Click Monkey / Shield-Maiden (ePub)

The British term "CLICK MONKEY" refers to a person who spends an above average amount of time clicking their computer mouse and staring at the screen.

In the aftermath of discovering my own husband's extreme case of online porn addiction it was the only insult I could think to hurl at him in that moment.

Ingrid believed her childhood was long gone. Never again would she need to face the horrors that befell her then. But she hadn't figured on Ash.

Slowly and painfully his abuse took her back. Way back.

She knew that when the cupboard door slammed and she heard the cold sound of the key turning in the deadlock she would soon be dead. She knew that the old light bulb that had been threatening to go out would plunge her into darkness and they would come. When it did, fear wrapped itself around her shoulders from behind as she succumbed to her imminent death and collapsed onto the heavily carpeted floor. She couldn't believe that the last sounds she would hear would be the sound of cruel laughter from those she loved, as they celebrated her loss of liberty. Sweat dripped from her face and hands as she fell seven stories into oblivion. Or at least, that's how it felt. By the time they opened the wardrobe door she was already broken. She knew it would not be long now before they would happily see her dead.

Yet against the odds Ingrid did survive her childhood. Only to face an unimaginable horror with the only man she had allowed herself to love. The blows came like house bricks to her face, and yet from somewhere deep inside the little girl who died surrounded by Dragons inside a small dark cupboard again and again stood back up to face him.