FUBARgenre: The Genre of Fubar

I submitted this to WritingCompetition.com and it actually won something (it’s not Palanca, but well). This is a short short story (less than 250 words) based on an opening line provided (”So now, it’s finally over.”)

Quarter Past Midnight
circa July 2004

So now, it’s finally over.

She knows this because her eyes are starting to focus. The pearl in the ceiling becomes a trembling ball, then a gyrating orb, then finally, a tiny flickering fluorescent bulb.

She had been swimming in a confusing whirl of colors and scents. Now, rising from the chasm, she has an epiphany – black has countless hues, putrid has infinite bitter memories.

She stares at the ceiling, still hearing the grunts and moans that had, only minutes ago, been her sole link to reality. A reality that she had long since learned to distort. A reality that she had long since learned to justify.

The snoring emanates from beside her. As a drizzle at first, then as furious torrents. Loud, obnoxious, inconsiderate. Sometimes, this sound meant reprieve. Today, it seems a more painful intrusion. Today, in its rasping resonance, she hears a rhythm without melody, a song that is not a song, a story that is not her life.

She feels herself swimming again, and she grips the sheets to keep from drifting. But her hands feel not the abyss that engulfs her each night, but the dampness of her blood.

Tomorrow, as with too many tomorrows, she would have to rinse the silk and pray that her anguish would leave no stains. Tomorrow, perhaps, she would have the strength to change the sheets. But that’s tomorrow. For now at least, it’s finally over.