This short story contains strong language and scenes of violence and is not suitable for readers below the age of 18.
Just had to warn you anyway. And...... I think I enjoyed saying that. You know the whole movie rating thing.
What can I say, I am a big dreamer.
Now the movie produced by.....
Woww.....Just read the story and do leave comments.
Crystal approached the house with trembling steps. She had cried herself hoarse for twenty minutes in the car before she summoned what seemed like enough courage to face her fears. As she stepped in front of the huge oak wood door, she brought out her handkerchief from her purse and cleaned her face. She pressed the door bell. There was no going back.
The African house keeper opened the door and looked shocked to see her. “Mrs. Kendall! You are late …. For dinner.”
Crystal pushed her way through the door into the large and tastefully furnished living room. “You shouldn’t be here Tamia. You close by six p.m.”
“I know,” the middle aged woman whispered, “I stayed when I noticed you were not in the house.”
Crystal dropped her purse on the sofa and headed for the mini bar across the hall. She needed some scotch to calm her nerves
“So you stayed. Why?”
“Oh child!” Tamia sighed sadly, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what will happen when your brute of a husband knows you’re home. You and I know that you should always be home by five p.m. You came in by eight fifteen. In your husband’s books, not only are you late, you disobeyed him and deserves to be punished.”
The young brunette took a long sip straight from the bottle and chuckled. “Ah! Tamia. You know us only too well.”
“Six long years Crystal and I know that all my life, I have never known any man as brutal as Mark Kendall. Sweetheart, what are you still doing with him?”
Crystal poured herself a tall glass of the drink. “Because there is no place else to go Tamia. I am an orphan. I have no siblings. No relatives. Nobody.”
“Don’t you have any friends?”
“Ha! They are all bitches who think that I am a lucky wretch.” Crystal walked back into the living room and sat on the sofa. She was a beautiful woman. Petite in frame but had all the curves in the right places. Her large hazel eyes stared into space.
“Then come live with me child,” Tamia whispered.
Just then, a door slammed somewhere in the house.
Crystal held the older woman’s hand. “You should go now Tamia. He must not see you here.”
“No!” Tamia said sharply. “You should follow me right now. We don’t have much time.”
Sounds of footsteps on the staircase.
“Go Tamia! Now!” Crystal ordered her.
“Oh! dear child. You have completely lost it. What has he done to you? Come with me and end this. You are just twenty one. You have your whole life ahead of you,” Tamia pleaded with her.
Mark Kendall entered the living room. He looked slightly younger than his thirty seven years though he was a big man. Standing at six foot four inches and weighing about a hundred and twenty five kilogrammes, he made the women in the room who were slightly above five inches look like midgets.
He ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair and adjusted and adjusted his glasses on his nose. He was an attractive man when his blue eyes weren’t that piercingly cold.
“What are you still doing here Tamia?” His deep baritone voice was calm.
“I ….,” Tamia began
“She was just getting ready to leave,” Crystal interrupted her and began to lead her away but Tamia snatched her hand from her and stood her ground.
“Speak when you are spoken to Crystal,” he said without looking at her. His gaze was fixed on Tamia.
“You were saying?”
“Let her go Mr. Kendall. She is such an unhappy child. So hopeless and helpless. Look at her. I don’t know what she did to deserve this but she has paid dearly for it. Please let her go.”
Mark looked down for a few seconds and smiled mirthlessly then turned to his wife, “Did you put her up to this?”
“No! No!” Crystal was shaking with fear.
“She didn’t put me up to anything,” Tamia snapped angry that the foolish child that didn’t know when an opportunity to live a normal life presented itself.
“Do you want to leave me Crystal?” He fixed his cold gaze on her
“No!” Crystal cried.
“Do you want to follow this Tamia woman?”
“No. I don’t want to follow her.”
He smiled and touched her cheek with affection. “Where do you belong Crystal?”
“Here. With you,” Crystal smiled through her tears.
Mark smiled tenderly at her before bending to kiss her forehead.
“That’s my girl.” He looked sharply at the astonished woman.
“Now get out!” He barked.
Tamia clutched her purse tightly and made the sign of the cross across her chest.
“There is something evil about this Mark. But the devil will not triumph for long.” She stared at Crystal for a while and said, “Snap out of it child. Snap out of it.” She took her coat and left the room.
Mark who had been stroking Crystal’s cheek all that while asked with his eyes fixed on the entrance door, “What did you tell her?”
“I told her nothing I swear Mark. I don’t speak to …..”
The slap had the small woman sprawling on the marble floor. Crystal screamed in pain.
“Shut up Crystal,” he said calmly before picking her up from the ground like a rag doll, “You know I hate it when you scream like that.”
Crystal held her bruised cheek and tried to sob quietly. She had blood on her mouth and on her forehead. She even thought she had heard her skull crack.
Mark gently settled her on the coach and sat beside her.
“What is your name?”
“Crystal Kendall.”
Who were you before now?
“Nothing. Nobody. Lower than dirt.”
“Who are you now?”
“A beautiful, decent and fulfilled woman”
“How did that happen?”
“Well, you Mark Kendall were gracious enough to marry me.”
Mark smiled and stroked her cheek. Then suddenly, he grabbed her hair.
“Then why did you choose to disobey me Crystal? Why did you come late today?”
“I fell asleep at the park and did not wake up until two hours later. I didn’t mean to come home late. I didn’t mean to disobey you.”
“You must have been bored.” He put his nose in her hair and inhaled before letting go of it.
“Why didn’t you come home to me?”
“I was watching the birds. They were so beautiful and peaceful and I just slept off while watching them.”
“You should have come home,” he shouted angrily took her by the wrist and held it tightly. Too tightly.
Crystal closed her eyes and tried to endure the pain
“You are hurting me Mark.”
“No I am not.” He squeezed tight. Crystal screamed.
“Now I am.”
When he let her go, Crystal heard a weird sound somewhere in her head. It was soft but crystal heard it loud and clear. It was like someone broke off a twig some meters away form her.
She held he head high and smiled at Mark as she rubbed her wrist.
“You just enjoy hurting me don’t you Mark Kendall?”
Mark starred at her for while and laughed. “Have you gone mad? You look at me and talk like that?”
“Well, the last time I checked you were human and the man I married. Why are you talking to me like I am some slave?”
He slapped her hard across the face and dragged her out of the sofa.
“I will teach you to respect and obey me!”
Crystal struggled to break free as he dragged her towards the kitchen. “Will you talk to me in that manner again Crystal?” he shouted as he rubbed her face on the rough carpet.
Crystal heard the sound again. This time, louder. It was like something had taken control of her body and she struggled to regain control. But she lost the battle.
She pushed Mark with a strength she was sure wasn’t hers because the big man fell on the floor with a thud.
In a flash, she jumped to his side and smiled at his surprised face.
“I think I broke my back,” he said as he tried to move.
Then she began to laugh.
Mark reached for her leg but she kicked him in the ribs before he could even touch her.
“Don’t you ever touch me again Mark Kendall. Don’t you ever lay your filthy hands on me again. Do you understand?”
Mark, who was groaning in pain made another desperate attempt to grab her leg but she kicked him again this time severally like a deranged animal.
“You have gone mad!” Mark screamed. “You are possessed. You couldn’t even break chicken bone before but now you kick like a pro. You got your strength from the devil.”
There was blood on his head and his shirt was wet with sweat and blood.
Crystal sat on the kitchen table and took a glistening knife from one of the drawers.
“I didn’t know you could bleed Mark,” she said as she examined the knife with interest. “There is blood everywhere and this time, it is from you. And you know what, I am beginning to like the sight.”
Mark starred at her with wide eyes. “Crystal……are you going to hurt me?”
The young woman licked the knife and smiled. “What a question Mark. You have been hurting me all these years and hurt me even more when some of the former wounds were yet to heal. Oh! Mark. Why are you asking me if I am going to hurt you when all you have ever done is hurt and humiliate me?”
Mark tried to get up but screamed in pain and held his lower back.
“You bitch!” he spat at her. “Get me to the hospital. I am seriously hurt.”
“No you are not.” Crystal walked towards him with the knife in her hand.
“Don’t come near me you crazy bitch!”
Crystal took at his feet and bent down to face him.
“Don’t even try to move. I will be kind.”
Then she heard a door open in her head. It was like some wind was blowing hard on her brains. She let out a cry and held her head for several seconds and it stopped as suddenly as it started.
Crystal looked around the room as if she was seeing it for the first time. She looked at Mark on the floor with horror and dropped the knife.
“What happened here?” she said with a small voice filled with fear.
“You tried to kill me,” Mark spat at her.
“How could that be?” she cried, “I couldn’t have. I couldn’t have.”
“Get me to the hospital now! I will bleed to death.”
Crystal started to help him but stopped before even touching him.
“Help me up to the couch you fool.”
“You will tell them at the hospital that I tried to kill you right?”
“Don’t you worry about that now woman,” Mark’s breathing was labored. “I am dying.”
“Then the hospital will tell the police and I will be arrested and put in prison,” Crystal thought aloud.
“Stop all that stupid talk and help me up and call an ambulance,” Mark cried.
“And I don’t deserve that. Not after all that you have done to me. And I don’t even remember hurting you.”
She went to the kitchen sink and bathed her face; cleaning away the blood then went into the living room and picked her purse from the couch.
“Where are you going?” Mark shouted after her.
She made for the front door but stopped in her tracks and looked at her husband, “Very far away from you Mark. I am going to a place where you will never see me again. I do hope you find help before it is too late.”
She touched the solid oak door, “You had these doors sound proofed so that no one would hear me scream.” She laughed. “Now, no one would hear you scream. Goodbye Mark Kendall.”
She opened the door, stepped out and shut it. She could hear the faint sounds of Mark screaming in the kitchen. she didn’t know how Mark got hurt that way. She didn’t even remember touching him. Maybe she would figure it out some day.
“Not today,” she whispered as she walked into the dark night. “Today, I am just going to enjoy my freedom.” She took a deep breath and jumped joyfully. “I am free at last!”
