Rob looked up again at his clock. School had finished an hour ago, he had been home for half an hour…Karen still hadn't arrived. He stood up and got his coat. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach that he shouldn't have left her alone.
…
As he pulled into the staff car park he saw Karen's was the only car left. Everyone else had gone. Locking his car he got out and walked into the school, he was making his way straight for her office. He couldn't stop the awful thoughts running through his mind. He wanted to stop it, it was most likely that she had been catching up on paper work. However as soon as he got to her office and saw the paperwork on the floor and smashed mug he knew that something was wrong.
"Karen?" He spoke her name gently, pushing open the door to her office fully he walked inside. At first he didn't see her, she was curled in the corner desperately trying to cover herself with ripped pieces of her clothes. There was dried blood across her face mixed with tears and vomit. Running over to her he whipped off his coat and bought it around her shoulders. Around his he could see other pieces of his clothes, the thing that made him want to be sick were the ripped pants in one corner of the room.
"He…" Karen tried to look up but couldn't face it. There was another dry sob before she tried again. "Charlie…" Once again she couldn't put the sentence together.
Rob didn't need her to explain, instead he sat next to her and being careful pulled her close, he wanted her to be safe. "I should never have left you alone…" Rob looked down at the shaking woman in his arms. He couldn't help but feel that he could have stopped this. He wasn't even sure what this was. He was pretty sure in his mind, but he didn't want to think about it. They sat in silence, neither wanted to talk about what had happened, but eventually it was Rob that spoke. "We need to get you checked over Karen…you're hurt."
She looked up at him tears filling her eyes. "I can't…" She hung her head down. Letting Rob take her to the hospital or worse the police station would make everything that had happened seem even more real, and she wasn't sure that she was strong enough to go through it again.
"Karen…you can't let him get away with this." He gently touched her swollen face. "I couldn't live with myself…" He looked down at her, she was barely covered by his coat. The rest of her clothes were lying in pieces around the room. "Did he…" How was he meant to ask her that question? How would he find the words?
Karen looked at him. "I couldn't stop him…" Her voice cracked on the final word and the sobs started again. "He wouldn't stop…" It was all the confirmation she could give him, they both knew what she was talking about and what Charlie had done to her.
Rob felt sick to his stomach. Knowing that Charlie had come in here and hurt her was bad enough. But to think that he had raped her was a whole new level. "I wont leave you Karen…but we really need to get you checked out." He knew that he was pushing her, but he knew that she needed looking at. There were multiple bruises and cuts across her body that were visible, but they both knew that there were more wounds that couldn't be seen by the naked eye.
Karen looked at him. "I can't do it without you."
Rob gently lent forward and kissed the top of the head. "I'm not going anywhere Karen…we're going to do all of this together." He stood up and took off the shirt he had on. He slipped it around her waist making sure that she was nearly covered. Then he helped her push her arms into his coat so he could do it up around her. The bruises on her ribs had become more violent and he could see that every movement was hurting her. "Where do you keep your bin bags Karen?" He knew that it sounded a strange question to ask, but there was a reason behind it.
Karen pointed towards her desk. Her arm was still shaking and every movement still hurt. Her eyes felt as if they were dropping but she knew that she wasn't going to be able to sleep.
Rob nodded. "Ok, I need to take some of these things with us...I don't know what they're going to need though." He looked towards her. She nodded at him, he gently picked his way through the mess across the office floor. He made sure that he picked up her underwear and tights, then in a separate bag he put her skirt and top, well the scraps that were left of them. He had to take another deep breath when he saw the state of them. It was taking all of his effort not to vomit as he realised exactly what Karen must have been through. He picked up Karen's handbag and put the clothes inside. Then he walked back towards her. "Do you think you can stand?"
Karen slowly nodded. With Rob's help she made her way to her feet. He helped her tighten the clothes around her. She took a small step forward and her knees crumbled from beneath her. "I'm sorry…" She feel into Rob's arms and he supported her as she felt the tears come again. She had never felt so helpless before.
"Karen, I'm going to carry you. Is that ok?" He looked at her, he was pretty sure that she would agree to anything to get out of there at that minute in time, but he needed to make sure that she was having something in her control again.
"Yes…" She nodded at him gently. Her eyes were half shut so she didn't have to look at the office anymore. The last thing she wanted was to start thinking about what had happened.
Rob nodded and carefully lifted Karen into his arms. He made sure that she was modestly covered before gently walking with her out of the school.