The Her Before She Met Him

Sarah looked at herself in the mirror, eyes red and watery, lips dry and cracked, face wet and overly messy.

She didn't know how she ended up like this, life had been good, she had been happy, but sadly, that bliss went missing a year after she met him.

He had approached her with an unwavering smile and a heart full of gold, but that was his disguise because on the inside, he was as dark as charcoal.

He tore her heart open and now she was stuck in a maze, unable to escape him. She couldn't run, couldn't hide, it was like he tied her by his side.

Believe her, she tried, but the more desperate for freedom she became, the more her blood would drain.

'Why her?'

She'd sometimes ask, but the girl in the mirror found answering her question quiet a hard task. She'd cry, she'd scream, but that same abused girl would only imitate her most heart-wrenching scenes.

She wouldn't offer a helping hand, wouldn't mutter encouraging words, but how could she when she seemed just as hurt?

The bruises on her face resembled the ones on Sarah's, the tears on her cheeks, the redness in her eyes, it all seemed so familiar. But how could it not?

That girl in the mirror was the girl Sarah had become...

It was all because of him, he transformed her into this ball of vulnerability and had refused to take responsibility. It wasn't that he left her, it was the fact that he wouldn't let her go. That was what disturbed her, but the fear within her would never let him know.

'What should she do?'

Was another question that haunted her mind, should she give up?

Or perhaps she should fight against the fear that resided in her eyes...

But he was what she feared the most, he was like an inescapable nightmare, a handcuff to her wrist, a hair on her head, a ghost that refused to be dead.

He was just always there, pushing her to the edge and sometimes making her want it all to end.

The obsession...

The abuse...

And most of all, her life...

But what kept her going was the hope that she'd one day see someone other than this helpless girl in the mirror, someone who'd save her from him and bring her back into a world where she could avoid such unnecessary suffering.

You see, a year ago, she had been on her way to becoming a successful model, but then he had walked in and floated his way into her life like fine wine.

His smile had been graceful, his touch had been the same, but what had laid behind his facade, was a demon that ensured despair.

Like a fox he was, sly and cunning, she could never tell he was such a man until she experienced it first hand.

The first time he slapped her, she had thought it was her mistake. He had caught her flirting with someone else, so that was the only explanation as to why he became so dense.

The second time though, she was not at fault, it was all because of that darn question she had asked.

'My friend Emma's keeping a party, can I go?'

A grin had been across her lips, but it disappeared the moment he decided to swipe her face with the same hand that he had used to previously caress it..

He had lashed out and slapped her a few more times and that night, he locked her up in a room with no light.

She sat up on the cold floor, no blanket, no sheet, nothing to cover her but the darkness that ensured her no sleep.

In the morning, he had opened up the door and both his eyes had seemed red and sore. He was sorry, at least that was what he said and thinking he just loved her a little too much, Sarah had embraced his words and stepped out of her dread.

But what a fool she was! She should've left him while she could, perhaps if she had, she wouldn't have been here, so broken and sad.

However, what has already been done could not be undone and from the present or the future, she could not run. But what she could do was hold onto the hope that she'd live to see the sun; rays of happiness and not clouds of rain and darkness.

Maybe then she could smile again and the girl in the mirror could finally imitate something other than screams and tears of pain.

But would that day ever come?

A day when she could grin and laugh and smile as if she was dumb...would it really?

If so, then when?

Sarah was dying to see this nightmare come to an end so that her dream to freedom could now begin.

Her dream would involve cameras and flashing lights, a crowd of people that all claimed to be her fans. A lifestyle full of blogs and fun and a life that did not under any circumstances involve him.

If a dream like that came through, then the tears that now resided on her cheeks would be unfiltered makeup and the redness of her eyes would be caused by an eyelash that somehow got stuck.

The bruises on her face would be nonexistent and sad look that tainted it would fade away into nothingness.

It would all be something so close to bliss, her steps would spread felicity all over the damn city and her eyes would be so bright that it would resemble the sun rise.

Oh how she wish a dream like that would come through, at least then the girl in the mirror would look back at her with a smile, one real and unfaltering, one that would represented the her before she met him.

But unfortunately, her dream had yet to become reality and she had to keep living in this nightmare until her savior came to take her out of here.

He'd come one day, she knew, but five years later, she passed away because that psycho had proceeded to slit her throat.

His time in prison had come and done and his next victim looked exactly like the last one. She was a girl he met in the alleyway downtown, her eyes had shined so bright and so, to him...She became Sarah's look-a-like, her living reflection, even when her face morphed into a look of fright.