The problem with my fantasies is that I always want a little reality in them. I guess I could say the same for my reality.
My name is Melinda. I am now forty years old and still afraid of the dark.
David and I have been married for thirteen years. It's by far the longest of my three marriages. I guess it's because by the time I met David; I had become honest with myself.
I guess you can say I always had a type. My first husbands were controlling father figures that dominated my life in every way. Even the men I cheated on them with had the same qualities. David was quite the opposite. Receiving instructions is something he enjoys. He enjoys being a spectator. He likes a lot of things that make us the perfect couple.
I never knew it could be so intense to have someone to play with.
My morning started at 4:00 am like it always does. I have been waking up to that time for as long as I can remember. My mind is my alarm now.
My family was very poor. There were five of us in a two-level house. Comfort was not the thing my stepfather was concerned about. The winters were too cold, and the summers were too hot.
I woke up drenched in sweat and immediately went into a PTSD flashback to living at home. My heart was racing, and I was almost paralyzed in fear.
I put my hand on the bed and felt for David beside me. He was not there.
I got up and staggered out of the room. I felt weakened by the suffocating heat. The light didn't come on when I flipped the switch. The lack of electricity pushed me deeper into the feeling of being home again.
Carefully holding on to the metal rail, I went downstairs to find David. It takes a while to adjust to the dark. By the time I got to the bottom floor, I was at least seeing shadows. I never saw him.
"Melinda!" he yelled in a deep voice that echoed through the quiet morning.
I froze in my tracks.
The cars passing by on the road outside the front of the house gave just enough light that I could see David sitting in a recliner. He had positioned the chair in the perfect spot to get a view of the land. There was no way for anything to sneak up behind him, and it was impossible for anyone to get by him without getting caught.
I was in a kill zone.
I know this because it's something my military trainer stepfather had taught me.
He had the same trap. The same chair. The same motives.
He was there to control me.
"Where are you going this early?" he asked
He was making his voice deeper and louder than normal, and each word sent a panic through my body. Even though I could not get my legs to move, my fists clenched. I could at least make it seem like I was choosing to stand my ground.
Things had changed between my step father and I after I turned eighteen. He was never nice before then but he was absolutely possessive of me after. He always wanted to know where I was going and who I was going to be with. He gave every indication that I belonged to him.
"Is the heat on?" I asked, still half in a dream world from not only waking up early but waking up to the incredible heat that had consumed our apartment as though Hell had opened a door.
"I asked you a question!" he said forcefully.
I could hear the leather creak under him from the shift in his weight. My legs were now shaking under me.