"... you don't have to wait for someone to treat you bad repeatedly. All it takes is once, and if they get away with it that once, if they know they can treat you like that, then it sets the pattern for the future." –Jane Green, Bookends
His scream pierces the silence of the night as he awakes from another nightmare featuring his former lover Michelle. A woman whose beauty had captivated so many admirers, while her insides were as ugly and dark as the most frightening beast ever portrayed on TV.
It's been two years now and still she plagues his nights as darkness plagues an area without light, limiting his hours of sleep and leaving him tired beyond description when the light appears.
Its 3:45 am - too early to be up, but he knows that it will take him a least an half hour to fall back to sleep - if not more - and tomorrow he has to be at the office early so he can get through his stack of reports and he'd like to not look like he stepped out of a scene from 'The Night of The Living Dead' for once.
He wasn't sure how much longer he could cope with the stares and everyone wanting to know if he was alright. He admits he's lost a lot weight and can't seem to gain it back but that's because he's skipped a few meals and has neglected going to the gym like he used too.
His life had changed so drastically it's hard to describe how it used to be before to how it is now, to describe to anyone that doesn't know the tale of woe, how someone could go from being a loving, caring individual to a hateful, vengeful person seemingly overnight. It's still so hard to wrap his head around how his former loved could twist an innocent gesture of a hand on his shoulder to mean that he was having an affair with that person.
However, he knows now that the signs were there he just never saw them. It was visible in looks she gave if he spoke about a particular person more than once or in the arguments they would have over trivial things such as him getting called into work on his day off or just things he did that she claimed were out of the norm for him.
Michelle had told him several times that she was a jealous woman but had always done so jokingly. She told him once after seeing him hug a female friend that she didn't like others touching what was hers. He had thought then that it was cute, had felt his ego stroked that she wanted him as much as he had wanted her. Nothing could have prepared him or warned him of how serious she had been.
He remembers it like it was yesterday, they had exited the office building walking to their vehicles when someone shouted his name. At first he wasn't sure who it was but as the person got closer he recognised her as a former classmate he hadn't seen in years. Delighted at the surprise he had hugged her and then kissed her on the cheek, they spoke for a brief moment then each went their separate ways. During his little reunion he had fail to notice Michelle standing in the parking lot and she was not pleased to say the least.