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Response to Prompt #51, 100 Word Story

This is not autobiographical in any way, but it is the story of too many women.  As I sat down to write, I had no idea what my 100 word story would be about, but this just came. It took 4 revisions to get it from 103 words down to the perfect 100, a process that demanded I chose carefully and strategically, I couldn't help but think how this is something I needed to apply every time I write--setting a word goal or limit and working until I hit the mark. 

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She crawled out of her mental fog as the words fell out of the doctor’s mouth.

“He’s gone.”

She swore her blood had been replaced by ice—the chill making her body shake violently, undetectable to those around her, but there nonetheless. 

How? How could a 50-year-old seemingly healthy man be gone so suddenly?

“Mrs. Baker,” the doctor brought her back. “Are you going to be OK?”

She looked down at the bruise around her wrist—yellowing around the edges as it healed with time. She thought about the other hidden bruises and invisible scars. 

“I’ll be fine.”