CHAPTER ONE

Kelly Ward could taste the iron in the blood that dripped into her mouth. Her hands shook and trembled violently as she held her cell phone to her ear waiting for her best friend to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Call 911!” She breathed. “Jesse is trying to kill me!” She cried into the phone hoping Chantelle heard her whispered cry.

“LET ME IN YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Jesse screamed delivering another blow to the outside of the bathroom door.

Sitting on the white tiled floor, Kelly had her back to the door bracing her feet against the wall when her friend responded. “KELLY? Kelly! I’m calling now! Hold on!” Chantelle screamed on the other end.

The phone slipped from Kelly’s hand, and it slid across the tiled floor when another blow to the door made her back bounce off of it, and her hands hit the bathroom tile in an effort to brace herself.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” She yelled.

“YOU FUCKING BITCH! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” He screamed, delivering another blow to the already weakened frame. This time she heard the door crack.

A moment later everything went silent…

The silence was so numbing that she wondered if something had already happened to her. Perhaps, she would blink and see her body lying lifelessly in a pool of blood.

They say that people die without knowing what hit them. Maybe that was the reason for the eerie, otherworldly silence that seemed to ring all too loudly in her ears.

Yet, it didn’t take long for Kelly to realize that she was still very much connected to her body and it was relentlessly trembling uncontrollably. Breathing heavily she continued to hear and feel her own heartbeat, throbbing with a fervor, as if it would rupture at any moment and beat right through her chest.

Then, she heard a clinking sound coming from the door knob. Twisting her head, she looked up at the knob through watery eyes to see the handle twerking from side to side. Seeing this, she quickly whipped around on her knees, clasping the knob with her two hands.

Despite her efforts, the door finally smashed into her, knocking Kelly on her back. With her hands up in the air, she looked at Jesse like a caged animal. “No...No...No!!!” She screamed as he grabbed her by her long blonde hair dragging her back into the living room. Trying to fight back, her hands came up grabbing at his, clawing at him with her nails, trying to force him to release her.

“No Jesse...PLEASE!” She begged as she felt her hair being released with such haste that she smacked her head on the floor. When she recovered, she noticed him now standing above her while she laid on the ground, helplessly gaping up at him.

Bracing herself for the blow, she curled in the fetal position, but it was too late. She felt the crack of her ribs as his boot connected hard with her stomach. “You piece of shit! You’re worthless!” Jesse spat as he continued to kick her in the stomach.

The last blow almost left her unconscious when she felt his boot connect with her face. Her head spun back, and she could once again feel the blood trickle out of her mouth, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She lay on the floor in a pool of her own blood not being able to move. The pain was unbearable as she tried to open her badly battered eyes. Kelly watched him through slits walk to the kitchen and grab a knife. She knew this was her last chance. If she didn’t do something now, she was certain that she would die.

Despite her broken body’s objections, she dragged herself to the couch, so she was leaning upright against the furniture. Frantically looking at the table for anything to grab, she spotted her nail file. Grabbing it quickly she held it tight in one hand as she watched Jesse approach.

His mouth curled wickedly when he knelt down and stared. “Ya know. I have no idea what I ever saw in you. What a fucking waste of two years.” He sneered waving the knife in front of her face.

All she could smell was the strong odor of bourbon that rolled off his tongue as he snarled at her. Kelly’s eyes were so badly swollen from the earlier blows that she could barely see. How could she have spent two years of her life with this monster? And it was going to end like this? She studied his face and tried to look into the green eyes she once knew. Whimpering she pleaded one last time. “Jesse, Please. Don’t do this.”

Shaking his head back and forth he spat. “Sorry Kelly, but you’re just not worth saving.” With that, she watched as he brought the knife under her arm by her breast slicing into her flesh along her rib cage. She screamed out in pain, raising her hand and stabbing his arm that held the knife.

“You fucking bitch!” He growled dropping the knife.

Kelly could hear the sirens in the background. Help was coming. If she could just hold on for a little longer. She thought she heard the door get busted in when she felt the knife slide into her side again taking her breath away.

Opening her eyes one last time she saw two cops holding Jesse face down and handcuffing him. His last whispered words were. “I will kill you, Kelly!”

Everything went spotted and turned black.