Despite the trauma, Kayla still remembers every detail of the day her world changed— October 17, 2017 — as if it happened yesterday.

That day, her ex-boyfriend Seth Aaron Fleury, then 21, couldn’t accept that their relationship was over. And in a moment of monstrous cruelty, he decided that if he couldn’t have her, no one else could either.

In a raw and emotional post shared on Love What Matters, Kayla recalled the terrifying scene:

”I remember every detail of this very moment. The thoughts that ran through my mind when I opened my camera were very dark, which only seemed to worsen. Sitting in a puddle of my own blood with the majority of my lip laying on my leg, my whole mouth on fire, confused and terrified, I didn’t know how I could ever show my face again. At that point, honestly wishing that those very seconds would just be my last — I wanted to give up for good.”