Short story kawan saya buat titled 'SHE'
Assalamualaikum pembaca2 saya. hari ini saya nak post satu cerita yang kawan saya buat. short story to be exactly as it has been written in English. (hokeyy speaking londonn sebab post cerita dlam bhsa inggeris). very out of the box. and i really appreciate if you guys can give some of your precious comment on this lovely masterpiece. my advice, read it with open heart.
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SHE
The house is dark. No lights bathing the interior except for the moonlight. A figure, a woman sits on the rocking chair, rocking herself in the living room. Her shoulders trembling. Soft sobs come out from her. Streaks of dry and fresh tears painting her face.
“Why? Why? Why?” She screams, pulling her hair. Standing up from the chair, she pushes it towards the double sliding door, crashing it into pieces.
She takes the paintings on the wall, breaks the frame, crushing them then tossing it on the floor, smashes the decorations placed on the cabinet, the television, throws down the cushion off the couch and still that hollow feeling deep inside her would not go away.
“Why… don’t people le…t m…e go..? I ca.. cannot t…take th…is a..any…more.” She cries out her frustration. Sometimes later she passes out due to exhaustion.
/ / / / /
He kills the ignition of the car and walks to the front door. He jiggles the knob slightly, inserting the key, and turns it open. It isn’t anything new for him to see that his house is still dark at this hour. He on the switch to his right and the hallway is bath in light.
Once he enters the living room, panic seeps into him. The living room is in such a mess as if a tornado has passed through. What happen? Oh god. Did the same thing happen? Where’s Eugene? He walks faster as he sees a lump in the middle of the room. Nearing, he knows that’s his wife lying there, unconscious. He leans down until his face is just above her wife’s and feels breathing. He checks for any injuries and doesn’t found one. Relief washes over him.
He quickly picks her up and heads to their bedroom. Fishing out his smart phone, he calls for their family doctor. He puts her down on the bed, wipes away the dried tears, changes her into fresh clothes, and waits for the doctor. Meanwhile, he himself changes out of his work clothes into something more comfortable.
The ring of the doorbell make him move. He opens the front door and led the doctor to the bedroom. “How is she when you found her? Any clue of what happened?” The doctor asked while taking out his stethoscope and getting ready to measure her temperature and blood pressure.
“She’s unconscious when I found her downstairs. I think I can quite grasp of the situation, seeing how the living room is now.”
The doctor injects her with some fluids and finally turns to him, giving a small soft smile. “Nothing to worry. She’s just exhausted. I’ve injected vitamins into her. Hopefully she’ll wake up in a few hours.”
“I think she’s over stressed and also depressed. Not many are truly strong enough to continue their life normally after such incidents you know. You should spend more time with her.”
“Yes, doc. I’ll take note of that. Thank you.”
He leads the doctor out and bids him farewell. He turns back into the house.Things have changed since then. His calm, controlled mask slipped leaving the only the sad and tired ones on.
Forget the sound of the world for a moment tonight
Put down everything that’s tying you down
Then look at me
Look at your reflection in my eyes, look at my love
/ / / / /
A few months ago…
“You’re having a night shift today right? What time are you getting in?”, Eugene asks.
She heads to the kitchen, not waiting for an answer. She opens the door to the refrigerator and check whatever ingredients left. Deciding on spaghetti, she takes out the needed ingredients and starts chopping. She hums softly while heating a pan and throwing some garlics and chicken into it, letting them sizzles.
Hands wrapped around her waist, and she feels Mika resting his head on her shoulder. “Hmmm. Smells good. What are you cooking today my lovely chef?”
“Your favourite. Kinda feel like it. You okay with it right?” She pours the sauce into the pan and close it with its lid, letting the sauce cook. She feels him nodding against her shoulder, still not moving from the position.
“Now. Now. Stop being a big baby koala and help me set up the table. We can eat soon.”
“Yes, ma’am...”
Mika mock salute with a grin. He then moves to take two sets of plate and sets up the table. Once the food is done, Eugene brings it to the table and they serve themselves. They eat while having a small talks on anything mundane. Sometimes, a chuckle or two can be heard from them.
Once done, Mika get himself ready for work. Eugene packs some of the food for him to bring to work. The clock strikes a quarter past half indicating that it is now 8.45 pm. Mika hurries down the stairs, taking the food from Eugene and gives her a kiss before making way out of the house.
“Be careful! Drive safely!”
“Yes mom…” Mika laughs. A content smile spread on Eugene’s face. She would not get enough or tired of his husband’s antics.
-----
Mika arrives home from work the next morning. He kills off the engine and walk to the door. He turns the knob, entering the house. Something tugged his heart. He does not feel good. Usually, by now his wife is already awake, welcoming him from home with a smile plastered on her face. Right now, he can’t see his wife anywhere. The house is all dark.
“Honey I’m home… Where are you?” He puts down his bag and the food container on the kitchen counter. “You’re upstairs?” He switched on the lights in the kitchen and living room. He saw both of the space are in a state of disarray. Cushions thrown off. Shards of glasses are all over the floor. The drawers and the cupboards are all opened as if people searched through them in a hurry.
Worry and fear gripped him. “Eugene? Eugene? Where are you?” He speeds off upstairs to the bedroom. The door is ajar. He pushed the door open slowly. He sees a lump on the bed and comes near it.
“Eugene honey?” He pushes the blanket off and saw his wife. Her night gown is torn, droplets of blood visible on the sheets. His wife, his wife lays there unconscious, streaks of tears on her face. Panic consumes him.
“Eugene... Eugene… Can you hear me?” Mika is now crying. Clutching his wife close to him, he carries her to the car and bring her to hospital.
After patching up Eugene and takes a few blood samples from her, the doctor steps out of the emergency room. “How’s my wife doc?” Worries written all over Mika’s face.
“She’s fine now. I’ve patch her up and now she’s asleep because of the sedatives I gave her. She probably will wake up sometimes later. So don’t worry. We’re moving her to room 325.”
Relief flooded Mika. He will thank all the deities later.
“However, there’s some bad news I need to tell you.”
Dread washes over Mika again.
“I discovered some cuts and bruises all over her body. It looks like she’s assaulted. I even find some internal bleedings at her private area. There’s even dried cum at her thigh. I don’t want to say much. We need to wait until she wakes up and ready to talk about it. I’ve contacted the police and they will be handling this case. I’m so sorry sir.” The doctor bows and make his leave.
/ / / / /
Present
A few days pass by in a blink of an eye. Eugene although seems better physically, but still is unstable mentally. She refused to talk to anybody, preferring to sit alone watching the sun rises and sets as well as just looking out at nothing in particular. She flinches at every contact make towards her no matter if it’s from family and friends, more so strangers.
Due to the incident, Mika takes a couple of weeks off from work. Perhaps he spending sometimes with his wife can improve her mood even if just a little. His heart hurts when he sees what his once beautiful and cheerful wife has become. She now takes her appearance lightly, prefer to be alone, quiet, and the liveliness that always shines in her bright eyes are getting dimmer with each passing day.
It hurts a lot after she lost herself
She lost confidence and turn against the world
Beauty had left her
When hope was lost and she was about to say goodbye to the world
Firstly, Mika tries to make Eugene talk to him. He will give her a kiss to the forehead everyday accompanying his daily good mornings. Usually, Eugene will just ignore him. But if he’s lucky, Eugene will reply him with her own good morning and a smile. He spends more time with her. Eating, watching television, walks around the park, or even read to her. He also brushes her hair every day, making her look good so that she knows that she is still pretty.
Nightmares are always there haunting her. She always wakes up in the middle of the night, drench in sweat, and crying, screaming, begging for the assaulter to stop. There’s nothing Mika can do than holds her tightly in his embrace and whispering soothing words into her ears until she falls back asleep.
He tries to get a little intimate with her. Holding her hands, intertwining their fingers, loose embrace, cuddling, spooning, all that he had tried. Every time, Eugene still flinch. She will move a little, making sure there’s space between her and her husband. It hurts Mika a lot, but he doesn’t show it. He knows it is not easy for her to be comfortable with people touching her or be in her personal space any sooner.
He wanted her to realize that he is there for her, will always be there for her through thin and thick. But no matter how hard he tries, he feels that Eugene is drifting further away from him. Sometimes he feels like he can’t catch her anymore. They are together yet they aren’t.
Your hands felt even colder
As you take it out of my hands like you’re hiding
Without a word
Your small shoulders look so pain
My heart hurts
/ / / / /
It’s a Friday morning and Mika is still on leave so he decides to go to the market and look for some fresh vegetables and meat. He turned around, hands halfway hanging from buttoning his shirt up. His wife is still sound asleep on their bed, soft breathing can be heard. He smiles a little. Leaning down, he kissed her temple and straighten back. His hands continue buttoning his shirt.
Combing his hands through his hair, Mika take one more look in the mirror. He decides that he looked okay and grab his wallet and car keys. Before going out, he left a note on the dresser telling where he is off to. He turns to take one better look at his wife before walking out of the room.
A couple of hours later, he returns home. Hands full of groceries, he had quite a hard time fumbling with the keys to unlock the front door. He pushed the door open with his body and walk into the house, straight to the kitchen and leave the bags on the kitchen island.
He checks his watch. “Guess she’s still asleep. I better wake her up and we can prepare breakfast together.”
The door creaks as he pushes it open. He saw that the room is still dark but light can be seen under the door of the bathroom. Water could be heard running. He thinks that Eugene is in the bathroom cleaning herself so he change into a pair of more comfortable clothes and proceed to make their bed as well as opening the windows to let some fresh air in.
Almost 20 minutes passed and Eugene is still not out of the bathroom. Mika walks to the door and knocks a few time. No answer. He knocks again. Still no answer. Panic seeps through him. He turns the knob and push the bathroom door open.
Laying there unconscious in the bathtub is Eugene. A pool of blood at the side of the tub. She has cut her wrist, again, this time deeper than before. Blood still seeps through the open wound leaking onto the floor. The puddle of blood is getting bigger and bigger staining the white tile.
Colours almost drain from her face, making it turns a shade of blue. Mika quickly approach, pick, and wrap her in a big fluffy white towel, walking quickly into the room. “Hey… hey… You’re still with me right? Eugene… Eugene…” He sobs softly cuddling her close to him. His hands grab the phone on the night stand and call for an ambulance.
/ / / / /
White. White. White. White. No matter where she turns, all she can see is white. No buildings, no sceneries, no people. It’s just a blinding white. She moves her legs, forcing them to take her forward. She walks and walks and walks but it feels like all she had been doing is walking in circles. She can’t find the exit. Dread falls over her. Fear gripping her soul.
And then she feels it. Warmth. She hears a voice. Somebody is talking to her. She tries to open her voice, tries to speak, but nothing comes out. Silence is the only thing she can form.
“You’re strong. I know you’re strong. Stay with me please…”
The voice sounds so sad. She can feel her heart aches. Without realizing tears falls fall her eyes, staining her cheeks. She does not realize it, still trying to get a grip of the owner of the voice. She knows it somehow sounded familiar but she can’t put a name to it.
Suddenly she sees a door. She holds her hands out, yank the door open, and falls into complete darkness.
The rapid beeping sound of the heart monitor sounds too loud in the empty hallway. The sound slows down finally coming to a stop. Even the lines showing the heart rates are slowly becoming one straight line. Paramedics put around oxygen mask over her face and performed cpr all the way to the emergency room.
“Sir, this is as far as you can go. We’ll try our best to save her. Please wait here.”
Mika feels his heart almost stops. No. This can’t be happening. No. Don’t leave me. You can’t leave me.
Always come to me and lean on me
Even your soft tears, even your pain, I’ll share it with you tonight
Put down everything that’s tying you down
Then look at me
Look at your reflection in my eyes, look at my love
I will give you everything
Remember my love
