This short story is an entry in the 2002 Soc.Sexuality.Spanking Summer Short Story Contest and is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice. The author would appreciate your comments
Category: Edge
Cornered
By
Sam came gradually to consciousness, mouth dry, head throbbing. Something strange had raised him from his drunken stupor. Then he heard it. A faint intermittent sound, it was at first unidentifiable: then he suddenly knew what it was. The sobbing came from down the hall. With a chill that pierced his heart, he knew where it was.
Sam got shakily to his feet in the semi-darkness. Although the bedroom was carpeted, the floor was cold and seemed slightly damp. He went into the hall and paused at the closed door into the room he had not entered since..... The thought and the name was first squelched, then banished altogether.
But it came sneaking back, insinuating and insistent, terrifying to know, to understand, to accept. The thought, the name and the memory brought unendurable pain. Pain hiding under the bed, camouflaged in the closet, behind the toybox. The pain and the terror taut and ready to pounce and rend him.
Sam knew the pain: as intimate as a lover, as horrible as pure evil. When it came, it was sudden, shocking, sharp and slicing: rending him into shreds. One slice was remorse, one was regret, one shred was anger, one was loss. The final and killing slice was futility.
The sobbing continued, soft to his ear, deafening to his soul. He stood, almost paralyzed at the door, his hand outstretched, groping, yearning, yet afraid to touch the knob. He could not, yet he must.... open the door: certainty better than not knowing. He opened the door.
The room was ordinary, but mysterious: dark, but faintly lit by pale moonlight that cast an indistinct shadow into the corner. The corner that was her corner. The last place he had seen her small lovely form, hunched and shaking with sobs. His righteous duty done, he had closed the door.
The shadow seemed to move and with a lurch of joy that exploded within him, he flicked on the light. The corner was empty...... as empty as the space in his heart that once was filled with love, but now was an infinite void.
The End
© Copyright July 2002 by Koalabear (Woody@lava.net)
Reviews
Abrat4you <abrat4you(at)aol(dot)com>
A sad tale...well written.
Tami <tamishy(at)webtv(dot)net>
A story about honest discipline gone terribly wrong. How do you live on just shadows and memories? Very compelling. It's well worth a reread to completely understand the impact of the words. Outstanding job.
Haron <haron(at)newsguy(dot)com>
This is a stunning piece, painful to read, but impossible not to reread. The story is masterfully crafted; each sentence strikes home. Wonderful.
Sarah Nada <circler73(at)hotmail(dot)com>
Cornered is edgy, sad, and beautifully written. The author captures the pain of loss while leaving a lot of the specific circumstances to the reader's imagination. Very well done.