Louis has been mainlining heroin for a while now, so Carolyn is unsurprised when she finds him lying dead in the front hallway. She kneels down next to him and pulls the needle out of his arm before producing a small mirror from her purse and holding it under his nose. Just making sure.
She nods resolutely to herself and grabs Louis’ body under the armpits, dragging him backwards up the stairs. She undresses him and washes his skin carefully in the bathtub. She puts him in the best clothing he has left, a white shirt and a black pair of jeans (he had hocked his nice suit to pay for, what else, heroin), and props his body up on a chair in the living room.
Carolyn takes a seat across the table from him. Louis’ head lolls to the side.
“Honey?” she says, leaning forward, her arms laying folded in front of her. “We need to talk.”
She pauses, and Louis is quite silent.
“It’s the drugs, Louis. You have to stop. They’re-” and she cuts off, holding back a tear and sniffling. “They’re tearing us apart.”
Louis has nothing to say to this.
“It’s just,” Carolyn says, brokenly. “I’m just, not sure how long I can keep staying quiet. I’m not sure if I can keep this-“ She cuts herself off, and a look of tentative wonder brightens her eyes. She looks up into Louis’ face. It is at once an ashen grey and a pallid, junky yellow. His jaw hangs dumbly open underneath half-closed, unfocused eyes.
A long moment passes, and Carolyn jumps from her chair, crosses the room and wraps her arms around the body in the chair. It slumps, and succumbs bonelessly to gravity. She holds him upright, as best she can, and whispers to him. “You’d really do that? For me?” Despite her efforts, Louis slides off of the chair, and she holds onto him tight.
Carolyn drags Louis to the living room and arranges his body on the couch so he leans ever so slightly, a limp arm draped over her shoulders. She starts the movie with the remote and presses her head contentedly into his chest. As the final credits roll she kisses him gently on the cheek, and whispers “I love you” into his ear.
She stands to turn the lights back on and Louis slides in a slow arc across the couch until he is lying horizontal. Carolyn goes into the garage, retrieves a gas can, and proceeds to douse the first floor of the house in gasoline. She ignites a match, flicks it lightly over her shoulder, and leaves the house through the front door.
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