Stockholm Syndrome - Freewrite - Short story

Stockholm Syndrome

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"Please try to persuade him to come, for my sake."

That was Carolyn's plea when someone came to her bed and said the same thing to everyone else, and we all looked at each other dismayed.

He hadn't gotten out of bed for days, hadn't eaten anything except some sesame sticks and water. The problem is that nobody knows where Octavio was. He left after an argument with her, with the excuse that he couldn't stand her "illness".

However, we have discovered that her "illness". is him, who is like an addictive poison to her. For us it is better that he stay away, maybe that will help her to detoxify from that lethal relationship, because if there is one thing that is true in all this is that nobody can do bad, hurting without consideration and pretending an interested affection.

She believed in him, and and he was only using her as a battered doll made to play with or unleash his wrath when he was drunk.

Now, supposedly he is far away, and our bad thoughts point to him lurking like an old cockroach waiting for the bread to get moldy.

(End of five minutes)

"Poor thing! She's so in love that she doesn't want to live without him" - I heard a whisper to a neighboring cockatoo. I know well that she doesn't care about Carolyn, he just wants to get more information at the center of events.

No one knows Carolyn more than I do, even though she never saw me as anything more than a brother. Yet I always loved her. So when he arrived with Octavian on his arm, it was a curse for me, I hoped he would see me in a different light one day.

I see her so dedicated to the pain in that bed that I would give anything to help her react, but it is not me she asks to be by her side, it is him and against that, I cannot do more than what I did: remove the sting from her skin to suck out the poison.

I exposed him in front of everyone and secretly forced him to leave, even though she doesn't know it, she would hate me. But I'd rather she hated me than see her consumed by an emotional vampire.

No one knows I gave her money to go away, but I have a feeling she's not far away. My instinct keeps the alarms going, he bets she'll die of sorrow soon and I bet she'll release his poison.

This is the hard phase, the weaning, the detachment is not easy, it has to be worked on and she is not cooperating.

"You have to help her, Saul, you as a clinical psychologist can do it, you have to finish cutting that dependency, that man is a damn animal that mistreats her", his younger sister told me, apparently a fragile woman, but who had shown an inspiring strength.

"Yes, it's a good idea," I told him, and I kept thinking it's better to attack evil with the right time and resources than to wait for it to assume another, more aggressive attitude with the intention of attracting its attention, it has become a product of that sadomasochistic relationship and uses manipulation as a weapon, the victims of repeated abuse develop a kind of Stockholm Syndrome.

There are people who, without physically kidnapping you, kidnap your soul, and in the case of couples, suffer their particular Stockholm Syndrome with their partner and become prisoners of a relationship in which they suffer emotional abuse without being able to see their reality. It seems crazy to think that these people love their partners regardless of their attitude towards them. They are cannon fodder for abuse. But the truth is that when there is an unhealthy emotional attachment, little can be done to bring them to their senses..."With her, we won't pass out trying to get her out of it. We must complete the intervention. The most important thing is done: he's gone."

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By Zeleira Cordero @zeleiracordero

14/01/2020

In response to @mariannewest in Day 817: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: sesame sticks. The prompt is highlighted in bold. If you're interested, find out here

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Animation by @zord189

The initial image is from Pixabay:

Abuse by Vitabello

Cat

For your kind reading, THANK YOU

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