The Other Side of Darkness

[Aerick Ravenheart]

Bob Livedaka was a sad and miserable man. Sure, he had a decent paying job and a nice house with a wife a two children, but was living out his middle aged existence in a nightmarish hell on earth. You see, a couple of years after he married his wife Anna, they were both involved in a terrible car accident. Anna had been seven months pregnant at the time, and had lost their little firstborn to be girl. And Bob had received a huge scar across his right cheek, and was stuck with it for the rest of his life. People would stare at it, or deliberately look away from him, treating Bob like he was some sort of carnival freakshow. It was now fifteen years after the accident, and Bob and Anna had two little boys. Meanest damn kids you would ever meet. Bob once brought home a stray kitten for the boys to keep as a pet to play with. And play with it they did. One day Bob smelled burning meat coming from the kitchen oven. When he opened it up, he found the charred and smouldering remains of the kitten laying upon a cookie sheet. So he had tried to punish them by grounding them as always, but like always, it never worked. They were constantly getting into trouble, seeing as most pubescent preteens do. And Anna was just as bad as they were. Ever since the accident, she had never been the same sweet angel he had once fallen in love with. She become the devil in the flesh, screaming and throwing things when enraged into a temper. And her temper was constant and always hurtful, calling him and the kids names. Her favorite was "dumbass".... "Hey dumbass, didn't you hear me clearly?".....or it was"Why in the HELL did I marry such a dumbass?!" And it wasn't just Anna's personality that had changed over time since the accident, but she was also confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. She never got around to exercise very much at all, and sat around the house and ate all of the time. When Bob had married her, she weighed around 120. Since those fifteen years, she had gained over 200 pounds. So the couple weren't the most beautiful pair in the world, he with his scar, and she being excessively overweight. And Bob couldn't just up and leave Anna and the kids the way his daddy had once left his mama. Besides, who else would be with him? And who would take care of them? No, he sure couldn't do it. Bob always hoped for the better day to come along eventually. Whether it was that lucky lottery ticket, or a promotion at work, or anything. He longed to just escape it all. A new home, new family......no. That wasn't true, at least not exactly. Bob just wanted his life to be as bright and happy as he remembered it once being. He wanted to feel alive again, to have something to be happy about. But while dreaming of the perfect life, his just...wasn't. And still he remained the gentle, kind man that he was. He had always been the nicest person you could ever imagine knowing. And yet, his family was filled with hatred and anger, and negative energy filled Bob's life in every possible way.(cont.)