I Once Was

(Excerpt)

Photo by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash

PROLOGUE

The wooden door crashed inwards. An act of explosive and intrusive violence. The sharp sound of splintered wood cracking around the room. The two women within froze, stunned into petrified silence and immobility. Their domestic harmony and private space shattered and violated. The two small children, still at their sleepy breakfast, now thoroughly aroused in terror, stared wide-eyed with…