Jane Doe

She's a half empty bottle of whiskey; a thick label wrapped tightly around its fragile frame, obscuring the golden contents from the eyes of the public, but handing it directly into the hands of those most likely to abuse it. The whiskey is bitter at first, most would walk away at this point to find something more subtle. There are thick black lines cascading down the glass, tiny imperfections on an otherwise perfect facade, marking the precious centimeters each person has ingested then later thrown up on a strangers bathroom floor. People constantly chase the taste with a lighter, easier drink, unable to deal with the heavy tongue numbing sensation left behind. If drank enough it began to taste sweet, still bitter, but oddly familiar, leaving a tingling warmth on the lips of lovers to be. Alcohol is a sweet sedative to drift away on, and if listened to closely, will whisper its secrets while the rest of the world sleeps. Addiction begins to form, to manifest itself in the tranquil golden ocean. On particularly lonely nights strangers kiss the bottle and weep with it clutched tightly to their chests; one hundred percent dependent. When something's gone wrong, golden slumbers are only a sip away. Walking away at this point is nearly impossible. There's something about how the warmth seeps through the nerves of stressed bodies, how happy people have the potential to be, and just how easy it is to simply forget, that makes this poison so tempting. At the end of the night the bottle is almost empty, except for a few precious drops of sanity left in various cups around the room. The label is ripped and torn, no secrets to behold. The cap is missing and lipstick is smudged on the mouth of the bottle from those who couldn't resist a quick fix. It lays on its side every Friday night, drained of its resources, having fulfilled it's purpose; helping the addicts who dared to push past the bitter taste to reach the seductive heaven found only at the bottom of a bottle. Although it will never admit it, maybe, at the end of the night, the whiskey is addicted too.