A/N: Just felt like an angsty oneshot drabble. And Parks and Rec is my baby right now…so enjoy! Sorry if it makes little to no sense. Find your own meaning. #englishmajor
Warnings: Rated "M" for language. (I'm not clear on ff.n's policy on the use of the word "fuck".)
When It Fades Away
The lights flickered. It was highly disconcerting, considering the blackouts that they had been having lately.
"Fuck," said Ann dully.
"What?" April asked, half asleep on the couch.
"The lights," Ann explained without much interest.
"Oh," April responded with equal interest. "I don't feel so great, Ann."
"You mean, because you have to look at my face?" Ann asked.
"Yeah, what the fuck is wrong with you, Ann?" April sneered.
"Born this way," Ann shrugged.
They flickered again.
"Fuck."
"What?"
"Nothing really. I'm going to the kitchen. Want anything?"
"Water?"
"Alright, be right back."
Ann stood up slowly and walked – one step at a time – into her bright and shining kitchen. Fucking chrome, it could have been fucking chrome. She opened a faux-wood cabinet and extracted a crystalline glass. The entire world could have been contained in that glass. It shined like fucking chrome. She stepped over to her refrigerator – precisely of course – and held the glass under the spout. Pressing the "cold" button, she watched as a stream of water – clear as heaven and soft as silk – jetted out from the small tube. She held the glass, now full to the brim of cold pure water, before her and her palm felt warm around its smooth, cool surface.
Suddenly, her fingers shot open and the glass fell to the floor, shattering in a spray of icy glass and cold, cold water. She was awake and it felt like hell. Her ankle felt warm and she knew, without looking, that it was bleeding. She pictured the stream of red mingling with the clear water and glass and the image was more beautiful than she knew the reality could be so she didn't look down. The remnants of the cup crunched beneath her feet as she walked back to the cabinet.
She removed another glass from the shelf – plastic this time, and yellow – and put it under the refrigerator's faucet. Again, the cup was filled with a clear substance more pure than she ever imagined water could be. She went back into the living room.
"Here's your water." Shards of glass, water, and blood still clung to her feet and ankles.
"Thanks."
The lights flickered again. It was a pattern that promised permanence.
"What?" April asked.
"Ignore it." Ann responded and her voice was cold and distant.
"It's the sunlight?"
"Yeah, it's the sunlight."
"It always looks like this…?"
"When it fades away? Yeah."
"When it fades away."