It was a long day.

Ash took her time as she walked on the sidewalk, passing the old swaying trees on her way home. She took a deep breath as the bag on her shoulders weighed down her compact frame. She had gathered as many items as she could in preparation for tonight.

The birds were quiet as the sun was slowly dipping its head. Its orange hues faded, leaving only darkness behind. The dew still lingered within the air, leaving a cold reminder that the rain had fallen.

She turned her head to the spot where her previous neighbour had tried to take his own life three years ago, Domenic. Maybe it was at this point he had descended into madness. Perhaps she should have done more and things might have been different, or maybe she thought she should have just left him to die. She had told him not to play the game, and yet he seemed to be fully into it. He even brought one of those things back, but how? It seemed far more powerful than anything that she had felt before. Was it the same as the person who first gave her the pill, or was it something else entirely? She had managed to hide her presence from it for so long that she was unspottable, but what if they were far more here? What if eventually, they would be able to find her despite her ability to mask her presence? The thought made her shiver.

He had only added more to the chaos she was trying hard to prevent. He had moved on now from the apartment area, where they had first met. She no longer felt his presence here or in that hell of a world. Why? She wondered as she retracted her hands tightly, gripped her bag strap's on her shoulders. In the end, he had gained a better life–but at what cost?

Domenic was disconnected from all of what she had faced and endured. His hands were held the entire time and riches were thrown at his feet. She had seen his face all over TV like some sort of superstar. She bit her lip as she tried not to let the feelings in her mind weigh her down.

She had been passing through worlds for so long now it left her other emotions numbed. The stronger she became, the more her sense of care dropped. It was almost coming to the point of duty or a task than anything else, to help those stuck within that world. To help them at least survive until she could find a way to end this all, that was how she remained human, but how would she? There seemed no end to the monsters she faced and no sense of victory as the day rolled by, just more doubts on what she thought she knew.

An endless horde... the more that she killed, the stronger she became. If it was not for her sister, she would not ever have been there. It was her fault this all happened. That bitch, she couldn't die and leave her alone. No, she took her mom with her too.

She remembered the time she made her first kill; it had happened by accident. It was small, weak, and looked to be almost as afraid as she was. If it had not become stuck between the small hole in the crumbled wall, she had narrowly managed to fit through when it was chasing behind her. She doubts she would have been able to win.

She saw it struggled and fractured before her. Her instincts yelled to her—kill. Her hands fell upon it as it rose and fell over and over again. It wasn't wrong because it wanted to kill her. The blood had sprayed—covering her face and then she felt it—power.

A beeping horn broke her concentration. A car passed her by, splashing water from off the ground. She looked at the backup traffic on the dilapidated road as the first few streetlights flickered on.

Could she really find a way out of all of this mess? That thought pondered in her mind. Until her head was lying on the pillow of her bed.

Her mom always was not at home. A walking zombie, she went to the graveyard for hours and hours. Paying little or no attention to anything around her and it was getting worse and worse.

The house was a mess, the dishes were high, almost sailing in the sink. The shoes were piled by the door. Ash couldn't remember the last time the TV bloated in dust was turned on. It was all irrelevant to her when she faced death every day and tonight would be more of the same.

She turned her body over to where the bag lay on the ground. That was the best she could do, it was not enough. Her sister would have done better, would have done a lot more. She squeezed her fist into a ball as if that itself would defy the reality of which she was in. She would find a way to solve it all. She would survive this and find the secret to ending her own curse. She felt it like a calling as her hand touched her bag. Hell's gate was beaconing her in, and her body twisted as it took another shape to that of the one she came to hate, came to envy and despise, her sister.