Time was passing swiftly. The damp and rainy spring was swiftly giving way to the hot and

humid days of summer. Heat shimmered like a vapor over the black road top and scorched the

trees and plants till everything seemed to wilt, droop on their limp stalks and turned a delicate

shade of yellow. Birds chirped tiredly from their nests and even the squirrels seemed to have

given up their tireless romping to simply chill in the cooling branches of the trees. Mike

wandered around the city in a daze feeling the heat forming a kind of film over her eyes and

coating her skin till she felt like she was slowly being wrapped in plastic. She hovered in

shaded doorways clutching a discarded cup that she had found in the gutter.

"Gotta quarter mister?" the words felt sluggish and heavy as they tumbled repeatedly out of

her mouth. People passing by stared at her wasted limbs and ratty hair with disgust.

"No sorry kid, why don't you go home or get a job."

"I aint got no home, think I killed it." But the man had already moved quickly away down the

street. She wanted to die so badly but her body and will just seemed to push her

onwards and she reluctantly moved with them. "Got a quarter ma'am?"

She was dying… Or at least that's how it felt. She remembered curling up in the doorway to

the abandoned bookstore and she remembered closing her eyes. But then it seemed

like her body had finally given up and the lungs and heart agreed to stop moving. Then she

was floating in a wonderful nothingness of space and time. She opened her eyes and saw

a man coming towards her carrying a flaming sword. She reached around to grab her own

knife that was dedicated into her back but found that she had left it behind.

"Interloper."

"Am I dead?"

"Interloper"

"Is Sam here? Please let me talk to her." The man was bearing down on her the great sword

raised high above his head.

"Be gone interloper; come not to this resting place again with your soiled soul." Mike cried out

as the sword slashed down at her in a blinding stroke of light and she threw her arms

in front of her eyes.

"Mike," she looked up. She was sitting on the hill in the park at night. In front of her was Sam.

But it couldn't be Sam because this girl was transparent and had an angry look on

her face that Sam never had.

"Leave me alone Mike,"

"But Sam, I want to redeem myself."

"And so you kill yourself? You call that redemption?" tears leaked out of her sunken eyes as

Mike wrapped her arms around her knees,

"You told me you would protect me. But I'm dead Mike, I'm dead and you're killing yourself."

"I don't know what to do Sam. I don't understand what happened the night that…. I just, I

just want to make it right." Sam's ghostly expression softened and she reached out to

stroke Mike's cheek.

"Are you happy now Mike? Look me in the eyes and tell me, Do you feel cleansed? Do you feel

redeemed?" Mike shook her head

"No."

"Then do something about it. Pay off your guilt with blood, avenge me." Mikes tears ceased

and she looked into her sister's face. Sam was slowly fading away into the darkness and Mikes

opened her eyes to see rough broken grey concrete that had been stained darker by her tears.

Footsteps sounded behind her as a heavy, sickening smell began to plague her senses. She

turned just as a dark shadow fell over her.

"Hey there little riding hood, aren't you afraid a big bad wolf might get you?" The stranger's eyes burned an eerie

green in the street light. Mike felt her own eyes widen as her moon sign gift kicked in and the smell suddenly had

meaning to it. Wyrm, this man reeked with the scent of Wyrm. Her hand shifted into a claw as she staggered to

her feet and losing her balance crashed in to him, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. He laughed in a

strange high pitched voice that suddenly cut off into an unpleasant gurgle as he realized that he had no throat

anymore. He dropped to the ground in a heap feebly clutching at the gaping wound, staring up at her with shock

and anger. Slinging his body across her shoulder Mike ripped up a man hole cover from the street and dropped

the body down the hole where it fell with a faint splash. Looking down at her gore covered hand Mike realized

that for a brief moment she felt clean. Throwing back her head she howled long and hard, something she had

never done before, a howl that was more like a scream. She howled her pain and triumph to the warm night sky

before turning away and staggering off towards the pond to wash up.