It was ripping her insides apart, her lower back feeling like someone was driving a nail straight thru the bone. Though she curled up in a ball, moaning incessantly, she refused to cry out, to show weakness.
It was worse this time, this curse of her womanhood. The very scent of food made her nauseous, though she forced herself to eat to stave off the weakness. No matter of medicines helped, so all she could do was bear thru a few more days until the end of her cycle.
Yet there was something different this time- she felt a changing within her, like something was being coaxed from within her, clawing its way free despite her resistance. She felt like a predator seething, trapped, but too weak and in too much pain to pursue her prey.
This filled her with both dread and excitement, this haunting presence that called her away from everything she knew.....
