All Comments on 'Obsession'

Hauntingly beautiful writing. Loved every word.

"Obsession" is masterfully done, Cheryl. Cecily's inner dialogue is genius, and it's what won me over from the start. The inner paranoia that so many of us suffer feels as familiar as an ancient knee injury, and it hurts a lot more. I don't care about the burned house- although it was a very satisfying detail- because living well is the best revenge, and the sweetest. You continue to amaze and delight me. It's flawlessly written and brilliantly told.

Thank you so much for "Obsession".

I Dident get past the first page before becoming bored

This is a meaty story. You have some chops as a writer. It's got me thinking of the book endlesslove that was made into a movie with Brooke Shields. Keep it up!

R.

Brilliant and sad story. Well done.

Obsession is a good title, and MsCherylTerra was so deeply inside the mind of these characters, it sounds real. This is writing on a level that only a few writers could do. Full marks.

I usually only read in Loving Wives, but I'll be reading your other works. Roller coaster emotions, good grammar and spelling. I usually have some nits to pick, but I saw nothing to complain about.

Fantastic! I loved that they ended up together.

It's really not your fault that you have the iq of a baboon.

I’m going to have to read all of your stories now!

this was brilliantly written! I must say - it was hard to read at first....dancing in...and out of her mind, wrestling with her *craziness* But after finishing the story, I realize that the author was using that too....to provide the contrast of the position at the end. That....alone with so many things in this story makes it one of the best I've spent the time reading! Thank you for the work put into this piece. After reading this, I have to read the rest of your work! Well done (and I agree with another commentor's state that I too have a new favorite author!

Awesome combo.

Seriously this was totally awesome.

I loved that Cecily was rather crazy, and you did an amazing job of getting into her head and conveying it all to the readers. I also liked that some of her twisted plots weren't able to be executed, so that she never got in trouble with the law. Of course, she came reeeeeally close a few times! And the way it ended was terrific, with her being pregnant with Axel's baby, him living with her, and Minah's house having "accidentally" burnt down - with no insurance. Serves her right! :)

Outstanding. One of the best stories in LW and on Lit.

You wrote a well crafted wonderful story full of emotion and twists. I enjoyed every word of it. Please keep writing so we can continue the pleasure of reading your stories.

Just, wow! You never cease to amaze me! At the start of reading this, I was convinced that you were simply trying out a new genre to expand your remarkable talents, but by the end, I came to the conclusion that you had totally mastered it!

Breathtaking work!!! There aren’t enough stars available in Literotica’s rating system!

Love your writing style and the way you paced the story...

Another real story, it has emotion, characters, drama, yes and some sex as well.

Brilliant.

her last few pieces, but this is really, really good.

Thank you very much!

5 Stars Those artsy types are all a little crazy but they are usually fun friends . Great read.

A wonderful story.

Very well done! Full marks for a riveting story along the lines of that Belgian chick.

I'm not sure if this rated 6 stars, but it's at least a 5.5

Too bad they wouldn't let me rate it as I see it.

So a 5* was the best I could do.

Tis a cryin' shame, that!

Powerful and complicated, with a super-twisty plot, emotions exploding all over the place, one character more messed-up than the next...just brilliantly done!

Thanks, ohio

Very, very nice! Five stars.

Congratulations on a terrific story. The only thing I don’t like about it, it sets the bar too high for the rest of us. Seriously, this was a pleasure to read. She was a deeply flawed and emotional character. Loved her. As I did all the rest, they all played a role perfectly. Thank you

Bravo! 5 stars. It transcends the category.

LW isn’t usually my thing, but I’m willing to follow good writers wherever they go. I know I’m in for a treat whenever a new story pops up on your page (I do check). Like any story with a potentially unreliable narrator, it was a tough ride, but the prose is so vivid the journey through obsession/mental illness was worth it. Well done.

Very different,the protagonists are all nuts, but Callie in the end owned her craziness and tried to do the right thing,though her deliberately getting pregnant was wacked,too. The author did a great job detailing both abuse and mental illness,with Minah she slowly builds the case that Minah was the truly sick one,prob a sadistic sociopath, to do what she did to Axel and why she did it. Will Callie and Axel make it? Hard to tell,they are two messed up people who while flawed, have something of a moral center. Will Axel revert to who he was before Minah ruined him, or will the guy with the edge attract the girl with the edge?

This story left me with a stupid grin on my face. I can't adequately describe how great this is.

This was, as always, a really excellent story to add to your collection, written almost as wisps of information revealed amongst the minutiae of desire and longing.

What is disturbing is that commenters regard your heroine as somewhat crazy, whereas I thought it was just a commentary on almost every woman I ever met, all with an internal monologue that would astound, shock and frighten men when they discovered it.

So, perhaps I'm the crazy one, but definitely not about really enjoying this. Your tales are true and rare treasures to be happily discovered sparkling amongst the tailings so often found here.

Thank you, ma'am. 5*

Now, if Axel could have made it look like Blaine did it it would be even sweeter.

Very entertaining and thought provoking. Thanks for the effort!

This story has left me pondering what was real and what was not. It's Einsteinian Vs. Newtonian. Most stories we read the story is laid out in Newtonian fashion. The truth is fixed. We are to believe what the MC tells us is the reality of what happened. In most cheating wife LW stories, the husband is undergoing extreme emotional stress (betrayal, possible abandonment, his whole world being turned upside down), but we are to believe that he is a fair arbiter of the "truth". That he didn't play a significant role in the breakdown of his relationship, or that the wife that he initially told us was the perfect wife for twenty years, was now evil incarnate.

But this story beautifully lays out that truth is relative. It is seen through the eyes of a woman we have very good reason to believe is at the least slightly "crazy" either because she has actual mental illness, or that she is such an introvert who lives in her head to such a degree that she over analyzes and bends reality at least a bit.

1. Was Axel really hit or did she choose to believe that Minah was a bad wife to justify taking Axel from her?

2. Was Axel off like her? We have reason to believe there were personality issues with Axel as well. Was it merely that he was an extreme introvert or did it go beyond that? But we don't know how to assess Axel, because we don't know how to judge his "complexity" because all we know about his is through the eyes of someone whose assessment of people is suspect.

3. Was it merely that these two were mismatched couples, and as simple as the uncomplex and extrovert Minah and Blaine belonged together, and the complex introvert Cecily and Axel belonged together?

4. Was Minah attracted to Axel's physical appearance, and his complexity, and what she saw as "mysteriousness" initially and then got more and more frustrated over time, because she saw that in a different light (as him being an introvert who wouldn't get out of his shell), and that's what led her to Blaine, who seemed like more her type? Easy to read Blaine, who was happy go lucky and simple, like Minah?

5. Not unlike a lot of LW stories, where we are told she was the perfect wife and mother for 20 years, and all of a sudden she cheats and she is evil incarnate, in this story Minah goes from being the perfect, the most gracious, understanding, and tolerant (of "crazy" Cecily) friend, to being a husband beater, manipulator, and destroyer of people. Was it that Cecily misjudged Minah for years? Or was it as simple as Minah felt cornered and was trying to protect herself by saying that she will destroy them both? Or did Cecily need to see her as an evil person to justify wanting and getting her man? It's more my belief that Cecily's mental state deteriorated when she became more isolated (living alone), bad environment in that apartment, etc, then Minah was a closeted bitch that came out later. If anything Cecily's mental health deteriorating allowed her to see Minah the way she needed to see her, as a bad person, to justify her coveting her best friend's man.

I really don't need the answers to these questions. To me the point of the story is to be suspect of what we are told. I already do that when I read these LW stories, the news, or anything else. In this story I don't think we can decipher what was the fixed or absolute truth. To do that we would have to hear the thoughts of the other main characters (and no I'm not asking for that), and as they say the truth will likely be somewhere in the middle between all of their relative perceptions of the truth. But in this story it is made obvious to us to be suspect of the "truth", because reading the thoughts of the main character we realize her perception of reality is at best suspect. It's not always as obvious, so even then we should be suspect of the storyteller's biases, when we choose to take sides, condemn, judge, and yes vote.

it was too long but I finished the 9 pages....*****

I'm a victim of domestic abuse, this story hits way too close to home on a few levels, but my personal drama aside, I love this story and I think it was well written, well done!

I'm surprised that this scored as well as it did, not because it isn't good - it's very, very good indeed - but because of the character of the readership here. Perhaps the wank/cuck-story aficionados read the first page and passed on. In any event, I think this clearly deserved to score much higher. The ability to write psychologically complicated fiction and keep a reader's attention is rare, but you managed to do that quite well. I initially thought that the story would eventually collapse into a morass of emotional gush, but it didn't. The plot simply kept pulling the reader farther and farther in. I'm genuinely impressed. You have an exceptional talent.

I do want to offer a couple of observations you might consider. First, very occasionally it seemed to me as a reader that you were "trying too hard" with your imagery. An example that comes readily to mind is the bit about the "moss of obsession" (I think I have that right) and "dandelions".

Second, bits of narrative and dialogue struck me as momentary lapses in judgment about diction. Take "Blaine", for example: "Fuck, dude, congratulations." Blaine doesn't have a lot of dialogue, but if that is how he speaks, which would also be a reflection that his mind is an intellectual and artistic desert, it's difficult to see how 'Cicily" would be attracted to him at all. In real life, the "Fuck, dude..." guys are at the very low end of the IQ distribution and are, in virtually every way that counts, psychologically and emotionally uninteresting. Even the many gym trainers I know aren't that bereft of mental furnishings; they aren't "Fuck, dude.." guys. I'm not saying that "Blaine" shouldn't be a character who contrasts with "Cicily", but the way he's written seems to make the distance between them too wide to make the relationship credible. I also believe that having "Cicily" lapse into dialogue or narrative littered casual, lazy, uninteresting vulgarity, e.g. "shit", "shitty", "shittier", etc., seems to be a lapse in judgment. It reminds me of so many middle-of-the-road quality stories here in which the authors are constantly writing "Get you head out of your ass" this and "asshole" that when the characters they are writing are highly educated professionals. In those stories, it's jarringly incongruous. In this case, "Cicily" is written as too effortlessly psychologically aware and articulate to be without some interesting perception or thought about, for instance, her "new" car.

I wish you the very best in your writing, and thank you for an extraordinarily fine read.

Difficult to get pass the first page.

After that a very entertaining read. Original story with a unique narrator. A poet.

The supporting cast was well written with emotional development that made you hate/love the respective characters.

Gave you 5*s. You earned it ☺️.

You say in your comment that, "What is disturbing is that commenters regard your heroine as somewhat crazy." Let's see why commenters, including myself, regard the heroine as somewhat crazy.

The said heroine questions her sanity over and over again. She tells us she is likely "sick" several times. She says she is cognisant enough to realise she is overly paranoid, and not mentally quite right.

Then others see her as sick or at the least off, including Natasha, Minah and Blaine. You may be dismissive of that since the characters of those people are questioned by Cecily (the only source we have), but why do all of them question her mental health? And remember they're three out of the four characters in the story other than Cecily. Their complaints about Cecily aren't that she is ugly and that her mamma dresses her funny. They all bring up her mental health and sanity.

And Axel also to some degree questions Cecily's mental health, but Axel's may also not be quite right in the head himself. He has his own issues as well; although, we cannot really assess that because the only person's characterisation we have of him, is someone who we have reason to believe is mentally off themselves.

Last, Minah threatens to expose her as being sick to their friends, and that she offered to get her help with a therapist but was refused. You can take that exclusively as Minah being a manipulative person; however, why would their friends so easily believe that Cecily is sick? You can see the friends easily believing that Cecily is in love with Axel so she is making up the story about Minah cheating to break Axel and Minah up. That is plausible since friends have seen there was a kernel of truth at the heart of the bigger lie. But if the said friends have not seen some basis of Cecily being weird or off or "crazy", then how would their friends so easily believe that is the case? But both Minah and Cecily both "know" that the friends will believe that Cecily is mentally ill.

So, the question for me throughout the story wasn't if Cecily was "off", but if she was clinically mentally ill, or such an introvert into her head that she over analyzes things and made herself "crazy", paranoid and oversensitive to how others perceived her. And I waivered back and forth throughout the story, and there is no way to give a definite assessment of her without hearing directly from the other characters of the story (no, not asking for parts II, III and IV) about how Cecily is. And I'm not a trained psychologist to be able to decipher it just from reading her writing on her thoughts. But there is enough there to know it's not simply insecurity and self-doubt. There is some bipolar obsession going on as well, along with paranoia.

Every once in a while you read a story that makes you wish there were six stars to give. This is one of those times. Beautifully done!

Theakston

How can you consider it crazy, if someone has an obsession that they don't act upon? It's human nature to want what you can't have. Cecily's inaction was done out of the consideration of others. Her former roommate takes what she wants, regardless of who she hurts. This is a great story of human concienseness...

Simply outstanding, thank you.

It seems that I like each of Ms Cheryl's stories better than the last. This one is gripping and full of emotion. Of most enjoyment for me was how a potentially sad tale turned into living and loving happily ever after. Thank you. *****

Is rarely shown here but sometimes along comes a story that makes it a good idea to wade through all the rubbish. Thank you for that lovely story and an excellent piece of work!

Found the story quite intense but well written with a few surprise twists along the way.

Certainly different to most of the stories I have read in this category.

Thank you for your effort in bringing to light what can happen in some relationships with regards to D.V.

Phenomenal!

Reads like a transcript of secret recordings of real people. With problems. As we all have. Thank you.

An amazing job on a twisting, turning and often contorted theme. And yet, we always knew where we were due to your cleverness with plot, dialogue and metaphor which kept us atuned to the different minds we discovered. Not my favorite story but that doesn't detract at all from the excellence of your thought and execution.

Much as I enjoyed your lengthy analysis of how I didn't understand Cheryl's character, and I'm thankful that you went so far out of your way to teach me some very basic starter psychology and try to improve my reading skills and comprehension, I would point out that I wrote that I was surprised that commenters found her character crazy, as she didn't seem to be crazy in comparison to most women I've met. Now you can read that as either meaning that I infer that most woman have an internal dialogue that many would regard as worrying, or that I tend to gravitate to the mentally maladjusted. Neither alternative means I didn't understand, comprehend, or empathise with her MC.

It was nice that you read the story so carefully, as it fully deserved it. It would have been nice if you'd read my comment just as carefully.

But mansplaining is always fun, yes? Especially the one you wrote back to the author.

Having slept on it for a night I've come to the conclusion that Cecily is likely suffering from Schizoaffective Disorder, or something similar. Everything that happened, especially after she moves to her basement apartment were likely delusions and hallucinations. Schizoaffective Disorder is the combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. There were plenty of hints she may be suffering from bipolar disorder such as clinical depression and manic obsessive behavior (her interest in Axel). There were some hints of schizophrenia (her paranoia), but schizophrenia also involves delusions (misinterpreting what everyone sees or hears) and hallucinations (seeing things that no one else sees or hears).

However, to be able to tell if Cecily truly had schizophrenia we would have to know what reality was to know how much, if any, were delusions and hallucinations.

Today, a day after initially reading the story, I've come to the conclusion that Cecily was schizophrenic, and likely suffered from Schizoaffective Disorder, and everything after she moved into her basement apartment is completely suspect. Typically, both schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders have triggers which are usually something traumatic happening in the life of someone that has a predisposition (usually these disorders have some genetic component and run in families) to these disorders. Axel and Minah marrying and Cecily being cast out, and on top of that to a very poor environment (that lonely dingy dark apartment) could have been that trigger.

It is very hard for me to accept that Minah who was the epitome of a great human being turns out to be so evil. We are told Minah is best friends with and tolerated Cecily who at the least was someone that is off. Then Minah is the exact opposite of a bridezilla during her wedding. When Natasha reacts semi-normally to Cecily almost spilling red wine on Minah's wedding dress, Minah immediately shrugs it off and says it's just a dress. She is the epitome of kindness, graciousness and spirit of generosity. But then we are to believe that same person who instinctively reacts like that, and is so kind to someone like Cecily, is also a husband beater, a cheater, a complete manipulator. It completely didn't add up to me.

I also didn't buy Axel being beaten by Minah. I can see a 250 lb fat wife beating up on a 5'2 120 lb husband. I can buy husband putting up with the abuse of a mentally ill wife, because he loves her. But I couldn't buy tall, muscular Axel putting up with being beat up by the tiny little woman that Minah is portrayed as. I even made some allowances that Axel had some psychological predisposition to putting up with it, but even then I wasn't buying it.

So, if the above are true, then the only thing I can conclude that everything was a delusion and hallucinations of Cecily. Minah never beat up Axel. Minah never cheated with Blaine. Cecily never got pregnant. And Cecily never got Axel. It was all delusions and hallucinations by Cecily. We don't know for sure when the trigger was as it could've been even earlier when they lived together, but I believe it was when Cecily was told Minah and Axel were going to get married and she moved into that apartment.

And there is no way to know if Blaine even existed at all.

And that obviously makes this story even sadder, cause we see the complete breakdown of a person's mind suffering from a major mental illness. There is no way to know if I came to the right conclusion on this, because we don't know what the reality is to know how much of what Cecily relates to us is true, and how much were delusions and hallucinations (if any). But I feel pretty confident that I reached the right conclusion.

I rarely read stories that are this long. This one was well worthwhile. A few early parts were over-written, but on the whole, this was a great story.

Some are right, it was impossible to get through the first page. Just too flowery and imprecise to be entertaining.

one of, if not the best, story I have ever read.

First time ever to comment. Powerful enough to awaken something strong in me.

Thank U immensely.

Continue as U R please. It's flawless.

Beautifully Written

This story captivated me from the first word. I didn't have time to read 9 pages, but I did anyway and then read it again because I had to. You make time for the things that matter. This story mattered to me. You are one, very talented lady!!!

I know what the author was trying to do; unfortunately, if you're writing to publish here in Literotica and after someone having read a full page & they're not into the story, you've eliminated at least 50% of your readership.....

I went to the last page and read through it and it didn't make any sense, either... the language --- the approach by the author ---- is still as slow and painful as it was the first page. It's probably a good story, as some have commented; but I won't know about it, since I'm not going to read 9 pages just to see if a story or a major character captivates me.

Sorry I hadn't posted my comment earlier. First, it was extremely well written, I'm envious. Secondly, thank you for an unusual POV. I always enjoy reading a cheating wife story from a female author's perspective.

Finally, a huge thank you for something different. There's always a lot of bitching on here about stories being the same. This one definitely wasn't. The characters were all flawed, some extremely so. Although the MC was difficult to connect with you gave us a glimpse into an "obsessive" mind. Too bad some readers didn't read the title and weren't able to follow since it wasn't the spoon fed narration that many here like.

Killian

Cicely had her problems but she was immensely likable. Minah was an absolute bitch. I hope Blaine was taking a nap upstairs when it all went down.

Brilliant! Best read in LW in a long time, thanks again for sharing your work:)

Looking forward to your next posting.

I put this off at first because I didn’t want to start a nine page story at that time. Once I started it was hard to stop reading yet I found myself needing to take breaks because of the depth of your descriptions and characters as well as the intensity of the plot. Pretty dark all the way through and I commend you on creating painfully broken people yet still characters that a reader could care about. Often, a story like this would “kill” every character by driving out any sympathy or, perhaps even more important, empathy.

Reading stories where I don’t care about any of the characters makes me feel like I’ve wasted my time. Part of me would have liked some justice against Blaine specifically and and a little more depth to Minah’s but I don’t really think that would have improved the story per se, simply allowed my mind to have a sense of karma and completion.

Thanks for creating a tale with depth of plot and characters with insight into obsession and seemingly perfect and imperfect people.

its weird for me but i really liked the ending XD, the story was wonderfully dark XD

This was not the story I would usually gravitate to but because you wrote it, I had to read it... and as always you drew me in. You are an immensely talented writer. Thank you for sharing your talents here.

about him, then she wasn't as crazy as she thought... especially when she thought they could "read her mind"...

Story seemed slow to start but glad I kept with it...

Was *really* surprised to find that Minah was the crazier of the two...

I loved this. Your writing is some of the best I've read. Your prose kind of melted into the background, grabbed me by my imagination, and led me on a head-spinning journey. Wonderful story. I'm silently hoping all your writing is of this caliber. I'm off to explore more of your work.

Anywhere in the real world who can honestly convince me he understands the female mind. Except for the few female authors whom I can probably count on two hands and have found on Lit and one other site, I usually can't even understand their stories. The ones I do understand like MsCherylTerra are eloquent beyond my ability to express. Then to find ones who do believe in consequences without being man haters just adds to the enjoyment. We were lead to believe that Cecily was the who was unbalanced but as soon as Axel showed up with the scratch I knew who the dangerous one was. No matter, the story was too well told not to enjoy to the end. Red Skelton said in a concert in my home town to the effect "...that he may be nuts but as long as he was making money they weren't going to lock him up and if you have money you aren't crazy you're eccentric." I submit that Cecilia wasn't crazy she was simply in love. We should all be so lucky. The other two who Were unhinged got just what they deserved too, each other. Signed: BTW

A fab wonderfully-eccentric protag, who was delightfully unpredictable! Was considered a bit crazy (like most artsy types). Turns out to have more sanity and integrity than anyone else in the tale!

Sorry about that

I loved the fact you had the our protagonist insecure, slightly moody and adorable. The real freak was the one apparently had it all together, always knew what she wanted, but it was all a lie. I feel slightly cheated that you had him burn down the house, as karma would strike sooner or later, and she would do it herself. But sometimes when your lost, taking control of something, doing anything is better then nothing. I really enjoyed how you had her at the end, backing up his lie, it showed solidarity for both of them. It gave me faith in them.

All in all, this story, like the prefix indicated, was like poetry. It flowed so well, the words hardly needed to appear, it just was. Love your style, flow, and humanity.

What a great read, and the author's note was spot on it's never ok and happens to men as well as women and children, thank you for adding it.

The internal monologue, the slow build, the ranting... it's so very well done. I'm tremendously glad that this was the work you recommended to me.

And I hope you can ignore those "brave" souls hiding behind anonymity to trash you out of jealousy.

This story was heartbreakingly beautiful. Thank you for sharing your brilliant work with us.

Intense, emotional, intriguing and compelling.

Great writing. You kept a brisk pace for a story based on emotion, and that is a great accomplishment.

You nailed your MC.

Hooked

While the characters and POV were well done, the story doesn’t fit.

It is too short for the level of development. It took a few pages for me to really get into the story yet the length is for more of a an emotional hit.

Suggest it would work better, from my POV, as a novella.

4*

Perfect.

Crazy, intense, dark, wonderful, I’m not sure what I’m feeling, everything is jumbled together but your stories always bring out so many emotions. Thank you for making me feel.

KS

This was, initially, difficult for me to read. I am many, ever so many, decades away from youthful attempts at being an artist, and for the last half century or so have been away from folks like the poet. Strike one. I am male. Strike two.

Before I could whiff for the third time, and return to the dugout, I was frozen by a masterful story. Your plot is original, your craftsmanship in developing these characters is as impeccable as they are flawed.

For reasons that would take too long to explain, the story reminded me of Julio Cortázar's Continuity of the Parks.

Looking forward to more of your excellence,

Lector77

There are some writers here who produce stories that are better than any of us have any right to expect. This is one of those writers.

I normally don't comment but this deserves accolades! Like 30 stars!

Please keep doing what you do so well!

Young lady, you can really write. You have several best selling novels in you. I hope to read them before I die. Great job!

I fell in love with your stories on Lacey and Noah. I fell in love with your writing also. You are a brilliant writer - a very rare thing to see on this site.

After reading your series on Lacey and Noah, I simply had to read more of your work. And I'm so glad I did! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

... amazing talent this author has.. And to share it freely is a blessing to us all.

Though we've done nothing to deserve you, we are yet eternally grateful.

Hopefully not too little too late but add me to the list of admirers. I am so glad you ventured into a category where I could read your work. Truly amazing but I do have one question. .... who in that story wasn’t crazy!!!

This did resonate for me though on another level having grown up in abusive households. Where the disease becomes the norm. Be careful people. Find someone you can trust to say the crazy thoughts in your head. Don’t let them smolder alone inside

So, I think I have now read all of your posted work. I would like to say I've become a fan, but Junkie would be more accurate. Your love stories are amazing!

Utter, sheer torture.

Asinine and emo writing.

I don't care what the story is about, and if there was a synopsis, I wouldn't read it. Such juvenile writing meant to make the reader gouge their eyeballs out, thus level of garbage, shouldn't be entertained.

I did not read this, much as I love your writing. Toxic stories can make me feel physically sick. I deeply appreciate your heads up.

I loved every word, so well written. Great author

Uncomfortable reading in parts, but so well-written and plotted that it made compulsive reading. Five stars from me.

How can someone write such a wonderful story like this, without having been the victim. of what had gone on in her life. It was to raw to have been made up, that story had actually happened. I am so glad it ended happily ever after

My goodness, you are one hell of a writer. Bravo. I loves the main character.

wow. finally a writer in this section of site who isn't a bitter old southern white guy.

An intelligent tome. With no errors of grammar or syntax. Nicely done.

While the cadence at the beginning was a bit off….and the prose almost too artsy….the thing took on a life of its own. I liked it. It was well out of the usual for this (LW) topic, but very germain and addressing something that we just don’t talk about enough. I appreciate that you showed both Blaine and Minah as abusers. Abusive behavior is not gender-specific, even if the stats tend show it to be a male-centric problem.

I left an abusive relationship shortly after she started hitting me. She had been verbally abusive for much longer…

So,e people are just….broken….and seem to think they can solve problems with abuse.

I am only part way through this story, but it is good. The author has a talent that could well be successful in mainstream professional literature. (I find that level of talent exhibited by quite a number of Lit authors, albeit a small fraction of the total. And, honesty, my first interst in reading here is the nature of the stories and not the talent of the author. Nontheless, talent is a stimulating addition.)

- That said, the reason I got only part way through was the quote by Oriah Mountain Dreamer at the beginning. Went off for an hour of discovery about Oriah and her work and I an blown away by that her. Thanks MsCherylTerra.

- I am now looking forward to returning to the last part of the story.

Much deeper than my usual fare. Great story, thanks for the opportunity to read it.

Super. Awesome. I toast all the people who think they might be a little crazy. They generally turn out to be the sane ones. Thank you.

That was one hellva story. Although I don't really understand why Cecily set Axel up with Minah and not try to take him for herself. Maybe I'll go back and read the beginning again to see what I missed.

Loved it

A number of reasons that this is not a favorite LW story... they're

the same reasons that it WILL be a favorite story... period!

I struggled through the first page. My word, such depressing tripe! Then I saw there were eight more pages…..After eliminating gouging my eyes out as a viable option, I just quit reading.

Not my favorite of your stories I've read but well crafted and skillfully written, IMO. You're good.