2022 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 6

Prompt: Write about someone attempting to be heartfelt.

I sat with my back pressed firmly against the cold wood of our bedroom door. The door was shut and locked and I had even positioned a chair beneath the doorknob to eliminate all possibilities of Ridley getting into the room. The pounding on the opposite side of the door had stopped nearly 10 minutes ago but I still did not trust the silence.

I had made that mistake once before and did not make a habit out of being played for a fool more than once.

Tears still burned down my cheeks and I could feel my left eye starting to swell shut. The adrenaline had kept the pain at bay but now that it was silent it was coming back with a vengeance. I slumped forward, burying my head in my knees as the tears continued to fall and the pain throbbed through my head.

It was the first time Ridley had hit him, hell it wasn’t even the second time. I knew it was wrong and I knew that the longer I stayed, the longer I put up with it, the worse it would get. I shuddered at the idea of the person I had become and thought back to the woman I had been before Ridley, she never would have put up with any of this but here I was. The minutes passed slowly and I couldn’t seem to stop the tears from falling. This wasn’t right, someone who loved you was not supposed to hurt you this much. It wasn’t just the physical pain, it was the mental anguish he inflicted that made things even worse.

A soft knock sounded from the other side of the door causing me to jump up immediately on high alert.

My lips remained shut as I pushed myself away from the door and sat facing it instead of with my back against it.

Another knock sounded, I said nothing.

A few moments later another knock and this time it was accompanied by the sound of Ridley’s voice.

“Mia…”

His voice was low and even, a direct contrast from the screaming man who had been on the other side of the door half an hour ago. He had anger issues, that much was apparent and still I found that I still loved him. Though I was beginning to think I did not love him as much as I loved the idea of what we could have been, what we were supposed to be.

“Mia…I’m sorry. I made breakfast.”

There was step 2, Ridley would fly off the handle and then he would cook something or run out to the store to buy me something thinking that those simple gestures would erase the monster he had been.

I remained silent, I knew this couldn’t continue. I wasn’t willing to let it continue, but I also knew if I opened the door and tried to leave things would only escalate.

“Mia, I said I was sorry.”

There was a hint of annoyance in his voice now, he did not like to be ignored.

“I know,” I replied, not wanting to respond at all but wanting to buy myself time to make a choice.

“Are you going to come out and eat?”

“Yes-” I swallowed as I felt stomach acid rise up the back of my throat.

“I need to get cleaned up…I’ll be there in a moment.”

Silence and then the sound of feet retreating down the hallway. I didn’t spare a moment and quietly lifted myself up off the floor and grabbed my duffel bag which sat at the back of the closet buried under the winter coats. I had packed it over a year ago with all of the items I could not stand to leave behind and there it had sat, hidden away until I found the strength I needed. I grabbed a backpack from the floor of the closet and quickly put as much clothes and under garments as would fit inside of it and zipped it closed. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and pulled my favorite hoodie on, and slipped the backpack on.

Time was running out and he would be back.

I grabbed the duffel bag from the floor and quickly walked over to the bedroom window. I had removed the screen from it the same day I packed the duffle bag. I carefully pushed it open and crawled out the window into the cool morning air. I took a step and stopped; I fished in my back pocket and pulled out my cracked cell phone and threw it back through the window where it landed on the bed.

Without a glance back I took one step after another into my new life.