The woman began to stir, rolling over slowly, her eyelids fluttering open. She was petite,
with mousy brown hair that fell to the middle of her back, and deep brown eyes. She let out a long sigh when
she realized she wasn't alone in her cell, and slowly sat up, swinging her feet over the edge of the cot.
"No.." she softly whispered, burying her face in her hands.
"So it's all true, huh?" Rick asked.
The woman nodded, pulling her hands away and lifting her head up to look at him. "Yeah..it's
true." Her feet were bare, and the only thing she wore was a green jumpsuit, quite similar to what a jail
inmate would wear.
"And they're expecting you to kill me," Rick said.
"With good reason," she replied. "It's inevitable. They keep me barely fed-orders from higher
up, I suppose. Keeping me ravenous makes sure that my instincts take over when I change. You're hardly the
first one they've brought to me."
Rick racked his brain, trying to find a ray of hope in the desperate situation. "Wait..it's
not a full moon tonight! It's only half full..you're not going to change!"
The woman sighed again. "I change every night. They bring one of those moon rocks down here
and set it outside the cell door. Sometimes they do it as a deterrent to the guards...reminding them what will
happen if they blow the whistle on the project. Sometimes they do it so I kill for them. Sometimes they do it
in the interest of research.." she put air quotes around the word 'research', "and other times it's just for
their perverse pleasure. At any rate, you're going to be trapped in here with a monster before too long."
"Fuck," Rick replied, realizing how desperate the situation was. "You don't seem too
monstrous to me," he said, hoping to make some sort of connection with her. There had to be some way that he
could avoid being killed by this nameless woman.
"That's sweet," she said with a mildly sarcastic tone. "But I assure you that I am. I might
look all innocent now, all harmless and sad...and I suppose to a degree I am. But they've had me here for
close to a year. Every night, they've forced me to change. Every night, without fail. At first, I fought
against the change. I was terrified of it; I hated being THIS. It hurt, and feeling my humanity fade drove me
mad, it seemed."
"At first?" Rick asked. "So...uhh...what about now?"
"There was a guard," she said, getting a far away look on her face as she remembered, "I
don't know what he did, but whatever it was pissed SOMEBODY off. He got thrown in here with me. He did the
same thing you're doing. He wanted to talk...but it was all a ploy. Somehow he'd gotten a knife in here. I let
my guard down for a second, and he was on me. Thankfully they'd put the moon rock outside the door, and the
change started. For the first time, I embraced it. I pushed the shift forward, wanting to save my own life. It
felt good...hell, it really felt GREAT. I tore him to shreds and ate every last bit of him, and it tasted
awesome! Since then, I don't fight against the shift so much, no matter how unnatural it used to feel. It's
what I am. Even now, a part of me is wishing that rock was outside my cage right now. Part of me is wondering
how you'll taste, what your screams will sound like.." she trailed off, then shook her head quickly for a
moment. "Sorry..I can't help you. I know you were hoping for an escape, but...there's no escape from me."
"I have a family," Rick said quietly. "You can't blame me for trying."
The woman stared at him for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face.