Domestic violence story from marie

I was in a relationship on and off with an abuser for 13 years. We have two children together. In 2011 I attended a work recognition dinner. My children were spending the night at their grandmother's house. My older child's B-Day was the next day. I came home from the party that night and right away noticed my ex was drunk. I had told him many times he wasn't allowed in my house if had been drinking. Instead of starting a fight, I just ignored him. I decided to sleep on the couch. I texted my mother who had made a cake for my son to arrange when she would be dropping it off. It was close to 12, and since I was going to bed, I wanted my child to wake up to a text from me since I would be with him to say happy B-Day first thing. I layed down on the couch and closed my eyes. Just as I did I heard running at me. Before I could open my eyes, I felt punches, or so I thought were punches on the back of my neck. I jumped up right away, and he had one hand grabbing my hair at the top of my head and the other just punching me. I began screaming for my neighbor to come help me. He laughed, and said no one can help you now. I tried to pry his hand off my hair but couldn't, and then he said I'm finally stabbing you. All at once I realized he hadn't been punching me. He had been stabbing me. I begged and begged for him to stop. I somehow ended up on the floor, and he was now over me stabbing me. At one point the butcher knife went into my side. It hurt so bad that I grabbed the blade to try and stop him. He just laughed and said nice try, ripping the knife from my hand and slicing through the space between my thumb and forefinger. I continued to beg him to stop and tried to fight him off, and then he turned my head to expose my neck and said let's get your neck in the most scary crazy voice I ever heard and stabbed me in the neck. He then let go of my hair and left the room. I didn't know why he stopped or where he went. I just put pressure on the neck wound and went out the front door. As I started down the stairs, my second floor neighbor opened the door. I was still saying "please stop please stop." My neighbor said "OMG what happened." I said "he stabbed me." He, my neighbor, picked me up and brought me in the house. I later found out the reason my ex stopped was because the knife had bent. He was going to get another one. I also later found out that I had been stabbed and slashed 22 times. I was lucky no internal organs were hit. A lot of my wounds were defensive, and I had lost a lot of blood, but I made it.