Monsters in the Dark

He’s across the room… a million miles away. The cold’s radiating off of him, but she can’t quite feel him. Can’t quite make out the wind behind the chill. Gray walls, burdened with the years of nicotine’s call, and stains of… God knows what. Nothing is warm in this room, except her breath and the heat of her sighs. White carpet, stained and mangled with years of coffee, cigarettes, and… again, she doesn’t want to know what caused that stain, and that stain, and that one right next to his boots. Smoking the world away, willing all the stress to disappear. Knees up to her chest, blankets cuddled around – her nest in the cobra’s lair. The silence is burdening her, begging to be broken. And break it she does.

“What did I do?” Baby-voice harsh and dangerously teetering on breaking the shatter glass of the moment.

His head snaps up, eyes burning. Cheekbones higher than heaven’s reach, willow gentle blue-black hair cascading to frame his eyes. Razor-sharp and surgically precise: he’s burrowing into her soul to find the source of… something. “Do, dear?” his voice, gravelly and beautiful. Broken velvet stretched over bones of sin, his voice haunts her soul and petrifies all that once was. “Why, you haven’t done a thing!” Sarcasm. Edge. The knife slices as it was meant to.

Her mind scrambles, going over every last moment in her mind, every detail of the day. When did she break this?
“Then why are you mad at me?” Lamb, begging the wolf not to break her heart. To not go for the throat.

His lips curl, a garish snarl on his angel-face. He jumps on the bed, and she jumps back. His cigarette to his lips, the ember a beacon in the dim-dark room. The smoke exhales and stings her eyes, her lips, her very existence.
“Why does he call you, sweetheart?”

Ah. There it is. That anger of his, that chillingly distant anger that drove straight into her guts and froze her. That left her fighting for breath, fighting for still living. “What? No, no – only once. I didn’t answer!” She’s begging forgiveness for no sin of her own.

“You’ve flirted with him, haven’t you?” She’s fluttering, fighting against this accusation. Fighting to get away from the hand crushing her; she’s trying to fly free. First true betrayal – disbelief in the eyes of the lover.

And always, she assumes outrage against accusations will convince. “You know I haven’t! I love you!” And as always, she believes her feelings are justified. She believes that the fact that she’s completely enraptured by his every move, his every breath; the black on his fingers and the twitch of his jaw; the touch of his hand and the taste of his kiss. She’ll always believe love is enough to make it all work out in the end.

His face is stone, twitching jaw. Eyes narrow into snake-slits, looking down his nose at her breaking fears. The cigarette is thrown and a resounding smack fills the room in one fell swoop. Her world, her existence, her jaw are rearranged. Her eyesight goes blank, swimming with red and black as the pain explodes. Burning, echoing in her skull, rattling around and coming back to do it once more. He’s still screaming, telling her exactly what she needs to do to make it all better. Telling her how fucking worthless she is. But it doesn’t matter, because she can’t hear his fighting words until later, after the pain subsides. Another hit, another, another, but… she doesn’t even register until later. Her stomach heaves, her kidneys revolting against him.

She is pure outrage, angry at the fact that this man, this love of her life, would dare hit her.

“What the fuck?!” She’s yelling back now, angry beyond all comparison. A girl-child of the middle class suburbs, violence was never a part of her life. “Who the hell do you think you are?!”

His voice erupts from his throat in a bloodthirsty, inhuman snarl, and he tackles her, pinning her to the bed. His body is heavy and unwelcome for the first time, one forearm covering her throat. “You will never – fucking – speak to him again.” Graveling rasp, sandpaper voice rubbing her heart raw. Spit is flying from between gritted teeth, baptizing her face. She can’t answer, doesn’t know what to say against this monster that has replaced the love of her world. He tightens his hold. “You hear me, baby?” This baby is no longer a term of endearment – accusations replace affection. I nod frantically, begging him to just let me breathe. “Good,” he coos. He shoves me back into the mattress as he gets up, his face still the broken vestiges of the one I love. I lay there, gasping and willing the burning behind my eyes to let up, to not escape. He doesn’t want my tears, but I can’t help it when my soul has been torn from my body. I don’t understand.

He takes two steps to his pack, stepping on the dying ember burning a hole into the carpet, and for the first time I smell the burning carpet, the acrid smell of it. He lights up again, the lighter casting horrible shadows on his chiseled face. And there I see the monster of a man I’ve grown to love. I can’t leave him, he needs me too much. I’m the only thing in his life he can count on besides his nicotine. My mind sees worlds ending, stars turning to black holes, but I realize – this cobra’s nest I’m in is not one I can ever leave. Moments live forever, and so does love.

He breathes deeply one, two, three. I, love, you. He combs his hair back with his non-smoking hand, taking a deeper hit each time. One, two, three. I, love, you.

He comes to me, his body all apologies. He strokes my face, and kisses my tears. Offers me the cigarette, and I know he’ll be hurt if I don’t take a hit. So I do. I cough it all out as the smoke burns and tears my lungs, but… I’m already hurting myself with the cancer of him, what’s the harm in killing my lungs as well?

I glance up at him, searching his honey-wood eyes for answers. He kisses my forehead, and I melt like always. “Baby, I love you. I shouldn’t have lost control. I just can’t stand the thought of you being with him.” I can still hear the edge in his voice, but I forgive him – he’s worried about leaving me. “You still love me, right?” He smirks. He knows the answer.

I’m tasting the tears as I answer – “Yes, baby. Of course.”
And as a last though, I add: “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He cradles me, his body warm again against my own. “It’s okay. Just be better.”

“I’ll try.”
And between the glow of the cherry and the gray of the smoke, and the heat of his hand, and the weight of his love, I search the dark for meaning. I promise myself tomorrow will be better as every memory of my parents yelling, things being thrown, and my mother leaving crying, I remember: Love hurts. Love is pain. It is worth it.

I used to see monsters in the dark.