Monster

He reached out to hug her and she recoiled. He was a monster. It wasn't like she was the beauty and he the beast though. Yes, she was beautiful, but so was he. And she wasn't trapped in his castle, only trapped in the world they'd created together. They'd even been lovers once. But he'd lost control somewhere along the way. His raging temper was like "Hulk Smash", and his unpredictable drunken stupors were a nightmare for everyone - not least the man who barely remember them. He was a beast in his heart if not in appearance.

She went downstairs to hide and tensed up at his every footstep on the floor above. Any moment he might descend the stairs in rage to yell at her. She didn't know. She never knew. And that was the worst part. The not knowing. He was a monster, but not self aware enough in his lucid moments to do anything about it. He just pretended everything was fine and the darkness of that lie made the monster grow inside him. The lie fed the self hatred that only in drink he could find escape from.

In the mirror, through his vanity, he could not see the monster he'd become but only the successful, brilliant man he also was. Awesomeness and terribleness; Jekyll and Hyde; Banner and Hulk; yin and yang; darkness and light. As if the universe had ripped apart in creating him and he stood there as a particle - antiparticle pair ever on the verge of annihilating eachother. Could the monster ever be destroyed without destroying the man?

She didn't believe so. She saw the monster and knew that it could only annihilate the man, snuffing them both out and re-establishing the vacuum of space. She saw the terribleness of the monster and didn't want to see herself destroyed as well. So she rejoiced when the man set off on a quest, because she knew that the monster went with him.