The winds were picking up and there was already heat lightening in the clouds when Mendalie dropped Runa off.

"Night Runes! I'll see you later," Mendalie told her as she jumped out and rushed to the back door.

She waved to Mendalie. "Bye!" She pulled out her keys and quickly opened the door.

Someone sat in a parked car, in the dark watching as Mendalie pulled away.

"Well," Brian said when Runa walked into the living room. "Just where the hell have you been?"

She was soaked to the skin. Her bags and purse were all wet too. She just stood there, not sure what to say.

He was sitting on her couch in his greasy overalls. He did not look happy.

"I, I just..."

"What's that?" He pointed at the bags in her hand. "So you went to the mall after all. I thought we discussed that this morning."

"It was Mendalie. I couldn't tell her no. and besides I got you something. I think you'll really like it."

She opened the bag and pulled out her pretty red lingerie. She held it up to herself, shaking.

He stood up and walked over to her. He looked at it for a minute. He sighed heavily.

"You really think," he told her, "that I would rather you put yourself in danger to get something like that instead of just being here with me?"

"But Mendalie was with me. We were safe."

"I don't care about that little tramp! And now..." he said.

She put the lingerie back in the bag, and put her head down.

"I don't know what to do with you, Runa, I really don't. You can't see that girl anymore. You hear me?"

"You're not my dad," she said.

"What did you say?" he asked her. There was a loud peal of thunder outside.

"What did you say to me?" He walked up and backhanded her across the face and she fell down.

Runa held her face as tears welled up.

'Fight!' a voice said inside of her.

'Run!' another voice told her.

"I will not have my girlfriend become a tramp like that!" He grabbed the bag off the floor where it fell with her purse. He pulled the lingerie out of the bag. This is what a tramp wears! There was more lightning and thunder outside. He took the lingerie and started to tear it.

"No!" she told him, crying now. "I got that for us"

"Well I don't want it! I don't want a whore for a girlfriend!" A loud peal of thunder shook the tiny apartment.

'Fight back!' the voice yelled.

He tore the garment completely in two. "It's time for bed, Runa. Get in there." He pointed at the closet.

"No," she said quietly.

"What?" he asked her.

She was breathing heavy as he approached her. She scooted back toward the wall. There was a rug she scooted over. Her mother had given her that as a house warming gift when she moved in. It read, Home, Sweet Home.

The second he stepped on it, she grabbed it and yanked it as hard as she could; sending him backwards, falling into the coffee table.

"I said NO!" she yelled as he hit, crashing into it and breaking it. Thunder echoed in the crash.

She jumped up and ran into the kitchen. Brian was laying there shaking his head.

"You little bitch!" he yelled.

She grabbed a frying pan off the stove and ran at him. She beat his left knee with it.

He yelled loudly. "Son of a..." he grabbed her hand and twisted her wrist until the pan fell.

He grabbed her and threw her on her back on the floor of the living room and got on top of her, pinning her down. All the while, a storm raged in the night.

"Well," he told her, "you do have some fight in you. I knew you did. I knew you weren't broken completely yet."

"Get off me Brian!" she yelled.

"You aren't as tough as you think," he told her.

She worked her left arm loose and grabbed a piece of the broken wooden table and drove the splintered end into his leg like a spike.

He really screamed this time and she was able to crawl away from him. She ran to the kitchen and turned on the stove's gas burner.

He stumbled to get up, bleeding from his leg.

Runa grabbed some newspaper and caught it on fire. She grabbed a can of cooking spray and just as Brian got to her, she sprayed fire in his face. He screamed loudly and knocked it out of her hand. He grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the back wall, knocking down a picture frame and busting it.

He continued to choke her, as he held her there. The lightning flashes outside the balcony door were all she could focus on.

"You ain't so tough, Runa! See! You're weak; just plain weak!"

She struggled as long as she could but eventually she couldn't fight and blacked out.