Volume I - Episode 7 Where: Melbourne, Australia When: E-Day, 7:22 am Dark shapes crept through Jessica's mind. Monsters were all around her; prodding; poking; laughing; calling her names. She knew it was just a dream, but....no, she prayed it was just a dream. One of the monsters grabbed her hand. She tried to flinch away, but she couldn't move. Her muscles were frozen. "Stop it!" she ordered. The monster ignored her command and relentlessly continued its attack on her fist, pushing harder and harder until it had managed to squeeze itself into the tiny cramped space between her fingers. Her eyelids parted. The world was blurry. She couldn't remember it being so blurry the night before. It had no business being this blurry. Or this bright. She studied her hand. The monster was gone, completely hidden inside the depths of her clenched fist. "Well that sucks," she mumbled. She tried to climb to her feet, but nothing happened. She just lay there on the cold, filthy asphalt of a little lane in the middle of Melbourne, unable to move. The walls on either side of the laneway pulsed and rippled. I have to get up, she thought. I have to....I don't know. There's something I have to do. Isn't there? I can't remember. Something I have to do, something I have to do.....oh! I have to get up and go home! She thought of the previous night: of how much fun she'd had partying with her friends at Shotgun. But...no, she couldn't actually remember any of it. Hours of her life, gone from her memory forever. Memories deleted. Brain cells fried like tiny little eggs. Had she even been with her friends at all last night? She had a strange suspicion they'd all gone home pretty early. Or maybe even the day before? Or...maybe they'd never even come to Shotgun at all? And what was she doing out here in this laneway, anyway? "Oh well done, Jess," she growled at herself. "Way to write yourself off." She sighed and took stock of her situation. She was lying in the middle of the road. Sharp little pieces of gravel dug into her arms and legs. Her dress was soaked with sweat. Her eyes hurt. Her glands hurt. Her throat felt like she had swallowed a football. The inside of her mouth was cut and bleeding. Her handbag seemed to be missing. And there was a monster hiding inside her outstretched left hand. The monster started to wriggle, biting and chewing on the soft, sensitive flesh of her palm. As she watched, her hand seemed to swell up in size, growing larger and larger, ballooning out to the size of one of those novelty mitts you see Americans waving about at baseball games. "Ohhh," she giggled. "Creep hands!" Suddenly she was overwhelmed with giggles. Waves of laughter rolled through her body. She laughed long and hard, until there were tears streaming down her cheeks. And then there was a loud splash, and a spray of thin, white vomit flew between her lips. It hit the ground and ricocheted, splashing all over her face and dress. She quickly pulled herself up onto her hands and knees. And promptly vomited again. "Oh, gosh," she said, shivering violently. That's it, she thought. No more pills. Never, ever again. That was definitely the last time. I'm done. Fullstop. But of course, that was a promise she'd made to herself almost every week for a year now... First published: Thursday, 6 May 2010 Credits: FR-Venus by Freja Grace Lion Hair by Quarker Retro Babe by mytilus Character rendered in Poser 7 Pro Background photography by me Composited and postwork in Photoshop CS5 Extended