My story “Terror” is based on what really happened to me in my first marriage that ended over forty years ago. I was undecided as to what category to publish it under—that of mental illness or spousal abuse. To be fair to my husband, I chose the mental illness route but he, nevertheless, caused me mental abuse and also, came very close to killing me; not with the machete in my story but in a very unusual way. I think it’s apparent, we both were victims of something we didn’t quite understand. I have decided to write these concluding comments to get a little more input on how badly frightened I was at the end.
I am most thankful that I survived that terror filled night. Many doctors agree it’s possible to die from intense fear if the circumstances are right and there are plenty of anecdotes substantiating that fact.
When I got my first sudden glimpse of “the stage” set for the plot that had been planted in the recesses of my mind by my crafty husband, I came within a hairbreadth of being literally “scared to death.” My face instantly became almost unbearably hot, burning as if it was within inches of a roaring fire and there was a far-off roaring sound in my head. I felt I was on the verge of losing consciousness. When a person experiences such a huge adrenaline rush as I did, he/she is propelled into the “flight or fight” mode and doctors have said such an adrenaline rush can set off a life-threatening process. They say the pupils dilate, muscles prepare for action, and the heart is flooded with chemicals from the nervous system.
Had I not been a young healthy woman at the time of this incidence, I have no doubt I would have literally been “scared to death.”
Read Terror
