I listen to the stories I am told

I watch the way he is treated

I fear what will happen when he goes away and I am left alone to fend for myself

I fear what will happen

I fear what I will become

I fear what you haven’t told me

What has happened that you shield me from

How many times you have protected me

Without me knowing a thing

I fear in a year

When he goes away

To a place he will stay

What you will do to me

Say to me

Yell at me

Spew at me

If I will be safe

Or if when you leave

I am left alone

And when the storm comes

You won’t be able to protect me

Will I be bruised?

On my mind?

Or on my body?

Will I be used?

Will he yell at me the way he did you?

Will my mental state deteriorate?

Just as yours did?

Or will the storm clear

Will the pain that has taunted us subside

When you leave

Will the storm go too?

Or will the rain pour

Will I be drenched with sorrow

Will I be pounded to destruction?

Will I be so tormented by what you have done that I leave too?

The world or the house?

Will you be so much that I’ll want everything to just come to end

For the pain to stop?!

Will that finally make you understand what you have done to him for so many years?!?

How it affected me?!

Will you finally understand the pain you have caused?!?

Or will you blame someone else again?

What can I do to make you stop?

"One more year," I think to myself

"One more year and then I’m alone because he leaves!"

He won't come back because you are still here!

But I’m here too!

I’m still alone without you

This home is not a home anymore!

I can’t stand in this rain that you put upon me without him!

You drove him away but I need him!

I need him to come home!

I need him to stay!

I need him more than I need anyone else!

I need someone to talk to!

I need someone I can trust!

He is the eye in the hurricane that is you!

He has protected me for all of my life from you!

He is the reason I’m not bloodied and beaten from your storm!

You drove him away and you will drive me away too!

"Just one more year," I think

"Just one more year and the nightmare comes true"