-Blackened

Monica was a hopeless romantic. She loved hard and she loved deeply. She took great pride in her ability to connect with others, as was her reputation. Her embrace was cherished across the land. People would travel great lengths just to be in her presence, to hopefully catch a glimpse of this rumored smile with wild dreams of being amongst the lucky ones to be drawn in. Many unlucky ones received their answered prayers whilst the lucky ones walked away none the wiser of the fate they dodged. They hung their heads low when they should have celebrated, but they didn't understand.

Monica was a mirrored image of all that is good and all that is bad. Her center had become so blurred that she didn't even recognize who she had become. She was a Venus flytrap of others, and a very few people lived to recognize this.

Her expressionless stare was stoic and cold. The praising voices that continually lifted her up to grandeur and social status was the very catalyst that fooled the masses. 'If everyone loves her this way, surely we should to.' One by one they fell into her gaze and under her spell. She had won them over without a single smile, but no one realized this or even cared. Beauty worship at its darkest finest.

But Monica was not happy. With each new tier of adoration achieved she lost a part of herself. Each elevation brought forth an incremental death to her heart and self-worth. She blackened a tiny bit more, daily and became less fulfilled. Still, the masses, they came. Jointly, they praised and threw emotional flowers at her feet, self-brainwashing themselves and loving every moment of it. Together, they were all lost. She took a part of each of their souls and placed them in a dark rustic vessel which rowed through the red murky waters for an offering to the prince of the underworld. A Charon's Obel pence for the day she expired with hopes for leniency. None, of which, fell at feet of the masses. Monica cared not, for her only concerns was the advancement of whom she saw in the mirror. Sadly, she didn't even recognize her anymore.

Monica was a hopeless romantic. She loved herself, hard and deeply.