Ethan opened the door, and the eerie silence greeting him chilled him to the core. From beyond the hallway presented to him, he could hear angry muttering. Heart palpatating at an alarming rate, he considered running out of the apartment, but Ethan steeled his resolve, before slowly walking towards the source of the muttering.

Rounding the corner, Ethan was met with the back of his girlfriend of seven months, Pearl. The dark haired, voluptuous woman was slicing something rather harshly on a cutting board, and Ethan's eyes trailed to the plate of food sitting on the table, no doubt cold. Ethan stepped towards Pearl slowly, hand outstretched, but before Ethan could do anything, Pearl whipped around and uttered a venomous "sit."

Ethan, seeing the lethal weapon in his girlfriend's hand, simply nodded obediently and lowered himself into the chair, and prodded his cold, hard food. "I made dinner," Pearl said softly "sadly you were 'working late'..." Pearl then let out a humourless laugh that sent shivers down Ethan's spine.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that-"

"Oh no...working late is fine," Pearl said, and the corners of her lipstick covered lips rose into a sneer "because it's not like that you're having your way with the skank Alicia..or maybe your a Lily girl!" Ethan remained silent and Pearl's gaze went from the plate of food and Ethan.

"Go on, eat," Pearl promoted with a sickening smile "I made that for you...go on.." Ethan slowly took a bite of the food, and cringed. It was disgusting! Seeing Ethan's discomfort however, Pearl walked over and placed her hand, fixed with sharp nails, on the table in front of Ethan.

"Go on," Pearl said "eat." Her firm tone scared Ethan, but he found himself unable to swallow and with a sinking feeling, spit it out, coughing. The few seconds following were silent, with Pearl staring at Ethan with dark brown eyes, before she slowly stood up, her gaze transfixed on Ethan.

Pearl suddenly let out a loud screech and sent the plate flying towards its doom, and it shattered against the wall. Ethan recoiled, covering himself from harm, but Pearl grabbed his hands and forced them against the table with one hand, while her other hand traced small lines on his face with his nails.

"You're so ungrateful," Pearl spat, her voice quivering and her nails almost drawing blood where she was clutching Ethan's face "I work my backside off for you, for us, and this is how you try to contribute? By making fun of what I do?!" Pearl stared at Ethan's eyes which were filling with tears, before she suddenly drew her hand away, which clawed Ethan's cheek and caused it to bleed.

"You can clean up," Pearl hissed "do something right for once.." Pearl stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door too. Ethan lightly grazed his injury and drew his hand away, hissing in pain. Ethan stood up and stumbled to the sink, searching for anything to ease his pain such as a rag he could dab away the blood, but before he could do anything, he felt a presence behind him, and Pearl's voice whispered "weird that you're not cleaning..."

Pearl suddenly grabbed Ethan by his hair and dragged him over to the shards of plates and food, and forced him to get on his hands and knees, where the shards dug into him and she said "you can stay there for an hour or two...next time learn not be so ungrateful.." And with that, Pearl stormed back into the bedroom, but kept the door open to keep an eye on Ethan.

Ethan's phone suddenly buzzed, but Ethan didn't want to answer it, knowing that if he dare disobey Pearl at all, he would receive a swift and harsh punishment. The buzzing proved to be incessant enough for Pearl to walk over and take the phone from Ethan's pocket herself.

"Oh it's Cal," Pearl said "at least it's not Alicia..." Pearl then answered the phone, and instantly, her demeanour changed. She suddenly had a coy smile and put a hand on her hip as if Cal was looking at her.

"Ethan? No, he's not here," Pearl said "oh he left his phone here...yeah, yeah...well it was great seeing you Cal! We should meet up again some time! I feel like we talk through Ethan too much...yeah, yeah...ok, see you! Bye!" And with that, she threw the phone across the room carelessly, no doubt damaging it beyond repair.

"It astounds me," Pearl mused, leaning against the doorframe "how you and Cal come from the same family. I mean, even you understand, right? He's more successful, better looking...God, and I chose you..." Ethan held back tears, before Pearl sauntered back into their room.

And I chose you.

He's more successful.

Better looking.

And I chose you.

Hey y'all! This a short chapter just to give you a taste of what this entails. There will be abuse, sometimes, if not a lot of the time, detailed. There will be other stuff such as sexual assault and child abuse coming in later, so you have been warned.

Short chapter, but there you go, just a prologue of sorts!