Inspiration Enough (Five Sentence Fiction)

The prompt this week was ‘Tears’.

Inspiration Enough

The sunlight shining through a crack in the curtains gilded the pillow, its warmth creeping slowly towards her tear-stained face, until her eyelids ached from the effort to keep them closed to postpone the advent of another day of … this.

Eventually, she opened them to stare at the same damp patch on the ceiling where the paint was flaking into patches to reveal a grey veneer beneath, and as ever, her first thought was, “How do I feel today?”

She waited for the answer to roll back at her as it had done for weeks now, an overwhelming and suffocating wave of emotional anaesthesia, culminating in the dreadful realisation once more – “I feel nothing today, again.”

A fat black spider went purposefully about its business above her, spinning a web from the light bulb to the window, a gleaming golden thread vacillating in the sunlight and she watched, reflecting how fortunate this creature was, having a purpose to energise its movements day after day.

Seconds later she stood naked in the centre of the room, whimpering with shock and revulsion at the furry object scurrying panic-stricken amongst her grubby sheets, as it sought shelter from the wild-eyed sobbing woman who had, for the first time in weeks, finally found a reason to get out of bed in the morning.