The door opened quickly and violently, as if someone was breaking in, but Maddie knew otherwise. Brandon stumbled in, hiccupping as he went, closing the door behind him, fiddling with the keys in his hand before sighing angrily and waving at the door, as if the air would lock it for him. Drunkenly, he turned, swaying heavily, his arms swinging around him like vines around a tree. As their eyes met he stopped, in his drunken state assuming she hadn’t seen him. Her glare was fixed and arms folded. She was wearing what she did every night, a long grey nightie, one she had worn since their wedding, ‘easy access’ she had called it. But now her face wasn’t the same as that night, it was stern and furious with flared nostrils and wide eyes.
“Where have you been?” Maddie demanded, quoting almost every wife whose husband had come home inexplicably drunk.
“Out,” Brandon said quickly, trying his best to hide his slurs.
“Where?” she demanded again. He huffed at her.
“Out,” he repeated. This time, she huffed at him, taking a step closer. Now, Brandon could see the fury in her blue eyes and her withdrawn tongue as she held back her shouts.
“You better have a bloody good reason,” she seething, breathing heavily through her teeth. Brendon huffed at her again, pushing aside her anger clearly written across her face.
“Did you miss me?” he teased, still swaying, his arms dangerously close to the framed pictures on the table beside him. Maddie recoiled slightly, her anger slowly fading into sorrow, tears building in her eyes. She bit her lip and sucked in cool air before looking back at him.
“Yes, I did,” she said. Brandon jolted back slightly at the sincere, contained answer, swinging himself steady again. “Because while you were off galivanting around town with your friends, I was here, tucking our daughter into bed. And as I am doing that, my phone rings. I have to stop saying goodnight to her to answer it. It was from my father…” she hesitated, breathing in sharply again but her eyes never left his. “My mother died.” She finished. Even through his drunken vision, Brendon could see Maddie’s eyes well up again, more tears falling down her face. He brought a hand forward to pull her closer but she stepped back, lightly pushing his hand to the side and he let it fall, confusion spreading across his face. She took in another deep breath. “This is how it’s been since the beginning. You go out, get drunk, come home late and I'm already asleep and I find you passed out on the sofa. Thought it was funny and cute to begin with, but then it got boring and annoying. But then, you stopped, cleaned up your act, but, since last week, you’ve been sneaking out to drink, leaving me alone. And not only that, but alone with your infant daughter.” Once she had finished, Brendon had started to cry, the warm tears gently falling down his face, creating a river as they meandered down where the wrinkles of smiles used to form.
“Maddie, I,” he started.
“No,” she interjected, her voice stern again. “I have lost my mother, your daughter has lost her grandmother, a woman she will never remember. I lost someone and the only person I could talk to was our daughter, who was confused about why I was crying in the first place! I don’t want her Christmas ruined with the memory of her grandmother’s death! And you weren’t here for me, or for her. I don’t feel like I can rely on you anymore.” Brendon opened his mouth but she barged past him, heading for the stairs.
“Maddie, please I’m…” he tried, but she didn’t turn. As she reached the stairs she stopped, her back still to him.
“I'm taking Rachel to my brother’s tomorrow,” she said after a moment, her voice warbled with tears, holding back the urge to run to him. “We can talk more after that.” With no further words, and ignoring Brendon’s wails and desperate calls, Maddie walked up the stairs and to their bedroom, where she didn’t sleep.
Day 1
Closed Eyes
Closed Eyes
Deafening
Deafening
Closed Eyes
Day 15
E s t 2 0 2 0
ABOUT IMWrites
Hi! I'm IMWrites!
(He/Him)
Since I kinda intended my IMWrites pen name to keep my real identity semi-anonymous, this will be kind of difficult to pull off, but I'll do my best.
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I'm a 20-something aspiring writer from the south of England, born in August 2002, and currently in my final year of university.
I've been writing stories for many years, having been crafting my novel series for the last 10 years, having written 4 of the 12 I have planned (loosely). I started this website in mid-2020 to share my work and explore different styles and genres of writing. Since then, my life has changed and altered in ways I haven't been expecting, and I've hit many milestones that I never thought I'd reach:
I wrote and released short stories consistently every two weeks for two years
Launched IMWrites Reviews in late 2022, although it's been taken down for now
Wrote and released Lesson Learnt/Taught for my university community project
Went on to write drafts for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th books in the series.
Completed a draft of my first novel that was the best it has ever been
Made an advent calendar for 2020, 24 short stories from the 1st to the 24th of December
But the thing I am most proud of is my Winter Tales anthology, which was the 2020 advent calendar edited/rewritten and turned into an anthology book. It was released on November 25th, 2021. To this day, it is the thing I am the proudest of.
I created this logo for IMWrites soon after the website's launch.
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There are also a few of the variations that I've created since then, and a few you've never seen before!
I have abandoned IMWrites for a little while because as I entered my third year of university, I realised that I would have to do a lot of work and didn't want to jeopardise my future by being too busy and overwhelmed. So I took a step back. And it was worth it. During that break, I wrote a lot for my novel series and managed to produce good quality work such as Lesson Learnt. But once I've graduated (a weird thing to say) and I'm settled in a new place, the short stories should resume.
Whatever story/project comes next for me, the first place you'll hear about it is on my Instagram account (and maybe Twitter or TikTok if I ever learn how to properly use those), so make sure to follow. I don't post often, but I'm planning on getting better!
There isn't much else to say other than to promote my story stories, Winter Tales and Lesson Learned (links to them are below!)