[Clara 01]

Clara was fucking legendary.
Right?
She felt like she should have been.
Or maybe was and had forgotten how to be tonight.
The dark liquor made it hard to remember who she was or if she may have been legendary when she'd walked through the door.
The door, the windows, the bathroom door . . .
Hadn't she come in with someone?
A group of some one's perhaps?
How could she have suddenly forgotten what had taken place five seconds ago?
It didn't matter.
In another five minutes some guy would walk into the bar and buy her another drink, or two, or three.
He would say something stupid about her tits or her ass and she'd toss her hair back and laugh as though it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
Then they'd find someplace dark to fuck and she'd grab his wallet while he grabbed both her ass cheeks and at some point she'd make her way home either richer in cash or credit.
And that was what made Clara fucking legendary.
Stumbling outside she lit a cigarette and leaned against the balcony overlooking the river.
Inside the music thumped so loudly it felt like a second heart beat in her chest.
"Hello darlin."
Clara turned to see an old familiar face and smiled warmly at the shared recollection of the good time connected to the image of the scruffy cleft chin and clever green eyes.
"Hullo Remi. What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were Canadian?" Clara said chiding herself mentally even as she spoke for saying something so stupid.
Remi laughed "You stupid fucking cunt. You don't remember do you?"
"Excuse me?" Clara laughed leaning back against the balconies railing.
"You stole almost three thousand dollars from me. After you fucked me into a god damn coma you stole two thousand eight hundred and fifty seven dollars from me. I don't even know your fucking name. What the fuck is your name?" Remi barked getting close enough for Clara to smell the drinks on his breath and see the coke left around the bottom of each nostril.
Too late Clara saw she couldn't go left.
Couldn't go right.
The only way to escape was down.
Even while Clara's sluggish gin soaked mind made this broken analysis of escape routes Remi lifted a heavy potted plant above his head and brought it down hard on Clara's pretty face.
The force knocked her backwards so swiftly it would have been comical if the height had not been so lethal.
She thought as she fell that this would be the last time she'd have this much to drink.
She thought she was falling asleep somewhere safe.
In some dark apartment she'd sneak out of the next day.
Until she hit the cars parked below and the brilliant red and white explosion of pain that wracked her body burned away every last inch of numbing pleasure the booze had wrought.
While she waited for someone to find her the pain only deepened.
Only became more scintillating.
Eight hours later by the time someone found her she was nearly broken from the pain.
Her mind nearly erased by the its ceaseless assault.
While she was loaded into the back of an ambulance a single thought flitted across what was left of her consciousness.
Angelique was going to be so angry with her.

-Contributed by Cogent Ascending