Volume I - Episode 14 Where: Melbourne, Australia When: 7 months and 19 days before E-Day, 7:00 pm It seemed like a lifetime ago. No. More than that. It seemed like a completely different person's life altogether. Three months before she met Jessica Bell, Kim Walker had been a happily married woman. Actually, "happily" is probably stretching the truth a little. It's just that the words "happily" and "married" seemed to go so well together she felt compelled to use them every time she described her relationship status. She had married Rodney a year earlier, at the ripe of old of 22. He was her childhood sweetheart, and she knew in her heart that she would never meet another man like him. Then the 18th of December, 2009 had happened - the last day that she would ever use the word "happily" next to "married". After that day, she prayed that she would never meet another man like him. The events of that evening were burned into her memory like a scar that would never heal. She could remember every detail: the warmth of the air, the smell of the takeaway pizza Rodney had ordered, the song that was playing on the clock radio beside her bed when the alarm went off at 7pm. She reached out and turned off the alarm, annoyed that it was time to get up, but relieved to have an excuse to get out of the house. She had been awake for an hour, unable to sleep because of the noise coming from the living room. Rodney had come home from work at 6, then had proceeded to shake, rattle or drop every single drawer and utensil in the kitchen as he prepared to eat his pizza. After that, he'd moved into the living room and turned up the TV so loud she would have found it unbearable if to sit in the same room as him. She considered yelling out for him to turn it down, but she doubted he'd be able to hear her over the racket. And, given the mood he'd been in for the last few weeks, she doubted he'd turn it down anyway. Kim had no idea what had caused Rodney's sudden change in mood. He used to be such an easy kind of guy: fun-loving, care-free, open-minded; all of the things she looked for in a man. He was there whenever she needed him, and gave her plenty of space whenever she didn't. If she went out partying with the girls and didn't get home until the next afternoon, he would never get jealous or upset. He'd just ask her how her night was and either pour her a cup of coffee or pour her into bed. Or, more often than not, he'd be right there partying alongside of her. But in November, all of that had changed. He'd become moody, jealous and untrusting. He never went out with her anymore, preferring instead to stay at home, glued to the TV with a six-pack of Victoria Bitter next to his armchair. There were no more kisses, definitely no more hugs, and the couple of times they'd had sex over that time, he had been alternately disinterested or downright rough. A couple of times he had even been abusive...to the point where she thought he might hit her. He was not the same Rodney she had married. He was not the Rodney she had fallen in love with. It was like a switch had been flicked inside of his brain. All Kim could think of was that it was somehow all her fault. Something she had done. Something she was not doing. Maybe she wasn't showing him enough love? Or not in the right way? She just wished she knew what she had done wrong so she could fix it, and make things go back to the way they'd been before. She sighed and wondered, not for the first time, how long she could go on living like this. She rolled onto her back and sat up. It was 7pm on an Australian summer's day. The room was filled with sunlight. She looked out the window and felt a momentary pang of regret about having to go to work that night. It was such a nice evening out there, and it would feel sooo nice to have some natural sunlight on her skin. But Kim was not a creature of the daylight. The night was her domain. Such was the life of a stripper.