Jourdyn awoke, surrounded by wrecked city. Enormous craters decimated the streets, buildings and power lines alike had fallen. Smoke rose from the aftermath in great black billowing clouds. One word went through Jourdyn's mind as she surveyed the destruction. "Armageddon". She slowly got to her feet, her clothing ripped in patches. What could have done this? Jourdyn decided it would be best to find someone in this hellish world and began to search.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" Jourdyn called out as she walked along the cracked pavement. In the distance, in front of a burning building, she spotted a group of people huddled together. Jourdyn gasped in hopefulness and ran towards them. "Oh, thank god I found you! I just woke up and I-" Jourdyn touched one of the people on the shoulder and turned them around. "... Mom?!" Jourdyn shouted in surprise. A younger blonde girl stood next to her. "Hayley?!" Jourdyn cried at her eleven year old sister. "What are you doing here?!"
"We're searching for refuge, sweetie." Jourdyn's "mother" replied in monotone.
"Refuge? But... But I-I was... You ABANDONED ME in the middle of the road, how could you?!" Jourdyn screamed. "Refuge?! Am I not good enough to be saved?!" Jourdyn cried in frustration.
"No. I would have saved you... But I can't touch you now." Jourdyn's mother replied in the same monotonous voice.
"What do you mean?! Why?!" Jourdyn asked.
"I'm not allowed to interfere with her decisions." The unemotional voice of one of her loved ones was enough to drive Jourdyn mad.
"Hiya!" Jourdyn jumped nearly a foot in the air as a sweet girl's voice sounded behind her, two pale, slender arms wrapping around her waist. "Hey there! You looked a little confused so I decided to come and introduce myself!" The girl released Jourdyn's waist and faced her. Jourdyn's jaw dropped in shock, her mouth moving as she tried to find words but none came.
"Y-you... Y-you're..." Jourdyn struggled to communicate.
"Do you not remember me? Of all people?! Ooh, do you have amnesia?!" the girl asked with genuine curiosity.
"I-I..." Jourdyn stammered.
"Okay! I'll help! This is your mom!" The girl pointed to Jourdyn's mother. "This is your sister!" The girl pointed to Hayley. Jourdyn took this time to note that the girl seemed to be the only one... Alive. The rest were standing around, not talking, with glazed over, dead eyed stares. "And me?" The girl pointed to herself, then approached the rigid Jourdyn. "Well, I'm your best friend." The girl stated this in a serious tone as she wrapped an arm around Jourdyn's shoulders. "So don't ever forget that."
"Wh-what's your name?" Jourdyn asked.
"Oh!" The girl playfully slapped her head. "I forgot to tell you who I am! Well... I'm Anna."
"Y-you... It-It's you... G-get away from me!" Jourdyn screamed in horror and revulsion.
"I can't go away now! Besides..." Anna faced Jourdyn and placed her hands on Jourdyn's shoulders. Her face began to morph into a monstrous form. Her cheeks jaggedly split, as though someone had cut them then tore the skin to give her a disgusting permanent smile. Her teeth sharpened to points, new ones growing to accommodate her now nightmarish mouth. Blood dribbled from her cheeks down those horrible pearl colored things. She fearlessly reached up her hand and ever so delicately plucked out an eye, an otherworldly blue glow filling the empty socket. She repeated the process, this time opting to leave her plucked eyeball hanging halfway down her cheek, connected only by a few bloody tendrils of muscle. A slobbering, black, forked tongue slithered out from her mouth and drooled as this abomination gazed at the screaming Jourdyn, her claws digging into her back. "You'll always be mine, little Jourdyn."
"No, no... Please, please, please, please, please... Don't do this to me... Please... Please..." Jourdyn begged, weeping, so taken aback by this monstrosity that she could only pitifully plea for mercy over, and over, and over. She was finally silenced to a whimper when the monster shoved her tongue down Jourdyn's throat for a moment in a farce of a kiss.
"Shhh... You should sleep now." The creature told Jourdyn as she sat on the pavement, forcibly taking Jourdyn down with her and cradling her head. "It'll be okay, just to to sleep." Anna's tongue snaked out of her mouth and lapped at Jourdyn's face, leaving a trail of glistening saliva. Jourdyn sobbed helplessly as demented and psychotic laughter issued forth from this... Thing, surrounding her and resonating in her ears. She felt as if she would go insane herself if she continued to listen. The monster began to sing. "Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, oh you pretty little baby..." Jourdyn didn't want to listen, she just wanted to be free of all the madness. But the song was so soothing... Her eyes began to close as she felt the thing's claws in her back and teeth on her neck...
Jourdyn's eyes snapped open as she resisted the urge to scream. She quickly sat up and wiped drool off the corner of her mouth. She leaned against the side of the cage and tried to steady her breathing.
"There's no psychotic monster girl." Jourdyn whispered to herself. "There's just... A giant girl who has unknown intentions for me..." With that statement, Jourdyn buried her head in her knees and began to cry.