Posted by romantic on March 13, 2002 at 17:58:55:
MELISSA
Melissa's toes gripped the rail of her 9th floor balcony and the fragile knees that had ended her dancing days trembled. She stretched out her arms and pushed off, twisting, arcing through the air as she had once defied gravity on stage. The wind caught her lavender chiffon skirt, lifting it to show her long, still gorgeous legs. Arms fully extended, head thrown back, long blond hair blown straight back in the breeze, nine stories to the roof of a Range Rover in the parking lot.
The abrupt halt of her dance crushed her chest and snapped her neck. The concave roof cradled her dead body, green eyes half-closed and lips parted in a slight smile.
MARIA
Maria sat for a long time on the edge of her bed, staring at the letter. Absent mindedly swinging her legs back and forth, her flip-flops slid from the grip of her toes and fell to the floor unnoticed. After a thirty minutes, she folded the letter in her lap and picked up her father's .38 which she had laid by her side. She closed her eyes and, holding the pistol in both hands, placed the barrel against the roof of her mouth. She squeezed the trigger.
Her eyes flew open and for half a second she sat bolt upright. Then her dead body tumbled backwards on the bed. The pistol came to rest on her chest as her hands settled absurdly, each cupping one of her breasts. The letter slid from her lap down her legs, caressing her bare feet before floating to the floor.
KATIE
Katie returned to her dorm room in tears. She stripped to her T-shirt and panties and threw herself on her bed. Sleep would not come for her sobs. Rolling on her back, she stared at the ceiling, slowly beginning to comprehend the mean of the water pipe above her. In a daze, she stood and stripped the sheet off her bed. Standing tip-toe on her dresser, she looped the sheet over the pipe and tied it off. She twisted the other end tightly and wrapped it around her neck. Her long toes hung over the edge off the dresser for what seemed like an hour. Katie jumped. The knots held and stopped her drop 18 inches above the floor. Her first impulse was to cry out, but no sound escaped her throat as the twisted sheet crushed it. Her legs kicked wildly for a minute, then subsided to spasmodic shaking, then to occasional vibrations of her toes, then, finally, absolute stillness.
Katie's dead body swayed gently at the end of the sheet. Her pale blue eyes stared sorrowfully, her mouth open and tongue poised as if to explain her sad end.