(Another short story found within the files of my laptop. Enjoy.)
She sat stared out the icy window she was leaning on, watching the dark sky light just before rain. Pressing her face to the cold dark glass, she watched the eyes of the reflection staring back. It had been a while since she spent a night with just her reflection to keep her company. The voices living in her head made it hard to get time alone and harder to forget: but she wasn’t thinking about that tonight.
What she was thinking of was how much she should be sleeping. It had been a few weeks since she truly slept well. The bad headaches were starting again, she giggled at the irony that this summer should start like two years ago. Almost, the money was better that summer, sighing she tried to refocus her thoughts, sleep, time to sleep. She forced her body into relaxation, slowly her eyes closed. Her thoughts finally had stopped.
Suddenly, her door jerked open, in a not quite fluid motion she pulled out her hunting knife. “Chill, it’s me.” Lily’s voice sounded almost foreign to her tonight. Lily sat on her bed wearing cloth shorts and a shirt that swallowed her tiny frame. She wondered if Lily was dressed for comfort or to hide her newest weight or cut.
“Heard of knocking? Ever?” she knew she was snapping but this was supposed to be her night. She had actually wanted this alone; she needed it to sort out the mess that she was right now and to sleep.
“I miss you” Lily’s voice was so frail and small she almost was positive she had heard wrong. She blinked, Lily had been the one who left her and refusing to speak to her, she was caught in a whirlwind of being pissed, sad, and concerned. “Can I stay just one night? Please? Alice please? I just want to be here with you just to curl and sleep. Please? Alice…. please” Lily whispered.
Finding her voice, she whispered her eyes shut tight, “No. It would pull me away from my world”. She didn’t breathe again until her door clicked shut. Tears filled her eyes; sometimes doing what is truly best for those you love feels like killing yourself slowly she thought sadly as memories filled her mind, there goes sleeping…..
