The Tortured Writer Flogs the Whip

I was strolling along quite innocently through this forest of a story, rather certain that I had all the characters figured out. Or that I was in the very least intimately familiar with all of them.
After all, this WIP I'm working on currently...this one has been with me for decades, not just years. I know this forest well. We've forged a few new trails over our time together, but the views are much better along these newer routes. I'd finally reached a place in my journey as a writer where all the pieces had begun coming together. An awareness of self that let me truly see what the story had been whispering all along.

So not really expecting any surprise confessions from characters, right? Dude, come on. I've known y'all longer than anyone except my siblings for fuck's sake. Nope, they've managed to catch me completely off guard. And all the sudden I'm tackling a character who's physically abusing their significant other--because it's the most efficient means of communication and they heal almost instantly.

Just to be clear, I'm finding this disturbing and had no awareness to this particular facet of this character or the relationship. Although it really does...explain a great deal about how little I've cared for this person ever since the outset. The evolution of this story has been a long and decidedly meandering one, yet at no point along that trail have I liked this individual. And to be quite honest, they were one of the more solid creations from the outset. They have undergone the least amount of character alterations, although there has been some evolution in keeping with the rest of the story and world-building.
I'm not sure how I feel about this little development.
There's already so much going on in this WIP that it's likely to end up being two books once I hit completion of the plot arc. I can deal with this too. The details might need addressed in the spring editing I've planned, but this detail of the character feels very much like a piece of the puzzle that I've been struggling for blindly. Groping around in the darker recesses of my mind, batting away dust bunnies and cobwebs.
Alas, here's another story that won't be for the faint of heart.
If I ever write one like that, you should probably take it as indication that the Zombie Apocalypse is imminent.
Damn you, I didn't need this. On so many levels.
These weren't demons I wanted to dig at.
Guess my muses have different ideas though.
Time to crank the "Rocker Monster" and get back to it...