Lauren

The wine glass was half full. The contents spread like a grotesque flower across her kitchen floor.

Why did I do that? She asked herself. No matter, I’ll just clean it up and do it again.

But why? Admit it Lauren. It’s really your own blood you wish to see spilled over the tile floor and you just don’t have the guts to do it. If only once I would break the glass and have a shard to cut my wrist with instead of wasting good wine.

Again, no matter, I have plenty. I have plenty of everything except what it is that I need the very most. I could sit here for days and spill wine or my own blood and no one would be the wiser. No one would care to check on me nor would they care if I were gone. Perhaps a neighbor would complain when the stench in the house became too much to tolerate. It is my own fault you know that it has come to this. Money, money has always been everything to me. Now I have all the money in the world to buy anything that I might want and no one to share it with. Not even a house pet, I always thought them filthy little creatures.

Lauren rises to clean the mess of the wine, once again and then settles herself back on the floor. She drinks from the bottle now then up ends it on the floor. Barely an ounce escapes…

Figures. She says. It has been a good while since I have done anything right.

Standing again, she makes her way to the wine cellar to get another bottle of wine. She staggers back to the kitchen to her place on the floor which has began to stain.

She fills her glass again and drinks half. Should I spill it again? I’ll write a note. She decides. She reaches for paper and pen and settles back on the floor. She has no one to address her note to.

She knocks the glass over with more force than she ever has before.

Finally, the glass breaks. She reaches forward and drags a shard back to her through the wine.

She holds the broken glass up and lets the light play off the many edges as she twists and turns the piece slightly before her eyes. She wonders how she can see beauty in something so broken. A kaleidoscope of colors fill her mind as she slips into unconsciousness.