It Ends with Her

by Brianna Labuskes

That was . . . a lot of detail. Those who were guilty often sought comfort in minutiae. It meant the story was rehearsed; it meant the person planned out what they were going to say.

Either way, he rushed to fill the silence she’d let hang. People tended to talk to fill voids. If you let them sit in their own thoughts long enough, they’d often tell you what they never meant to reveal.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.

“Abusers do that, you know? Manipulate fear and sadness into self-hatred. Soon you’re blaming yourself for things you had no control over. Soon you’re believing you’re responsible for something you could never have stopped in the first place.”