Rhonda's View

"Oh my god Rhon, let's get out of here!" Amber shouted as she pulled me back towards the building. I was frozen. I hadn't seen Cal since the day of his sentencing over three and a half years ago, but he still had the same effect on me. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I just stood there looking into Cal's cold eyes.

"Well – its funny running into you here," he said as his evil smirk appeared on his face.
"Rhon – move your feet woman!" Amber continued to pull on my arm. She couldn't move me either. Amber turned around and ran inside yelling for help.
Cal started to move closer to me. "Don't come another step towards me," I finally managed to get out.
"And if I don't what are you going to do? Put me back in jail?" he laughed. "You know the whole time I was in there I was thinking about you – thinking about who you might be with and what I was going to do to him when I got out. You belong to me and I'm never going to let anyone else have you." Cal was standing less than two feet away from me now.
"Run you idiot," I thought to myself but I couldn't move. "Get away from me Cal. I mean it."
"Don't worry baby – its not you that I'm here for. Well, you will be leaving with me tonight, but I'm here for someone else first."
"I'm not going anywhere with you…"
"I have to deal with your new man Howie first."
"How do you know…"
"You didn't think I had friends on the outside did you?"
"You stay the fuck away from Howie!!"
Cal pulled out a gun. "Once I take Howie out of the picture we'll be leaving." Just then a white van pulled into the parking lot. The side door opened and Cal pushed me towards the van. "Get inside!"
I turned around and swung at Cal connecting with his face. Damn! I guess my kickboxing classes will come in handy after all!! Cal and I fought for what seemed like eternity and I was able to get the gun out of his hands. Cal laid on the ground and looked up at me, "I guess you finally learned how to fight for yourself, huh?"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD!"
"You're not going to shoot me. You're too afraid."
"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" Cal slowly began to get up and I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened – the gun was empty.
Cal laughed as he got to his knees, "I told you that you weren't going to shoot me. Do you really think I would let you get your hands on a loaded gun?"
I looked at the gun and felt the tears form in my eyes. Cal reached to get the gun out of my hand – I looked into his eyes and remember how much I hated him. Cal began to stand and I hit him across the face with the gun in my hand.
Cal wiped the blood from his mouth, "That's it bitch – if I can't have you I'm not going to let anyone else have you – you are mine!" Cal pulled another gun out from behind his back. "Get in the fucking van now!" He grabbed my hair and threw me towards the van. "I said get in!!" I headed towards the van and thought that if I could run around to the other side I might have a chance at getting away. I ran towards the back of the van and Cal shot at me, hitting the van.
"Oh fuck!! The gun is really loaded!!" I stood at the back of the van panic filling my entire body. Just then someone grabbed me from behind. Cal came around to the back of the van, "Stupid move!"
"Fight, fight like hell," I told myself. My legs and arms suddenly had a life of their own. I kicked Cal hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He fell to one knee and gasped for air. I was able to fight my way out of the arms of the mystery guy before he took off running. Cal looked up from the ground again at me. The gun was in his hand on the ground. I dug my heel into his hand and managed to get the gun from his grip. "Well now, we both know this gun is loaded. Are you sure you want to fuck with me now?"

Cal looked up at me and tried to beg for forgiveness, "All I ever wanted was to be with you – to love you and give you the life you never had." "You loved me huh? You loved me so much that you beat me? How many times did you put me in the hospital Cal? Do you know?? Twelve times Cal – twelve fucking times!! You know what, that's twelve fucking times too many! And what about what you did to Shawn? Do you remember him? He was in a coma for 4 months because of you!! All Shawn did was walk me to my car from leaving the bar and you put him in a fucking coma!! Oh and lets not forget about you kidnapping me and keeping me locked in the middle of no where – then you tried to kill me!" My finger wanted to pull the trigger as the floods of memories filled my head.

"Baby that was an accident...I...I didn't realize how much I was giving you...I just wanted to keep you..."
"SHUT UP!! Oh it was just an accident that you kept me drugged for months and accidentally gave me too much and you accidentally drove me to the hospital and told them that I was your neighbor who tried to kill herself. Accident my ass!"
"Baby I could never live my life without you – I need you in my life. I don't want to live without you," Cal began to cry as he laid on the ground.
"You don't want to live?" I asked.
"No – I don't want to live without you."
"Do you want to die?"
"Yes – if I can't have you there is no reason for me to live."
I looked down at the gun and into Cal's empty eyes. "If you want to die – then do it yourself." I threw the gun at him and headed back towards the building entrance.

BANG!

I shut my eyes, took a deep breath and kept on walking.

I reached for the handle of the door and it flew open. Amber was there with about a bunch of security guys, a police officer along with Howie and the rest of the guys.
"Oh my god Rhon - are you okay?" Amber asked as she reached for my swollen eye. "What did he do?"
Howie grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. "Why didn't you tell me that he got out?!?"
"I...I didn't know how to tell you."
"Where is he?" asked the police officer.
I pointed by the van and the police officer went in that direction. Just then the white van sped out of the garage.
"Who was in the van?" asked Randy the security guy.
"I...I don't know. He grabbed me from behind...I never got to see his face," I said. Howie was holding me so tight I almost couldn't breathe. I couldn't bring myself to ask him to let go just a little bit. I think he was shaking more than I was.
"This guy is dead," said the police officer, "what exactly happened out here?" With the tone of the cop's voice and the look in his eyes, I knew I had a long night ahead of me. I was about to tell him what happened when he said, "I think you better call an attorney young lady."

I was sitting alone in a room at the police station for about an hour when two detectives walked in. "I'm Detective Dave Snyder, this is my partner Detective Marsha Whitaker. Before we start with the questions, would you like an attorney present?"
"Uh...no, I know how this works. Let's just get this over with," I responded.
"I really think you should call someone," Detective Whitaker said. The door opened and another officer brought in a pitcher of water. I glanced out of the door and saw Howie, Amber and the rest of the gang pacing around. "Are you sure you don't want anyone present?"
"Actually, yeah. You see those guys out there? Can they be in here for this?"
"Only an attorney is allowed during questioning," snapped Detective Snyder.
"I'm being questioned? Don't you mean you're taking my statement?" It finally hit me – they must have thought that I shot Cal.
Detective Whitaker turned on the tape recorder. "Why don't we start from the beginning?"
"Look – I'm going to have to tell this story to them later tonight – can't they just be in here so I only have to tell it once?"
Just then the door opened, "You haven't answered any questions yet have you? By the way, I'm Ian Kallen, your attorney."
"My attorney??"
Mr. Kallen leaned over to me and whispered, "Yeah, Howie called me and asked me to come down."
"Why would he do that? Look there has been a huge misunderstanding here. I didn't…"
"Okay – let's start from the beginning. What happened in the garage?" asked Detective Snyder.
"Look – I will tell you everything you wanted to know and probably more. My only request is that my friends can be in here. Like I said, I don't want to have to tell this story again."
Mr. Kallen pulled the detectives aside and somehow convinced them to let everyone come into the room.

Howie pushed past everyone else and squeezed me. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah – but I think the worst isn't over yet." He looked at me extremely confused.
I looked over at Amber and she sat down beside me. "I'll sit here. I think you might need a hand to hold onto," she said.
"Thanks – I'm sure I'm going to need it."

Detective Snyder was annoyed by the fact that I had gotten my request and was now anxious to proceed with the questioning. "Are we ready to begin? What happened in the garage?"
"Well," I said, "If you want the beginning of the story, we have to go farther back from the garage." I told the detectives the same story I told Howie about meeting Cal, the night he beat me and how I left him to go to New York. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see AJ and Nick looking at Howie squirm in the chair as I told the story.

"Let me get this straight," Detective Whitman said, "you shot this guy because he was abusive to you six years ago?"
"First of all, I did not shoot him and there's a lot more to the story than that." I could feel Howie looking up at me surprised that there was more to the story. I couldn't look into his eyes. I knew I had to continue with the story but couldn't deal with seeing the pain in his eyes as I continued.