I still remember that belt. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick. He used to leave it in plain sight, moving it around so I couldn’t escape seeing it. I knew exactly what it meant – the consequences if I made even the smallest mistake.
UNSEEN ECHOES - Objects of Domestic Abuse | Photography Project & Exhibition

Belt

I still remember that belt. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick.

It wasn’t just an object. It was a threat. A reminder. A way to keep me in line.

He never needed to raise his voice. Never needed to say a word. He just had to leave it there, in plain sight, making sure I saw it. Moving it around so I couldn’t escape it. Draped over the back of a chair. Coiled neatly on the table. Hung on the doorframe like it was nothing at all.

But it wasn’t nothing.

I knew exactly what it meant—the consequences if I made even the smallest mistake.

And I did make mistakes. Of course, I did.

A plate left in the sink too long. A shirt not folded the way he liked. Speaking when I shouldn’t. Being too slow. Being too fast. Being anything at all.

The worst part wasn’t even the belt itself. It was the waiting. The moments when I saw it, when I knew it was coming, when I felt my stomach drop and my hands start to shake before he even touched me.

I hate that belt. I hate that even now, I can still feel it. The sting, the snap, the burn that lingered long after he was done. I hate how it made me small, made me silent, made me afraid to exist in my own home.

But more than anything, I hate him.

Because he knew.

He knew exactly what he was doing. And he enjoyed it.

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