The Corner

He lay there on the ground, in the most distant corner of the large, almost gigantic living room. The cold floor stinging his bruised limbs, the even colder wall stinging his bloodied back. The pungent smell of blood lingering in the air around, its dirty red stains on the wall, the rest of it smeared on his body. With his swollen lips and a very hot face covered with his own tears, sweat, a lot of mucus and blood, he gasped, he panted and tried to scream, to shout, to at least whisper for some water. All in vain. His head pounding with an unbearable ache, as though, he felt, it might split. He tried to suck in a huge breath to calm his panicked mind and bruisingly devastated body, yet ended up coughing. Yes, broken ribs, he concluded, at least two or three of them. He decided to crawl at last, to move away from the much traumatizing cold of the walls. Just as he tried to move his arms, an excrutiating pain seared through his right shoulder making him groan pathetically. His displaced shoulder made it nearly impossible for him to move, even by merely an inch. His blurry eyes were desperately glancing around with a hope to find some remedy, at least some relief for the time being, yet, his severely disoriented mind simply refused to comply. He gave up on moving around or simply even moving his limbs around.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, he noticed a silhouette standing close by, he felt her standing close by. Even with the colossal pain he was in, he cowered away from her presence, trying to shrink himself in the same corner as much as he could, trying to be away from her, as much as possible. Then he made the instinctive mistake of looking at her, into her eyes. Those eyes filled to the brim with hatred, wild rage and another emotion, he could not decipher. Then she smirked, a pure evil smirk it was, as if mocking at him, taunting him, willing him to do something, rather anything. Seeing him helpless, she started smiling, then laughing, the laughter seemed like a pack of mad hyenas playing with their prey. His face burned with an utmost humiliation, mind caught up in a turmoil of terrifying emotions, whilst she continued laughing. "So, my dearest husband, how do you feel?" She then narrowed her eyes in a mock, deriding concern. "Does it hurt too much my dear?"

Then simply within a fraction of seconds, she changed her demeanour to reflect the immense hatred her eyes beheld. "Well, if it does, it simply means, it should. You needed to have had a taste of your own medicine, didn't you?" Again plastering a sickeningly sweet smile on her face, she said, "I bet you do enjoy the brilliant, bloodied welts of your favourite belt on your back and the heavy, hot imprints of my slender little hands on your face, the black and blue beautiful bruises of my punches on your abdomen. Had to return the favour someday, you know." She went ahead, nearing him; sensing danger, he immediately tried to cover any vulnerable surface of his body, but to no avail. She squeezed his dislocated shoulder. He let out a cry of immense pain. "Oh, I must have done a brilliant job for having you scream now, the way you do. Guess what, none of this clenches my heart in pity. Remember those times, when I used to cry, to scream in pain, to beg you to stop, to have some mercy and you kept on beating me like some possessed wild animal. Well, how does it feel like being in my place today, huh?"

"Sorrry, pleeeaseee, sorrrrry.", he slurred heavily, his eyes pleading for an escape, for some mercy. "Oh look, how the tables have turned. Don't worry sweetheart, I am not as cruel as you have been. I will cut you some slack. Ahh, by the way, you must be wondering how I reduced you to your present state of misery, aren't you? Well you see, your favourite fish curry I cooked today wasn't for appeasing you, I put some wonderful pills in it. Those made you incapable of moving your limbs, yet, made you feel all of the pain of the beatings I put you through. Isn't that brilliant? Seeing you all helpless, while I beat you like the thousands of times you have beat me, killed my soul, was so satisfying, so liberating. I bet, you would like that too, once again." His eyes widened in a massive fear he felt for her, in that moment. He started shaking his head, blabbering some incoherent words so as to dissaude her from her planned actions. "I do not know what to speak with you, what to even say now.", she said, her voice cracking with all the emotions rushing through her. "You are a pathetic human being, a thorough misogynist who finds pleasure in belittling, beating his wife with no mercy. I cannot even describe the pain I have endured, the physical, mental pressure. You have stepped over my heart a thousand times, and have made me incapable of any love.

I am going away now, leaving you forever, and if you feel at least, the tiniest bit of remorse, even a millionth part of it, you will not show me your face again. Goodbye.", she uttered with a harsh, hard resolution and left. When he saw her shadow getting farther away, his eyes started burning with a deplorable shame for himself. He did deserve that pain and much more, much severe than that.