Never again, she swore.
Never again would she allow a man to use her as his punching bag whenever he felt like it.
This was all that was ringing in Lula's head as she quietly slipped into her torn clothes, tiptoed around the room and gathered the little cash she could get and run out of their battered apartment like it was on fire.
He had beat her again even after she had done everything he wanted, even after her heart wrenching pleas and begging. He did this all with those stone cold eyes.
How could he? Lula shook her head to get rid of any thoughts of that disgusting man. She quickly walked, late in the night as it was, toward the train station.
Paying an extra fair for the late ticket, she got into the cold train where there was no heating. The train was headed to the next three towns where she was sure nobody would think to look for her. At least until she had enough to move far far away.
As the train moved, she contemplated on what had happened in the past two years. Was it all her fault? She came from a a bit of a big family where their grandmother was the matriarch. In her little nuclear family, her older sister Leah was seen as the perfect one. Nothing she did was ever wrong and there was absolutely nothing wrong with this, except that immense pressure was always on Lula to do even better and when she did not perform to their expectations, there was always that disappointed look in her grandmother's eyes.
So one day, she became so angry, she caved into the cajoling of Chet; one of the most charming men in the community. It also did not help her family did nothing to stop the two from coming closer and closer.
After one grueling argument with her sister and grandmother, in a fit of anger, she packed her clothes and left the house and moved to the next town with Chet in their little apartment. With all the little issues of money and food, it didn't take long for the maltreatment to begin.
It started with bursts of anger, then verbal insults then gradually the beatings followed by non-consensual sex. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she reminisced the terrors she had experienced the past two years.
As she started crying with snorts and all, she received looks of concern and disdain from the little passengers on the train. A child in particular who was clearly hyper from too much sugar approached her with a chocolate bar.
"Here, miss. I don't know why you're crying but my grandfather says chocolate cures every single pain in the heart because of how sweet it is." He extended it to her as he said this. She tried to smile through the tears as she rubbed his head slowly.
A child. One she nearly had the chance to hold from her own genetics.
Taking the chocolate, she took a bite and with a small smile, "It's good." Even though, she didn't love sweet things, that day she could finally taste the sweetness.
Around 3am, she reached the town of Valtteri, where she stayed for a good six weeks before she traveled further out of the city to the capital of the country to engage in teaching and writing novels.
All with the sweetness from the chocolate blooming in her heart.