The door slammed and with the sound, another piece of her heart shattered.
It had been this way for weeks. He had always had a temper, but it had been playful, easily ignored and she hadn’t thought anything of it. Until recently. Now his mood had changed. His temper was dark and brooding, always festering. She often came home to the sound of him shouting and slamming, either doors, or his own hands on the table or counter top. He was like a wild and dangerous caricature of himself lately and she had no idea what had been the trigger.
The first time she’d heard him shouting in the kitchen, she had felt sure that there was an intruder in the house and that he was confronting him. But she was alarmed to discover that he was speaking on the phone with someone from the electricity company about an issue with their account. Something so mild eliciting such a violent reaction. She remembered him looking up from the paperwork and his eyes were wide and wild, almost unrecognisable. He hadn’t smiled or even acknowledged her presence in any way. Instead, he continued to stare into her eyes, his own eyes narrowing, while he shouted into the phone. With her skin prickling, she had retreated to the bedroom, comforted by the darkness provided by the closed curtains. She could still hear him shouting from there and had taken a shower to drown him out.
She remembered all of this now, many weeks later, as she showered, the steam fogging up the room quickly, giving her the illusion of being safe, warm, cocooned. The tension was just beginning to leave her shoulders under the heat of the shower spray when she suddenly jumped in fright as he opened the door to the bathroom.
As he stripped off to join her, she felt sickened at the thought of his hands on her skin, his lips on her throat. She realised now that she was somehow going to have to end this.
Soon.
For Andy’s Dark Side Thursday – our weekly outlet for our more dramatic writing fetishes. If you like your stories on the darker side, please visit Andy for his weekly serial story – it’s gripping!!
If you missed my dark story last week, you can find it here – Lifeless.
My story this week was NOT written on a plane. Hurrah! I thought I was not going to be able to come up with something without the boring droning of the airplane. The idea for this Dark Side Thursday story came to me last night as I was dropping off to sleep so I said “Hey Siri” and asked her to create a note for me with the first line of this story so that I would remember it this morning. I had no idea whether she could create a note, but it turns out she can – she’s such a good sidekick 🙂
Finally, a word about the photograph. I’m submitting this to Lucile’s Photo101 Rehab Clinic – the coolest place for photoaholics to hang out. This “flower” is actually a succulent plant in a pot on my patio. It’s a macro shot which I have edited to create some dark drama for this story. I rather like the darkness in this shot. I’ve also done some editing to turn it a variety of colours just like I did in my recent Pop Art Cactus post.
x desleyjane
PS – Andy if you’re wondering why I’m always so quick, it’s because I only have an hour after your post comes out before Thursday becomes Friday and my mind just won’t let me put Thursday in the title of a post that appears on a Friday – yes, I’m weird 😀
Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist 
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