A/N: I'm not sure about this story - I'm not sure why I'm publishing it -, but the idea has been on my mind for a while and I decided to give it an opportunity. I'm not happy with my writing lately, but hopefully you won't think it's bad as I think it's. Enjoy the first chapter of my newest story and first from 2012. This story is set in 2005. As always, I'm sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. English isn't my first language.


Never Alone

Chapter One - Pretense

Her gloomy hazel eyes stared at her own image reflected by the large bathroom mirror. The blonde woman almost couldn't recognize herself. The woman in the mirror couldn't be her.

Stacy Keibler wrapped her delicate and trembling fingers around the black eyeliner placed on top of the bathroom counter. The bruises left on her right wrist were fading away - luckily it had been broken as she initially thought - and it didn't hurt her anymore when someone touched her there. However, the emotional bruises were still inflicting her pain.

In a dark dress with sleeves, Stacy made sure no bruises could be seen and her appearance was praiseworthy. He ordered her to always look pretty - suspicious couldn't be raised - and she didn't make intentions of disobeying his commands. As much as she didn't feel pretty anymore - he had taken it from her -, she would do it for him. She didn't desire to irate him.

The pink lip-gloss touched her plump lips. Not too long ago the soft lips were swollen. The flavor of the blood running from the open lip still haunted her. When it happened and his attacks became visible, he stopped hurting her for a couple of days. However, as soon as the lip healed and everyone believed the lie Stacy made up, he started all over again.

What had she done to deserve this man? What had she done to be hurt by this cruel man? Four months had spent since her personal inferno begun and Stacy was clueless of how make it come to an end.

It all started out of nowhere, his vicious behavior towards her. One day they were happily together, a blissful couple, and the next day he was verbally abusing her. It didn't take too long until he started physically assaulting her. Stacy closed her eyes trying to shun the thoughts of a certain night. She didn't have force to remember it.

The Diva wasn't stupid in love to stay in this abusive relationship. She did try to put an end to their relationship, but his threats locked her in a World of misery. Nothing could be done by her to free herself from him.

Stacy wondered the reason she hadn't seen sooner the man he truly was. Perhaps he showed some traces of his true nature before, but she hadn't seen them. Love made her blind - she saw what she wanted - and now she was suffering the consequences of her blindness. If she had only seen it earlier…

For how much longer would she handle it? Stacy's strength was fading away and she had become an emotional wreck. A single tear fell from her eyes. Quickly she wiped it without smudging her makeup. He couldn't see her crying. If he saw her crying things would get worse for her – worse than them already were.

The tall woman inhaled a deep breath. A smile flourished in her lips. It was a pretty smile, but fake. Optimistically, her boyfriend wouldn't notice the fakeness of it and would let her go without any punishment. After taking a look at her image - the dark circles under her eyes were perfectly hidden by the flawless makeup -, Stacy abandoned the bathroom.

His voice echoed through the bedroom when Stacy left the bathroom. The room was dark. Nonetheless, she found him staring at her on the middle of the bedroom. His eyes met her and the intensity of his glance horrified the young blonde woman.

- Where are you going? – He queried making a chill to run through Stacy's spine. He was using the tone; the tone of voice that warned her that nothing good was about to happen.

- I'm going out with some friends - Stacy replied without feeling secure of her answer. His rage could arouse at any second and she would be its victim. Things wouldn't look good for her if it happened and the tall blonde was very aware of it. She had gone through it so many times before now.

- Why didn't you tell me earlier? - He walked to her until he was so close that she could feel his warm breathing against her skin.

Stacy did not flinch. The blonde tried to show she wasn't scared by him, which was big lie. Nevertheless, her body language told another story - a different one. She was terrified with the hypothesis of what he would do to her. She didn't need to be an Einstein to know what was approaching.

The time to respond to him came to an end when he grabbed a fist of her blonde hair. The pain was unbearable, but Stacy bit her bottom lip not to scream and not to cry. The memories of the times she cried and yelled were still fresh in her mind. Her weakness put him furious and he beat her until she couldn't feel her limbs anymore.

- I told you that I don't want you to go out without me. Did your pretty blonde head forget it?

- If I had told them "no", they would think something is wrong - Stacy told him, trying to reach for his hands to make him stop - she was never able to prevent him from hurting her. The WWE Diva was used to be hit by him. Nonetheless, she would never get used to the pain.

- And is there something wrong? - His words were like poison.

- No - Stacy whispered without being able to control her tears anymore. They fell from her eyes, marking her cheeks. Unfortunately, the water trace wasn't unnoticed by the predator she once fell in love with.

With strength he threw her against the wall. The back of her head knocked against the barrier made of marble. For a moment her vision was a blur.

He turned his back at her and walked to the bed.

- You will call your friends - I wonder who wants to be friend with someone pathetic as you - and you will tell them you can't go out tonight. Your lovely boyfriend is taking you to dinner. - He took from her purse her cell phone. How many lies had he already obligated her to tell her friends? To her family?

With her vision returning to the normal, but with a huge headache, Stacy realized she was close of the main door. It would be easy to escape from him. Of course, next day he would be angrier at her, but today she could run away and to save herself from his claws. The atrocious pain could wait for tomorrow. Tonight it would be different. Tonight he wouldn't touch her again.

Slowly, the abused woman rose up to her feet. If she had done it quickly, she sensed she would have passed out. Her head had never hurt her as much as at that moment.

The right hand grabbed the door-knob and turned it around. The almost inaudible latch was heard by Stacy. He had only now turned around and became aware of what she was doing. Stacy didn't wait for him to approach from her. Another second wouldn't be wasted inside the bedroom waiting for him to mistreat her. Opening the door, she stepped out of the bedroom without think twice, without taking another look at the man inside it.

Feeling dizzy and her head throbbing, the blonde made her way through the hall.

He wouldn't come after her. To keep the fellness inside him and the violence against her a secret from his friends and everyone who knew him, he wouldn't come after her. If he was seeing dragging her back to their bedroom, his secret would be exposed. Everyone would have knowledge of the man he was. She would be saved if it happened, but he had always been so careful. No one would ever believe her if she revealed what he was doing to her. They would need to see it with their own his to believe a nice man as him would spank his girlfriend ruthlessly.

When she entered inside the elevator, her eyes closed. Leaning against the metallic walls, Stacy felt her body collapsing. The door closed. If she had energy inside her body, she would smile in sign of victory. She had triumphed. She was secure…for tonight. But to where would she go?

Stacy couldn't meet her friends and ask to spend the night in one of their rooms. It would be easy for them to realize something was wrong with her and the blonde didn't want to drag them to her relationship. He promised he would hurt them if she ever told what happened inside the four walls they called bedroom. His threats weren't in vain and Stacy would never wish her friends the same pain she was going through.

Perhaps she could rent a bedroom on a motel far away from this - from him. A night of peaceful sleep would be a miracle. When was the last time she had one? However, her purse was left back in the bedroom, the place where he was waiting for her.

More tears ran from her watery eyes. She didn't have anywhere to go. Her escape had been precipitated. She couldn't return to him. One night away from his hands was all she asked for. Was it an impossible wish?

The elevator stopped and its doors were opened to receive a new passenger. Stacy knew she needed to move because no one could see her fragile - rumors would be spread and when he listened to them, she was a death woman. Nonetheless, she couldn't find energy to be back to her feet. Her love-caring boyfriend had wasted her strength and the little that lasted had been used to run away.

Someone touched her shoulder, but she didn't respond. She just wanted to fall asleep and to discover everything she was going through was a nightmare. Her head kept throbbing and no solution was found by her not to return to her bedroom, to him. This needed to be a nightmare!

- Are you okay? - A voice spoke in a whisper - at least for her it was a murmur. Stacy almost couldn't distinguish the words and the voice was unknown.

The blonde didn't answer and nor she opened her eyes to see who was paying attention to her. She wasn't okay and she wouldn't be okay until her relationship came to an end; until he decided to let her go.

Stacy felt herself falling asleep…or at least she thought she was falling asleep. The agonizing headache was pulling Stacy from reality. It was making her welcome a place where he couldn't hurt her: in her sleep; in her dreams.

The consequences of falling asleep were dangerous. What if she had a concussion? She didn't care about it. The death could be the only way out of her despair. She simply wanted to close her eyes and to rest, to run away from the pain he inflicted her.