LIKE A WALK IN THE PARK, LIKE A HOLE IN YOUR HEAD

Her paws dragged against the ground as she walked, creating harsh tracks in the snow. It was nighttime, the moon high in the sky, casting a pale glow against the starkness of the white snow. She was on autopilot, hardly realizing that she had arrived in Glorall until the sound of the ocean reached her ears. Ehiyeh raised her head slightly, the relief of being home only fleeting. The fur around her eyes was matted with dried tears, and the whites of her eyes were bloodshot. She could not yet comprehend what had happened, her tail had remained firmly planted between her legs, not in a display of submission but rather to conceal what had occurred.

Her body trembled with a combination of cold and shock, and she slowed considerably before finally slowing to a stop. Head drooped low, her legs shook with considerable force. Ehiyeh's breath was growing heavier, growing the foggy cloud in front of her face. Tears began to spill from her eyes once more, dripping down her face and into the snow below. She was confused with her weakness, confused with the all the emotions that swirled through her, twisting her stomach into knots. It felt as though her heart was being held by fierce claws, and every time that it beat, the claws constricted it.

She tried to take another step forward, but her legs and body were too exhausted to continue. She stumbled forwards before collapsing in the snow, hardly a huff escaping her mouth as a reaction to falling. Ehiyeh, cradled by the snow and finally beginning to realize the reality of what had happened, gave into her body's demands. A choked, hoarse sob bubbled from her throat and her paws scrabbled against the snow, as the wall she had precariously constructed on her way home broke down in an instant. The woman could not help herself from continuing to sob, each one wracking her body and lungs, leaving her gasping for breath.

They became almost convulsions, after a time. Her body, already pushed to its limits, began to seize, leaving her muscles aching and trembling even more than they had been. She began to grow numb, distancing herself, and the sobs began to subside. It left her shaking pathetically in the snow, but in that moment, she did not care who might stumble across her. Her violet eyes fluttered closed. Perhaps if she could rest, just for a moment... perhaps if she could dream about somewhere far away from here, something would give her the strength to rise again. But she could not sleep. Her mind would not let her retreat.

Perhaps it was retribution for what she had done, or had allowed to be done to her. What would Eden say when it was only her blood that stained her? Unbidden, tears began to leak from her eyes once more, but even her body's reaction was subdued now. Instead of sobbing, she could hardly even manage a wheeze, and her paws gave one last desperate effort to raise her up, before she fell still, with only the rise and fall of her chest to signify that she was even still alive.

ehiyeh