12

Translucent material can’t cast a shadow because the light passes right through it and onto the other side; it can, however, cast a color.  The sun spilled into the room, falling through the empty pill bottle and casting orange light onto the crumpled sheets.  Chad took all this in and stored it in his heart; then he left it on the floor and scraped himself up.  He balanced himself against the wall as he slowly made his way to the bathroom, and there he was in the mirror. 

 

Purple sacs of skin hung beneath his eyes like velvety, layered valences.  Looking at himself made his strained eyes tired, and the collecting tears stung as they sat on his raw skin.  He rubbed them so he could keep looking.  Skin flaked from his pale, parched lips, only broken by a dark purple crack down the center.  He couldn’t feel anything.  Well, he felt orange, but that didn’t make any sense.  He noticed the unkempt stubble on his face and neck.  He smiled a crackling, hideous grin�"he needed to shave.  He picked up his razor and started the first dry slice across his cheek.  It peeled away the skin like the peeling on a carrot.  The wound was bright white for a moment before the blood came to the surface.  Then it poured.  He tapped the razor against the sink, splattering small drops of blood on the white porcelain, and then started again on the other side.

 

Eventually the blood pooled in the sink and the razor slipped from his hands.  He looked down at his red hands and realized something�"Mariah was there.  Her red nails were now his red nails.  He stumbled a little, not from shock, but because it was almost time.  He went back to his room and crumpled onto the floor.  Bentley licked his face as he faded away. 

Reviews

[Aeneas Barton]

Oh wow. Well I just finished it, I forget which section it was, maybe 11 or 10, but you made a note about (have chad driving along somewhere deep in thought) I'd say to a new paragraph with that concept, but start if off somehow in relation to mariah : ex: 12 miles from where she stood chad was driving his blah blah blah down the blah blah blah, you could just start a whole new paragraph about chad, but it may not flow nicely, especially if you are jumping back to mariah afterwards. There were a few typos, I had them marked on a piece of paper next to me, but alas now i have lost the paper, terrible me. It was quite interesting creating the loop that you did. By the by, what spawned this idea?