How can a person say that everything will be fine when they don't know for sure? I've had countless people tell me that everything will be fine. You can see what that has led me to.

I'm out of breath. I feel dizzy. The tears are running down my face, but I can't stop. I can hear him behind me. I can feel his presence. I turn down a street and plow straight into someone. Whoever it is feels like a brick wall. I fall down and look up. I'm shocked at who I see standing there.

"Are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine. Sorry about running into you, but I really need to get going."

"Are you sure you're okay? There's blood on your shirt and in your hair."

"Its fine, I promise. Again, sorry."

I go to run, but there's a hand on my shoulder that stops me. I turn around and stop breathing out of fear.

"Electra, what are you doing running? You know that it wasn't your fault, don't you?" Joe, my boyfriend of nine years, asks with a sickening grin.

"Joe, please, I'm sorry. I just needed to get away for a while."

"And you thought running from me would help?"

Without warning Joe punches me across the face hard and I fall to the ground and into another bout of sobbing. This is how it always is. He tries to make it seem like it's not my fault, but then he punishes me for it.

All of a sudden I hear the sound of a fist hitting flesh and look up to see Joe falling to the ground.

"If you don't get out of here now, I'm calling the cops." Zak Bagans says through his teeth.

"You can't do anything you loser. She's my girlfriend; I can do what I want with her."

"Hitting her isn't the answer. She's human, not an object."

Zak reaches into his pocket and gets his phone. That has Joe running as fast as he can in the opposite direction.

Zak puts his phone back in his pocket and kneels down next to me.

"You need to trust me Electra. I'm not going to do anything to hurt you. My friend Nick and his wife Roni will help you if you'll let me get you to their house."

I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when he says that he will take me to Roni's. She was my best friend in college and her and her parents took me in and helped me through college when my parents died. I had been so excited when I had heard that she had gotten married to Nick, and now I actually get to meet him.

"Okay, do you happen to have Roni's number so I can call her?"

"Um, yea, do you have a cell phone?"

I shake my head no, and he pulls her number up on his phone and hands it to me.

"Thank you," I say as I hit call on the phone.

"Hello?" Nick asks skeptically.

"Is Roni there?"

"Yes, but may I ask who this is so she'll know?"

"Just tell her that it's Lectra. She'll know who I am."

"Oh, okay, um she'll be right here."

I hear him yell for Roni and then rustling.

"Lectra, honey, where are you? Nick said it sounded like you were crying. What's happened? Has he gone too far?" Zak can see how overwhelmed I am and grabs the phone.

"Roni, this is Zak. I have her, and she's pretty beat up. That guy should be leaving her alone."

He stops to let Roni talk and I can just imagine her going off on him.

"Okay, I'm bringing her over now."

He waits again.

"Yea, Aaron and I will take Annabelle somewhere. We'll be there soon."

He hangs up and puts his phone back in his pocket.

"Come on. My house is right there. We'll drive over there."

Okay, this is the edited version of Ch. 1. The next chapter will be all flashback to explain Joe and Electra's friendship and Roni and Electra's friendship.

I'm sorry for such a long wait. Thank you to everyone who is still reading this.

Much love,

xxsarabethxx