CHAPTER TWO


Yumi was still running though she had run for about half an hour or more. Her breath was ragged and deep, her lungs aching from Ulrich's constant chain smoking. Otherwise she would have been able to run for hours without any breaks or the breathing difficulties.

When Yumi had reached the freeway she stopped because even if Ulrich did chase her out this far he wouldn't touch her near civilization. Although he could be the kind of sick bastard that didn't care who saw what was happening or not. So she kept running, not stopping for anyone to give her a ride. She couldn't trust anyone at this point except for people she knew really well.

It was already down pouring heavily now so most of the freely running blood was washed away by now, though the marks on her head from the cleats and the bite mark on her neck throbbed in pain. The rain was blurring her vision so when she saw one of something it looked like she was seeing double. She was cold but the running was keeping her warm.

Finally, Yumi stopped and fell to her knees on the wet grass. It was there that she realized she had on a new pair of underwear. Ulrich must have done that when she was passed out for his friend when he came over. Her shirt was still the same though. The tattered black tank-top she had loved years ago. She'd have taken it off then and there but not in the rain and in the open. Who knew what other sick perverts roamed around at night?

"You fucking bastard," Yumi said quietly to herself as a car drove by and stopped. "You'll pay for what you did to me."

She heard a car door slam behind her and footsteps coming up to her.

"Ma'am are you alright?" a man asked her.

The voice was calm, smooth, gentle and inviting. Though some of Ulrich's friends had that as well.

Yumi got up and began walking away from the man and headed along down the side of the freeway.

"Ma'am?" the guy had called to her, trying to get her attention.

Yumi acted like she wasn't listening and kept on walking. The man behind her gave up and must have walked back to his car and took off because she heard the sound of a vehicle drive off. Then she was alone again, which was better for her for now.

She kept on walking, running here and there when she had the lung strength. By not it had to be close to midnight if not already past. Ulrich would have found her by now if he had decided to come look for her. So she decided to think that he was at home pacing back and forth with nothing to do. Soon she felt safe at last and kept walking.

She had been walking for about two hours now, feeling farther away from that monster than ever before. She was safe for now.

Yumi kept walking and when she saw the many lights of the town, she began sprinting as fast as she could through the rain and wet, slippery grass. She had stepped in a few mud puddles and encountered many glowing yellow eyes of the wild animals taking refuge from the sloshing rain. Her breath turned ragged and harsh again but she couldn't stop running. Just as she had neared the population sign, a jeep sped past her and stopped dead on. She stopped to see who it was though her instincts told her to keep running towards safety. The driver side door slammed closed and Ulrich came storming up around the back.

Yumi backed up and tried running but he had already grabbed her wrist.

"You dirty little rotten bitch," Ulrich shouted at her. "You tried running when I told you not to."
"Let me go!" Yumi shouted at him, pounding at his chest and struggling to get away.

"No. You're going to die you dirty whore and I'm going to be the one to do it. No one is ever going to find you so it'll be our little secret." He said this last part in her ear through gritted teeth while holding her to his chest tightly.

"No!" she shouted, struggling in his grasp. "You'll never hurt me again. Let me go you son of a bitch!"

Ulrich just tilted his head back and let out a great big laugh. Yumi took this advantage to bend her head down and bite his arm, sinking her teeth into his skin and tasting his blood. He yelled in pain and let her loose. She stumbled a bit and threw up on the grass from the dull and horrid taste of his flesh. He was still howling in pain when she was done so she took this time to start running again. She almost slipped a few times but soon she felt the pavement of the sidewalk beneath her feet, giving her better traction.

By now a fresh batch of tears were starting in her eyes as she continued to run. She took a left down the road turning off of Main Street. The rocks down this street were now digging into her feet but she didn't care. The farther from him the better. Some people were looking out of their windows to see her running.

She must have looked half crazy because of the ripped tank-top and underwear being the only pieces of clothing she had on her back.

Yumi's breath came short now and she could hardly even see anymore. She turned off the street and into a yard with a big house settling it. The house was two stories and painted white. The roof was low but just the right height. There was a patio going all the way around it and the door was solid white oak. The thing she saw first was that the lights were on inside the house, meaning someone was up.

Yumi collapsed on the lawn and found she couldn't get back up to make it up the three stairs and to the door despite the efforts she made to get up. She felt around on the lawn to find something she could throw at the door to get the attention of the owner. Her hands only grasped at wet grass for what seemed liked forever until she found two rocks almost right next to each other. She picked one up and threw it with what strength she had left at the door. It struck the wood with a loud thud that even she could hear.

"Help!" Yumi yelled as loud as she could manage through the tears and rain.

Thunder sounded behind her and she threw the last rock at the door. Her tears started again but in worry that no one would be able to hear her. She didn't know how far behind Ulrich was from her. And she was running out of time the longer it took. She closed her eyes and laid her head on the soft, wet ground and wept to herself. A few seconds after she did, the front door of the house opened and a tall figure stood there, looking around out into the dark. She saw him and wished he would turn on the porch lights.

When she saw him turn around she yelled in agony, "No, please! Wait!"

The person heard her and turned back around to look harder through the dark.

"Over here," she said a little quieter but still audible over the rain.

The person ran down the steps toward her, his blonde hair becoming visible in the dark as he came nearer. Yumi looked up at him, tears still rolling down her face. She looked up into his eyes and looked at his face.

"Yumi?" he asked her in surprise.

"Please. Help me Odd," Yumi stuttered, frightened and shaking.

Odd gently picked her up in his arms and carried her back up the three steps to his open front door. Yumi laid her head against his shoulder and laid one arm at the base of his neck on the opposite shoulder, feeling safe at last.

Odd kicked the door shut and carried her down the hallway of the warm house and took a left into his living room.

The walls were a creamy white with the same colored plastered ceiling. In the way back of the room in the middle of the wall was a plasma screen TV and under it a small entertainment center with a DVD/VCR and plenty of action adventure, horror and comedy movies. The couch was lining the right wall, the matching loveseat and recliner taking up the opposite wall. In the middle of them stood a polished pine wood coffee table with a beautifully designed rug underneath it. The carpet was a navy blue color and the walls were covered in framed pictures of celebrities that had signed them and framed newspaper articles.

Odd laid Yumi down on the couch and wiped her soaking wet hair out of her face. He got up and left the room to what must have been the bathroom because he returned with four towels. He sat her up and began to towel dry her hair with the first towel. Once her hair was fairly dry, he left again and returned with a change of his clothes. He removed her shirt and bra and started to dry her upper body off with the second towel before pulling his over-sized shirt over her head. He removed her soaking wet underwear and dried off her legs and the rest of her lower body with the third towel. After that he placed his boxers on her frail waist and used the fourth, larger towel to wrap her up in.

"Stay here. I'm going to get you some coffee to warm you up," Odd told her before getting up to leave again.

Yumi looked after him and then began to look around at the living room. She was shaking under the towel but felt warmer under the dry clothes and clean towel. She hadn't felt this much at home in a while but she felt a little uncomfortable because she knew she would have to show Odd all the wounds that Ulrich had given her over those few years. She knew he would ask about why she had turned up at the time that she did. He hadn't seen them yet from when he was drying her off because he was too busy trying to get her into warm, dry clothing and out of the wet ones she was in.

And the thing is that Odd didn't even know about everything that Ulrich had put her through before she made the decision to run away from him.

Odd returned shortly after with a cup full of steaming hot coffee. He handed it to her when he had walked over and then knelt down before her, staring at her with a pitiful expression that was inviting. But she chose to avoid his eyes and drink the warm coffee.

"Yumi," Odd asked her when he saw she wouldn't look back at him.

"Yeah," Yumi responded, trying to avoid crying in front of him.

"What happened to Ulrich?" he asked, thinking something bad had happened to his best friend.

She shook her head and said, "Nothing."

"Then why did you turn up in front of my house? What happened?"

She pursed her lips, closed her eyes and felt a hot tear roll down her cheek as she pushed her hair away from her neck with a shaking hand. When odd saw the multiple bite scars and a fresh bite, his jaw dropped.

"He did this to you?" Odd asked her.

Yumi hesitated but nodded slowly a couple times and then showed him her arms. Her arms were covered in cigarette burns and scratches while her upper arms consisted of cuts from knives and broken glass. She spread her legs out before him to show him bruises and gashes, some still open and infected. The last thing she showed him was the puncture wounds from his cleats.

Odd was horrified by every little thing she showed him as he looked at all the various wounds over and over again. Nothing in the world had prepared him for seeing one of his friends beaten up by another of his friends. He had dealt with dead and mutilated bodies with a well-handled stomach, but seeing this made him queasy and sick. He looked up at her and stared at her face.

"Tell me what happened Yumi," Odd said.

Yumi started to explain to him everything that had happened the past few years after their wedding night. She started out with that night when he had first started drinking uncontrollably. From there she had explained to him how he lost his first job as a technician from the lack of not showing up and how he went through all of his other jobs that he couldn't keep because of his alcohol abuse. She explained the first time he had started to abuse her and how each time it happened it had gotten worse. Her tears started to fall harder when she stated how he turned sex into a game that he played with his new friends.

By that time, Odd had crawled onto the couch with her but didn't do anything but rub her back to reassure her that he was still there at the times she had paused and started to look around at her environment.

Odd saw how shaken up she was because of Ulrich and with every gruesome detail he heard from her, his hatred towards Ulrich grew even more.

When Yumi had finished she had laid her head on Odd's shoulder and began to cry uncontrollably. Odd's arms had found their way around her and he sat there, holding her gently as she cried herself to sleep. When he knew that she was surely asleep, he gently picked her up and carefully brought her up the spiral staircase and into his bedroom.

He turned on the light switch with his elbow and carried her over to his king size bed and laid her down on the plush fabric. He pulled the covers over her body and walked to the door again, looking at her sleeping figure one last time before turning off the lights and closing the door.

Odd walked back down the spiral staircase and turned off the upstairs hall lights. He walked down the hall to the kitchen and walked up to the kitchen counter.

He looked out of the window and out on the front yard, looking for any sign of Ulrich. Half of him wanted Ulrich to show up and the other half of him wanted Ulrich to stay away from here and away from Yumi. After what he had done to Yumi, he wanted to kill him.

Odd walked to the phone and picked it up. He blocked his number and dialed Ulrich's house number.

It rang five times before it went straight through to the answering machine.

He waited for the beep before he began speaking into the receiver, putting all of his weight on one arm as he leaned up against the granite tiled counter top, looking down at the cream tiled flooring.

"Ulrich I swear if I ever find you, I'll kill you. You hurt Yumi and you won't get away with it. I promise you that much more in this friendship," Odd said before he hung up the phone.

Odd nearly threw the phone in disgust but refrained himself from doing so. Instead he set the phone back on the charger and turned off the lights before he left the kitchen. He walked to the living room and turned off those lights as well as the downstairs hall lights before he made his way over to the couch. He grabbed the spare blankets from the end of the couch and pulled them up to his chin.

He wrapped himself up in it and closed his eyes to try and fall asleep, but he already knew it would take a while before sleep caught up with him knowing that thoughts of killing Ulrich were on his mind.