Imminent Menace

A young girl, hardly 20 years of age, sat alone on the corner of a queen-sized bed.  A finished letter, ink still fresh, was rolled up in her left hand.  Her right supported her small chin and rested in turn on her bare knee.  Her curly dark hair tumbled in waves down her back.  She hadn’t bothered to put it up today.  Her eyes were glazed over with a tiredness that could only be affected now by a change.  He would never make a change, though.  Around her eyes were rings of red skin, swollen and wet.  Every now and then she would blink, which was normally followed by a small cough or sniff.
The only words that ran through her mind were these: I’ve wasted my life on him. They replayed over and over until she was sure that she would cry, but no more tears would come.  She was empty of them now.  All emotion had gone.
She heard the doorknob rattle as a key forced itself into the hole.  She didn’t budge an inch when it swung open and he entered.  Shannon had never been one to give her torturer what they wanted, but, then again, Johnny was never one to allow his victim the pleasure of feeling accepted, and so he stood there and looked down at her, lips forming a thin line across his unshaven face, eyes full of an angry passion, a menace Shannon had never seen.
She finally stirred, shifting her position and looking up at him, not ready to begin the conversation that was sure to end terribly, to say the least.  She swallowed hard, waiting for him.
Johnny rubbed the back of his neck with a large, coarse hand and then ran it through his dark hair.  He leaned against the wall behind him and the leather jacket he was wearing rubbed gingerly against the white paint.
“You’re leaving.” It wasn’t a question.
“With pleasure,” Shannon replied instantly after.  She had planned out these moments, thinking of what she would say.  His eyes turned a shade darker.
“Don’t play games with me, Shannon.  I’m not going to take any more crap from you.”
“Because I’ve been the one dishing it out this whole time,” she said sarcastically, finally standing as he made his way toward the bathroom.  He turned and scowled.
Finally his mouth opened after several attempts to keep it shut. “You may think that you’ll end up with the apartment, the money, my stuff, your fairy-tale ending-”
“I gave up on that crap the day I caught you and Liz together,” Shannon interrupted, causing the hand he had raised and was using to accusingly point at her to fall.  She wouldn’t let him have the win, not this time.  “You think I want all your stuff?  Sure, give it to me.  I’ll burn every last bit of it.  You can keep the apartment, for all I care; I’ll move back in with my parents.  Maybe there I’ll get a bit of normalcy out of my day.  The money never meant anything to me and you know it.  The only reason I stayed with you was because you made me feel so different compared to everyone else.  I thought I actually meant something to you, once upon a time.”
John looked about ready to break.  His face was reddening in anger and his eyes were bulging with fury.  The veins on his neck only amplified the adrenaline rushing through his system, wanting to take all his anger out on this woman that had stood in his way.  She had never done this to him.
“Why the heck did you stay with me?  Give it up, Shannon.  You’re lost.  You’re empty.  You’re giving up, and I see it.  You think I’m blind?  How’s this for blind?!” He slapped her across her left cheek, sending her sprawling onto the bed.  She wouldn’t let a tear escape her eyes.  He wasn’t worth her tears.
She wasn’t ready to scream, either, but Johnny just ran both hands over his head and then pounded them against the wall, his eyes burning with hatred and something unusual…
Fear.
Shannon stood, cheek still burning raw and red, and faced her opponent.  She threw the letter down at his feet. “Read it if you’ve still got your third-grade education stored somewhere in that empty beer bottle you call a brain,” she shot, moving to leave.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, though, and for a moment Shannon was afraid that he would really abuse her this time.  The threats meant nothing compared to the malice she now faced.  John lifted up a hand as if to strike her again, but hesitated, jaw working in contemplation, as if he relished the power he now possessed.
Instead, he pulled her face close to his and held her tightly by the jaw. “I’ve got something you’ll never have, and that’s someone who’s going to love me for everything I’ve got.” He shook her once firmly for emphasis. “Everything.”
“Love is a two-sided coin,” Shannon murmured, not the least bit intimidated. “To use it you have to receive, and you have to give.  When it all comes down to it,” she added, eyes finally glowing for the first time in days, “what have you got left to give, Johnny?”
He roughly released her and she backed away expressionless, allowing her words to seep in.  With only several seconds of silence, she turned and walked out, slinging her purse over her shoulder and closing the door to the apartment for the last time.
She waited until she got out in the street, in public, to finally take in a deep breath and let it out.  Then, grinning, she walked down the sidewalk so sure of herself that she could only picture the rage John was feeling and letting out on his various belongings where she had left him.
“He never was one to keep it bottled up inside,” she whispered, finally laughing.