Freed at last

It was starting to get dark; it was a surprisingly cold night but that didn’t matter all I wanted was to disappear into the night. I had fought with him again; I still don’t understand why he changed. In the beginning, everything was like a dream, I had never been more in love with someone. He was everything I didn’t know I needed, and I felt complete when I was with him. It was like a fairytale; everything was so perfect, so I don’t understand when it changed into this nightmare. It began with little arguments here and there, then it moved into the way I dressed and then to how I interacted with my co-workers at work. I was always the one that was wrong, I smiled too much at people, I was too friendly with customers at work, I dressed too provocatively, well that is what I always heard from him, and all that led to his jealousy and anger getting worse and worse every single day.

This night had been different, he didn’t just hurt me with words. I didn’t know what to do, I was afraid, and I was heartbroken. I loved him, and he loved me, or else I thought he did but then why did he cause me so much pain. My body felt heavy and pained, bruises were beginning to show. I had nowhere else to go, everything I had was with him, but I couldn’t go back, I couldn’t keep living this way. Why did it have to be this way, why didn’t I see the little red flags that everyone spoke about? But there weren’t any, where there? Was I so blinded by love that I couldn’t really see the person he truly was? It was too late to go back in time and start all over, it was too late to start a new life, I was trapped, I was too far in to leave.

I walked for hours until the lights had disappeared, I had not noticed how dark it was until something snapped me out of my wandering thoughts. I began to panic; how stupid could I be to not pay attention to where I was going. I was so lost in thought that I didn’t realize I was walking towards an empty field. It was too late to go back and I saw a light up in front, I made my way to the light but the closer I got to it I realized it was a single lantern in the middle of the field. I looked around; it didn’t look like anyone was there but there was a little black book laying on the ground. Curiosity got the best of me and I sat down and retrieved the book from the ground. It was a simple black notebook; it didn’t look like anything special. But I wondered who had left it there.

I opened the book to discover it was empty, I flipped through the pages and stopped at the middle of the notebook, there was a key taped to the page and one single sentence, “Cube Smart storage #131”. This was beginning to turn into an interesting night. I was curious and I had nowhere to go, should I take a chance? I walked until I spotted a gas station, in my hurry to escape home I had left my phone on the nightstand. I asked the clerk to borrow a phone, he looked at me with pity in his eyes and handed me a cell phone over. I tried to ignore his gaze and called for a taxi, I handed the phone over without looking at him, I thanked him, and I walked outside to wait for the taxi. I got to the storage unit and found storage 131, I tried the key and it opened easily.

Inside there was a box with a note on top, “we cannot turn back time and we cannot change the past but with this, you can start a new life, begin a new journey and live a life that is all yours” I opened the box and found an ID and passport, my picture was on them but there was a new name. There were stacks of money and a bank account and routing number with a balance of 50 million dollars. I was shocked and in awe how was this possible? I began crying, all the tears I had been holding in were finally freed. I was finally free.