Widow's Madness

After the death of her husband a widow decides to just move out of their home and leave the city without telling anyone, only to be stuck in a weird ghost like town that she needs to escape and return

Widow’s Madness

a short story by

Zellah Dee

 

The day was beautiful. Then again most people wouldn’t call a rainy day beautiful, but there was always something about the drizzle that fell from the skies that spoke to Niobie. Maybe her grandmother had really convinced her that rainfall were just God’s tears.

“He’s crying for our pain child,” she’d say.

Niobe liked the rain because if the wet weather was just God’s tears she felt closer to him. Knowing they experienced a shared emotion of sadness during their lifetime. On some of those days he even cried with her.

She glanced out the window in a satin robe. After a long while she dropped it from her shoulders and in her nakedness unashamed she strode towards her bathroom. The shower already running hot and prepared for her. She closed her eyes allowing the hot steam to pierce her skin. She stood there for as long as she could take the pain. After she washed and stepped from the shower and put on her robe, there he was.

Niobe approached him slowly. He didn’t smile at first and neither had she. It didn’t take long for the curve of her lips to move upward. He reached for her and she wrapped her arms around him. “How was your trip?” she asked.

He shrugged. “It was business. I’d rather be here,” he said. He pulled tighter.

He kissed her lips. The lightning and thunder roared. Then she woke up from her dream. It was one she’d had every night. Every corner of the room haunted her. Every nook and cranny she could feel him there. Still. His presence was not gone, so she had to go. It had only been a week, two days and seven hours and she would’ve been counting the minutes and seconds if her mind would let her. It had been racing.

Niobe rose from the bed and walked over to her window. She watched the rainfall against the pain. God was crying with her on this day. Her husband was really gone and she was really a widow. They’d fallen in love two years ago. She was his wife one year later. They’d only reached their one-year anniversary two short months ago. She never thought she’d be standing here. He was so young and vibrant. She hadn’t even gotten to have his children yet. A piece of him for remembrance, but wouldn’t that have been selfish of her? To want his child just to still have a piece of him. She’d loved him more than she’d love any man in her life.

She knew she wouldn’t and couldn’t forget him, especially not still living in the home they shared. Used to share.

She had to get away, so she packed. She grabbed many different articles of clothing snatching them down without care. She didn’t check to see if what she grabbed match. It didn’t matter what she looked like she just needed to go. She could always buy what she needed later.

Niobe left a note for her family. She knew they’d be looking for her when they hadn’t heard from her in a while. They would probably be afraid enough to report her missing if she didn’t speak to them for quite sometime. That was unlike her and she’d never ghost them during a time like this. She did the next best thing. She told them not to come for her because they won’t find her. She doesn’t have a clue yet as to where she’s going. She let them know that maybe one day she would return if it were in her destiny to do so. She placed the letter somewhere they’d easily find it. The kitchen was probably a common place anyone from her family would go. She’d recently left a spare key with her sister after her husband’s death, so they had access to the home to check on her. Niobe grabbed and her bag and took off. She got into her car without any sense of direction. She just drove.

For miles and miles she cruised down the highway. She was in tears most of the time. The rain was off and on, so she didn’t feel all the way alone. It was as if she’d blacked out for most of the ride because she couldn’t recall when the hell she’d driven for over two hundred miles. She needed gas, so she’d stopped. Luckily she got in and out in the small towns station without a problem. She wasn’t crazy enough to think that it was safe for people like her to travel alone in weird places.

She knew she needed to be careful, but a part of her welcomed the feeling of danger. That’s what this whole trip was: dangerous. She didn’t know where she was going and if she had any intentions on coming back. In the back of her mind she didn’t, but in her heart for the people she loved she probably would have to. Or she figured they could just come to her. When she was all settled in her new residence she would contact them to come to her then. It would be on her time.

She’d stopped for gas once more before the night hit. She figured it would be crazy for her to keep driving, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t stop. That is until she thought she saw a man in the road. She swerved off to avoid him, but then it was as if he’d moved places. Were there two of them? She’d slammed on breaks so quick and so hard, but it was too late, the car flipped.

BOOM.

The car tumbled and rumbled, while Niobe prayed to the heavens. She didn’t know what she was praying for though. Was her cry for a plea to live or was she asking for God to take her, so she could just join the one she loved?

“Whatever you see fit, God. Just please, hel---“

Her words trailed off as her eyes closed from the impact on her head. Blood leaked from it and after a while she woke up in pain. She glanced around. The car remained upside down. Lucky for her it hadn’t caught fire just yet, but she could see the liquid leaking and the possibilities.

“AGHHHH. Help me,” she screamed and screamed.

Nobody came. She had to help herself. She tried and tried, but it seemed to be something she just couldn’t do alone. She needed someone to help her. Where were the two men she’d seen? She couldn’t give up this way. The flame had caught and ignited she pulled her leg and pulled. Finally she got herself loose. She smashed the window creating a hole big enough for her to slide out.

She moved and moved. She slid from the window, slightly nicking and cutting. “F**k,” she screamed.

She had to get out though. She rolled and crawled from the car. She willed herself to her feet and with the little strength she had she ran away. Still the impact of the explosion tossed her body into the grass. She looked back at her car. She glanced up ahead. There was a small town. She could find lodging or she could buy a place. She was stranded now and she saw no signs of Lyft’s, Taxi’s or an airport nearby. She’d need to make due.

When she reached the town it looked as abandoned as the streets, but she figured it was night. People were sleeping. That wasn’t too weird, right? She realized she still didn’t have a sense of the time. Was it eight p.m. or midnight? She moved throughout the night walking from door to door, but no one answered. No matter how long she banged and screamed. No one in any of the homes heard her.

She decided if they wouldn’t invite her in then she’d have to find a place to go. There were a few businesses, but they all seemed closed. Just how late was it? Suddenly the place lit up. Every light from every home and business turned on leaving her baffled. She glanced all around her at the liveliness. The people were suddenly all awake and had all just appeared. She wiped her eyes and touched the spot were her head had felt bloody and pained after the accident. She felt nothing though. No sign of blood. What the hell was going on? There was no way the gash had disappeared. This had to be a concussion or death because where hat the people come from all at once?

She felt dizzy. Before she could move any further she passed out. She’d fallen to the floor, but the world around her remained whatever it was in it’s routine.

She woke up some time later in what appeared to be a hospital. Maybe she’d found freedom. She hadn’t wasted any time deciding to snatch the IV from her arm. She slid from the bed nearly losing her footing, but she held herself up. She felt weak and wondered why that was.

She roamed the halls of the small hospital until she found the exit to leave. When she stepped out it still seemed to be night and people still seemed to be partying everywhere, but these people were different. They couldn’t be normal with the way that they glowed. It looked as if they were angels or ghosts. She glanced down at her body to see if she looked the same. Had she died and gone to heaven? If so, then just maybe she could find her husband here.

The people didn’t talk much or at all. They just stared at partied together. This place was really weird. Nothing felt right about it, so she had to get away and back to her car. Then she remembered what had happened to her. Who the hell had taken her inside the hospital to be abandoned?

“Hey, can anyone help me?”

When she spoke it was as if the entire town had heard her. All eyes turned her way. After a moment there was a crowd in the street. The glowing people all were looking at her and coming her way. She turned around and started to walk backwards. She had to make sure no one was coming up behind her. They looked like a lynch mob headed to a show. After a while they all came at her full paced and full speed. She ran and ran towards the exit of the town with the little strength she had. Maybe just leaving and running away from her life was a bad idea.

She needed a new start, but she wasn’t sure this was the place to be. When she reached the exit she attempted to step out, but it was as if they were barricaded in when something like a shock happened as she stepped towards it. Her body was thrown back to the floor. She screamed. She had no escape. How the hell was this possible? What really was this place?

The people were still coming for her. Were they the undead, zombies? She didn’t want to find out, but they were closing in on her as life had. She closed her eyes and screamed as they surrounded her.

 

Everything went black.

When she opened her eyes again she was in a hospital. Not the same as before, but back home. Her family surrounded her and she immediately called out for him. Their faces and eyes filled with sadness, yet the excitement that she’d finally woken up from the coma.

“Where am I? Where is he?”

Her sister shook her head. “He’s gone, Niobe. He’s gone.”

All she could do was cry. She didn’t remember much, but she’d been banged up pretty badly from the car accident with her husband. Her leaving had just been a lucid dream, while she attempted to rise from her coma, but her husband’s death had not been a dream. She’d heard them say that he was gone, but she couldn’t find her way back to them yet.

She knew she would go mad without him. She didn’t even know if she wanted to live without him, but she was surrounded by love, so she had to keep living. What would her family think if they had to lose her too? Niobe had no idea how she would or could go on, but she’d have to. Tears filled her face at the thought. She glanced out the window and there was rain. She didn’t know if she felt that God was crying with her today.