The shards of glass across the floor reflected the dim sunlight that shone into her eyes, sunlight that she incessantly tried to avoid. Flashes of crimson streaked down her fingers, the confrontation of the truth she did not want to see stared back at her. Now it was unavoidable as it now looked her in the eyes from different angles. Pounding the walls had coated her hands in blood and shook as if the cold from the cement floor had shocked the bones in her fingers. Trauma gave her no mercy.
She was down by the lake when a shadow had morphed in the bushes. The fright was just for a moment before the flash of an eye deemed another trick of the imagination. She knew the bushes held great secrets as she had seen small children use the shrubbery as hiding places.
The shadow reappeared once more, but this time it emerged from the bushes. A small but hesitant greeting had broken an awkward silence between the once shadow and the other in plain sight.
"Hello." Her voice was a tad strained from the nervousness.
"Hi." Remarked the deep male voice that escaped the dark-haired figure, "James." The brief introduction had caught her by surprise at the oddity of the situation but out of kindness and out of habit she responded in record time.
"Audrey, come to enjoy the view?" Her gaze drifted as she stepped over to the water and observed the flawless facade that the early morning treated her with. Slow and steady steps had sounded in her wake as she became absorbed with the enchantment which the beauty of the water possessed. The blemishes on her skin were removed from the trick of the light of the early morning.
"The water is beautiful, isn't it?" The soft voice sounded sad and was carried through the soft wind, "almost as beautiful as the embrace of death." The comparison had taken Audrey aback. Almost as beautiful. Why compare it to death? She didn't know how, but it set off an alarm, especially when the heavy footsteps kicked rocks onto her calves. Audrey turned and the only words to describe what she saw in James' eyes was the fury of the devil himself. The footsteps had separated the two just slightly, but that sign told Audrey it was time to run.
She ran and she ran fast. But little did she know how close together they were. A strong grip wrapped around a pulsing neck. Weak from the lack of oxygen and panic, they both ended up back at the edge of the lake. They hung over the water and Audrey was confronted with the young face that she spent many mornings looking at, memories washed over her from when she was little, death was staring at her through the eyes reflected in the water. The water reflected the life being lost, yet it would never dare to tell a soul, no matter how close it came to anyone.
She let the memories succumb her when she felt the hair follicles dampen on her face. Body movements convulsed as the desperation for oxygen took over. It was a good three minutes before all life was gone. Whatever happened then, she did not remember as everything went black.
At least for a minute or two.
Audrey's vision came back and she watched James' body floating into the distance. He thought death would be more beautiful, maybe his life was worthless enough for it to be a thought. So the selfless, forever giving person she was had given him more than the mere illusion of his perception of beauty. Judging by the sad sound in his voice, Audrey believed that maybe James' craved the numb peacefulness that she blessed him with.
Her prison cell made her cold as she remembered those sirens in the background so long ago. The glass shards still laid scattered across the hall, revealing her wrinkled and decayed state. The change in her appearance only made her remember her life flash before her eyes before her actions -which were only motivated by selflessness- took it away. The broken shards across from the metal bars made her fear the scowl that confinement had given her face, the same scowl she saw in the reflection of James' eyes. The cold bars beneath her hands forever reminding her of the last farewell given my the morning breeze. The last that she felt before losing her life.
This short story was inspired by the Poem "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath
