"ELLIE!!" the brunette cried in terror and ran into the den where she had left Ellie just two minutes before. A young guy, no more than 20 years old, whom Tru guessed was the father, from the description Ellie had given her, was standing over Ellie, with a gun in one hand, and his other holding Ellie's mouth so that she couldn't breathe.
"You bitch!" he spat, "You told my mom I got you pregnant! And now she's chucked me out!"
Tru edged silently into the room, her heart pounding.
"W-Why don't we all just calm down?" she said, unable to take her eyes off Ellie, who's life was slipping away slowly before her eyes.
The guy turned, surprised that anyone else was in the house, and pointed the gun at Tru.
"Hey, you wanna point that somewhere else?!" she cried with the confidence she didn't feel she had.
"Who the hell are you?" he barked, worry slipping into his voice.
"T-Tru Davies. I want you to put the gun down. You don't wanna hurt Ellie."
"What do you know about this? It's none of your business!"
"Not quite with you on that." Tru replied, cautiously answering him back.
"Get outta here, now!" he cried, waving the gun at Tru threateningly.
"Sorry, can't do that, I gotta make sure you don't hurt Ellie. Whaddaya say we make a deal?"
He narrowed his eyes at her, looking her up and down suspiciously, "What kind of deal...?"
"You let her go," Tru said, "And I won't tell the police you raped an underage girl."
His eyes darted down from Ellie to Tru and he suddenly jumped up and ran from the house. Ellie collapsed on the sofa and burst into tears.
Tru ran up and hugged Ellie. "You're safe. You're alive!" she cried, almost in tears herself.
Ellie looked up at Tru gratefully, "Thanks to you." She smiled and then sighed, "This has kinda made me appreciate how much we take our lives for granted."
Tru nodded and smiled back at Ellie, "Yeah."