Work Text:
Sunrays spilled into the living room of a simple farmhouse, bathing a woman in amber light. Her gaze was glassy, unresponsive, as if the soul had long ago detached from the body and drifted away on its own accord. Although unconsciously floating over the pale figure, the soul wasn’t completely gone yet. Sometimes, it felt a tug on the string that kept it attached. Then the eyes would glimmer with a soft, fairytale enchantment, and the lips would curl into a blissful, unadorned smile.
The house was exposed to sunlight. No curtain obstructed the view, letting the summer glow violate each room in turn. The rooms she never left. Multiple. A barren kingdom, and she ruled it.
If the world were magical, it would have gone unnoticed. She’d never touch silk again. Pearls burned her fingertips, diamonds cut her skin. Scraps and scraps of pale skin that burned in flashes. Flames that never ceased. Some habits never changed. She spent her days in the steel tub. Hours and hours on end, until the water got cold and her skin wrinkled like a badly treated satin gown. No matter how much she scrubbed, there were always fingerprints all over her. Dirty purpled marks of shame. Struggling for dominance under her half-bitten fingernails.
The years went by, but it felt like yesterday. Fragments of Elysian fields came floating before her. Daggers of heat and broken glass. Smell of rancid liquor. Pain, pain …
Sometimes she’d bring her knuckles to the parched lips. Raw, inhumane emotions flooded her veins. No, no, no, no, no …Repetitions of a single syllable dragged on. The word had an eternal meaning that became muddier and muddier. Comfort was out of reach. Then a gentle calloused hand would reach towards her own and pry it from the lips. A kiss would follow, landing like a butterfly on her delicate hand. Next on the shaved skin of her head, where fair hairs budded like tiny roses.
“How do I look, Marie?”
“Beautiful, my dear.”
And her soul would go wandering again.