Working all day was the least of her worries. She didn't like to go home, there was someone there that she did not like. Abusive he was towards her, as his day consisted of laying in bed or on the couch until she got home. Was this why she kept herself so busy?
The boss told her to leave early, that she'd worked enough this week. She dreaded what would await her if she got home. She tried staying longer, but orders are orders. There was nothing more she could do.
The scene was set. It was twilight, and a smoggy city was the location. Her apartment was situated on a busy street. She spent as much time as she could waiting to cross. Time was not long enough. She was trying to stay positive but as the sun went down so did her mood and her will to live.
She opened the door softly, and the watch on her wrist read just after six o'clock. A lump in the back of her throat died away when she realised he was not at home. A sigh of relief really. Contemplating going to the gym, as she threw her bag on to the bed and sat at the end of it.
Before her mind was made up, the door opened. The loud bang was actually her partner. She had no time to hide before he wandered into the bedroom with a rye smile on his face. An arrogant sounding hello leaked from his dried lips. Followed up by a wink, he then questions where she's been all day and what took her so long.
Lies of "I'm not going to hurt you" sprung from his ugly face. He looked like he'd gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson, but his drug addiction was the one who had really knocked him out. There was no attraction any more, it was more like a fear of being alone. He once was a handsome gentleman. Clark Gable like. Then his love for methamphetamine turned him wrong.
Grabbing at her wrist, as if he was trying to strangle her veins as he raised his voice at her. Filthy profanities and curses echoed through the bedroom. For living on a busy street, it seemed even the cars had stopped to listen in to the violence.
With only murmurs and broken words being spoken, she tried her very best to stick up for herself. Tears like a hailstorm ran down her soft face. She was once a natural beauty, but not enough make up in the world could cover up what he'd done to her.
Incoherent screams and loud crashing noises were the only types of sound in her life. Nothing else existed for her. He was a bully, he demanded the money she'd earned today. She tried her best not to give in to the animal, but the beauty lost out to the beast.
He then left her, on the floor. She was now starting to think she deserved it. Though she did not sign up for a life like this. She was a scholar student, and was an entrepreneur. The world being her oyster and she was as pretty as a pearl. Now she's lucky to have five minutes of clear conscience.
The traffic seemed to have gotten back to it's mad state of rush hour. With more horns blearing and angry pedestrians. She cried. Not about her current situations, but remembering back to how life was. This was not a life. This was hell, shackled to the back of a moving truck which was plummeting down a cliff. Not even that, in her mind was as bad as what she had to deal with.
It was time. Time to move on. Time to get away. Time to make up for lost time. She didn't know how much of it she did have until he arrived back from getting his fix but she had to hurry.
Taking what was important, and stuffing it in to her duffel-bag. There was a watch her late grandmother had given her that she kept in the bedside draw. She put it on and cracked what seemed to be a smile. She'd forgotten how to form one it had seemed, until now.
With a bag packed full of as many clothes as she could fit in there, it was time to leave. She did not look back once. There was nothing to look back for. Nothing was worth what she had been living in. Nothing at all.
She hailed a cab. Before he was given time to ask where she was going she spoke softly and said "Just drive, just drive". Nodding in approval he did. Following her orders he did. The taxi drove from the busy street, and kept on going. They headed west, in no general direction. It could have been a coincidence, but the coast gave her the most beautiful sunset to look at. A twinkling of light in her eye. The colours of purple, orange, pink and red painted a portrait for a new beginning.
