“Lord, you are my refuge! Don’t let me down! Save me from my enemies, for you are just! Rescue me! Bend down your ear and listen to my plea and save me. Rescue me, o God! Lord, hurry to my aid! For I am but human, and you are the Kingdom Eternal!

“Can’t you hear the voice of Wisdom? She is standing at the city gates and at every fork in the road, and at the door of every house. Listen to what she says; for the value of wisdom is far above rubies; nothing can be compared with it. ‘O, foolish ones! Let me show you common sense!’ Have you forsaken me!?!”

Slowly, she ceased her pacing, wondering where that had come from. Long ago, she knew, but how long? Glaring through the slitted window easily twenty feet above her, How long have I been in this hell hole?

Angrily, she threw herself onto the mildewy floor, gazing in a dejected way towards the wall... the same gray... the same... She giggled, “The same, the same. Day in day out. How we’ve become so lame!”

A sharp rap at the door startled her, “You!! Shut up! We don’t wanna hear any o’ that witch tongue here!”

She giggled, “Hocus pocus, cat tails and lizard tongues. What you are must become undone.” Slowly she stood, reaching forth with a long, thick pale green nail, running it sharply along the cement floor.

She knew she looked homely. Her left elvish ear had been sheared unevenly, her black hair was in tangles, and her brown eyes had to be wild with psychotic loneliness. But she knew what she would not look like. She would never look as she did when they cut off her ear. She remembered the blood. She remembered being shaved bald... at one point in her life... but from how long ago?

It sent panicked shivers through her body, and she no longer found herself on this plane. The sky was painted pretty pink, it looked like crepe paper, pasted above her sloppily. The flowers around her blurred with their unnatural crystal-like appearance. With each step, they cut at her ankles. The grass wasn’t grass... it was water. Green water, she giggled, singing ‘algae’ all the way to her favorite spot in her world of make believe.

The trees were silvered, red moss laden their branches heavily. The ground beneath her was a mirror, and she watched, in a trance, as she saw herself skip towards the waters. Slowly, she bent towards them... then straightened, walking clear out to dead center, her other self that had been watching in the mirror world dissapeared as the water rippled beneath her step.

She giggled as a webbed hand reached through the torrents beneath her feet. Suddenly, it let go, and a mass of sea weed and other stringy plants wrapped about her legs and arms, dragging her down. She laughed even harder as water reached her waist, chest, neck, finally it devoured her, and she found herself below the waters, sinking steadily to the bottom.

A webbed hand flickered out of her now tunnel-vision. She tried to turn her head, trying to adjust to her new fins and webbed digits, but a powerful, scaly, and wet hand jerked her out of her trance. Pain laced through the fingers into her jaw.

It hissed, and she laughed, flicking her own fins at the flighty mermaid. It swam about her quickly, obviously agitated. She sighed, no one visited these people as much as they should. They’ve grown accustomed to being alone... so alone.

It growled deep in its throat, and she laughed, sprouting aqua-marine glass wings, her tail dissapating. Quickly she bent over it, kissed its cheek, and flew through the waters, racing the sea growth that was trying to reclaim her. She broke the surface and flew into the sun. All she needed was a quick drying, but a tan would be nice as well.

The sun was too bright, so bright she could not think straight. She tried to open her eyes, but blurs ran across them. A sharp pain laced through her arm, like the swift pinch of a belt. Slowly following was the ever-mounting burn of... something... something that accompanied the pinch-belt sensation in her arm. It laced through her veins, setting her blood on fire. Her brain throbbed wretchedly. The pain in her head was so intense; it felt as if a herd of bull-moose were let loose among her brain- sent to scatter and destroy her. The pain was so wretched, she screamed in agony, and another round of sharp pinches and burning sensations that made her writhe followed. A sleepiness that was not natural began to take over her. The ache in her head somewhat dulled. Like the first kiss of a virgin... not quite tangible, yet there. A sensation just out of reach. Suddenly she became frustrated. It was always like this, her life was no longer a tangible thing! She sighed heavily, the sudden outburst of anger made her sleepy and she hurt worse due to the effort she made to stay awake. Slowly she remembered something, her hair being buzzed off, a horrible room having something to do with radiation... white foamy patches on her chest and skull...

"A growth..." she remembered fuzzily, "A white mass in my head... and... in my..." her tired, roving fingers played at the bandage in the center of her chest. Her world fell into oblivion. Angry, she snapped her head up and her eyes open. Breathing was pain, she suddenly realized. Everything was either on fire and melting, or in deep frost and shattering.

A sob resonated through her senses of amassed agonies. A warmth encompassed her hand as sleep began to over power her ability to be awake. She turned her head slowly, seeing a brunette blur... It seemed so familiar. So familiar... but she couldn’t remember. The blur moved, and she saw paleness... a single wet something splashed against the hand it was holding... and she was out again.