Inktober 2022

Day 3: Empty

Empty. Just like that. The little bin in her closet, once full of little dolls she had sewed for the purpose of selling and making money so she could get away was gone. She knew her boyfriend had to have gone through the closet and found them. They were the only two people in the house. She got up and threw the empty bin across the room as her boyfriend opened their apartment door. She heard the clinking of his keys as he dropped them in the bowl by their door. "I'm home." He said. Marianne went over to the window and started opening it. She couldn't take this anymore. Whether she had money or not, she wasn't staying. She had gotten the lock on the window busted open after several days of hitting it when her boyfriend was gone.

She didn't realize her boyfriend was such a mistake. She had heard stories about how he was but she didn't know they were serious. She thought they had been over exaggerations but she should have listened. If she only knew how controlling and abusive he was she wouldn't have gone out with him. She opened the window and began climbing out of it as she heard her boyfriends foot steps coming to the bedroom door. "I hope you've learned your lesson about hiding things from me." He called out as he got closer to the bedroom. She climbed out of the window and grabbed the tree branch by the window. It felt sturdy enough for her to use.

They were on the second floor of an apartment building so she could fall and risk serious injury if she wasn't careful. She grabbed the branch and took a deep breath as she let go of the window and held onto the branch, now relying on the branch to keep her from falling. She made her way closer and closer to the tree itself until she could grab the tree and get footing on some other branches. She heard yelling as she began climbing down and knew she had to hurry before her boyfriend got out of the apartment building. She climbed down the tree and as soon as her feet touched the pavement, she let go of the tree and ran across the street, hearing horns honking at her.

She heard yelling behind her as she ran down the sidewalk and eventually slowed down and walked up to a guy that looked bigger then her boyfriend. She looked behind her and saw her boyfriend still running towards her. So she grabbed the hand of the bigger guy. "Please help me. Call the police on that guy over there." She begged, pointing to her boyfriend. As he approached, the bigger guy she was holding onto stepped in front of her. "Dude listen, whatever she told you is a lie okay. She's off her meds and needs to get back home where she's safe." Her boyfriend said. "Just in case, I'm going to take her to the police station and they can find out if she needs help or not." The guy said to her boyfriend.

"I just told you she's off her meds." Her boyfriend insisted. "And if that's the case than the police will return her. If they don't think she's off any meds, then you better watch yourself. But I've seen too many incidents on the news where someone died because nobody believed them. So I will take her to the police and they can handle it from there." The bigger man said. Marianne's boyfriend looked to her as she hid behind the man. The eyes she once thought may have been full of happiness and attraction now just looked into her soul, as empty as an empty box.