Addiction

She pulls herself up off of the floor and glares at the haggard visage she sees in the mirror.

"I can't go on like this anymore." The girl in the mirror smiles in a wry sort of way and yanks the belt around her thigh tighter. A scream reverberates through the barren room as the needle plunges into the bulging vein. She can no longer think clearly… the pleasures wash her mind away… but she knows it must stop. She stares at her scarred arms and can almost remember their beauty. But she can't reason with the girl. Too soon the needle plunges in again, and the rush is renewed.

* * * * *

She was found five days later. Shards of the broken mirror were all around her. Some had gouged deep wounds in her already-battered body, and many slivers were still in her arm where she had hit the mirror. However, the doctors claimed that it was the overdose that had killed her.

--n.e.d. 1