Near the Bone

This story was sold to me as a creature feature, and it very much is, but the creature is not the forefront of this story by any means and is more of a metaphorical device than something that is dived into in detail. The story centers a lot more on our main character and the abuse she suffers at her “husband”. 
We learn later that this was actually her mother's boyfriend, and he kidnapped her when she was eight years old in order to groom her.

All in all, I feel like this was a beautifully done story. I've never suffered abuse myself, but it seemed like a liberating story to me about an abuse victim who finally manages to break free of her situation and find something better. I would hope that, if an abuse victim read this story, they would have the same hope for something better that I finished the story with. Fair warning that the emotional and physical abuse in this story is explicit, and I'd imagine that this would be an incredibly hard read for somebody who's been through abuse like this before. Take care if you intend on reading this story.