Valeriya smiles for the first time
Hi guys. Just a quick note. This post is quite violent and might be upsetting to some people. If you feel like you may be one of them don’t read on, the story elements introduced will be apparent in the next post so you won’t miss anything.
Radomir was surprised when he came in to find Valeriya still awake. He was so used to her trying to pretend to be asleep before he came in, her bedtimes getting earlier and earlier. He did not care if she was sleeping. She was his wife and he would wake her if he wanted her. She did not seem to understand this.
But this was a welcome change. Perhaps she was finally beginning to appreciate him. Perhaps even love him. No, he put that thought away. He knew she did not love him, but he longed for some show of affection from her. Even a smile would suffice. He could not remember her smiling once during their marriage. He had seen her smile before that, watching her play with her younger brothers as he asked her father for her hand in marriage.
“Where you waiting up for me Valeriya?” he asked uncertainly. He did not exactly know how to react to this situation. He could taunt her and order her around, but he did not know what he would behave now, if she were kind to him.
He was instantly taken aback by the animal snarl on her face.
“Of course I was not! Do you think I wanted to be pawed at again by some drunken brute!”
He felt as though someone had poured a glass of icy water down the back of his neck, and he was left reeling from the cold of it. His instant reaction was to strike out with an open hand. He was brought back to reality by the loud slapping noise as that hand connected with her face.
She backed away from him, her face more uncertain now. He had let his guard down for a moment and she had betrayed him. He was suddenly filled with a boiling rage and he began to close the space between them his jaw tight with anger.
“Stay away from me! I will not have your awful hands on my body!”
She pushed him away from her so hard that he staggered back a step.
Something inside him snapped. He had hit her many times before but always with a certain amount of restraint. This was gone now.
His ears were ringing and the room was hazy. He could not quite believe that the fists beating his wife were connected to his arms, could barely hear the dull thud as they collided with the weight of her body.
He could hear her crying out in pain as he pounded her face and body with blow after blow, but it sounded distant to him, the forlorn bleat of a lost sheep.
With one final shove he threw her backwards, hearing a dreadful crack as she hit the bedpost and crumpled to the floor.
He was suddenly awakened from his trance, feeling the dull throb of his hands and gazing down at the prostate form of his wife. She had struggled into a sitting position and now she was staring up at him. He was utterly horrified, looking down at her mangled face, one eye almost swollen shut and her lips bruised and bloodied. He may as well have been staring down at the face of his mother.
She moaned in pain and he was too shocked to help her as she rose unsteadily to her feet. His mother had told him he did not know how to love, that it was always too much, too hard, as he lay crying over the dead body of the baby bird he had squeezed too tightly. He had never understood until now what she had meant. But now he saw the reflection of that small, smashed creature he had held with all his might, in the bloodied face of his wife.
“Radomir”, she croaked, lurching towards him.
“Valeriya… what is it… oh god… I… I…”.
She leant in so that her face was only inches from his and he could feel her ragged breath on his chin. Then she smiled at him for the first time in their marriage, a mockery of everything he had desired, a cracked and bloodied slash against her alabaster skin.
She bent to whisper something in his ear. It took him a moment to comprehend the words she said and when he did his first thought was a deep wrenching terror for the unborn child cocooned in her belly. His second, a stark and unbelieving horror that she had provoked him, knowing full well that she carried his son or daughter inside her pale body.
He gazed at her in absolute dismay as she grasped her stomach, groaning in agony and fell to her knees.
“Radomir”, she cried, between tightly clenched teeth, “You need to get help”.
Oh, dear. That was certainly a twisted little tale! I loved it, Verity. Geeze, what does that say about me as a person? I never claimed to be normal, I guess.
I’m wondering if that was Valeriya’s intention… to have him abuse her to the point of harming the baby. Very intriguing…
I loved it too. Every chapter needs some sort of conflict and this one had a magnificent one. I also found it less disturbing than the subject matter would imply (what does that say about me??)… partly because Radomir himself was so detached from the beating while it was happening, and partly because Valeriya so obviously provoked it.
Yes, I totally think she did it on purpose. I found myself rooting for Radomir in this one. (Curse you, Verity! You just had to show him feeling vulnerable *now*!!)
But I don’t have loads of pity for him. If *he* had been kind once in his marriage, she might have smiled at him. OK, he obviously doesn’t know how to be affectionate — how to love, as his mother said — and apparently he had a bad role model at home in his father or stepfather…
OK, actually I have quite a bit of pity for him and her both. Curse you!
Wow, so she intentionally provoked him so he would beat her up? All because she doesn’t want his child? Well that’s not cool! What a horrible woman! That poor little baby didn’t do anything! Oh well, it adds excitement to the story, and I definitely loved the update! As always, of course!
Hi guys… I’m really glad you liked the post. I don’t know if I have said it before, but thanks a lot for commenting. I really really appreciate the comments I get from you guys (and those others who comment but haven’t yet for this post). The highpoint of my day after posting is checking up to see if anyone has read it. You guys rule!
I didn’t start out to write it this way because in my head Radomir was the total bad guy, no redeeming features etc.
But I just can’t do it. As I was saying in a comment to Aithne quite a ways back (she is on her way to the present day =) I think that most people in RL at least have some good in them and it is usually circumstance that has made them the way they are. So when it comes to my sims I find it extremely difficult to write black and white characters, everyone has to have at least some bad features, and some redeeming ones. Not sure how this is going to play out but we shall see. I have to admit though, there are quite a few characters in Mhalwae whose bad points I haven’t discovered yet, Noah, Hepsie, Steen, and Gena to name some (or perhaps all… hey, they are all peasants… I wonder what that says about my view of nobility).
Hi. you sure like using that make up don’t you lol.
oh dear I had a feeling she will try to do something to try and get rid of the child.
I like the fact that you’re trying to make some good and bad parts of each character though when you see someone like Radomir it makes you wonder where evil comes from doesn’t it?.
you know this kingdom of Mhalwae story is like a medevial soap opera where you can’t wait until the next episode comes on.
See ya
I know, Verity — Comments are like a drug! I need to keep writing every day to get my fix.
Hurray for medieval soap opera’s Pandora! Next episode will probably be tomorrow… I have already written it but if I post it today I won’t have enough to last me till I get back to Stockholm. Also I still have to sort out the pics.
I am so addicted to reading and blogging. I spend a large portion of the day thinking about it
. And comments… I’m definitely addicted to the comment drug too Lothere. I was actually just off to bed when I saw new comments so now I want to stay up and read.
First I felt sympathetic for Radomir, with his uncertainty and his hoping for a smile. Then he started hitting her all detached, and I stopped feeling sorry—and then I started again! I don’t know what to think, but I have a whole slew of adjectives for both.
Radomir: violent, misunderstood, controlling, dominating, attention-seeking, looking for some tenderness, concern for his children. . .
Valeriya: vindictive, misunderstood, vengeful, spiteful, innocent, vulnerable, caught by circumstances, inferior, fighting back in small ways . . .
Valeriya was mostly positive up until this chapter, where she garnered vindictive, vengeful, and spiteful. And Radomir just earned misunderstood, and everything after attention-seeking. I’d still hate him, but those small but still important characteristics make it so hard!
So, now I’m in present-day.
Wow….what a horrible thing to provoke just to lose your baby…someone needs to help that girl quick…I wonder what he will do now…great post!
Welcome to present day Aithne and Tiana! Wow… I never thought I would have enough posts for it to take some time to get to present day
. Not much time though…
I plan to develop both these characters in the future… Valeriya in particular I have big plans for her so you will have to wait and see (but not too long I hope). I hope maybe she can redeem herself a little for the vindictive, vengeful and spiteful. I loved your lists Aithne
. Hehe I think most of my characters would have misunderstood in their descriptions.
I wonder if she’s now sorry that she provoked Radomir into beating her to the point of a miscarriage? *gasping* Must. Keep. Reading.
Lol, I think all us stroy writing simmers are addicted to comments. It also helps us understand what our readers are thinking in terms of what we’ve written, and hopefully get what we intended across.
I suppose I can’t blame her for not wanting the child, I probably wouldn’t either if I was in a loveless marriage. A child would only make the bonds of their marriage stronger, and maybe this is what she was afraid of. She’d be completely tied down to him lock, stock and two smoking barrels.
I so badly want to read more and more, but I have to surfice with one or two chapters a day, it sucks not being able to just continue clicking next and next and next. But at least I know I always have more to read, and I don’t have to wait for posts just yet.
I’m being terribly bad with my story actually, but I just haven’t been able to find the time. Yet I can still make time to read others, lol. Goes to show I’m simply addicted, can’t get enough of Mhalwae *need my fix, hands are shaking*.
Anyways, it’ll be interesting if she doesn’t lose the baby, wonder what her thoughts are going to be on that. Or even her thoughts if she does lose the baby. Its such a sad situation really.