When Darren and Carla had got to Michelle's, Michelle ushered them inside and practically threw herself at Carla wrapping her in a hug. She pulled away when Carla winched and clutched her side.

'Carla i'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you.'

'It's ok 'Chelle.' Carla said in a quiet voice, raising her head to look at her friend. Michelle gasped when she saw Carla's face, a mixture of bruises and cuts smudged with make-up. Her once emerald green eyes didn't sparkle anymore, they just seemed like dull orbs. Michelle took a step back and looked at Carla properly. Even before Frank had destroyed her Carla was always thin but now she was just skin and bone. As Carla felt Michelle's gaze she seemed to fold in on herself, as if she didn't want to be seen. Michelle realised that all the fiesty energy that Carla processed had been cruelly stripped from her beaten body by that monster. Michelle was horrified.

'Oh my god Carla what has he done to you? What has he done?' Michelle almost whispered with tears in her eyes. She just couldn't belive it.

Michelle took Carla and Darren into the living room. As Carla sat down on the sofa and tucked one of her legs underneath herself, she breathed a sigh of relief.

'Missed you 'Chelle, I really did.'

'I missed you to Carla and I'm going to help you get through this.'

'Really? I don't want to be a burden...'

'Hey!' Michelle said sitting next to Carla. 'You could never be a burden, not ever and especially not after what this monster has done to you.' Michelle looked at Darren, who was standing with Carla's bag, not really sure what to do with himself.

'Thank you Darren for bringing her here, do you want a brew? Or would you rather summat stronger?'

'A brew, please, been a while since I've had a decent one.'

Michelle turned back to Carla, 'Do you want a brew or something to eat?'

'I wanna sleep if i'm honest, for the first time in 3 months I feel safe.' Carla gave Michelle a weak smile.

'Then just sleep if that's what you want and you are safe here, you and Darren can stay here for as long as you need to' Michelle said smiling back at Carla gently rubbing the top of her knee.

'Okay, thank you.' Carla put her head on the arm of the sofa and seemed to drop of almost instantly. Once Michelle had placed a blanket over Carla and was sure that she was asleep then she quietly slipped off the sofa and made her and Darren a cup of tea and they started talking in the kitchen.

'I can't belive he has done this to her, Darren and the fact she has suffered in silence for 3 whole months.;

'I know but the thing is what are we going to do now? We need to call the police as soon as possible but frankly we can't tell them anything without Carla and it looks like this is the first proper sleep shes had in a long while.'

'Also where is Frank now? He normally shuts up the factory by now but he could be anywhere...'

'Oh god I've been so stupid,' Darren ran a hand through his hair looking at Michelle worriedly.

'What? What have you done?'

'Frank rang Carla while I was there and snatched the phone off her and told him I was going to make him pay. He knows that I am Carla's brother because I went to the factory eariler to try and find her. He will know that I would have taken her from the flat. I used Carla's mobile to call you and I left it in the flat on the sofa, all he has to do is look at the call history and the last name was...'

'Mine' Michelle's face had gone pale. 'Oh god, what are we going to do? We need to call the police before he puts two and two together.'

As Michelle reached for the landline there was a banging on the front door.

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