As soon as the door closed she was moving. The sleeve was off her arm in a flash. Her hand was around the little blue bottle, pouring make-up remover onto a tissue and rubbing at across her arm, revealing lines that were not there before. She smiled a bit. Each line was like a friendly face, smiling up at her, calling her in. She moved swiftly to the bathroom across the hall, tripping just enough, slamming her hands into the door of the next room to keep herself from falling to the soft carpet below.
Finally making it to the bathroom, she jerked the faucet to the on position and thrusting her wrist under the flow of icy water. It stung for a moment, but the pain was soon numbed. The disinfectant was next, poured over the cuts on her arm. Then it was dried delicately with a clean gauze pad. The girl turned and walked slowly back to her room.
Upon entering the room filled with clutter, she up and removed a small white box from the top shelf of her bookcase, then proceeded to her tan recliner. She removed one small silver blade from the box and set it on the arm of the chair. Using her right hand, she let her fingers trail over her left wrist, feeling the raised lines of past sorrows. They felt like home. She kept her left hand still and used the right to pick up the blade. And slowly she started counting in her head. 1-2-3-4. Lower, press, slide, raise. 1-2-3-4. It was like a ballet, the blade dancing around her arm, leaving a red ribbon in its wake. It rose and fell to the silent music that played in the girls head. Was it Mozart? Beethoven? No, it was entirely unique to her. The music was eerie and chilling and beautiful, as was the dance. But the underside of it all was sick and cruel and masochistic.
The music ended and so did the dance. The girl put down the blade and reclined in the chair, tired. She closed her eyes and let her fingers trail through the blood on her arm. She smiled a little bit, knowing that there would be more friendly faces to meet her next time she needed them. Until then she would hide them away under makeup, under a sleeve, under a smile. And she knew that they would be there for her when it was time to dance again.
