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She felt like no one cared. She reached up to rub her eyes, and winced at the pain. Her right eye was swollen almost shut and she knew it would be dark purple by morning. Her lip was swollen and the cut on it had almost stopped oozing blood. The face she would see in the mirror in the morning was one she was seeing all too frequently. Sighing, she put her head on her knees, and tried to remember how she had gotten into this mess.

Marie was 18 and alone when she met Kim. Her mom had died the year before after raising her alone since birth. She had never known her father. He had left her mom when she had told him she was pregnant, and it had been just the two of them. Her mom had worked hard and provided the necessities for herself and her daughter. They had been poor, but had loved one another, and had been happy. Marie was an intelligent child and had been advanced into a higher grade on two different occasions. She had graduated from high school at the young age of sixteen and had gotten scholarships from several universities. Her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after she had graduated and Marie had postponed starting college to care for her. The cancer had been quick and had taken her mother only six months after she was diagnosed.

She had no living relatives that she was aware of, and was left all alone in the world. She was able to survive on the life insurance money, and by getting a job as a waitress in a coffee shop. She had herself declared an emancipated minor, and with the scholarship money, she started college. She wanted to be a writer.

It was on one fateful fall day that horror walked into her life. It was one of those crisp autumn days that made it Marie's favorite time of year. The air was clean and crisp, and she could smell the leaves in the air as she rode her bike to work. The colors of gold, yellow and red surrounded her and she loved hearing the crunch of the dry leaves as she rode over them. She locked her bike up outside the kitchen entrance, and made her way inside She put on an apron, grabbed her order pad, waved at the owner, and went to work. She was about half-way through her shift when the door opened, and a cold chill went down her back. She turned and spotted the source. He was standing uncertainly by the door, looking for a spot to sit down. It was crowded that afternoon, and Marie went over and led him to a vacant booth near the

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