Tipsy Lit Prompted: A Bold Adventure

This week’s Tipsy Lit Prompted is about a character’s bold adventure.

A bare bulb dangled precariously from the ceiling, strung up by a frayed cord. Light flickered around the room and across her reflection in the mirror. She splashed her face with cold water, the only side of the tap that worked, and looked into the foggy mirror. The bags under her eyes were darker, more pronounced that they’d been just two weeks prior.

“I look awful,” she thought as she vigorously rubbed her face to a shiny red with a rough paper towel.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this…that I have to do this,” she said to herself in the mirror.

“Excuse me?” a scratchy, ancient voice said behind her. Startled, she jumped slightly and looked up into the mirror to see a dirty, chubby woman emerging from the center stall. She hadn’t bothered to flush and probably wouldn’t bother to wash her hands either.

“Um, nothing. I was just talking to myself, she said as she escaped into the desolate waiting room.

She took off her backpack, and placing it carefully in front of her, she settled in to wait for the bus that wouldn’t be there for almost another two hours. Thoughts of the last few weeks raced through her mind as she wondered if leaving was the best thing to do.

She nodded off and was awoken later by the air brakes of a bus in the dense, dark night. Gathering up her things, she noticed only two other desperate souls had shown up for the bus with their worn, dusty luggage.

She boarded the bus, slightly hesitating as the smell of urine and sweat–the musty stench of despair–wafted up from the back of the bus and smacked her in the face.

Well, there she is. What do you think?