Hey guys! Just getting a feel for this story. I have a plan for it. Just testing the waters now, and seeing what you guys like and how you feel about it. Thank you for the great response on the introduction of this story. I'm so happy to be back! :)

"See my days are cold without you, but I'm hurting while I'm with you. And though my heart can't take no more, I keep on running back to you." - Ashanti.

It's so sad what love will make you do. It makes you give up things you never thought possible, like your family and all of your friends. It'll make you sacrifice big things, like your career. It'll make you forgive someone for unfathomable, violent acts. It'll make you lie, like looking into a person who's guts you hated, and have to bite your pride and everything that makes you you, when you say those three words, I love you. You will lose yourself.

At least that's what happened to me.

This wasn't a fairy tale. No matter how much it felt like one in the beginning. When I'd locked eyes with his emerald-green ones, when I had first met him and thought our souls had finally found each other. That I was finally found when I'd been lost my entire life.

I was dead wrong.

He was my worst enemy.

And the only way out was death.

But not on his terms - on my own. He could take everything else from me - and he had. But not my life. This was one thing that belonged to me. My heart told me I was on the fast track of him taking that away from me too. Too many hits. Too many slaps. And punches. And bite marks.

One of these days, he was really going to lose it. Did I believe Adrian could kill me intentionally? No. But accidents happen, and there was no stopping him once he got into that mode. He would snap out of it later, and realize it was already too late.

Fuck that.

This belonged to me.

"My Rose," Adrian whispered, and in a rare show of weakness, a tear slid down his stubbly cheek. "I'm so fucking sorry. I'm so fucking sorry."

I looked at him through blurry eyes. In a raspy, raw voice, I asked him simply, "Why?"

"Fuck," Adrian blew out his breath. "I don't know. Please, my Rose, I'll take care of you - just please forg-"

"Stop, just stop," Pain, not that of the physical kind, filled me so deeply I was drowning in it. "Just stop. I don't want to hear it."

"I'll make it better." Adrian said in distraught as he poured some of my pomegranate soap onto the loofah. I watched as he lathered it into a ball of bubbles. It smelled delicious.

"How can you make it better?" I whispered, "Can you go back in time and stop it?"

"No," he began scrubbing my body from head to toe. "But I can show you how much I love you and be here to take care of you."

"How is this love?" I felt my swollen eye. "How the fuck is this love? I don't deserve this."

"Easy, my Rose," He said, and I could already hear the irritation in his voice. "I'm so fucking sorry. I wish I could take it back-"

"But you can't, there's no making this better."

"Enough," Adrian said, "Just let me take care of you."

I closed my mouth, and shut down everything in my body. I was just wasting my breath anyways. I would never be heard.

Adrian filled a cup of water from the bath and began pouring over my head to wet my hair. When he filled his palms with my favorite shampoo and gently began to massage my scalp, I cringed and hissed in pain.

"I'm sorry, my Rose," he said genuinely, looking torn apart...and a part of me - a very, very stupid part I might add - melted a little bit and wanted to forgive him and just hug him.

"I don't want to hear it." I told him as he rinsed my hair out then conditioned it. I felt so fucking dead inside, just staring at the tile on the wall and all the designs, desperately trying to think about anything else. My mind was numb.

"You could at least show some appreciation. I did all this for you." He snapped. "Any of your other men do this for you? Took care of you like this? Bathed you? No, exactly. I'm the only one. You should appreciate that."

Adrian looked increasingly frustrated. He stood up and patted his jeans for his cigarette and lighter. He lit one up. I cringed and felt angry. He knew how much I hated the smell, especially inside the house. It always gave me a terrible headache. Even though I already had a pretty nasty one right now. Not that it matters.

He pushed the bath plug to allow the water to drain. Then he looked back at me and made an annoyed sound.

"Fuck, I said I'm sorry. I don't know why in the hell you're still crying."

I didn't say a word.

Adrian helped me out of the bath and wrapped a fresh, crisp white towel around me. He then brought me to our bed, sat me down, got behind me, and gently began brushing my hair for me. After, he helped me to get dressed then laid me down.

"I'm gonna go make you dinner. Maybe you'll appreciate that." Adrian said crisply, "Just lay down. I'll be right back."

I heard the creaking of him walking into the hallway. Then the sounds of pans being moves around and the click of the stove being lit. The water went on.

My decision was already made.

Careful not to be heard, I got up slowly and crept my way into the bathroom. I sat in the empty, cool tub. I grabbed the shaving razor from the side of the tub, and held it carefully in my hand, just staring at it. The glint of the silver. The remnants of Adrian's dark facial hair on it.

I squeezed my hand, flipped my arm, pressed it to my wrist, and dragged the blade down hard to the inner bend of my elbow. The sting took my breath away. But it didn't slow me down. I did it several more times on each of my arms.

The crimson red blood pored out. A startling vibrant, deep color against my olive skin. It dripped everywhere. All over my ivory satin nightgown. All down my thighs and the sides of the tub.

There was so much blood.

I smiled.

Finally.

This was me. I did this.

The pain of the head injury I'd sustained earlier faded. And so did I. Everything became fuzzy and blurry, and everything went silent.

I was free. Free of Adrian. Free to be Rose again after so long.

No more pain.

I faintly remember movement from the corner of my eye, and a broken plate with food on the ground.

Everything faded.