Friday Fictioneers – Compassion

~ neilmacdon
stone-house
Photo Prompt © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

With infinite tenderness, you place yourself across the path of my danger, stopping the hurtling train. You are my superhero.

The whispers start. “She can’t exist on her own.” “Dependency”. Even “Stockholm Syndrome.”

People can be cruel. “Don’t listen,” you say.

I go out less and less, avoiding the voices and the stares.

You make me a nest, and my legs wither. My chest inflates only shallowly now.

Too late I realise what you are.

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

73 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Compassion”

  15. Succinct and frightening. It crosses my mind, though, that the husband may indeed see himself as a good guy looking after his fragile flower of a wife. He may love her to bits, but just be very misguided. Which doesn’t make him any less a monster, of course.

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  33. Sounds like a co-dependent relationship. As another has commented, the man may believe he’s doing the best thing for her, and doesn’t necessarily have sinister intentions. Powerful writing.

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