"No, no, no, no." Holly crouched in the corner or the tiny bathroom, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, stinging from the pain. Blood was running down her face but that was the least of her problems. She was breathing heavily, trying to hold back tears, occasionally letting a small whimper escape. She was desperate to stay hidden.

"Holly!" Richard was pounding at the door of the house, yelling her name. "You better let me in you little bitch, unless...."

Holly covered her ears, not wanting to hear the rest of that sentence, although she knew all to well what was coming. She cursed herself for letting it get this far. It was not only her life she was endangering.

She had treated hundreds of women like this in her career and could never quite understand why they put up with what they did. But now she knew.

She was terrified of what he would do if she tried to run, and she didn't really want to find out. She had always been such a strong character, she hated herself for letting a bully reduce her to a bruised, blubbering mess.

She could still hear her 'boyfriends' muffled shouts but did not want to listen hard enough to make out what he was saying. After a while, the noise stopped. Holly prayed that he had gone but however much she wanted to believe that, she knew it wasn't true. He wasn't that sort of person. He never gave up.

There was the loud smash of a window breaking from downstairs and she jumped. "Oh God!" she whispered and pulled her knees closer to her body. Why me? was all she could think, and she couldn't help believing that it was her fault. She must have done something to anger him.

She heard pounding footsteps coming up the stairs, drawing closer and closer then a massive thump as he threw himself at the locked bathroom door.

"Open the door." He was telling her, but in a voice so calm it was creepy and Holly was getting seriously scared for her life. And her daughter's.

"Mia" she she said, in a whisper so quiet, it was bairly audiable and the tears began to fall. She would never forgive herself if anything happened to her baby. Never.

Richard was still outside the door, saying the same thing over and over again, but Holly really didn't care anymore. All she was concentrating on was getting her daughter and finding a way out. But there was no way she could get past.

Then the door finally gave way. She tried to stifle a scream but she didn't need to. Richard had his hand over her mouth and was staring down at her with that furious gaze that made her freeze.

"Please!" she pleaded, "No!" "Hey!" He barked at her and pulled her up by her hair. "Shut it!"

Holly nodded timidly and had to use all her self contorl to keep from running. There was no way she would be able to get away from him. He always found her. He paused, taking a deep breath, seemingly more worried about what the neighbours would say than the wellfare of Holly or the small child that was still, miraculously asleep next door.

Holly wiped her face with her hands, pulling them away to reveal nothing but blood, her blood. She had blood on her every day but never before had it been hers. She started to cry.

"I told you to shut up, you stupid cow!" he told her, "you don't want to wake the kid, do ya?"

He loomed over her and she backed further towards the wall behind her but he followed and whacked her round the face. Holly yelled and Mia started crying.

"Now look what you've done! I'll never be able to get anything done unless that baby shuts up." He brought his face down, inches from hers and his eyes raged with anger. "What do you say?"

No, thought Holly, in a brave attempt to stand up to him, although she would never dare say what she was thinking to his face, I am not appologising for something that's not my fault, however much you push me.

He stepped back a bit, waiting for an answer. She glared back at him confidently, not budging an inch. He turned around for a split second, almost looking like he was giving in but then swung around and beat Holly to the floor.

That's it, she thought finally, no more.

Holly was lying on her front, but she could sense that he was straddling her and she could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck.

She heard her daughter's screams and knew that it was now or never. If she stayed, it could be Mia like this next time. She wouldn't let that happen.

She stretched out and grabbed the metal bathroom scales and with the remaining strength and willpower that had not yet been sapped from her body by this maniac, she swung at him and it connected with his scalp with a sickening crack.

She struggled to heave herself off the floor and bolted out the bathroom door. Being a doctor, she was pretty sure that blow would have knocked him out but she couldn't take the chance.

She ran into the main bedroom of the tiny flat and over to the cot by the window.

"Shhhh." She tried to calm her little girl, who, understandably, was upset and frightened by the noise. "Sweetheart, it's OK."

She wrapped her baby in a blanket and darted around to the other side of the room, to the bedside cabinet, all the while conscious of the fact that her crazed 'boyfriend' could give chase at any time. She rumaged around in the top draw and brought out a wad of money, her passport and a screwed up envelope.

She ran out of the door, to her car, her mind so focused on saving herself and the life of her daughter, that everything else around her went fuzzy. Because it had really come to that, and she had no idea why she had let it get this bad.

As she strapped her daughter into her car, she heard faint footsteps pounding down the steps. She knew who they belonged to but did not dare turn around. She just got in her car and drove.

"Don't worry sweetie" she said, more to herself than to her frightened child in the back seat, "we're going to find daddy."