached the bed before crouching beside her with disturbingly gentle movements.

His fingers slid possessively through her tangled blonde hair before he gripped her chin and forced her face towards him, revealing bruised lips, swollen cheeks, and skin marked by unmistakable abuse.

The woman’s eyes fluttered open weakly, revealing dull light-brown irises completely drained of life, fear, and hope.

She looked less like a living person and more like an empty shell barely clinging to existence. Yet the sight of her in such a shattered state only seemed to satisfy Jacob even more as the madness inside his eyes only deepened.

As soon as she registered Jacob’s presence, her eyes widened in terror before she desperately tried scrambling away from him.

But he was far stronger.

All he had to do was tighten his grip around her jaw for a pained whimper to escape her lips.

Tears immediately welled in her eyes as she whispered weakly, "P-please... l-let me go. Please... I-I won’t tell anyone..."

"Shh... calm down," Jacob whispered soothingly as his other hand moved to her matted blonde hair, gently stroking it as though she were nothing more than a pet. "You know I won’t hurt you if you behave, don’t you... my little Aliana?"

The woman trembled and sobbed softly as she closed her eyes upon hearing him address her by that name again. A name that was not hers, just like he had on the very first day he brought her here.

The very day that sealed her fate and dragged her straight into a living hell.

If only she could turn back time, she would have never dared to share a drink with this monster. Never followed him back to his apartment for what she foolishly believed would be nothing more than a one-night stand.

But what she thought would end with the arrival of the new day, became the beginning of her nightmare instead.

She never saw the sunlight again after that day. Because when she woke up next, she found herself chained like a prisoner, stripped bare and trapped inside this cursed room.

She no longer knew how many days had passed since she stopped counting. Time itself had become meaningless within these suffocating walls.

Yet every single night, this man would come down to visit her, violating her while calling out the name of a woman she did not even know.

He fed her just enough food and water to keep her alive, granting her those small mercies only when she surrendered to his twisted desires and allowed him to use her however he pleased.

She thought she was going to die in this place, yet she still clung to that tiny shred of hope. Wishing that one day he would finally let her go or that someone would somehow find her.

But deep down, she knew no one was coming. Her parents lived overseas, and he knew that too. That was exactly why she had become the perfect target for this monster in the first place.

All too quickly, she was pulled out of her thoughts when he suddenly yanked her chin closer to him in a bruising grip, making her whimper softly in pain as he whispered.

"Now you know what to do, Aliana, right? Be a good girl, and maybe you’ll get something delicious to eat later, hmm? And don’t test my patience today, because you’re the one responsible for making me upset."

She cried softly, her voice trembling, "Please... I-I can’t."

"Tch." His eyes darkened dangerously.

"You knew this would happen the moment you went to another man like some filthy little slut who belongs to no one but me, right? Now come here, suck obediently. Repent for your sins of letting another man touch you," Jacob hissed coldly.

The woman had no idea what he was talking about, but one thing had become painfully clear to her long ago.

This man was completely insane!

He did not see her for who she truly was. In his twisted mind, she was nothing more than the woman named Aliana.

And with every passing night, the little hope she had left continued to die a slow and painful death.

So when he finally released her chin, she moved like a lifeless doll, silently preparing herself for yet another endless night of torment beneath the hands of the monster who had stolen her freedom.