Today is Thursday. Chelsea has decided to go to a party with her friends from work: Erica, Danielle, and Shawn. They have fun at the party, but they leave later than they meant to. Chelsea wanted to get home much earlier than she is going to. It’s midnight, and her husband, Max, didn’t want her to go to the party in the first place.

She pulls her car into her driveway. It is 12:15 now. She tries sneaking into her house, hoping that Max is asleep.

She opens the door but the lights inside her house are already on. When she gets inside she can see that Max had waited for her.

“Out cheating on me again?” Max asks.

“No, I never did.” Chelsea says.

“You lying whore!” Max screams. “How stupid do you think I am?” He gets up and walks over to Chelsea. “You’re not allowed out this late anymore.”

“You are out late all the time. You have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do.” Chelsea says.

“Yes I do.” Max says. He punches Chelsea hitting her right in the eye. She falls to the ground.

“You will not stay out late again.” Max says. He leaves the room leaving Chelsea lying on the floor.

It is Monday morning and Chelsea has to get ready for work. Yesterday wasn’t any different from any other day except this time Max left a dark bruise on Chelsea’s eye this time. She attempts to cover the bruise with make up before going to work.

Chelsea gets to work on time and begins the day just like any other day, until her friend, Shawn, notices her eye.

“What is with your eye?” Shawn asks. “Did you headbutt the wall this morning?”

“No, I tripped.” Chelsea says.

“How did you get a black eye from tripping?” Shawn asks.

Chelsea did not expect to be questioned about her eye so she wasn’t prepared for it. She doesn’t know what to say.

“You didn’t trip Chelsea, did you?” Shawn asks.

Chelsea begins to tear up.

“Is it Max?” Shawn asks.

Chelsea nods her head up and down begins to cry.

“You have to get out of there Chelsea.” Shawn says, “If you need a place to go you can stay at my place.”

“Thank you.” Chelsea says with tears rolling down her face.

Chelsea accepted Shawn’s offer and after work she follows him to his house.

“Thank you again Shawn.” Chelsea says after she arrives at the house.

“It’s no problem.” Shawn says.

They go inside and he shows him around. He takes her to her bedroom. She has nothing with her since she didn’t expect this to happen. All she has is the clothes off her back.

“Tomorrow I will take you to get some more clothing so that you don’t have to choose between wearing that forever and going back home.” Shawn says.

“I don’t plan on staying here long.” Chelsea says.

“Don’t worry about it. I want you to stay for as long as you think you need. As long as you are still in danger I don’t want you to leave.” Shawn says.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t helped me.” Chelsea says.

“Like I said, its no problem. All I care is that my friends are safe.” Shawn says.

Chelsea smiles for the first time that day.

“Well, I’ll let you get some rest, you look exhausted.” Shawn says. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Ok. Goodnight.” Chelsea says.

“Goodnight.” Shawn says as he leaves her room.

The next day Shawn takes Chelsea to get new clothing just like he said he would. She buys a little more than a week’s worth of clothing. Shawn decides to pay since Chelsea didn’t seem to have the money on her and he didn’t want to put her in an awkward position.

When the two get back home Shawn says he has to go grocery shopping. Chelsea goes inside to take a shower while Shawn takes off again.

After her shower, Chelsea checks her cell phone. She has two voice mails. The first is from Max. He is screaming asking where she is.

The second voice mail is from her friend Erica. She asks the same things that Max did, just in a nicer tone. Chelsea calls Erica back.

“Hey Erica, its me.” Chelsea says.

“Wow Chelsea, you had me worried. Where are you? I called your house asking where you were but Max didn’t seem to know either.” Erica says.

Shawn comes back with the groceries in his hands.

“I’m staying at Shawn’s house, but please don’t tell Max ok?” Chelsea says.

“Uh, yeah sure, no problem.” Erica says.

Chelsea notices that Shawn is back from the store. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” Chelsea tells Erica.

“Ok bye.” Erica says before hanging up the phone.

“Who was that?” Shawn asks.

“It was Erica.” Chelsea says.

“And you told her where you are?” Shawn asks. “What if she tells Max?”

“Don’t worry. We can trust her.” Chelsea says.

Max is pissed off now. He still doesn’t know where Chelsea went. He calls her cell phone again, but gets no answer. He tries calling her best friend, Erica, and she picks up.

“Hey Erica.” Max says as calmly as he can.

“Hi.” Erica says.

“Did you find Chelsea yet? She is really starting to worry me.” Max says.

“No.” Erica says.

“I just hope that nothing happened to her.” Max says.

There is a long pause on the phone where Erica doesn’t say anything.

“Do you know where she is?” Max asks.

“Yes, but I told her that I wouldn’t tell you where she is.” Erica says.

“Please Erica; I need to know. I was a jerk to her and we got in a fight. I just want to fix this.” Max says.

Erica doesn’t respond again.

“Please Erica; just give me a chance to make things right.” Max says.

“Fine, she is at Shawn’s house, but if she asks how you found her, I didn’t tell you.” Erica says.

“Of course. Thank you, you have no idea how important she is to me.” Max says.

“No problem. I got to go.” Erica says.

“Ok bye, and thanks again.” Max says before hanging up.

Max goes into his bedroom. He grabs a pistol and loads it with ammunition.

“Thank you Erica.” Max says to himself.

Chelsea begins putting her shoes on.

“Where are you going?” Shawn asks.

“I want to go to Erica’s house.” Chelsea says.

“You can’t. It’s not safe out there. What if Max finds you?” Shawn asks.

“So I’m supposed to stay here the rest of my life like I’m in a prison?” Chelsea asks.

“No, just until this is over with.” Shawn says.

There is a knock on the door. Chelsea begins walking to it with Shawn following her.

“Your safety is what I’m looking out for right now.” Shawn says.

Chelsea opens the door but does it without looking because she is talking to Shawn. “How do I know you are not just using the situation?” Chelsea asks. She turns to the door and sees Max pointing the gun to her head.

“Well? May I come in?” Max asks.

Max tells both of them to go back up the stairs slowly. He follows them, gun pointing to Chelsea.

They go to Chelsea’s bedroom. Max sits them both down on her bed.

“How did you know where I was?” Chelsea asks.

“Erica told me.” Max says. “She was so helpful.”

“What are you going to do to us?” Chelsea asks.

“I don’t know. Whatever I feel like is fair. Leaving me for him? Wow that’s sad.” Max says.

“You don’t want to do this.” Shawn says. He slowly begins to get up from the bed, his hands in front of him to prove he is of no threat to Max. “Just put the gun down and we can all talk about this.”

“How would you know what I want?” Max asks. Max shoots Shawn. Shawn falls back and hits the bed, but because of the power of the gun he bounces off the bed and falls forward, landing face first on the floor in front of the bed.

Chelsea screams and Max turns the gun to her. Shawn gets up and runs over to Max. Before Max can react, Shawn tackles him to the ground. Max drops the gun and the two begin fighting each other for it. Chelsea gets up and picks up the weapon. The two are still fighting, not noticing that she is now pointing the gun at the both of them.

“Stop!” She shouts.

They both stop and realize she is holding the gun.

“Sit still both of you.” Chelsea tells them. She calls the police on her cell phone.

Chelsea puts down the phone. She begins to move the gun back and forth, pointing at the both of them. Shawn tries to stand up, but Chelsea screams and tells him to sit down. Shawn is bleeding from his shoulder, from when he was shot. He tries to control the bleeding while talking to Chelsea.

“Chelsea? I was here to help you.” Shawn says. “Please stop pointing the gun at me.”

“You didn’t want to help me. You wanted to lock me up like I was your slave.” Chelsea says. “You tried to keep me here against my will and then you tried to kill my husband. You want to force me to stay with you forever.”

“I only tried to kill him because he was trying to kill us.” Shawn says.

“Don’t listen to him baby. He just wants to come between us.” Max says.

“Why should I listen to you? You pointed a gun at my head more than once.” Chelsea says.

“I had to do that to get you away from him.” Max says.

“Don’t listen to him. Don’t forget why you came here in the first place.” Shawn says.

“He wants to ruin our marriage. I had to stop him any way I could.” Max says.

“He is abusive.” Shawn says.

“He will never let you leave.” Max says.

Both of them continue arguing but Chelsea has already made her choice. She points the gun.

Shawn screams, “No!”

Chelsea fires.

Max begins to hear the sirens of the police cars. He decides that this would be a good time to leave.

Shawn begins to cry. “What did you do?” He asks.

Chelsea shot herself in the head. She couldn’t trust anyone anymore, so she took her own life instead. Her husband was abusive, her best friend lied to her, and Shawn held her captive, in her mind at least. She had nobody that she felt she could trust.