Collin rubbed the blood gingerly away from his hands and looked down at me. "Shit..." Then he got off of me and stood up. I stayed where I was. My only movement was to rub a shaky hand across my lower abdomen, like I would be able to tell just by doing that whether the baby was still alive. "I think..." he looked thoughtfully down at me, then squared his shoulders. "I think this is over. I want you to get the hell on and don't ever come back. I don't ever want to see your fat, ugly ass again. I don't want shit to do with that damn baby either. I knew you were tryna trap me when you first told me about it." His words were irrational, since we were already engaged when I got pregnant, but the blood-hungry look in his eyes kept me from saying so. "I hope I killed that damn thing. Probably should have killed you, too."

My blood went cold as his eyes silently flashed over to the butcher knife that was still wedged into the front door. The gentle kiss that he flicked softly across my lips after a statement like that confused and terrified me, which is what I think he was going for.

"Don't be here when I get back. I'm warning you." Then he stood up and walked calmly out of the apartment, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

"It happened again..." I sighed deeply into the phone. "This time I really thought it would be different, but it's not. Every time I hope and pray that he'll bring home the love that I know he at least once reserved only for me...a love so hot it could have burned a June bug in the middle of December. But it seems that somehow that love is long gone. Sold to the wind for a nickel bag and a bottle of Jack..."

"The hell, Tashi? Are you drunk?"

"No, I'm not." For a brief second I actually considered getting drunk, though, to numb the pain, but decided against it...just in case the baby was still alive. "I don't know what happened. Everyone says that I should leave him, and sometimes I do, but I never stay gone long. He knows he has me right where he wants me. He's in my blood. The hash in my weed, the caffeine in my coffee..."

"I thought you said you stopped smoking."

"I try to shake him," I continued without even acknowledging his comment, "but I can't. He's like an addiction that I'll never overcome."

"And what does all this have to do with me?"

I was surprised that Kenney had let me ramble on for this long, forty-one minutes and twenty-three seconds to be exact, all about nothing. He and I both knew what I needed from him, I just had to talk all the way around the world before I could bring myself to ask for it.

"So, I called my friend Kenney to come and get me..."

"Oh, so now you remember my number."

"Kenney, please. Please help me. I'm really...afraid. I'm so scared Kenney, and I would have called anybody else but you because I know you're all a newlywed by now and I didn't want to cause any problems, but..."

"We never got married," he interjected shortly.

"Oh." I was too into my own situation to react to that right then. "Kenney...I don't have anybody else here. Please help me."

"You've never had to beg me for anything, Tashi. Don't start now. I just don't want..."

"I know what you're going to say," I cut him off, "and I don't feel like sitting through the lecture tonight. But if that's what it takes, I have no choice. Just please do it after we leave here. I have to get out of here." I let out a long, defeated sigh. I hated having to ask anyone for anything, and now I had a feeling that Kenney was about to make this so much harder for me than it had to be. "I can't stay here alone. Not tonight. He might come back and kill me this time."

Kenney let out a heavy sigh. "You used to say that every time."

"No, I never said that and you know it. Kenney, please. I can't stay here...not tonight."

He sighed again deeply.

"Natasha, you already know I'm on my way."