The Catharsis

Chapter 14 - Hotel California

Trapped

By Amethyst Turner

You can stare at the exit

You can walk toward the door

You can ignore the present

You can burrow into the floor

But that doesn't stop

That fact that this is not

A dream as it seems

But reality

And you can never leave

XXX

"Hey, did you hear about that girl in the news?"

Libby looked up, confused. Was he talking to her? Richard knew she didn't read the news. "Um, no."

He climbed under the covers, still talking. "Amanda something-or-other. She killed herself yesterday." Then he turned off the lamp and promptly fell silent.

She narrowed her eyes in the dark. So what? People killed themselves all the time. Yeah sure, it was sad, but why was he talking about it? Libby watched his chest rise and fall, wondering if he'd fallen asleep already. She asked, "Did you know her or something?"

"Not really," Richard mumbled. "I recognized her, though. Used to work at Hallmark."

Libby growled to herself. Did they have the money to be going to Hallmark? It was early March. What in hell's name was the point of going to Hallmark in March? "When?"

"Last Valentine's Day."

Well, okay. Fair enough, she supposed. If he wanted to waste his money on twelve dollar greeting cards, then more power to him and his stupid drunk brain. Why were they talking about this again? "Why do you care?" She asked bluntly, laying back down.

Richard turned to look at her. His eyes were not resentful or drunk as they usually were. Tonight, he just looked tired and sad. He looked at her in a way that a married men usually looked at their wives; with a certain amount of trust and maybe even a sliver of affection. "Can you imagine what that was like for her friends and family?"

She could, in face. Libby remembered her freshman year of highschool, being haunted by the ghost of her best friend Molly who'd killed herself in eighth grade. Shaking the thought out of her head, she replied, "Probably sucked for them."

"Yeah." He reached over and brushed a piece of hair out of her face, a simple gesture that made her blood rush hot through her body, her muscles tensing in surprise. In three years of marriage to him, she had never known Richard to be as gentle as he was being right now. His hand resting on the side of her face, he said, "I don't want the same thing to happen to you."

XXX

Amethyst had taken to hiding under her blanket in the box whenever her mother came downstairs. If she didn't she was sure to upset her.

Mommy only came down to eat, or grab something from the downstairs bathroom. If Amethyst bothered her, or even just crossed her path, she would yell or shut her into the cupboard.