Member-only story
Short Story in The Fiction Writer’s Den
Truth is Weeping
Alternative fiction?
Truth knows that most random strangers don’t want to rob, rape, or murder you. Most won’t even remark your existence more than as a picture on the current scene of their own life. But that last fact…makes her cry harder.
Truth is huddled alone in the club’s bathroom crying. Even here she can’t hide from the thump of the music, the mirrored walls vibrate with it, disguising the beat of her heart so she can no longer make out its rhythm. The tears shiver down her too gaunt cheeks and she can see herself reflected from all angles under the harsh lighting. She doesn’t want to look at herself, self-pity doesn’t suit her… but it is not in her nature not to see what’s before her own eyes. Her sobs gasp in the sharp smell of detergent and sweat with a slight undertone of piss. She’s just about to take stock of, and self-narrate, the finer details of her misery when the door opens with a whoosh. The volume rushes in hard, then recedes as the door swings shut behind a pretty, plumpish, pink-haired girl dressed head to toe in sequins and a radiant smile.
This smile hesitates as the girl takes in Truth, perched on the restroom counter in tears. Truth knows that most random strangers don’t want to rob, rape, or murder you. Most won’t even remark your…
