The Parting Glass Novels & Stories

She let go of a shaky breath before her once bright brown eyes teared through my soul as she said the words that shook me to my core. “You are trying to carve a broken piece of glass Mr. Knight and this glass will only crack more and sooner or later it's again going to break and this time when it will break you will be the one crying with tears of blood."

one of the men said as he started walking toward me with a smug look on his face. "I'm not going anywhere with you, and you're going to regret coming into this shop tonight because I have a brother who is dying and I don't have time to play games with my father’s old lapdogs," I replied as I reached behind me and grabbed a heavy glass jar of antiseptic from the counter. I threw the jar at his head and he ducked just enough for it to miss, but it gave me the second I needed to lung forward and drive a jagged shard of glass from the broken window into the soft spot under his chin.

Shattered glass. The world turned white. -

“No!” The glass broke.

Just watched the liquid catch the light from the dying fire. The door opened. I didn't look up. "I thought I told you to leave at first light." "I know." Sonia's voice was soft. Almost gentle. "I'm leaving. I just wanted to say goodbye properly." I finally looked at her. She stood in the doorway with two glasses and a bottle of wine. Dark red. Expensive. The kind we used to share before everything fell apart. "One last drink," she said. "For old times' sake. Then I'm gone. You won't see me again."

The date stamp read three years ago. ID: 098-V Timestamp: August 14, 2023 | 02:14:05 AM “I’ve found her. Now make sure she never finds out the truth about the accident.” Grace dropped the crystal water glass she was holding. The sound of it slipping from her fingers felt distant, disconnected from her body. It hit the corner of the dark walnut desk, fracturing instantly and sloshing cold liquid across her meticulously printed spreadsheets. The amber water soaked rapidly into the clean columns of her forensic audit, blurring the ink, bleeding the numbers together into formless, dark smudges.

Like a hiccup. All at once, at the crest of the hum, the glass beneath Agatha’s fingers broke into large sections like blades. Tears started falling down Agatha’s eyes in every wink. One shard slid by her finger and bled profusely, trickling down teardrops of blood every second which she quickly sucked on. No one else in the town heard that hum. ***

Losing the fight not to love him and wavering. “You’ll regret it… when I walk away when I’m gone, you’ll maybe realize what you wanted after all. Figure out where your heart lies.” Claire’s parting words are spat at him, and she stomps off, making a racket with expensive heels on the hard floor, yet he doesn’t budge an inch. “That already happened.” He mumbles it under his breath and then leans down and kisses me on top of my head so that everything around me ceases to exist.

And perhaps I should repeat it to this man that seems to be as thick as a fucking doornail, “I am telling you that you will leave here and never come near Mirabelle again.” Then there is a shatter as the glass tumbles to the floor. “You are not leaving alive here. You just made your biggest mistake.”