She Tried

"ISABEL!!!!!"1

She cringed at the terror Jason's voice evoked within her deep down to her toes. She hadn't meant to mock him but she had and he was more enraged than ever before. 2

"You better be back in this kitchen by the time I count to three!"3

Slowly she made her way as he counted, his voice emanating throughout the tiny apartment they had shared for almost 3 years now. As she stepped into the doorway, her eyes caught a glint of light off the blade of a sharp butcher knife. He was waving it in the air like a short medieval sword, like a crazed King Arthur. The blade making hissing noises in the still air as if to say "You're gonna get it now, girl." She lowered her eyes on instinct as she stepped closer. She felt his free hand close tightly around her wrist. She thought to herself that it wasn't a good sign when the permanent fixture of the beer bottle super glued to his hand had been set down on a counter on the other side of the small room. 4

She had endured 3 years of attempted rape, an actual rape by the husband who claimed to love her, and the forced miscarriage of the baby that had resulted from that rape. Her body still bore the bruises from the flight of stairs leading down from the landing of their apartment. But now she knew it was over. She had tried to escape before only to be sent back by the very parents who had born and raised her. They believed any argument could be solved by a sit-down talk. They didn't know what their only child had been through in 3 short years.5

She looked up almost defiantly as he passed the tip of the blade by her throat. As he raised his other hand back to hit her she decided then and there she was tired of being his victim. She felt the cold, clammy hand strike her cheek but still she stared into his eyes, never blinking, never faltering. He seemed to growl like a wild animal deep within his throat, his eyes seeming to turn red in anger like some Saturday morning cartoon character, but still she stood her ground and when he went to plummet the knife into her chest she grabbed his wrist. She twisted and turned it trying to get the dangerous end of his chosen weapon pointed in his direction. 6

She smiled defiantly as she saw the tip aiming for his chest instead of hers. She used what was left of her strength to push the knife towards his chest. With all her struggling she lost her footing on the wet linoleum and came crashing down, her body splayed out across the floor. He crouched over her the knife twisting through his fingers like a poisonous snake.7

"Now come on baby...be a good girl for Daddy and lie still."8

His evil grimace captured her eye as she felt the first stabs of the knife puncture her skin. She screamed as the stabs traveled up and down her stomach and into her still scarred uterus. She raised her arms to shield herself only to receive cuts and scrapes on her forearms. After a while she went numb and lay still. The last thing she heard before the blade ripped through her slowly beating heart was Jason's maniacal laughter.9