Frugal
Short story
She was a Movie star born into wealth at the age of 6, and yet Alexis embodied stinginess in it's worst form in her life. She tried to buy food with
expired coupons, haggled for already cheap items at flea markets and often attacked other buyers, paid for drinks in coins, gave paychecks that
never went past $10, Lived on Dial up
and always picked out the cheapest gifts imaginable for her kids. They were denied decent food, health care and even simple amenities
such as toothpaste. Their dinner was cold oatmeal, three day old bread and stale, rotting apples. and yet, she was adored by millions and
audiences loved her. Men woo'd her, women envied her and studios were eager to get her to work with courted actors, her net worth
was beyond 66 billion dollars, and yet, she was the devil at home. When her son broke his leg playing football, he begged her to take him to the
ER. She adamantely and angrily refused to budge even an inch, and instead, marched him into the bathroom, forcibly dunked his body into a
bathtub full of ice and held a curling iron to his skin., causing it to bubble and sizzle. "Stop screaming, i just wiped the floors, no, stop trying to
get out!" she said as her son's breathing slowed. She held the iron in place, even as his veins popped out, held his shoulders down and waited.
Hours passed and he stopped breathing. She took him out and he started to breath again. Alexis became frantic and worried that someone would
find out. At last, he came to and sat up. it took a while for him to warm up but when he had regained strength, what he told her broke her. Her
husband knew! her son had blabbed. Alexis immediately raced to drain the bathtub, get rid of the ice and clean the room. She then took a bat to
her son and his neck cracked, killing him. She missed the fact that her son had taken pictures on his phone of the poor state of the house. He
had recorded the tub incident through a wire and also had a backup placed somewhere in his room. As the final nail, he sent the remainder to
CPS. Like lightning, Alexis was parted from her children, whose plight horrified social services. They were thin and sickly, weighing less than 90
lbs. The house was ground zero. Broken furniture, insects in the food. It got so bad that one of the workers, livid, tried to stab Alexis. She was
tranqed before she could. Word of mouth spread and her fame disappeard overnight. Her posters were destroyed, upcoming films were stalled
and her stocks plummeted. Regardless, she refused to see that her world had crumbled and put on makeup for a play at the Ritz. Taking center
stage, the curtain rose to reveal a pissed off audience. In her dillusion, she saw them as adoring fans and admirers. She performed for them and
they threw roses. She grabbed one and tossed it back. In reality, she had cut her hand open and the blood was leaking onto her dress. The
audience rushed onstage and savagely rent her dress, slashed open her back and snapped her neck. But all she saw was adoring men, even as
her body slowly went limp. Security dispersed the mob but the damage was done. She was pronounced dead at 6:15 PM. The kids inherited the
money once they turned 18.