Abuse

“You’re a worthless fucking whore,” he said with finality. “You’re a slut and I’ll bet you’re worth less than the clothing you wear.”

“Would you just stop? I don’t deserve this,” I said. I felt like I was going to cry. I could even feel the tears poking the corners of my eyes, but I couldn’t cry in front of Chris. That would be letting him win. If I let him win again, I would be encouraging him to hurt me. Again.

Still, he came towards me. His face was contorted with anger. .

“Chris, don’t do this,” I said, trying to pull the panic from my voice.

“Chris, don’t do this,” he mimicked. “Why, whore? Why should I listen to you? What’s in it for me?”

“Chris!” I said, my voice wavering. “Please! You don’t have to do it this way.”

“But you’re a dirty slut, so I don’t have to listen to you,” he pointed out. “I don’t give a crap about you, you know that, right?”

“Chris! Stop it!” I was edging towards my cellphone, lying on the side buffet table. I had told my friend, Sarah, about this. She had tried to talk me out of being with him, but not being able to, she said that if it looked like something was going to happen, to call her and she would make sure I was safe. I had never gotten up the nerve to call her before now. Chris continually taunted me about it. “Go ahead, Alice. Call her. See what happens if you call her. You won’t be alive long enough to say hello.” This happened every time.

He grabbed my arm roughly and shoved me against the wall. I was momentarily stunned and he took the opportunity to punch me in the stomach. As I doubled over in pain I met his fist, coming up. there was a resounding crunch and I was blind with pain. It was agony.

All I could see for several seconds was white then Chris came back into focus. He was standing a few feet away from me, examining his handiwork.

”Well?” he asked as if it was common knowledge. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

It was getting harder to breath let alone talk. This time was worse than any other. Usually he just punched me once in the jaw, slapped me around for a while, said some nasty things, then left. This time he actually hurt me enough to make me go to the hospital.

I lurched off the wall, straight into Chris’ waiting arms. He got me by the scruff of the neck and pulled me up-right. He slapped me again, and sent another shooting pain through my jaw.

"Chris!" I tried to say. It came out as a jumbled mess. I looked around the room, looking for an exit that I could get to before him. There was the one door, about a hundred feet along the wall. He saw what I was looking for and shoved me against the wall and sauntered over to the door. I was hunched over and only looked up in time to see his hand turn to the right, and hear the click slide home. Fuck.

He turned and looked at me, as if to say "yes you