Liam parked the car and I knew we were home. I groaned at the thought of being back at my empty house. I felt a familiar, muscular arm slide across me and click off my seatbelt. After it was off, he picked me up again and carried me to the door. He unlocked the door while still holding me steady, and then pushed it open. He walked inside with me, not bothering to close it behind us, and carried me up to my room, laying my weak body onto my large bed. Liam sat down on the bed beside where I laid and began brushing my hair back out of my face with his fingers. I finally opened my eyes to look at him. His kind smile and caring eyes. He moved his gentle hand from my hair to my face and started caressing my cheek. After a while of this, my eyelids began to grow heavy. “Get some sleep love,” he whispered. “But what if he comes back?” I asked with a child-like tone of fright. “Then I be right next door Red. Just call me if you need me.” I thought about arguing with him, but then decided I didn’t have the energy for it, so I just nodded to him and turned over onto my side, not wanting to have to watch him leave. I felt the bed lift up, telling me he’d stood up. Then the floor boards of my old house creaked until I heard the front door close, signaling to me that he’d left. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep. I was certain I couldn’t, yet somehow I managed. That was until he was there. It was happening all over again in a series of flashbacks and echos. The pain was back, and the fear, and most of all, the guilt. His hard fists were flying toward me fast and furious, and I just let them go, let him harm me all he wanted; I deserved it. I could barely see anything as the moment one punch left my face, another came flying in. Then I caught a glimpse of his eyes before I took another blow. The blue eyes where I once found nothing but love, were now cold and dark, and coated with anger. His voice echoed in my head with every thing he’s called me, ‘slut, bitch, whore’. It was all haunting me. He was now my biggest fear; not because he hurt me, but because I was powerless to stop it. The nightmare cause me to scream myself awake. When my eyes flew open, I pulled the covers up to my nose like a small child who has just had a nightmare. After a couple moments when I realized I truly was alone in my large, empty house, I sat up. I let my feet dangle over the side of the bed, and then hopped down, letting them make contact with the cold floor. I padded over to my window, and with great struggle, slid it open. I picked up a pebble from the bucket I’d learned to keep on my desk, and threw it at the window directly in front of me. I threw a couple more, and then I light illuminated the room. I waited a couple moments, and then Liam appeared in his window and opened it. I bit my bottom lip, as it had become a bad habit of mine. He was exhausted, and I’d woken him up. All I had to do was look up at him and he knew what was going on. “Did you have another nightmare?” he asked. I just nodded slowly to him in reply. “I’ll be over in a moment,” Liam told me, closing the window as I did likewise. His room went dark again, and I sat down on my bed. Soon after I heard my front door open and close. Eventually Liam appeared in the doorway of my bedroom. I could tell he’d come straight over as he was still in his sleepwear. “What was it this time?” Liam questioned. I could feel the mattress sink as he took a seat beside me on my bed. “It never changes Li, it just gets worse,” I told him, knowing he’d understand what I meant. Every night was the same thing; the same nightmare, the same conversation, the same fear. “I know,” He whispered, taking me into his arms as I shook with sobs. I sniffled and then asked Liam one simple question. “Why does he do it?”