Okay, tried to get into Frank, Peter and Carla's minds for this chapter, not really sure about it but I think it's kinda important to explain what's gonna happen in the next couple of chapters. (Anything written like this is thoughts)

16th August

Frank looked down as a police car drove past, planning his next move. He had changed out of his normal suit and tie into jeans and trainers, clothes that he wouldn't normally wear, so a discription of him could be floored slightly. The threat he made towards Carla was a hollow one, as even though he would do practically anything to hurt her, he wouldn't go as low as to hurt a child.

He wanted to see her, see the pain in her eyes one more time.

The threat was enough to scare her but I'm not sure it would work, and in some ways I am glad she called the police, I have more of a reason to punish her. I don't feel the slightest bit gulity about what I've done, it's what she deserves. The first time she was going behind my back with another man, and she deserved to be punished. The second time it was getting her back for going to the police, and now I want to see her again, one last time to score the hatrick. A little 'something to remember me by.'

He turned a corner and looked down Coronation Street. There was police cars outside the factory, and an area around it had been taped off. Frank went down a alleyway which ran down the back of the houses on the street, including Peter and Carla's. It was getting on for midday but there was nobody about. Frank stayed where he was as he thought what to do next. He knew how much of a risk it was if he broke into the back of the house, but wanted to get to Carla and he didn't think there was much chance of her coming out of the house in the next couple of days, and the police would still be on the look for him.

..

Carla sat on the sofa with her arms wrapped around her knees, resting her chin on the top, like a young child would. She couldn't think straight, her mind was all over the place, memories floating around on a loop.

Frank, the knife, the threat, the attack, the rape. It was happening again, like before.

She wasn't going out of her mind. She was going into it. Every noise, a car door, a shout, someone driving past, made her flinch. She couldn't get away from it, not even in her dreams.

She thought of Peter. He had tried to comfort me, help me, but that dream, it was so real, so vivid. I thought he was Frank, I screamed at him, runing away and breaking down because I was so scared. What have I become?

For the first time in a long time, she found herself craving a drink, craving the poisoned liquid. Just enough to numb the pain, for even a little while. But she knew where that ended, and it didn't make things better, the relief was only brief and the emptyness that followed seemed all the worse because of it.

..

Peter didn't know what to do. He couldn't say or do anything to make the woman that he loved feel better. It had taken her a long time to get over what happened, she may have not completely over come it, and now Peter doubted that she ever would. He had asked Ken and Diedre to watch Simon and Lottie for a couple of days, just till he could get a grip on things. But he didn't have a clue what he was doing.

Whenever I look at her, or try and talk to her, she just looks at me, no life in her eyes, no sparkle. I walked into the room and I saw her crying, deep sobs that racked her whole body. I wanted nothing more than to hold her and tell her it was going to be alright, but I couldn't. She won't let me touch her after what happened in the night, and it kills me that she can't let another man touch her, just because of what Frank had done.

He ran her a bath, filling full of bubbles and putting candles on the windowsill. When she walked into the bathroom, she turned and spoke to him for the first time all day.

'Thank you.' She gave him a hug, knowing it was on her terms. He left giving her privacy. The warm water soothed her, and let her relax, just a little bit. Let her fool herself that just for a minute, everything was fine.

It's a shame that I've got to stop fooling myself and face reality.

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