Photo credit: Christine Xu (modified)
I berate myself for not seeing what you were earlier. Handsome, yes, although not as much as you imagine. You grow uglier with every criticism, every sneer. So certain you are worthy, that you are owed things no person should sacrifice for another.
I smother under the oldest spell known to man.
You prod me, herd me, shape me into this thing of yours. Each step is too much, too far, surely this time I will… not. I keep the path.
Then this: one laugh too many. The invisible leash snaps.
My feet gain their courage before my thoughts can form, before my doubts stop me. And I am walking, away, down a new path, suddenly familiar. Ah, me. I remember now. The strength builds in my legs, flows upward, fills my lungs, my heart, my too-unused smile.
Ahead is a torch, a tavern, promising people. Protection.
Your admonitions turn to curses, yet still you sit, sprawled out proudly, not believing.
You rise, scowling, but it is too late. The light beckons. I shall not return.
Word count: 175 Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers challenge. Thanks to Priceless Joy for hosting, and for Maria from Doodles and Scribbles for providing the original photo prompt, below. Click here to read the other stories.
Photo © Maria at Doodles and Scribbles
An empowering piece of writing, Joy. I hope they find happiness down this new path now they realise how strong they are.
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Glad you think so, Sammi, thanks! I think that moment of breaking free of a bad relationship is like breaking an enchantment; suddenly all these other hopeful possibilities arise.
Funny how it was so obvious in my head that the narrator was a woman and her “bad romance” was a man, but when I look at it again, it could be any combination, I suppose.
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As I read the story I thought it was a woman, but because it didn’t expressly say, and I didn’t want to get it wrong, I wrote “they”…just in case 🙂
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Now I think it can be read either way, and so many of my stories do involve same-sex couples that it’s a fair guess.
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Wow. Your words are always so beautiful.
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Aw, thanks Joshua! It’s nice to think that the extra time I spend massaging each line makes a difference.
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Wow Joy! Sounds like he needs to get the hell out of there! Great story!
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I agree — he (or she) is definitely heading in the right direction by the end of the story! Glad you enjoyed it PJ, thanks for reading!
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Great take Joy, very powerful description of being trapped in a relationship and the difficulty in finding the courage to break free. Excellent.
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Thanks, Iain, I’m glad that sense of being trapped came across. Love really is the oldest spell in the world, for better or for worse.
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Great piece! I especially loved the paragraph starting “My feet gain their courage…”
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Thanks Ali! I really resonated with that line, the idea that your mind keeps stopping you from doing what your instinct says, and eventually your body just starts doing it without your mind’s permission. 🙂
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A prisoner from magic — a curse, finds release and now walks to the tavern towards light, happiness joy, leaving the darkness behind. Lovely Joy.
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The “oldest spell” I was thinking of was “love,” but I can see him actually putting a curse on her too — it’s always so interesting to see how other people interpret something differently! Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!
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A very well drawn story which I saw as being like Beauty and the Beast.
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Ah, interesting connection! Although she ends up liking the Beast in the end. Or were you thinking about Gaston?
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A wonderful piece of writing, Joy. Your story’s a lesson for anyone in an abusive relationship, too scared to make that vital break. Courage often takes time to muster and/or too often the abused person loves her abuser and lives in the hope that he will change, or that she/he is at fault and deserves the punishment meted out. I’m glad your character eventually reached the point when she could take no more.
I ‘read’ your character as a ‘she’ but realise it could be a ‘he’.
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Too true. Sometimes it can be like the frog that slowly boils — the criticisms and other abuses come on so slow and build up, and by the time the person realizes how unhealthy it is, they’re already too deeply in. It takes a great deal of courage to get out, I agree. Thanks for commenting!
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