MARRIAGE

I Can’t Free Myself From Him

Will we remain shackled until the end?

Claire Franky
4 min readFeb 26, 2024

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Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

My eyes sprung open. The dark, purple ceiling seemed to be closing in on me. My arms lay by my sides; they felt heavier than normal. Something hard was behind my head. Something hard was beneath my body. I shuffled slightly. It was a table. I was lying on a table.

I don’t remember drinking tequila.

A crackling sound caught my attention but I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. Perhaps behind me or in front of me? Maybe both. I tried to sit up but my body didn’t move.

Frustrated, I clenched my fists and felt it on my wrist. Something cold. Metal maybe? Uncomfortable. I turned my head to the left and glanced down. It was a handcuff.

Oh, I definitely drank tequila.

The handcuff was attached to my left wrist. My eyes followed the chain to a second wrist. Not mine. A mans. I gazed up his gray t-shirt to his upper arm where I saw it. The tattoo.

Oh, no. For the love of twatting swans, no.

It was him. I glanced up at his face. My husband lay beside me on the table, asleep. We were handcuffed together.

Butterflies filled my tummy and my eyes widened. I stared at his peaceful face. I hadn’t seen…

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