A Night of Horror

When did it begin, this nightmare?
Was it her destiny to witness this? Looking around, her eyes flitted over the shards of glass, the upturned coffee table, her books strewn all over the room. Looking down at herself, she saw blood. The tube-light hid nothing.
And there he was, the drunken pig! Snoring, snoring after having wrecked her house, her home, her life. Stealing her joy, her laughter, her soul.

Nothing was left. Really, there was nothing left here.

Her body ached everywhere. Even where he had not physically beaten her. Her entire being hurt. She was past bothering with tears. Tears were for those lucky who had people to wipe them away. She wearily picked herself and stood in front of the cracked mirror. She could see her bruises and bite marks. Her scalp smarted. He must have torn away a hundred...no thousand strands of my hair, she thought stupidly, desperately trying to quantify her pain.

She feebly remembered a time when she had called herself "happily married". Gradually, her joy at having a protective husband turned into despair as he showed his possessive streak. Then followed the quarrels , the slaps and kicks, the bottles of whiskey, the shouts and abuses.
There used to be apologies but even they stopped.
"Did I get habituated to this? I used to be so beautiful, so charming, so..so generous. Now, I have no money to be kind and charitable, no hope in my heart. My mother is dead, all my friends have slipped away. What DO I DO?"

"I'll go mad. I have to escape this insanity". Thoughts rushed into her throbbing head.
"The car keys, yes the car! I'll go away. I'll build on this rubble". She thought wildly.

She stormed outside, started the car and accelerated away into the night.

"Catch a falling star,
Put it in your pocket,
Keep it for a rainy day"
She hummed, her childhood rhyme bringing small comfort. She breathed, "I must breathe", she thought valiantly, "that's what the TV ladies say".
Breath in, breath out.

She knew she'll come back, back to this hell. But not tonight. Tonight she had to flee with the fragments of her sanity left.
"He's not a bad guy, maybe I was the difficult one today. I'll go back tomorrow, when the fuel gets over in this car. I'll hitchhike my way back. Then go to the doctor and say I fell down from stairs. I'll do all that, not now. When I have some more strength, I'll go. Till then just breath, just keep breathing".