This chapter contains a scene of sexual harassment...it is not extremely graphic, but the events are not for the faint at heart.

Chapter 5: Learning You Were Wrong

"Hello...Hello... Darling? It's me Michaela! I came to talk…" Michaela called into the seemingly empty apartment. "Hello! Is anyone home?"

This time she received David, drunkenly stumbling into the entry way from his bedroom with a skimpily dressed woman under his arm, as a response.

"'Ello there Mike...what tooks yah s-so long?" David laughed in slurred speech.

"David...what...who...what are you doing?" Michaela stuttered as she found herself short of breath.

"Perhaps I should be leaven' now..."said the young woman as she went to grab her coat. "Sorry Miss, didn't mean to ruin your holidays...he said he was lonely and didn't have anybody..."she whispered to Michaela as she left the apartment.

"And I wasn't lying either...you're either off with Sully…or you're too scared to be with me..." David began heatedly

"I am NOT scared! I just may have higher morals than you!" Michaela yelled back.

"So you admit to being with Sully!" David shouted victoriously.

"NO!" Michaela shouted desperately back.

"Yeah right…and morals…humph…That's what you'd like to think...but I see the fear in your eyes every time I even try to kiss you! Do you want something to be afraid of...well I can sure give you that!" David screamed at Michaela. Then in one sudden movement David lunged at her, catching Michaela completely off guard, grabbing her arms and thrusting them upwards, while pushing her onto the carpeted ground.

Michaela tried to scream but he hit her jaw hard and then placed his mouth roughly over hers, enveloping her muffled cries. David began ripping at her clothing to no avail. Michaela kicked and squirmed with all her might to get free from his ruthless grasps. Fed up with her resistance, David grabbed his envelope searing knife from the coffee table and held it to her throat, while placing his hand over her mouth. Michaela's resistance ceased momentarily and fear gripped her every being.

Seeing her acceptance of her inevitable fate, David's lips curled upward slightly as he began to run the knife over the weak fabric of her shirt. Overpowering fear and anger spread through Michaela, as she gave one more try of resistance. Her leg lunged upward, knocking the sense out of him. Michaela used this time of weakness to get out from underneath his brutal clutches.

Sprinting for her coat, she had almost made it, when she felt the grasp of his hand on her shoulder. Michaela whipped around, only to find the knife slowly cutting a shallow gash into the base of her neck.

"I wouldn't move too quickly if I were you..." David snarled into her ear as she felt his heated breath smother her neck.

Looking up into his dark eyes and finding no hope of returning sanity, Michaela used her knowledge of the human body to swindle herself out of her bleak situation. Thrusting her palm upward with as much force as she could muster, Michaela broke his nose clean, sending him backwards in a state of confusion. As he stumbled backwards, still not sober from his obvious alcohol consumption, David hit the back of his head on one of the standing columns, causing him to slump and lean back against it. Letting out a small breath of relief, Michaela sprinted towards the door, not even bothering with her jacket, and bolted down the metal stairs as fast as her shaking legs could carry her.

And then she ran...She ran as fast and as hard as she could, not knowing where she was going or how she would ever find her way home again. Michaela just ran. Ran away from fear...ran away from suffering...ran away from anger and spite and everything that she had just bear witness to...And yet it was all able to catch up with her...no matter how fast she ran, she couldn't loose them...she couldn't forget.

Pausing as she found herself in a dark, foreboding, ally way, Michaela glanced about her surroundings, realizing that now she was both emotionally and physically lost. Sighing in fear and exasperation, her hand felt something hard as it fell against her side. One good thing had occurred that night...a misted the struggle, her cell phone had miraculously not fallen from her jeans pocket. Perhaps there would be a little more life to live.

Tears cascaded down her swollen cheek as Michaela gripped her cell phone. But who could she call, who could she trust anymore? Rain started to mist down from the ominous clouds above, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before they would pour out rain. Looking back down at her cell phone, Michaela's mind drifted back to the only man she felt she could trust any more...why she felt she could trust him, she didn't know...maybe it was thant twinkle in his aqua-blue eyes that seemed to be saved just for her...

"It's too late, he may be sweet, and kind, but someone would have to be mad to drive out at this time of night, to a lone street, to pick up a deranged woman, who is practically a stranger to them!" Michaela's mind told her. However her something deep in her heart rebuked "They say those whoare mad, are the ones who are delirious from love". "But Sully isn't in love with me!" Michaela chastised herself. "I don't even know what love is anymore..."

The rain had already collected it self from a mist to the beginnings of a downpour. Michaela knew that she needed to get out of the rain; for, despite the fact that it was not yet below freezing, her wet clothes and the chilly atmosphere would soon create a perfect opportunity for hypothermia to set in on her already damaged body.

Finally coming to the conclusion that she should try to get anyone to take her home now, Michaela dialed Sully's number and waited in anticipation to hear his voice on the other side.

It was 1:36 am according to his alarm clock. Who in their right mind would be calling at this hour?

"'Lo?" mumbled Sully

"Oh God, I woke him up..." thought Michaela, "Well what would expect at this time of night?"

"Hello, is anyone there?" Sully repeated sleepily and with a bit of annoyance.

"Sully..." Michaela whispered through unsteady tears.

"Yeah, you got the right number; can I ask who this is?"

"Sully...oh God please help me..." Michaela whimpered.

"Please, who is this...Mic–..." No, Michaela wouldn't be calling at this hour, especially to him...

"Sully, it is Michaela...I need help...please will you pick me up...I'm so sorry...please, please help me..."cried Michaela

"Of course I'll pick you up...where are you?" Sully said as he bolted up out of bed and fear and angst swept through him.

On the other end of the line, relief and gratitude smothered Michaela as she sobbed, "I really don't know...I'm lost...I...I think I'm somewhere near the edge of campus...er...I don't know!"

"Can you figure out a street name?" Sully questioned as he pulled on a tee-shirt and jeans.

Michaela began to walk down the abandoned alley trying to spot a road sign. Finally she spotted one at the end of the alley, forming hope, like the light at the end of the darkness.

"Pearl Street...I'm at the corner of Amber and Pearl Street..." Michaela whimpered into the phone.

"Ok, just stay there...I'm on my way..." Sully confirmed as he grabbed his car keys and fleece jacket.

"Please hurry..." Michaela whispered right as she closed her phone.

Rain started to beat down on her already cold and wet body. The rain mixed with the sliver of blood, which slowly emanated from the small cut on her collarbone. The wind began to pick up and caused an eerie sound to contrast the rhythmic beatings of the rain onto the ally. Michaela knew that David was most likely past out drunk on the floor of his apartment and would have no recollection of what happened earlier; yet her gut instinct made her wary of the possibility that he may come for her again.

The cold night air whipped around her and the downpour of rain was mixing with ice and sleet as the cold front moved in. Dressed in nothing but a thin shirt and jeans, Michaela sat on the frigid, concrete steps of a campus dorm, shivering involuntarily and sobbing into the night air.

The roads had become a slick mess of ice and rain; and driving on a university campus during a school break was not what Sully would call a 'joy ride'. He had already passed one group of college guys who had consumed their fair share of drinks that night. Seeing them only made Sully want to get the Michaela quicker and get her out of harms way.

Her distraught voice on the phone had sent shivers down his back in anticipation of what horrors she may have seen or been through. "What could have happened to her" Sully found himself thinking again as the worst case scenarios of what may have occurred to her came into his mind. He slowed down as he made his way down 12th Avenue and then on to Pearl Street. In the fading glow emitted by a street light, Sully saw a huddled form sitting on the steps of a college dorm. At first he passed it off as a bag left for the garbage, but he quickly realized that it was a wet and anguished Michaela.

Sully quickly parked his car and jumped out into the freezing air before running to Michaela's shivering body...

Michaela looked up when she heard footsteps running toward her. At first she thought of running again, afraid it was David coming to finish what he had started, but upon seeing his piercing, azure-blue eyes, Michaela let out a small sigh of relief and held out her hand as he moved towards her.

Sully looked into her contrasting eyes and saw all the fear and torture that the world had lay upon her. Grasping her hand, slick and cold from the rain, Sully slowly brought Michaela to her feet and put his arm around her shoulders to steady her as she stumbled towards the welcoming car. "Let's get you out of here." Sully whispered into her ear as they made their way towards the vehicle.

Michaela nodded slightly and, with Sully's help, got into the waiting car. Sully closed the passenger door and made his way carefully, so as not to slip on the ice forming on the asphalt, to the driver's side. While waiting for Sully's return, Michaela gazed out the window, into the shadows between the dorm buildings. As she peered harder, she swore she could just make out the silhouette of a tall, dark, figure. However she was awakened from her reverie, when Sully entered the car and the door slammed shut.

Sully glanced worriedly at Michaela before asking, "Where do you want me to take you?"

Michaela looked at her soaked lap, trying to decide where to go. She initially thought she would go to her apartment, but fear that David might come looking for her there pushed that idea out of the question. Michaela then realized she had no place to go where she could be safe...except for her haven...

Michaela shook her head, "I don't know...I suppose the hospital..."

"Are you hurt badly?" Sully asked as he raked her visible features for any major injuries.

"No...I mean the Children's Hospital...I...I just knew some children who might want some..." Michaela began.

"Are you seriously considering going to work...now?" Sully asked while a look of utter confusion and concern blazed his face. "Hey, if you want . . . or need to that is . . . you can come to my place . . ."

"Oh no . . . I couldn't impose . . ."

"Believe me, it would be no trouble at all . . . in fact, Will's out on some ski trip with some colleagues . . . I'd be happy to have ya . . . "

"I...er . . . " Michaela stuttered, trying to come up with a legitimate excuse, but the offer was much too tempting to let her mind think of an excuse. Instead she nodded in approval and gave Sully a small smile of gratitude.

"Well then that settles it . . ." Sully smiled back at her and began to drive back to his apartment.

Michaela never looked back at the shadows that had caused her to panic earlier. Had she, she would have found a site that was much to her dismay . . . for the shadow had indeed been David, and unfortunately, David knew the owner of the car.