Title: Inside the Lake
Author: Kassfinol
All rights reserved.
Genre: Dark drama – paranormal suspense
“I need you to come here!” I heard the shout of the man who lately scared me just by seeing him arrive. “Milagros, damn it! Get over here!” he insisted, even more forcefully.
I ran, tripping over everything in my path; I didn’t want to keep him waiting any longer.
“Are you deaf?! Yes, of course; besides being incompetent and stupid, you’re deaf,” my husband shouted in front of me. We’d been married five years. The abuse had always been there, but my ordeal had begun twenty-four months ago. I looked to one side, and distracted myself watching my reflection in the glass of a shelf: one eye completely swollen shut and a scrape on my right cheek.
“Look at me, stupid!” he shouted, making me jump a little, I was so on edge. I was afraid; I felt it all over my body. Even the way I breathed changed when he was in front of me.
“Tell me,” I murmured, looking toward where he was, but I didn’t look him in the face; instead I kept my eyes fixed on the floor. I don’t know what was more painful, feeling each of his blows or looking at him and remembering all those beautiful moments we lived through.
“I have to go, and I don’t know when I’ll be back, though I don’t think I owe you any explanations.” He came toward me and yanked me by one arm with great force, bending me over the bed.
“Let go of me, I won’t leave, I swear! Leave me locked up, but please don’t tie me up,” I begged him.
“No, last time that’s not what you showed me; I won’t let you run away,” he kept pulling me, squeezing my arm harder and harder. If I moved suddenly, he could break it again.
“Mario, please… I don’t know when you’re coming… I’ll need to eat, drink water… wash up.”
“That’s not something I’m interested in.” He grabbed me by the hair, making me scream from the sharp, sudden pain he caused me.
The latest abuse had been unbearable; I wanted to escape — on that, he wasn’t wrong. I needed to leave, to leave all of that behind. But ever since Mario caught me the day I tried to escape… twenty-four months ago, he tied me up every time he had to go out, no matter if it took him one day or five.
He’d leave me tied up next to the bed with a thick chain I couldn’t possibly break, he’d leave me water and food… and like an animal, I’d end up relieving myself beside the place where I was tied up.
I had no one to defend me, since I’m an immigrant in this country. I came, like all Latinas, wanting a better life here in the United States, and I met the man I thought would be the love of my life; but I ended up kidnapped by a wretch who lived to abuse me. I wasn’t in touch with anyone; as soon as we got married, I left behind the few friends I had, and we moved near Lake Erie, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mario hit me again, to make me stop begging, while he filled me with insults. As best I could, I freed myself from his grip and started screaming with all the strength I had left:
“Help, somebody help me!”
“Shut up! Nobody’s going to hear you, stupid. Did you forget we’re in the middle of nowhere?”
Frantic, when he got close to me, I punched him in the nose. He got distracted by the pain, covering his face with his hands. I took the chance and grabbed the keys he had half tucked in his pants pocket. I kicked him in the groin to buy more time and ran toward the front door.
My hands were trembling, and no matter how hard I tried to be quick and open the lock, I couldn’t do it, until I saw Mario running toward me. Within seconds I opened the door and left my prison… that place I once thought would be my home, but which became a site of physical and psychological torture.
I ran toward the wooded area where we lived; I needed to disappear from his sight, hide, keep him from finding me.
“Milagros!” I heard Mario’s shouts in the distance. “Milagros, come here!” Even though I was running with all my strength, I felt Mario getting closer and closer to me. He knew this place better than I did. I ran even faster, desperate; I didn’t see that there was a wolf trap on the path, and without warning I tripped over it and couldn’t stop it from snapping shut with strong pressure around one of my legs. The pain made me scream like I never had before.
“There you are, you wretch!” I heard Mario’s mocking shout.
Bleeding out, I tried to walk as best I could, but it was useless. The world was spinning and I was losing my sight by the second. After a few agonizing minutes, I had Mario in front of me, smiling, with a cable in his hand.
“I think now, with that leg like that, you’re no good to me anymore!”
I heard the words from far away, despite him being so close. I was dazed by the intense pain.
“I’m going to get rid of you,” Mario said the words, and I felt fear seep into my very bones.
“No, Mario, please, I beg you,” I pleaded, tears in my eyes.
“I’m sorry, your body doesn’t attract me anymore, and now with that leg all mangled like that, you’ll matter even less to me; you bore me, you tire me,” he whispered slowly, as he wound the cable around my neck.
“No, please… no,” I tried to make myself heard, but it was useless; Mario squeezed harder and harder. As best I could, I tried to breathe, flailing desperately, and whenever I got the chance, I took in great gulps of air.
“I suppose this is how this fake marriage comes to an end,” the words confused me.
“What, what are you saying?” I gestured, even though I could barely breathe anymore.
“Yes, dear… today I was leaving because I had to go to my real wife’s house; I don’t have to keep lying to you anymore… so… see you in hell.”
Learning all of that destroyed whatever will to live I had left… and Mario’s face was the last thing I managed to see before sinking into a temporary darkness.
That’s how, for seventy-four years now, I remember day and night how my last minutes of life went. Gazing at Lake Erie, where Mario sank my body after strangling me… waiting for someone to come and find me… so I can finally rest in peace.
Death is not a synonym for peace; it’s just a simple beginning where, again and again, you suffer and learn to be happy.