Down the Rabbit Hole

No Holiday and Betrayal in One Act

"Blogging Circle of Friends "
DAY 1907 February 5, 2018
Prompt: Use these three nouns in today's blog entry: holiday, apartment, sun.

The robotic buzzing woke Elson from her troubled sleep. The text messages were coming in rapid fire progression, sending her iphone skittering across the nightstand with the vibrations. She did not need to read them, Elson knew who the sender was. She could picture her older sister Megan, standing in the TSA line at TF Green airport, her cell phone clutched in one perfectly manicured hand and her expensive designed carryon in the other. Elson was late.

Elson wasn't just late though. Elson had decided she wasn't going on holiday. She also decided it was far easier to not tell her sister ahead of time. She did not have the constitution to neither explain or listen to her sister's admonishments. The iphone buzzed again, angrily, its manic trajectory pitching it off the edge of the nightstand and onto the rug. Elson left it where it landed, grateful that the shag carpeting muffled her sister's ceaseless texting.

The sun was making every effort to barrage its way past the heavy curtains. It seeped around the far edges, a narrow band of insistent light. she would have to get out of bed today. She would have to leave today, go outside and get groceries. She would have to call Megan back and explain why after three months of progress, she had experienced a setback of crippling proportions. The panic attack had come out of nowhere. It had driven her into the group, back into the cave of pain and fear she had fought so long and so hard to escape. One minute she had been standing in the grocery aisle buying travel sized shower gel and toothpaste, and then the next, she'd been racing home in the dark. She had fallen through the door of her apartment, her lungs screaming, assaulted by the nightmare force of her fear.

No, Elson would not be going on holiday. She would be staying in, shackled here by the phantoms of her past and the demon with the face of an angel.


"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
DAY 1511 Prompt - February 5, 2018

Prompt: What is betrayal to you? How many faces does it have? Who is to blame, the betrayed or the betrayer?

Betrayal can have many faces - those of lovers, friends, family. You have to enjoy a certain level of intimacy with someone to betray them however, so it seems a stranger might be the only one who is truly immune. I think as humans, we all have the capacity to act as Betrayer and Betrayed. Relationships sour and people cheat rather than face the reality of waning love. People backstab and sabotage co-workers to gain power or opportunities. We can attempt to justify our actions but the reality is, it is a conscious and calculating decision to betray someone. I think it takes a toll however, on both people unless a person is completely free of moral responsibility and empathy. In my experience, the stain of having betrayed someone you cared about, wears indelibly on the average heart.