The Monsters Come Out At Night

The Monsters Come Out At Night

By Ariel Perez

            Every night he came home with an unchangeable anger in his heart and alcohol on his breathe. And every night I held my breath, pulled my cover up close and shut my eyes as tight as I possibly could. I hoped, and I prayed that tonight he wasn’t looking for someone to push around and blame for his troubles. He usually was.

            Jimmy wasn’t always like this, cruel, vindictive, and hurtful. He use to love me the way I still love him. Jimmy was the type of man who would bring me flowers for no reason, or would take me out to eat at a fancy restaurant on a whim. He was different now, something in him broke, and he changed into a monster. He changed into someone who blamed the world and the ones around him for his troubles. He was angry all of the time now, and no matter what I did to try to help, to try to make him happy, I was the target of his rage.

At first it wasn’t too bad. He would get mad at me for not cleaning the house to his expectations, or because the dinner I cooked for him wasn’t just right. He would always come out with, “it’s like you’re trying to piss me off Kate”. This was always followed by a shove or a slap. I didn’t think he really meant to hurt me at the time. I just thought he lost his temper sometimes.

I was wrong.

One night he came home around 3am, drunk and full of anger. He went into our kitchen looking for a hot dinner, but it had already gone past cold. I woke up to him dragging me out of our bed by my legs and down the stairs. I started screaming half way down, but he kicked me in my ribs and kept me quiet. He dragged me into the kitchen and told me to cook him dinner. I was scared of him, and I didn’t want to make him any madder so I started up the stove top. He got impatient and said that I was moving too slow, so he grabbed my hand and held it down on the red hot burner. I screamed, I cried, I begged and i cowered but he didn’t care. He went to bed and left me in agony on the floor with the stench of my burning skin in the air.

I should have left then, but my love for who he use to be, it was still there.

Hoping. Waiting.

I could hear him trudging up the stairs now, tonight felt like one of those nights. The kind of night where everything was my fault, and he had to let me know it.

He turned on the lights.

“Kate..Kate..” He shook me, trying to wake me up.

I looked up at him.

“Jimmy please, I’m tired, I want to sleep. Just come to bed and sleep with me”

-BAM- I could feel my cheek turning red from where he had just slapped me.

“DON’T, you ever tell me what to do, you bitch”

All I could do was stare up at him like the scared little mouse I was.

No. I can’t do this; I can’t stay here and let him pull me down into the black abyss where his rotting mind was already living. I have to leave now, it’s now or never. He was already creating a path of destruction and I was at the end of it. I was always the goal in his fits of rage, always the never ending target.

I made a run for our door but he grabbed me by my hair and yanked me down to the floor with him. I tried to fight back as best I could but he was thick, he was stronger then i was and he knew it.

He put me in a headlock and whispered, “Where do you think you’re going Kate? You’re mine, and ill never let you go”.

“Jimmy please!” it was all I managed to choke out before the started to tighten his brawny arm around my thin neck. I could feel my heart racing and my lungs aching to a breath of air. I started to scratch hard at his arm and he let go.

“You bitch! I give you everything and this is how you thank me?!”

I was gasping for air when he shot up and stood over me. He started to stomp and kick me as hard as he possibly could. I could feel my body bruising and my bones breaking under him.

“Help!! HELP! HE-“

He shoved his oversized boot on my neck, I couldn’t scream out a word and I couldn’t breathe. I stared up at him with my begging eyes, but he just stared back.

“Weak. Pathetic..” he said.

He got down on the floor, only to throw his big hands around my bruised neck. He sat down on my broken body and held his grip. Tighter, and tighter.

My tears felt warm on my face, and my body started to twitch.

“How could I ever be with someone like you Kate?”

“Ji-Jimmy, y-you’re breaking my h-heart..”

Then, everything went black.

©HeyJude