Smack!

The sound of Ed's open hand smashing into the side of her face echoed through the cold and hallow house. She let out a small squeak, and then whimpered holding her face.

"I asked you to do a simple thing you stupid bitch" Ed spat. Caro kept my eyes down casted onto the cold tile floor of our kitchen.

"When you go shopping, get me a case of Corona, how stupid are you? It was a simple request" he continued to rant.

"I'm sorr…sorry I don't know what I was thinking" she muttered.

"That's because you weren't thinking, now go and get me my Corona bitch!" He exclaimed.

Carol pulled herself off the floor and scrambled for her purse and keys. She quickly ran out the front door and got in my car. Once safely inside the car, She jabbed the key into the accelerator, imaging, if just for a minute, that it was Ed's face. Carol started driving down the street trying her best to keep her tears from falling. After passing a few stop signs she safely pulled over onto the side, before shifting my car into park. Carol sighed heavily, fearing a sight she knew all too well. She pulled down the visor and peered into the mirror. A fresh purple bruise was forming on the left side of her check. She reached for her purse and pulled out concealer. The only makeup Ed would allow her to wear, for obvious reason. As she started to dab a little bit on her check her eyes looked to the left of the mirror. Staring back at her was a photo of an angel. Her angel. Sophia. Carol quickly slammed the visor shut. The pain and the memories flooding her all at once. The sorrow, and irrevocable darkness that consumed her, at the loss of the only source of sunshine in her life, suddenly became all too real.

"Who cares what they think" Carol muttered bitterly, as she drove to the nearest grocery store.

Carol walked into the grocery store, and looked up at the beeping sound. Letting people know she was there. She sighed heavily. If it weren't for the sound acknowledging her, she wasn't sure anyone else would. She looked like shit. A half covered purple bruised cheek. Swollen eyes, and clothes that were shaggy and way too big for her. She sighed again, as she made her way to the side of the store that most likely held the liquor. She walked quickly, and only glanced occasionally at the other shoppers. She didn't need to do more than that to know what they were thinking, she didn't need to hear it, and their eyes told her everything she needed to know. They were judging her. She quickly grabbed the box of corona and made her way to the front to pay.

After paying Carol loaded the "precious cargo" into her van as she proceeded to leave the grocery store parking lot. She was maybe a mile away when she heard a clunk sound coming from the hood of the car. The steam begin to mask the car and she appeared to be driving in the clouds. She yelled and immediately pulled to the side of the road. She got out of the car and lifted the hood.

"No, no please no" she exclaimed. As the steam rose into the atmosphere. She sighed and knelt to the ground defeated. Was this her punishment from God? Did she deserve to have such shitty luck? Carol was so lost in her own thoughts she hadn't noticed another car had pulled to the side behind hers and the driver had exited their vehicle.

"Hey woman you okay?"