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Chapter 2
"Kristi, keep your head up!" shouts Coach Jim, Kristi's ice skating coach of fourteen years. "Keep your formation clean!"
"I'm trying!" Kristi mumbles to herself as she finishes off her routine. She holds her finish and then skates over to Jim. "How was that?"
"Good for any one else but sloppy for you. Why are you having such trouble today? Is something or someone on your mind?"
"What are you talking about? Of course not. My knee just hurts and I have been dealing with a headache lately. Do you want me to try it again?"
"Yes. First, go take some aspirin or something for that headache. What did you do to your knee?"
Kristi just looks back at her coach and says, "Nothing."
Jim didn't miss that guarded look that just entered her eyes and asks, "What is it? It can't be nothing. Remember, I know you so well that you can't hide anything from me."
"It's nothing."
Seeing that he isn't getting anywhere, Jim shrugs his shoulders and lets it go. He does however notice that Kristi is having major problems with her right knee. "Kristi, I should probably check your knee."
Kristi almost chokes on her water and says, "No! I mean it's okay. I've already taken care of it. No need to worry about it anymore."
"Are you sure? Why are you acting so skittish about this?"
"I'm not being skittish."
"Sure you aren't."
"Can I just get back to skating? Qualifications for the US Figure Skating Championships are in a month and from then if I make it, I only have a few months more to build up everything to perfection."
"Sure. Just promise me you'll stop if your knee gets worse, okay?"
"I promise," Kristi says before skating back onto the middle of the ice and taking her first pose as Jim plays her song.
After an hour more of practice, Kristi stretches out and then gathers her stuff to head home, just across the green lawn. Her family had inherited her father's money, which he earned by investing wisely in stocks and decided to build a moderately sized mansion with a private ice skating rink in which Kristi could skate in whenever she needed to, instead of having to deal with a public ice skating rink's hours. Kristi tosses her ice skates into her ice skating related closet in the entry way and slowly makes her way up the stairs, biting her lip as to not let out a big scream with every step she climbs.
Once in her room, Kristi lets out a huge sigh of relief and hobbles over to her stereo. She switches it onto her CDs and selects CD 78 out of 200 CDs and turns the bass and volume up as one of her favorite songs comes on:
"...I'm doing this tonight, you're probably going to start a fight, I know this can't be right, hey baby come on... I know that I can't take it no more, it ain't no lie, I wanna see you out that door, Baby bye, bye, bye..."
Kristi moves to her bed and collapses as she lets the music and lyrics drift over her and give her the inner strength that she so desires around a certain someone.
"You better not be thinking about telling me off with those intentions any time soon baby," Kristi hears a familiar voice threaten from nearby.
"William! How did you get in here?" Kristi exclaims, instinctively drawing her legs into her body, ignoring the pain that just erupted in her right knee again.
"How do you think? I of course just opened the door and walked right in. You really should lock the front door. Some rapist could one day come in and hurt my poor baby girl. Now that would be a sad thing, wouldn't it?"
Kristi chooses not to say anything and instead thinks, 'If only it was that easy to lock you out of my life.'
"So, what are you wearing under those sweats? My favorite underwear on you I hope."
"William, now is not the time. I'm sore from practice and from where you hit me the other day."
"Me? I didn't hit you! No, you just walked right into my foot. Clumsy girl. Don't you ever tell anyone that stupid lie either! You know you will have to face me if you ever do!" William threatens, moving towards the bed and grabbing a hold of Kristi's arm as she tries to get away from him. "You're mine, little girl, and don't forget it. Besides, I love you. You wouldn't want to break my heart, would you?"
"Maybe I would..." Kristi manages to get out before feeling William twist her arm behind her back and slam her against one of her walls.
"Don't you ever, ever say that again or I'll take you serious and take precautions to make sure that doesn't happen. I mean it! I have friends all over the place that could get you for me if you even think about turning me in anywhere. That's a promise Kristi."
"Let me go or I'll scream, I swear it!"
"Go ahead. You're all alone in your house, just you and me. You wouldn't dare anyway."
Kristi takes a deep intake of breath and is about to dare to scream when she feels something knock her offside her head and blacks out.
The next time Kristi opens her eyes, she sees stars outside her window and feels a huge headache begin to form before remembering what had happened just before she spaced out. 'What in the world hit me?' she wonders as she spots William sleeping in a chair beside her bed where she is resting. 'Could he have hit me with something?'
Kristi turns over onto her side and hears that William's deep breathing has ceased. "Kristi? Are you awake?"
"Yes William. What happened?" Kristi asks, closing her eyes, not wanting to see the look he may give her.
"I'm so sorry sweetheart! I never meant to hurt you! You just upset me and I slammed my fist into your cabinet and something that was stacked on top of it fell on you. I didn't mean for it to happen, honestly! What can I do to help? I was so scared!" William claims, sitting down on the bed and stroking Kristi's head.
"Is that really what happened?"
"I wouldn't lie about that! I was about to take you to the hospital too but I realized that you weren't bleeding so it couldn't have been fatal."
"Well, I will live so you can stop worrying now. I need to get my rest though, okay? I have lots of practice to do tomorrow and need all of my energy. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
"Promise?"
"Yes. I really just need to get some sleep here."
"Okay sweetheart. I'll wait for your call tomorrow. Sweet dreams!" William says, kissing Kristi on the forehead and leaving her room, closing the door behind him.
'Whatever that is that hit me must have been really hard. What do I keep on top of my cabinet that could have done that much damage? Wait a minute! I don't have anything on top of my cabinet!' Kristi realizes, sitting up to look at the floor around the cabinet and the cabinet area. 'There's no object on the ground to show that something did fall. He was lying! William must have hit me with something hard and got rid of the evidence. I can't believe it! How did things get this bad? How did William become so violent? I have to get out of this... But how?'