Damsel in Distress

One moment she’s scrambling down uneven streets in her third-best pair of shoes, coming to the realization that she should have taken a right turn instead of a left (never coming to this part of the city again, no matter how high the offer) - the next, she’s face down on frozen ground, pain shooting up her left ankle. But this ground isn’t made of grey cobblestones, it’s hard-packed earth and dead grass, the smell of fresh air instead of the lower ends of humanity. How…? and Where…? and... Lily looks up from her prostrate position to find only the dark shadows of dilapidated buildings and an almost equally dark beyond. The light is fading fast, its last weak rays dropping behind the horizon with every panicked beat of her racing heart. She pushes herself up and flips over, to find that she’s tripped over large mounds. It doesn’t matter what they are, only that a tentative wiggle of her toes produces no pain, but the following gentle circle makes her bite her lip in a hiss. And then she realizes it’s cold. Her waist-length cloak offers little protection against the weather, her dress is sleeveless and though bright and shiny, is meant to keep her comfortable in a bar filled with too many warm bodies. If it’s possible, her pale face goes even whiter when she realizes she can’t see any man-made light in the immediate surroundings. There it is again - that rolling wave of paralyzing fear. It passes, but leaves her trembling (though that could be the cold) and unsteady as she pushes herself up to one leg and pulls her half-cloak around her, tucking her fingers in tightly to her armpits. She’s in real fucking trouble this time. It’s like her brain won’t even begin to process the fact that she’s clearly not in Portsmouth anymore, won’t acknowledge how she possibly could have gotten here. Knowing full well the folly of crying out to the great dark beyond, the bejweled, disheveled woman begins to hobble towards one of the larger, darker shapes, only letting herself raise her voice when she could lean against the chilling stone. “Is anyone out there?” she demands of the mystery world, her voice hitching with barely concealed desperation at the end. lily as if you were on fire from within the moon lives in the lining of your skin