Authors: Fiona Knightingale
Aleah had suggested that they go see a doctor and find out why they were not able to get pregnant. She explained to Jerome that it might be something that a doctor could do something about, but he always refused to go.
As Aleah stood in her kitchen, she wondered if he was using any type of protection with his little girlfriends and if not why none of them had not become pregnant. For the first time in a long time Aleah started to think that the problem did not lie with her but with Jerome. Once the house was cleaned that night and everything that would remind her of that horrible evening was gone except the bruise that was forming on her face, Aleah made her way up the stairs and went to bed.
It was not the only night that Aleah would go to bed with bruises on her face or body. She was thankful that she had never had any children. She would not know what to do if her own child had to witness its father behaving the way that Jerome did.
Aleah was now standing over that same bed that she had crawled into so many times covered in cuts and bruises and laid down with the man that caused them, packing her bag to go to Nibiru. Nibiru was a planet that people had begun visiting recently. Since the inhabitants had made contact with Earth and they were friendly both species had learned to co-exist and Nibiru had become a vacation hotspot for those that could afford the trip.
Aleah had no idea why Jerome was taking her on the trip. She had not asked him and she did not want to spend time with him, she was sure that he felt the same way about her, but for some reason he had asked her on what he called the trip of a lifetime.
She could see the excitement in his eyes as he talked about Nibiru and all that it was supposed to be but she did not have that type of excitement within herself. That type of excitement died in her a long time ago. She wondered of course, what the planet was like. She had seen the commercials on the television, but it all seemed so strange to her.
Nibiru was inhabited by a group of shape shifters. They had actually been on Earth a lot longer than people had ever known. In fact, they had even run for office, taking on human form. They had influenced the way the world would run and had come to like humans. Often times you would not know if you were talking to a real human or a shape shifter from Nibiru when you met a new person.
Now the two worlds were thriving together almost as if they were one. It had all happened years ago, people had talked about aliens on Earth and they were called crazy, but when the announcement was made that contact with Nibiru had been made and the existence of extraterrestrial life and been confirmed people began to accept that there was life on other planets.
After the initial shock wore off and people began to visit Nibiru the shape shifters that were on Earth began to come out of the closet so to speak. The first ones were the pop singers, models and such. Then the politicians and world leaders started to announce they were from Nibiru. They said that they had been sent to Earth because the humans were on the verge of a war that would destroy the planet and they were the ones that had kept it from happening.
Of course, some people never overcame their panic, those who believed that the Nibiruians were here to enslave all of mankind, but Aleah knew there would always be those who thought everything was some type of conspiracy. There were also those who believed that the aliens had come to breed with humans and wipe out the human race so that they could inhabit the Earth as well as Nibiru.
Aleah did not believe that any of that was possible and thought it more likely that they would have stayed hidden if that had been their agenda. No, she believed that they had come to help humans and that if it were not for them intervening the people of Earth would have killed each other off a long time ago. When the Nibiruians made contact with Earth it was at a time when wars were rampant.
The countries were on the verge of world war three and it was going to be a nuclear war. Had this happened there would have been no people left to live on the Earth and the Earth would have been left uninhabitable.
Aleah smiled as she thought about the Nibiruians. If it were not for them, she knew that she would not be alive. Her life was hard but never once did she take it for granted. She was happy to be alive and even though she was not happy with her life as it was she never once thought of ending it. Aleah thought about the previous night and raised her hand to her swollen eye.
It was black, her lip was busted and she had a knot on her head that caused constant pain. She was exhausted because she had been unable to lay her head down to sleep due to the pain and fear that she would not wake up.
Jerome had come home drunk the previous night and when he found that Aleah had not yet packed for the trip he completely lost control. Recently he had begun apologizing after he hit her, but it only got worse. A few months back his girls on the side had found out about each other and not one of them had stood by his side. Aleah assumed that it had opened his eyes to how much she really did love him because after all that he put her through she was still there.
That was when he began to apologize each time he would hit her swearing that he would never do it again. Aleah was not stupid she knew that his apologies meant nothing and that he would get mad and he would lose control and she would be the one that he took it out on. She had no hopes that this would ever end.
The previous night he had gotten angry and Aleah told him that she did not really want to go to Niribu she told him that he should take one of his little girl friends. Before realizing what she had said she saw the hurt and anger in his eyes. She knew that he was not hurt because she had said it but because he no longer had any little girl friends to take with him. That was when he got angry and began hitting her.
Aleah stood looking at her suitcase. She knew at some point he was going to kill her and she had no idea what she could do about it. Sure, she could call the police and have him arrested. Get a restraining order and move on with her life, but she had no one else to turn to. Jerome had made Aleah stop contacting her friends and family years ago, she knew they would not help her now. She had chosen him over them and now she was stuck with her decision. If she did leave him she would end up living on the street because the house was in his name as was the cars and everything else that they owned.
Yes, he had made sure that there was no way that she could get away from him unless she wanted to give up everything that she had. After they had fought the previous night he had once again apologized and told her that the reason he got so angry with her was because he ‘loved her so much’. He also told her that he wanted her to go to Niribu with him so that they could try to mend their relationship and get a new start.
He finished with, “Maybe you will meet someone who can help you lose all of that weight or a doctor to give you liposuction.” He was great at saying he loved her and following it with a comment that made her hang her head in shame. He was intent on making her feel like everything bad in life was her fault. It was her fault that she had gained weight yes. She had become so depressed over not being able to carry a child that she began eating. She stopped exercising and there were even days that she did not get out of bed.
She thought that she was not woman enough to carry a baby and she was sure that he felt the same way. It was not her fault that he did not help her to get out of the depression or that he did not go to a doctor with her to help find out why she could not get pregnant. No it seemed that he was content treating her like she was less than human.
Aleah had come to terms with it. She knew that if she had become pregnant the child would have had to take his punishments and that would have been more than she could have bared. She would have had to have left him then. It amazed Aleah sometimes how things worked out. When they were first married, she would have never thought that Jerome would have turned into the man that he was. She longed to feel the love that she felt from him when they began their life together.
He used to not be able to keep his hands off of her and even though he said that he wanted to fix the relationship he still had not touched her. Instead, she would hear him jerking off in the shower each morning and each night. It made her feel as if she was the nastiest woman on the planet. He would rather jerk off in the shower than to have sex with someone who loved him and would have willingly showed him just how much.
Aleah finished packing her bag and zipped it up. Maybe Jerome would meet a cute shape shifter girl and stay on Niribu she laughed at the idea, then smiled when she thought about coming home by herself and never having to deal with him again.
Aleah could only dream of a life that was that generous to her. She dragged her bad down the stairs and sat it by the door. They would be leaving for Niribu when Jerome got home. He was taking off early from work and his bag was already packed. Aleah looked at the bag in disgust. It was probably full of condoms that he could use on all of the females that he met. She was tempted to open it, but knowing her husband, she knew that he had probably done something to ensure he would know if she did open it.
She had been putting laundry away one day and opened up one of his drawers. Laid his socks inside not knowing that he had naked pictures of one of his girlfriends in the draw. When he came home, he immediately knew that she had opened the drawer and that things were moved because he had taken pictures of all of his drawers and kept them on his cell phone. Aleah tried to explain to him that she had just been doing laundry, but he insisted that she was spying on him.
After hours of fighting and being smacked in the mouth several times she gave up. He told her that she needed to learn her place, when she should open her mouth and when she should keep it shut. Each time she said something that contradicted what he believed, he smacked her across the mouth. She was lucky that she had not lost any teeth that time.
Aleah did not make light of the situation. She knew that things were bad. She had laid in the emergency room as her husband stood by her bedside with tears in his eyes. She had told nurses many times that she had fallen down the stairs or that she had tripped and fallen in the yard. She even told them that she had busted out two teeth from falling when she got out of the shower. It was getting harder and harder to come up with lies. It was getting even harder to lay in a bed with her body racked with pain and see that the tears in her husband’s eyes were not for the pain that she was in but for the fear of going to jail.
She knew that he didn’t care what happened to her, but he was a prison guard and if anyone ever found out what he had done to her not only would he be arrested but he would lose his job. Aleah wondered if she could leave and support herself, but she knew that if he lost his job, she would end up having to support the both of them and she did not have the skills needed to do that.
She made her way to her kitchen to do a little light cleaning before Jerome came home and they left for their trip. She thought about the choices she had made in life. She had gone to college and made amazing grades. She wanted to be a nurse back then and now she was glad for the knowledge that she had gained. There had been many times when she had been able to treat herself instead of going to the emergency room. She had gotten really good at putting her shoulder and even her own elbow back in place after Jerome jerked or throw her around.
She knew that after 4 years of not working it would be all but impossible to get a job as a nurse. She wondered if anyone would hire her at all but decided that it was worth applying if things did not change after they returned from their trip. This was Jerome’s last chance to make things right. She thought that she would be able to work while he was gone and he would never know. She decided that she would save up the money she earned in secret, then when she had enough she would just leave. She wouldn’t say a word, but leave and he would never find her. At least that was what she hoped for. What she really wanted, though, more than she wanted to leave her husband was for her husband to turn back into the man that he was when they had first met. The man who loved her and treated her like his queen. That man was long gone though, and Aleah had little hope that he would return.
Aleah heard the front door open, “Let’s go,” Jerome yelled from the entryway. Aleah jumped when she heard his voice. She hated how no matter what he was able to scare her with just the sound of his voice.
She pushed her chair under the table and walked into the entryway. Jerome’s bag was gone, the door was standing open and her bag sat just where she had left it. She could not believe how inconsiderate this man had become. She picked up her bag and dragged it out the door, shutting it down on the porch. She turned and closed the door behind her making sure it was locked, then picked up the bag again and dragged it to the car.
Jerome looked at her in disgust as she struggled with the bag, “You better get used to carrying that ‘cause we got a lot of walking to do when we get to the airport and you better start moving or we are going to miss our plane to the shuttle station.”
Aleah struggled with her bag, but finally made it to the car and tossed it into the trunk. She could already tell this was going to be a terrible experience. When they arrived at the airport, it was the same story. Jerome grabbed his bag out of the trunk and left her to get her own. She struggled with it once again, then finally dragged it out of the trunk. He closed the trunk just missing her fingers and when she looked up at him, he had an evil smile on his face.