Stockholm
By Catherine Steadman, first published in Amazon Original Stories
A psychiatrist tries to escape her abusive husband on a trip to a remote cabin in Sweden.
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Plot Summary
A psychiatrist and her husband ride in an airplane. The psychiatrist takes pills that she usually throws away, knowing that her husband is watching. She remembers how the night before, he abused her — psychologically, not physically because he has his reputation as a doctor to protect. She plans to escape him while they are in Stockholm. However once they land, he surprises her and says they have another flight. She recalls that after her miscarriage, he had revealed his true self and had the court give him a conservatorship over her. The psychiatrist learns they are going to the isolated North region of Kiruna. Once they arrive, he takes her to an isolated cabin and forces sex on her. She thinks she may be pregnant and tries to figure out how to abort the baby. She runs away from the house in the middle of the night and asks the Sámi locals to help. They return her to her husband because he has told them earlier on that she is unwell. Once alone, he chokes her. She tells him she is pregnant to make him stop. She goes to the bathroom and thinks about because he has had her declared insane, she can kill him and essentially not be blamed. She finds a decorative ammonite statue, thinks about what she'd tell herself if she was a patient — to do something to make him stop — and swings open the bathroom door.
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