As the two men led her out of the front doors of the institution, I could hardly recognise the woman she had become. The woman who was once my wife, my lover, was now an empty shell. As she got closer to me, my stomach fluttered. Unsure on how to act, I hesitantly opened my arms and pulled her close to me, her new unfamiliar scent filling the air around us. I held her close to me as she buried her head into my shoulder. Furrowing my brow in thought, I tried to push aside thoughts of the past, but this attempt was futile.
It had been a year since I had found her, crumpled on the kitchen floor staring blankly into the ether. Her clothes dishevelled, her hair torn. Fresh bruising starting to spring around her throat. I felt anger surge within me. Perhaps if they had found the person who had done this to her, she would have been able to move on. Hell, I would have been able to move on. But the police had found nothing. There were no leads. It was the like the monster had vanished into mid-air.
Forcing myself back into the present, I gently guided Sophia into the narrow confines of the car door. She staggered towards it and I shut the door for her then raced around to my side. My hand hesitated on the door handle as I wondered whether I was up to this. I had been unable to protect her when she most needed it, so how was I going to be able to help her now. Brushing the thought aside, I quickly jumped in the car and the engine roared to life.
The silence was excruciating as we drove down the long, deserted country road. The small town in which we lived in was a one hour haul of mostly deserted highway. The trees were bare and thin with the lack of rainfall and the dry countryside barren. With my wife, Sophia not saying a single word and staring blankly out the window, I would be glad for a distraction, any type of distraction to come my way. As if hearing my prayers, I noticed about a mile or so up the road an unusual shape that seemed incongruous against the rest of the barren landscape. As I got closer I could make out a man trying to wave me down, the open bonnet of the car suggesting that he was having engine problems.
I pulled up and was about to get out of the car when my lifeless wife suddenly spoke words that sent a shiver down my spine. “That’s him, he’s the one.”
The echo pounding through my head was disconcerting. I couldn’t have heard that properly. This really couldn’t be true. A moment later, her finger began its incriminating journey towards the man and she repeated the words more clearly than before. “That’s him, he’s the one.”
My head swam as I took in the scenario. The monster was now delivered to me on a platter. There was no-one around for miles. Dare I do what needed to be done? I didn’t know myself but I picked up the tyre iron for good measure as I hopped out of the car and put on my best façade.
“What seems to be the problem there, friend?” I inquired in my most genuine voice.
I didn’t really listen to his response but instead took in the man before me. His long hair hung loose around his shoulders, filthy with grease. His clothes torn and not in the fashionable manner. I watched as he turned around and inspected his bonnet once again. My eyes did not move from the looming figure and I felt the iron raising higher and higher, as if of its own volition.
I inched closer to him with my iron at the ready. I felt the iron swing down and shock washed over me as I felt the iron impact with his hard skull. The iron fell from my hands as I wondered what I should do with the body that was now fallen to the ground. Reality sunk in and I noticed the car door was open and I dragged it back into the boot of the car.
I was shaking hard as I shut the door and went back over to my car. Sophia was still sitting there, she hadn’t moved since I left her. The car rumbled to life again and I took off.
The realisation that I had punished the man who had destroyed Sophia swept over me. I tried to make some small talk with Sophia not minding that she didn’t respond. As we got closer to town I turned the radio on. Singing along with the lyrics of the radio I did not hear the words that came out of her mouth as we neared the town. That’s him he’s the one.
I lowered the volume of the song as we neared the main street.
“That’s him, he’s the one.” I heard it again.
Soon I saw her finger pointing towards every man that she saw.
“That’s him, he’s the one. That’s him, he’s the one.”
THE END
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Just a story I had to write for English and I thought I'd share it with you :)
Thanks for reading
