The lights had been turned out, the floors were swept, and everything was put away, clean and ready for the next day. Just one thing left to do, Anne thought happily to herself. It had been a good day, despite the daydreaming incident. She'd seen lots of human suffering...human suffering just begging to be written about. If this one gets published, I may think of doing another, she thought as she went to gather her belongings from behind the counter. I've got tons of material.... She reached to get her manuscript...and her hand found nothing but empty shelf space. She patted around for it, forcing herself to stay calm. Maybe it had just gotten shoved back further than she thought. No. Maybe it was in her bag. No. Maybe it was in the storeroom. No, no, no! Anne turned the place upside down, tearing through the cheap plastic and fluorescent looking for her life on paper. It was nowhere to be found. Looking at the destruction surrounding her, Anne sank to the ground and started sobbing. A voice tore through her despair, worsening it with its passage.

"No!" she yelled. "I told you to go away! You went away!" Her yelling was lost in her sobs as her mother's voice permeated her skull, invading her mind and chasing her thoughts away until there was nothing but the voice, the scolding voice, telling her she was nothing. She was nothing. She couldn't even hold onto her own manuscript, for godssakes.

"This is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; don't speak to wharf-rat boys; don't talk like a slut; don't look like a slut; don't be the slut you are; slut, slut, slut; you're a failure because you don't listen to your mama; you slut!"

Her mother's voice rose to a crescendo inside her head. Anne curled up into the fetal position, clamping her hands over her ears and writhing to and fro, trying to block out the words that didn't stop. Her head hit a nearby shelf once, twice, three times, and she hit it again and again until blackness took her.