Arwen pulled up in front of their house to let Seriph out. Seriph got one foot out of the car, but Arwen began to drive off before Seriph fully got out of the car. She hopped backwards to avoid the rear tire. The door shut itself as her sister accelerated around the corner.

Seriph went into her room and opened her bag of new and improved medication that she was sure wouldn't work for long. Her body built up an immunity to everything. That was why she had moved on from pills to injections. She took out the syringe and the bottle of clear liquid. The directions said to use 5 cc's every 12 hours.

The doctor put her on injections 5 months ago, so she was more than used to doing it herself and used to the slight discomfort. Her left arm was going to be useless for injections soon since so many needles had been inserted into that vein for different reasons. She never told anyone, but a few times she tried heroin to see if it would help. The sad part is that it helped 5 times better than the medication she was on. It was too expensive and volatile though, so she had given it up.

She sat on the couch in a haze. There was a buzzing in her ears and her vision was slightly blurry. She sat there like that until the sun went down. Her sister still wasn't back, but that didn't worry her.

Seriph finally stood up and went into her room to change into different clothes, walking clothes. She wanted to go on a walk. She felt like exerting control over herself and going where she wanted to go, not where she was led. She locked her bedroom door and went out her window. If Arwen did come home before work and found her to be gone, she would throw a fit and call the police, but if Seriph's door was locked, she would assume that she would have a nice quiet night since on occasion Seriph did go catatonic.

It was unusually warm for October. and the heat radiated off the pavement as Seriph headed nowhere in particular, but went willingly. She walked all the way across the city until she stopped in front of the old hotel. It used to be packed every summer. A layover point between the casinos of Las Vegas and beaches of California, it offered all that was needed to refuel and rest to continue a journey.

At least it was until three years ago when 400 people burned to death, suffocated, or were trampled during the panic. All because a wire shorted and started an electrical fire. "Such is life."

She headed back towards home. It was a ten mile walk and it was already one in the morning. Five miles later, as she was walking past an alley, she heard movement and then the telltale feeling of being pursued overwhelmed her.

Her adrenaline spiked and she knew that her metabolism was now going to eat away the rest of the medication that was keeping her grounded. Seriph didn't pick up the pace, because she knew if she did he would overtake her sooner. She needed time to think through this which might be difficult when parts of her brain that were shut down by the drugs fired up again and caused chaos within her brain pan. A moment or two went by and she got an odd feeling. It was a sense of something pursuing her pursuer. It went away as quickly as it had come.

The plan she had developed in her head was to try and lose the man as soon as she turned the corner. He was a good 15 feet behind her, trying to remain undetected and probably thinking he was doing a good job at it. She turned the corner and ran about 4 yards as fast as she could and ducked into the lobby of a hotel. She pressed herself against the wall and watched the man run past a moment later. The desk clerk cleared his throat and frowned at her.

"Sorry, wrong hotel. . ."

She slipped out the door and stood in front of the hotel for a few minutes to give the man some time to get further away from her. She was about to cross the street when she heard a sound she always loathed.

She took a few steps, but her knees buckled and she fell to her hands and knees and cried out in pain. It was short, but if anyone had heard it, they wouldn't mistake it for anything but what it was. She pressed her hand to her stomach for a moment, then pulled it away to see the blood on her fingertips. She had torn open her wound. She may not make it home tonight, or ever.

Seriph slowly stood up and walked forward. She used the wall to support herself as she headed towards what could be her doom. A moment later she was staring down the alley that she knew the man had turned down. There was a foot sticking out from behind a dumpster. Someone had killed the person that was chasing her. It was a strange coincidence, but maybe not only that.

A memory surfaced in her mind of that split second when she had sensed the pursuit of her pursuer. He had been marked for death before he had seen her and decided to rape her. The connection of this and that has always interested her, but she knew that she could not allow herself to become open and receptive to secrets such as those. The power of her mind always intrigued her and brought her extreme pain.

Some things shouldn't be known. That realization had come to her with difficulty, but it was a good lesson to learn.

She slid down the wall for her legs could not take the weight anymore. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a distortedness against the far wall and behind the dumpster. Her head lolled to the side and she pulled her hand away from her stomach to see the damage. The blood now covered her entire hand and had pooled between her fingers.

There was a chill in her spine and her extremities were beginning to tingle because the lack of blood. Soon her brain would stop and all functions would cease. She wasn't going to complain. It had been her intent to die for years now. If someone is truly intent on dying they don't care about the where and the how, they just wish to expedite the when.

She closed her eyes and took a few shallow breaths that caused agony to pulse through her. It was strange that this injury was hurting her worse now than when it had been new. Clarity faded as did feeling. She was seeing visions, not of her life, but of nonsense that didn't make sense.

A feeling of being elevated came upon her. She was being carried somewhere, perhaps it was to a place where she could rest. Some deep dark void she could inhabit in complete unawareness.