Insanity. A short story

She woke up in the middle of the night. Her body drenched with sweat. Her husband slept next to her. She didn't hear a peep. It was dark outside as she saw through the window. The air conditioner was humming away on this hot, dark, summer's night. She felt angry, but why? She began to shiver from the cold air on her sweat filled body. She crawled deeper under the comforter and fell asleep cradled in a ball like a scared child would be.

She woke up with extreme anxiety. She took a pill to calm her nerves. She walked into the kitchen to get her coffee. Her husband was working on the computer as he drank his coffee. Suddenly she felt so angry. He said good morning and she just looked at him, nodded and took her coffee to the living room. She turned on the morning news, fire here, killing there and a bunch of political crap. Her anger just grew for no reason. The anxiety was gone and replaced with rage. She had to go to work, but she didn't want to. Her husband walked into the room and asked her what was wrong. Why was she so distant? Suddenly she was yelling at him, for no reason. She pointed her finger in his face and started screaming at him. She was saying things, but nothing she said made sense to him. He looked at her and said nothing. Than he walked away.

She went to work and sat through her meetings. Meet with her staff. Did her paperwork. Everything was so routine, so programed, so boring and predictable. She put on her happy face and did what she had to do. Her cell phone rang as she sat at her computer inputting information. She didn't answer. She didn't care. Family members, friends, whom ever called. She didn't care. Her head throbbed, her neck hurt and once again she felt horrible. The day went by as quickly as it came and home once again. Just part of the routine her mind kept telling her. It's all just part of life.

She got home and ate dinner. She and her husband said little. He just looked at her and all he could see was an angry, bitter woman. He felt helpless and tried to clean up. She pushed him out of the way and told him "You cooked, so I will clean". He walked away. There was no talking to her anymore. It would just turn out to be a screaming match. She finished cleaning and felt that pain again in the back of her head. She went to the bedroom and took some Advil. She sat and they watched television, but all she could think about was how another day has gone by. So routine, so boring and so uneventful. She went to bed and dreamt.

She woke up again, as he slept peacefully. She had a dream of being in an institution. She was in a straight jacket in a room with padded walls. She opened her eyes so the dream would go away. Only it wasn't a dream, it was true. She wasn't home. He wasn't lying next to her. She was a prisoner in a place where only the true insane gone. She was a patient.

He came to see her that day. She just looked at him with those hateful eyes. "It's for the best my love" he told her. He said she had attacked him with a knife and than started to slice her own arms as he fought to save her and him. The police came and took her away. He looked at her with such loving eyes and cried. He told her the doctors said she had a mental breakdown. They were going to do tests. She had to be restrained because she kept scratching her arms with her nails and banging her head against the walls. She just looked at him with such piercing eyes. The demons inside her had taken over her thoughts. They whispered such horrible things into her ears. She heard her husbands voice, but the demon's voice was louder. The demons told her to not listen to her husband, her children, her friends. The demons said her family was to blame for her unhappiness, her hurt and physical pain. She believed the demons. The doctors told her husband that insanity took over her body, her mind, and her will power. He got up and was ready to leave. He turned once more to look at his beloved wife. She was gone, replaced by a monster who he now feared........................