Chapter 2 Thanks to my reviewers u all Rock!

Jessica woke with a start, the house was deadly silent, there was no sign physically of Phil, but traces of him lay scattered around the bedroom, dirty socks along with the white string vest lay in the corner of the room under an old pine chair, he had gone out, Jessica realised with relief. She turned over and glanced at the clock, the illuminated dial read ten thirty. "Shit", she exclaimed and jumped out of bed, she was late for work, as she hurried to dress her mind drifted back to reflecting upon her life.

Jessica had grown up in London, her parents John and Elizabeth Reynolds had been a happy couple, until Jessica's father died in a car accident, the crash had left her father dead and her mother husbandless. Jessica had stuck by her mother, until she met a man, Phil, when Jessica first met him, he seemed charming, a truly wonderful man, he treated her like she was the only woman in the world, Jessica was instantly wooed by the kind man, she was young, only just eighteen, Young and naïve she thought as she pulled on her red apron. Now at the age of twenty two, here she was married against her mother's wishes, and living a life of drudgery. Her mother had seen right through Phil straight away, although he had seemed charming, Phil was an old fashioned character, he believed that wives stayed in the home, and the man of the house was the head of the house. Elizabeth Reynolds had begged her daughter not to marry Phil and live with him, but Jessica being young and in love mistook her mothers concern, for jealously and left her alone and married Phil. Now as she sat head in hands she wondered what the hell she had done, the first couple of years of marriage had been good, Jessica had took her job at the local shop in Malton, their current home, the couple struggled to pay the rent and eat, but they were happy, then Phil discovered drink, at first it was only a few drinks a week, then a few more, until he was drinking himself into a drunken stupor every evening, he lost his job, which made his drinking habits worse, leaving Jessica to try to provide enough money for them both to live on. The drink, made Phil violent and aggressive, yet Jessica still stayed with him, not because of Love for a once wonderful man, but out of fear, she was terrified of her husband, she knew what would happen if she left, but she also knew what would happen if she stayed, thinking this her hand self consciously stroked her opposite wrist where a purple bruise was just beginning to show under her skin.

"Where have you been Jessica" an angry voice from across the shop floor, hit Jessica like a ton of bricks. Bernard was staring at her from the frozen food section a look of malice in his eyes, he despised tardiness, and he despised Jessica, so when both came into contact , Bernard became one angry boss, someone she did not need right now.

"Sorry" she whispered tears forming in her eyes, she carefully walked around to the back room, her feet sticking to the floor, it was obvious a sticky drink had been spilt and not cleared up earlier that morning. The back room smelt of stale cigar smoke from Bernard. Jessica sighed heavily and signed in on the hour's sheet, another long day ahead of her for minimal amounts of money.

The day had been slow; the university due to its admirably large grounds had been cold, the wind dancing across the grass like little ballerinas. Professor Robert Trip walked battling against the wind, his black jacket covering his slender back, the breeze pushed its fingers through his hair as he made his way to the university parking lot, the small Ford Cortina was parked furthest away from the university. Robert had arrived late that morning, his land lady had been heckling him about the rent again, that had left him open to the rush hour traffic of the city. When he had arrived at the university his English Literature class was waiting, Robert had instantly felt guilty and vowed to arrive early the next morning. His car was covered in rain drops and various leaves from the great oaks, lining the university grounds. OCR Green University had been standing in the same spot for the last fifty years, it was an old building and had seen better days, unlike OCR, Robert was only a baby, he had been teaching there for only a few months, he had come from up North, from a small quiet little village, his adventurous quality had brought him further south where he discovered OCR and his love for Literature. Robert loved Books so much he was running an after school class, an almost night class, for older people who wanted to study the beauty of the world of books.

The Rusty white Cortina chugged down the highway, Robert could sense the car failing on him, he began to worry, the area he was driving through was slightly remote, it was a small village, the dirty sign on the side of the road declared the village to be called Malton, Robert in his panic pulled up outside of a small store, the sign above the wood decking swinging in the wind. As he stopped the car engine shook and finally died.

"Damn" he shouted and smacked his hands against the steering wheel, sighing and cursing under his breath, Robert exited the car, kicking the wheel he made his way into the tiny store to use a phone, if they had one, Robert very much doubted it by the looks of the little ram shackled building.

Jessica glanced up as dust blew in through the shop door, it creaked under the strain of the violent wind, along with the dirt came a black jacket and dark brown hair, Jessica stopped, she didn't move, only her heart pulsed, the blood coursed through her veins, the customer she was serving stared at her curiously, as the man looked up Jessica's mind went blank.