Marked

His hands were around her neck, her arms flying violently, trying to push him off. The anger and hatred in his eyes as he strangled her tiny dainty neck were monstrous and looked as if the devil was controlling his body. She couldn’t defend herself as her last breath began to wither until she fell to the ground like a wet noodle. When she came to she was on the bathroom floor. Where was he, o God, she hoped and prayed he didn’t have the gun that night. She crawled to her daughter’s room where she was still so peaceful and never woke up. She was shocked the cops hadn’t been called from the neighbors below or beside them. How she hoped the cops were coming to save her. To take this asshole away. How could someone so small be so strong and strike a woman so hard. The next morning the marks around her neck said it all. This was it she thought, I will take no more. She went along with her day, took her daughter to school and took a personal day. Where was she going to go with these bruises around her neck. She decided this was it, he would no longer push her around, throw things in her face, scream and curse her very living. She was done and now he was going to pay . She knew what time to expect him home, the bastard, the inhumane being that called himself a man. So late lunch would be ready, she would act as if she were sorry like she always had done, He was somehow a great manipulator at making her think she was the one to blame. That if she would have kept her mouth shut she wouldn’t wind up with the bruises or the marks. So she played along this day. This would however be the last day that she did. She made his favorite dish, Crusted Parmesan Chicken. However she added two special ingredients that day, she would not have this attempt fail, it had to be hundred proof. While making the batter for the chicken she added crushed aspirin and rat poison, more than enough to kill an elephant. She prepared the food just as she normally does. Coating each piece of chicken in the parmesan, eggs, and now the aspirin and rat poison, He would never know. As he arrived, he said No I’m sorry, o wow thank you for cooking, nothing. She told him she was leaving early to go to the library for school and then would pick up their daughter and would be back in a few hours. He thought nothing of it. As she left she told him goodbye and that she loved him , knowing that when she saw him again, he would be a corpse and that made her smile. She left the aspirin and the rat poison in the bathroom counter. So when she called the cops they would see that he had probably overdosed. He was a raging alcoholic and had already had a drink before he even arrived home. The cops would merely think he drank too much and decided to take the aspirin and took the rat poison by mistake. As she drove out of the parking lot that day a sense of relief came over here, the marks on her neck no longer ached as they would be the last marks he ever put on her. He would be gone. Her life would begin, she would be safe and her daughter would no longer cry because daddy was hitting mommy. Free she was. Marked no longer.