Sybil always had too much on her mind.

If she was at home, she was planning out dinner, calculating the number of days it had been since she had heard from that all-too-quiet daughter of hers, replaying the events of whatever book she was reading in her mind, and fighting not to have those terrible embarrassing memories pop back into her head.

When she was out, it was often the same, walking around with her eyes to the clouds, always distant to those around her, because her own thoughts were enough to keep her company.

Even now, in the worst moment of her life, her brain was swimming with memories, with possibilities, and trying to create a map of her town in her mind.

She was running for her life, and even now she couldn't simply focus on one thing at a time.

It was a scene out of a horror story, all around Sybil, fires roared their way through buildings, screams echoed down the street, and blood ran through the cracks in the cobblestone. She didn't know what she was running from, she didn't even know if anyone in the town was left alive, she just knew that she had to run.

She kept to the alleys, the small paths in between the shops and homes of her small provincial town. In her haste to get away, she still managed to notice that those monsters had already occupied almost every major road through the hamlet. If she could stay out of sight, then maybe, just maybe, she could find her way out of this hell. Perhaps she could even come back and see if Adrian was still –

But Adrian was gone.

Her husband had wanted to go and investigate the strange noises that he had heard coming from outside of their small one-story house. He went to open the door just a crack, to see if he could figure out what was happening, then –

A sword.

Blood on the walls.

A body hitting the floor.

She couldn't think about that now though, she had started running then, and she knew that she had to keep running now.

Her brain was an advantage she kept telling herself, if she was going to get out of this mess, then she was going to have to use it. If it was so insistent of bringing up old memories even now, then she would tell the blighted thing which ones to remember.

Hiding from the Revered Mother after her and Adrian couldn't stop giggling during the Chant of Light, where did they run again? Jogging with her daughter as the sun came up, where were the quietest parts of their trail? When they had lost their little Pawkins, where had the troublesome cat end up finding shelter?

She used these memories and more to dodge her way through the town, ignoring the chaos going on around her. Adrian may be dead, but if she could just get out of here, then perhaps she could see the one person in her family who may yet still live.

The walls of buildings blurred around her as she ran through alley after alley, small road after small road, until finally the world opened to her.

The empty fields of Gale's farm lay in front of her, and she cursed herself for forgetting that the harvest had already come and gone. The crops would offer her no shelter, but the forest line in the distance would. If she could just get there, then she could begin to slowly make her way to Starkhaven, and perhaps find some justice for what had been done to her family and friends.

She surveyed the farm and, mercifully, it looked like she was going to have a clear run to the forest. Sybil closed her eyes and took a deep breath, thankful for all of those runs that –

Something pressed against her back.

She spun around instinctively, as ready as she could be to face whatever monster might be before her.

But there was no one there.

Her breathing became rapid as the panic began to set in, she was certain that she felt something, so where did they go?

Then her breathing began to hurt.

Raising her hand to her chest, Sybil's heart sank as she felt something a few inches from her body. A bloody arrowhead, with the shaft sticking between her ribs.

She dropped to her knees as her breath continued to leave her, and looked back towards the empty farm and the forest behind it. So close, and yet so far. Grabbing the shaft of the arrow, Sybil tried to pull it out, but it was no use. There was no strength left in her grip, and her hands fell limply to her sides.

Slipping into unconsciousness, her eyes raised to the skies as the rest of her body fell backwards. Her vision blurring, the last thing that she would see was the distorted face of her killer.

Though she couldn't see much, she knew that it was smiling.