The door slammed shut, rattling the walls as ad as my bones.
He's back.
I pulled my legs closer to my chest, my knuckles white. Tears adhered my hair to my cheeks.
The sound of his heavy boots echoed through the small house. My heartbeat matched their intensity.
I could hear his gruff voice resonating as he mumbled under his breath.
Within seconds his boots moved him into the bedroom, where I sat in the dark.
Flicking on the light, he seemed startled by my presence.
"What are you doing here?" His eyes bore holes in me.
"I-I-" I shrugged as I felt bike in my throat.
"Thought you would have left," he snapped, his words reaching out and slapping across my face. The familiar burn embedded in my cheek and my chest.
Looking down, my chest sunk. I wish I could leave, but I don't belong anywhere.
"I'm talking to you!" His voice booms, and I flinch.
Slowly, painfully, I look up at him.
"Where are all those people you say care about you?" A smirk adorns his face.
My heart hammers, blood boiling.
"They're hiding from your ugly mug," the acid pours from my mouth.
Smack!
Searing pain erupts through the entire left side of my face.
"Wrong answer," he strides out of the room, and once again I hear the front door rattling shut.
The shock wears off as hot tears boil over my eyelids. My body sprawled across the bed, I lay there hopeless.
He wasn't always like this.
Memories of the previous summer flood my brain. His smile, my laughter, the bright warm sun.
Now I lie in the bleak, cold winter as a storm rains on both inside and out.
Sitting up, I stare out the darkened window at the foreign land surrounding me.
The cold is wrapped around my heart and I miss the warmth of the sun.
It seems as though this winter will never end.
The front door opens and I can hear his shouting profanities over the phone about me.
He's twisting the story, morphing me into a monster. Again.
Looking at my hands that rest in my lap, I wonder why I feel like an awful person. Why do I feel sickly, like there's far in my blood.
He storms into the bedroom, no longer on his cell. Embers burn in his eyes, piercing through me. The rage like a spear to my chest.
"Do you love me?" He bellows, mildly frantic.
I stare up at him, baffled. When I realize he's serious, I swallow hard. The knot in my chest loosens before constricting again.
"How could I?" My words come out soft, tear soaked.
"You said you did!" His rough hands clasped onto my arms, his face inches from mine.
"I used to. But I can't love you. It hurts. You hurt me, so much," I whisper.
"I would never!" He bars his teeth, his grip tightening.
"You're doing it right now," I swallow slowly, gauging his reaction.
