# I had to write this short story for English.



## Harlee rides horses (Jan 13, 2008)

Taste of Love​ 

The institution of marriage is a noose around the neck of all participants. Janet Edwards discovered this one dark and stormy night. Recently separated, she prepared for bed alone in her huge house on Sycamore Drive, in the middle of nowhere. A house that was her ex-husband’s idea of a great escape. Recently isolated from all other human life, she fell asleep slowly as the splat, splat, splat of the rain created a rhythmic pattern on the roof shingles. All of a sudden, the splatting was interrupted by a scraping sound – and then another – and then another. Janet rose from her cold, lonely, isolated bed and began to make her way down the long corridor leading to the stairs and dead-ending into the front door.
While Janet was descending down the long, twisted staircase, she couldn’t help but think of her ex-husband. “I love our marriage, I love you, you’re so understanding and you make me so happy. So I figure, to better our relationship we’re going to move, to a remote area. A lovely house, indeed it is. All to get away from this stressful city life.” Janet always subconsciously heard her ex repeating whenever she remembered just how much she hated both the house and all the loneliness that came with it.
She was miserable and scared and opening the front door to see what had made that god-awful noise didn’t calm her nerves too much. As Janet peered out the front door into the velvety black night, she could see absolutely nothing. _Scratch._ There it was again. _Scratch._
She screamed quickly and loudly because out of nowhere, she saw an all too familiar face - a face that once brought her joy, happiness, and, too many times, sadness and defeat. The face belonged to none other than her ex-husband. Seeing him brought back old memories, old feelings, and old dreams - dreams of a perfect marriage and a perfect life.
“Ha ha, scared ya din’t I?” Steven Edwards maliciously laughed.
“That would be indicated my scream…” Janet smartly replied. “You may come in if you’d like, Steven.” Janet loved saying his name, she loved everything about him, and she didn’t know why. She wanted to get over him, but yet she couldn’t.
“I don’t want to, I had enough of this house, enough a you, `sides, I just wanted ta scare ya, that’s all,” he said in his monotone voice that Janet loathed oh so much.
“You’re drunk. Come in, stay the night, you’ll be safer.” She didn’t want him to stay, she knew neither of them could possibly benefit from it, but she still had these irrevocable and unavoidable feelings for this wretched man. Janet knew she should hate him but she still hoped spending time with him would revive his feelings for her. 
“Therapy will help you, it will help us, don’t you want help? To make us better…?” Janet can remember herself saying to her husband to try to circumvent him into going to therapy when she realized their relationship was slowly, but most assuredly retrogressing to the depths of hell. Therapy, in fact, was probably the worst possible thing for Steven Edwards at the time. It made him stressed and he drank his problems away. _I’ve created a monster._ Janet always caught herself thinking that she was the sole reason for her ex-husband’s rapid change of character.


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## Harlee rides horses (Jan 13, 2008)

Janet awoke the next morning with shaken nerves not knowing whether the antecedent happening were all a fragment of her contradictory mind or not. She knew though that if the previous experience of last night was real, she should be nervous, for she knew her monster all too well. _I will be back. You’re too gullible my dear._ Janet quickly washed her thoughts from her mind because she had hope for Steven Edwards and knew he had changed. She knew she was safe. She knew it was a joke.
Janet was an omnivorous reader, she spent most of her time reading fictional stories, like _Frankenstein_,and she watched mystery shows, like _Murder She Wrote_. She admired the suspense filled within them and liked to put herself in the situations of the characters of her novels and television shows. As if she was being chased by Frankenstein, or if she was solving a horrid murder only to find out that it was her ex-husband who was the murderer.
_Be ready Janet, you know I’m coming._
Janet had lain in bed for a while trying to convince herself to fall asleep. The thought of sleep alone made her transcend into a deep sleep – until the phone supervened. Janet picked up the telephone out of habit and hesitantly said in her eloquent voice, “Hello?”
There was no reply. “Prank call, **** kids.”
The constant splatter of the rain swiftly made her doze off again. Janet had dreamt about her and her ex-husband as if they were handcuffed together, because as much as they both would have denied it, they had multifarious feelings for one another.
Janet knew that these dreams and feelings of hers would not cease unless she told her captor to free her of these frequent visits he’s been paying her. She had to call him.
(Phone rings) “Hello?”
“Steven…?”
“Yes, Janet?” He seemed annoyed.
“I would like to,” she hesitated, “like to ask you to please stay away from me and our…I mean, my house.”
“Oh? Okay, Jan, whatever you want.” Janet could tell he was sober and she didn’t want to think about what he’d do posterior to hanging up the phone…
“Thanks.”
“Yup.”
“Bye.” (beep).
She knew he would drink, that’s what he’d always done when things didn’t work out quite like they should; little arguments that always ended with a bruise on Janet from a drunken Steven leading to the divorce, which had been a unanimous decision. _If you would have listened things wouldn’t be like this, you deserved every bruise!_
“No!” Janet shouted, “I couldn’t have loved a monster.”
_Oh yes, Janet. You could. You did. You still do._
Janet screamed in frustration and decided to leave. She had to get away from this house, even if just for a little bit. _You can’t leave me. I’m always here._ She had to leave the seclusion, the loneliness, and the pain. She headed straight for her parents’ house, the place where she grew up. It was a marvelous house, a gorgeous log cabin with magnificent pine trees that looked upon the several acres of land, yet it wasn’t home.
When she arrived at her parents’ wonderful property, she realized they weren’t home. _They wouldn’t care about your problems anyway. _She decided to embark on the rainy journey back home to hell since she was quite sure her parents weren’t going to be back for a while. Janet found herself moping back to the frightening place she was scared to call home.
The rain was splattering on her windshield at a furious rate. Janet heard a faint scraping noise that reminded her of the scratching upon her rooftop. In introspection, Janet had wondered “Is this all in my head? What the hell? Am I seriously going crazy?”
_Of course you are. No one else hears stuff like that. You’re psycho honey._
(splat, splat, splat, scratch)
Janet turned up the radio to avoid the thoughts her mind couldn’t help but produce. 
As Janet was pulling into her driveway she noticed her ex-husband’s car. _I’m here for you._ “Why is he here? I told him to leave me alone.” Janet quickly called the cops.
“Steven…?” 
“Yuh?” Steven nonchalantly replied.
“What are you doing here?”
“I have still have these feelings. I figure it’s ‘bout time that they stop. I came to end all my feelings for you, I’m over this, I’m too tied down by my feelins’.”
 “What are you talking…” Janet was cut off by her ex pulling out a knife. She was held with a knife to her neck for what seemed like three hours when all of a sudden the police finally showed up.
“Put down your weapon and nobody gets hurt!” Steven quickly dropped the weapon for he knew what this meant. Handcuffs were placed on Steven Edwards for the attempted murder of Janet Edwards.
Janet eventually felt that she could not function correctly in the isolation of the great-escape-home anymore. She quickly found a temporary apartment and started her new life in the city. The apartment was what Janet thought was a great escape from her great escape. _You can’t escape. Scratch. I’m forever yours now, honey._


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## Harlee rides horses (Jan 13, 2008)

Sorry, the whole thing wouldn't paste with indentions.


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

I actually really like it! Great writing, the only thing I would change is the end, it just seems sort of sloppy compared to the rest.


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## Harlee rides horses (Jan 13, 2008)

Lol I agree, but I didn't know what to do because I had to end it quickly you know..? So I think I just like crammed...


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

LOL! Yeah it's just sorta of crammed. Just maybe add in there that a neighbor saw him out there and knew he shouldn't be so that is why the cops were called.


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