ENTERED INTO THE 750 WORD PROJECT 2023
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It’s 11:48PM. I’m still awake listening to my husband’s snores reverberating off our bedroom walls. I nudge him and he rolls onto his side and continues sleeping.
Oh, to rest comfortably without any worries on your mind! I envy him tonight and wonder if he’ll sleep like this tomorrow.
I down 2 Ambiens and a Tylenol with a stiff shot of bourbon and hope this will help me get a little slumber and relief.
I’ve decided I’m going to tell him. I’m going to tell him in the morning. I have to tell him.
I gently rub his hair admiring his handsome features. I want to take this moment and freeze it, hoping it will stay static after I tell him. After I tell him his boss kissed me at last week’s office Christmas party.
He’d followed and cornered me in the bathroom and kissed me. I slapped his face. Then he kissed me again! But longer!
And I… And I, um, I… Get loopy and tired and… Where was I again? Oh, right, kissing! And yawning and pillow. And kissing and drifting. Yes, I cornered… Kissed. We slapped my face kissing and too much drank Mr. Jim Beam tapped my shoulder and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Where am I? It’s dark and I can’t move. I mean, I could move but I feel as if I’m stuck in a spider’s webbing. Every cell in my body wants to scream, but I know that screaming won’t help because I wasn’t here by accident. I was hunted and trapped. I was prey and no rescue party was coming.
“Run! Run as fast as you can!”
I heard the words but couldn’t tell where they were coming from. Was it in my own head?
I reach out my hands and feel wooden branches and thorns instead of silk. Something was here, looming, watching me. I heed the advice and start running through thick brush and hanging vines that claw at my clothes, stripping me naked, exposing my pale skin, contrasting it against the creeping darkness. I rush to get out this tangled maze of jungle and have the warm smell of colitas rising up through the air.
“Run faster! I’m coming!”
That wasn’t my imagination! It was behind me, gaining ground! I throw a punch backwards, catching only empty air. Craggy tree limbs bend themselves over to smack my bare ass and mark it with welts and bruises. Leaves pinch my exposed nipples and with every step the ground seemed to want to root my feet and spread my legs. If I stumbled or was caught, it’s intentions were clear! My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, if I could just stop for the night.
“Ssssluuuuuuuut!” the wind howled, “Come back, you slut!”
I run blindly now with no caution to where my steps land. Heavy and suffocating, IT controls everything here and rubbed its hardening cock against me. Here, in this world, escape didn’t mean freedom and this could be heaven or this could be hell.
An evil laughed mocked my attempts to stop the inevitable, “Welcome to the Hotel…”
“Run towards the water!” I tell myself, “There’s a clearing there. I could face my stalker and better defend myself. Run towards the water and I could at least jump and be swept downstream, away, and flushed down the porcelain drain. I was so close. I could hear the water hitting against the checkered bathroom tile!”
Its words were menacing as it approached, “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!”
I was almost to safety. I needed only to…
“Jump!”
Jump and I’m then suddenly falling!
I sat straight up in bed gasping for air. I lifted the covers, making certain my legs weren’t scratched or bruised. The morning had come earlier than I’d hoped and my husband had just started his shower and I could tell from the beating water against tile that he had not yet entered and was waiting for the water to get warmer.
I was no longer running under my blanket and watched the rays of the sun creep slowly across the floor to overtake our bed. In 30 minutes he’d be dressed for work. I tried thinking of a way to lessen the impact of what I needed to tell him.
He flushed the toilet and continued mangling, to his heart’s content, the Eagles’ classic anthem, “They livin’ it up at the Hotel California! What a nice surprise. Bring your alibis.”