Glass & Afterglow
by Karl Magi
Here’s my second synth-inspired vignette. I hope you’ll enjoy it! Please find the playlist below!
As the sun slowly sets over the ocean, she stands in her penthouse window, looking out at the city spread beneath her. Night falls and tiny lights begin to come on in all of the buildings, warmly glowing as people rush by on the street below. The room in which she stands has a high ceiling and is furnished in elegant style, clean and simple. On her stereo, smooth jazz plays and low ambient lighting adds a diffuse luminosity to the space.
She idly trails her hand along the glass table beside her, her sharply cut bangs framing her pale face and bright red lips. Glancing at the skyline, images of him drift past. It’s hard to believe it’s been two weeks of silence and attempted distraction.
She knows she shouldn’t chase after him in her mind, it’s a waste of time and makes her feel weak. She sighs and looks back into her penthouse, seeing its clean lines and contemplating the cool toned walls. A wave-edged Italian mirror reflects the pink light filling the room as she catches a glimpse of herself. Her reflection is all angles, her black dress wedge-shaped with razor edges. Did she cut him with those edges, the ones she developed to reach the place she’d reached? She shakes her head, jaw setting, eyes flashing, and turns away.
A wall of glass blocks diffuses pale light leaking in from the kitchen, bending and distorting it like ice seen from below. The room is decorated with art as cold and clean as the sharpness of her emotion, which cuts to the core. She clenches her fists, then loosens them. Turning away from the city view, she strolls back into the kitchen. The island is monolithic, white-sided and black-topped.
She rests her elbows on it and stares through the wavy light on the other side of the full-length glass block wall. Stainless steel glints around the room, and the black countertop dull-shines in the delicate lighting. She tries to settle against it, but the sharp edges dig in. She craves something soft and cradling, something warm.
In the cut and thrust of the corporate world that fills her days, all she finds is ice. For a moment, love brought respite, but now only emptiness remains.
