Once upon a time .

Domestic abuse is nobody's fairy tale and here's a good example  .......

 Once upon a time, there was once a very gloomy , sad , unforgiving , desperately dark place . There wasn't any joy or happiness allowed there and smiling was considered a serious major crime , if any of the many many rules were broken then there would be an instant punishment given with no judge or jury to plead your case to and solitary confinement was a favourite given penalty that could last possibly for weeks .

    

 

 The ruler of this extremely unforgiving place was a mean and vindictive person , he seemed to thrive very well on all the dark harshness he insisted on being surrounded by . He enjoyed nothing more than making each and every day as dark and as gloomy as he possibly could and making other peoples lives miserable just seemed to make himself feel even more stronger so he made it his mission to be all powerful by controlling other people's lives . He believed that anyone below him should be eternally grateful for whatever tiny morsal of his attention he decided to hand out , but this was rare, and he always expected to be given total recognition from all around him . 

  Now, there also happened to be living in this same place a fair maiden . She was by nature a reasonably passive, mild-mannered happy thinking sort of person . She had a strong dislike for any bad dark things in life, and she always tried to see beauty , light and calmness all around her . Sometimes, when the dreaded darkness decended down a bit too far, she struggled fighting against it , but the battle never lasted that long, and she always somehow managed to return back to herself once again .

 As the years rolled by in the dark place the loneness of this dismal existence just kept on growing ,  just like a weed it tried to suffercate and smother anything or anyone that got in its way , it crept under doors , it squeezed through the small gaps in bricks and somehow even managed to move through the glass in windows . All this was controlled by one person and that was the ruler and he never cared who or what was affected by it . The darker his world became , the safer and more secure he felt in his little kingdom , he laughed if anyone dared to challenge his authority, and he never hesitated in making sure the perpetrator of any crime commited was condemned to suffer for a long period of time .

    In the Rulers' eyes , any form of escape was fruitile , the invisible chains that were worn by all those that lived in the dark place were strong and seemed virtually unbreakable . These chains were heavy and became even heavier over time , the chains were silently worn and completely unseen by those who didn't live in the dark place . The ruler would wear a mask to confuse those who lived on the outside of the dark place , they would only ever see the nice happy person and never  who the dark ruler really was . 

The fair maiden woke up one day and realised that maybe just maybe there could possibly be a way to break away from all the darkness . It wasn't going to be easy , and she knew she would have to be strong . Her plain was a reasonably simplistic one.... why not battle all the negativity with positivity ?...  She knew she was lucky to have been able to keep enough positivity in reserve to begin the fight back and hoped that it would begin to grow as she went on . The first step to freedom would be the hardest, and she knew once she started, there would be no turning back , so she gathered together all the last remaining grains of inner strength she had , took a deep breath and then began to run .

It didn't take long for the dark ruler to discover this unforgivable crime, and he tried everything in his power to recapture what he thought was once his property . He stamped his feet , he tried to raise a small army , he tried to put blockades in every possible road but it was all to no good the Fair Maiden had broken out and was now running faster than he ever could in order to catch her .The ruler was furious , how dare someone humiliate him by not allowing him to control their every move and how atrocious that the fair maiden was spreading the word about the nightmares in the dark place .

The fair maiden spoke to many people on her travels in order to get help , and she was thankful that she was believed by all . She was surprised to discover that there was more than just one dark place , and in fact she wasn't the only one who had managed to escape , she learnt that there were many various forms of dark places and some Rulers were even more horrendous than hers used to be . From then on she decided to help all those that had either had to once endure time in a dark place and those that are still living in one . She was under no illusion that it would never be an easy task but she was determined that she would try to help and encourage others to have the same strength she had .

Gaining a happy ever after is down to the individual , everyone can have it but its how it's found that really counts . 

As you've probably guessed by now this is a fairy tale all based on fact and it certainly was'nt my idea of a good fairy tale . My now ex domestic abuser played the role of the nasty Ruler and yes I took on the role of the fair maiden .  

What's my own personal happy ever after now ? .......

    It's sitting here , relaxing writing this and enjoying the fact that I chose when to put the Christmas decorations up and I dont care less that none of it is matching or colour co-ordinated and the tree is full of sparkling muti coloured bright dazzling lights that can be seen by others as they walk along the path outside . It's knowing that I beat the ruler and his darkness rules , I'm now the only ruler of my own busy , quite often scatty but pretty bloody brilliant world now  !!!  My ex- ruler failed to keep me imprisoned in his relm of bitterness and darkness , he failed to take away my inner strength and he failed to stop me shouting out loud that there is only one ultimate failure of that particular time in my life and that was him !!