Any Other Night

“You’re such a fucking tease,” he snarled as loudly as he could, swinging his beer bottle around in an obnoxious gesture.

She kept her eyes downcast and stayed quiet. Sometimes when he was drunk he would lose interest and leave her alone. She hated the way he would disappear and not to talk to her for hours, even days, at a time, and then come home late one night, long after she had fallen asleep, wanting sex. She resisted when she could, staying quiet and passive, but it didn’t always work.

This wasn’t one of those times when he would lose interest. He was drunker than she had ever seen him, and she had known him for a very long time now. From the corner of her eye, she saw at least ten beer bottles in the sink but she dared not turn her head to get a more accurate count.

He had noticed her distraction from his ranting and raving. She barely had time to move out of the way before his fist flew towards her. Her movement, as small as it was, caused him to miss her face and his hand instead slammed downwards into her shoulder. Flesh thudded painfully against flesh and she fell to the ground with a moan.

“You never were much fun anyway,” he sneered. “Char-Char’s better than you.” More commonly known as Charlotte, Char-Char was his barely eighteen year old secretary. She hadn’t even known that he was cheating, and a distant part of her brain wondered how long that had been going on.

He held his hand out to her, a smirk on his face. She stayed where she was. If she let him help her up, he would only knock her down again.

Slowly, using the wall behind her for support, she rose to her feet.

“Don’t touch me,” she told him as he moved towards her. “You’re drunk…I’m going upstairs,” she whispered hoarsely. She was scared. He had no control when he got like this. He seemed to like seeing her in pain. There had been times he hadn’t stopped until he saw blood or she saw black. Whichever came first. He didn’t hit her often, but it was still more than enough. She should have left a long time ago. She knew that now, but she had thought he deserved another chance. She had never been so wrong about a person in her life.

“M’not,” he leered at her, his eyes wide-open and bloodshort. Somehow he managed coordinate his limbs enough to grab ahold of her blouse and tear it open.

“Stop it,” she yelled, trying to get through to him, trying to bolt towards the staircase. It was no more than ten feet away, but even as she started to run, she knew she wouldn’t make it. If she did make it the stairs, she would never make it all the way up them and into a room with a lock on the door. He grabbed her by her upper arm, the one he had hit, and daggers of pain shot through her shoulder. There were tears dripping from her face as she stared up at him.

“Fine! I’m done with you, you bitch,” he shouted back and started to drag her in the other direction.

She squirmed and fought, trying to get away from him. But he was too strong and he was able to easily drag her kicking and screaming body towards the front door.

He literally threw her out onto the porch, and she landed with a thud not six inches from the stairs.

She lay there gasping for breath, waiting for the pain to subside. Her whole body hurt and her shoulder felt like it was on fire.

Moving slowly, she rebuttoned her shirt, her fingers shaking so hard it took a lot longer than it should have. She was forced to skip over the spot where his force had ripped a button off, baring her stomach to anyone who looked.

The door was locked. Not just at the knob, which she could have opened with the spare key that she had hidden in the little evergreen’s pot months ago, but at the dead bolt.

She sat there for hours, shivering as the tears dripped down her face, waiting, hoping that he would sober up and let her in. She had no where to go and she hoped he would realize that. That he would realize how much she hated him.

She did hate him. He had no right to treat her like that. Once upon a time she had loved him, trusted him, but no more. She didn’t know if she would ever be able to trust again.

It had long since grown dark when she stood on shaking legs and stumbled out into the emptiness of the night.

Here it is, the prologue to Any Other Night! I hope you all enjoy it, first chapter up tomorrow most likely. Please, review and let me know what you think. Once Finding Alaska is done, this will be my pet project.

Thanks all,

Ashley