Judith opens her brittle crust closed eyes. Old Sol shines warmth, like a wholesome goddess sits bare sweaty perfection upon her face. Bright dewdrop crystals twinkle in the definition of the perfectly mown dark green cushiony lawn. Humidity of calm notions surround her.

She lays on the ground. Can't feel such luscious grass on her back because she's swaddled in a tomb of soft blankets and sleeping bags which soak her in her own perspiration. Only her head's exposed to the calm wispy air. She's still a blurry daze. Wonders where her saving grace went. How long has she been like this?

Witnesses the world ahead of herself. Tips her chin up. Watches upside down toward the perfectly flat concrete and the pink and blue pastel. Streets and dollish houses.

Two people are in the distance. They move toward her. Holding hands. Swinging arms. One skips like a horny teenager. The other plays along. Awkwardly skips. The taller certainly watches the other intently. They seem happy. They seem as one in two. Hears one of them distantly say something. A snorty loud giggle comes out of the other.

Judith stops watching the likeness of living ghosts and relaxes her neck and head. Feels her toes. Wiggles digits. Smiles a little happiness to herself. Still in a bit of pain but doesn't hurt like she did. Warm even while marinating in her juices and flavours. No shivers. Just healing. So happy to be warm. Soaks in moist comfort. Ponders what Michael might think of this. He'd probably want to crawl in for a taste. Oh, how she would welcome him naked against her. Sculpture in her. He would be pleased to bathe himself in her. She would eat him up.

"Oh, my man. I hope you survived that motherfucker. I miss you so much...I miss you like the vampire dawn misses the dusk."

The gravity in Judith's lonely eyes tear. Drip down her fever cheeks. Sadness soothes. Body rejuvenates. Still finds dread discomfort in her older thoughts.

Her man may be dead. He may be a rabid monster. An enemy who must be put down. Thinks of a responsible certain motherfucker. Boils in anger. Collapses more of her numb mind ice barrier. David. David fucking Leonard. What she's going to do to that motherfucker goes without saying. There's no question. None at all.

Thinks she has two people to set herself forward upon. Terra and Michael. Feels exactly where she thinks she needs to be to go about finding them. Time to see what her barefoot girl Jane knows about the shit she's loin deep in.

Watches the two. Witnesses who the other person is with Jane. Long dark brown hair. Tanned complexion. Wears skin tight black patchwork pants and a black bra. Stands over Judith. Blocks out the sun.

"Rist?"

Rist and Terra were close in Judith's world, best of friends for sure. Judith thinks they're much more than that here. And recollecting back to their time in the Factory for a moment, the two of them together make perfect sense. Judith's happy these two have found each other.

"I've heard a lot about you, Judith. Jane's told me we're in your debt. You saved her and therefore, you saved me. Thank you."

"Ok. I don't know what I did to deserve your praise. I know you, Rist, but I don't know you as simulations go. I've only held Jane's countenance in visions and other particular souls memories. I knew the you and Terra of my world. I've saved no one and nothing around here."

Jane smirks. Crouches beside Judith's face. The mire girl rests the palm of her hand on the graveyard girl's forehead. Understands that she's been crying and fevered. Sick as chicken soup.

"It's ok Judith. I can draw a map for you. You can go down the path that I treaded. I kinda know this is what you want. I can show you where the doorway is that leads to another doorway and another that might lead to a past me and that horrible man, that monster in that very moment you entered the little house in the dark forest like a fairy godmother. It will take some time to get the domino effect of simulations right but I've kinda done such things before. However, the closest that I've ever been to that specific event is a doorway in the hallway on the morgue level of a certain hospital. I can never enter that hallway. I've watched myself walk past many times through the phantasm of the room's open door. I think if I can get you there, it might lead you to where you saved me, if you can walk through and follow that version of me. But all this depends on the clockwork of the day here. And right now isn't the time. Oh, Judith, I do hope you kill the bone saw man when you get there. I never got to see what happened after you woke me up."

"I would greatly appreciate such a silver slippered opportunity, my girl. What do you mean that it depends on the clockwork of day?"

"I mean the time of day here in this place. The way station. I know it's never night here but I can tell when the light slightly changes. I can still sense things in the way that I used to, before I was bound to my world.  My eyes still glow green, it seems. My senses are still heightened from before, though the monster in me is gone. I can smell portals and the stench within them. But that's not enough information to know when to go into a portal. Certain contours of day in this place open different time frames within each simulation. I've experimented a little bit."

Judith's somewhat stunned in her cocoon of sweaty blankets. The depth of the simulations is truly that of a giant labyrinth to be lost forever within. Jane continues.

"It can get confusing even just focusing on one simulation. What I consider to be dawn in this world is a million miles into the future in some simulations and in others, this same time of day is the distant past. And of course, every hand movement of the clockwork in here holds a different timeframe out there. But then, some simulations are somewhat exact replicas in the course of time and stay in line with what we view as the present. So those places are a barometer to me along with my world. I think the simulations and their daylight timeframes can be mapped but there're some simulations that I can't enter. The one you want to go through is one that's off limits to me. I've tried. I don't seem to be able to enter places that concern me as I am. I don't know why. You'll have to experiment with the one that you're after if it will even let you into it at all. I can only get you close to its proximity."

"This shit is mind fuckery!"

"I know, Judith. It's a giant puzzling convolution. Maybe it's God itself."

"Motherfucker!"

The graveyard girl thinks of Michael instead of the rabbit hole wonderland she's lost down. Judith knows she'll do everything in her power to save Michael if she ever makes it into the simulation and the house that Jane described. The little house in the dark forest. Wants her man back and she knows better than to spill the beans a second time to anyone. Jane may react badly to Judith's love for Michael. Besides, Jane's axe is bigger than her's and she doesn't have the fireman axe with her anyway.

"But I'm kinda interested in how you can know where the portal actually is? How?"

"When you saved me from dying and gave me a choice, Terra or Rist, I became bound to the world of my true love. My one and only."

Rist smiles. Takes Jane's hand as she stands behind her. The mire girl wraps her other arm around the inside of the skull mask lady's leg. Brings her hand up onto her backside.

"I can feel my world. I can sense it wherever I am and because of this talent, I can sense what is not my world. It's like feeling the distance at different points of reference. Every point holds a slightly different touch upon the shivers of my soul. Scent is also something distinguishable. I stay away from portals that smell like mint."

Judith smirks. Finds Jane amazing. She's Virgil trapped in limbo. A guide come to take Judith by the hand. Lead her down the back stairs into a no man's land. There are lights in her eyes like cars frequently crashing. Her spirit hasn't lost its feeling.

"So I found every portal in my world. Explored the nightmares of those places and destroyed the exits to the entrances. All but two. The one in the forest and the one in the mire were exempt from demolition. We use the forest to come here. The mire portal, which I can't destroy, leads to a giant underwater world with a..."

"Motherfucking megalodonic!"

"So you've been there? You've seen it?"

"I killed it. That's how I get my eyeballs rolling back in my head and witnessing visions of events. I ate that fishy fuck's brain and heart. It's toothy grin was of a green eye revenant. I eat the tasty treats and they're laced with something that gets me spinning and full of someone else's experiences. They heal my body and make me stronger. It's a medicine and a hallucination."

Jane grimaces. Face becomes pale. Sick. Like she's imagining eating fresh offal. Rist shrugs and shakes her head at Jane.

"You do remember that you used to eat people, right Jane? Maybe Judith can't help it. Kind of like how you couldn't help dying everyday or ripping throats out after being attacked, my sexy ass zombie girl! You do what you have to do when you have no choice, whatever it is. I understand that, Judith."

"I figured you would, Rist. I've killed and eaten the hearts and brains of a hundred revenant Terras. They attacked me. In fact, Jane, your axe and skull mask were what I defended my ass with. Were you in that underwater simulation at one time?"

"Yes. I was looking for the slaughterhouse and I found the megalodonic. The "fishy fuck." It attacked me but something drove it away. There was a vibration like a wave. Not a shudder of the water per say but it was like the molecules of everything shook for a moment. I didn't lose my axe or mask. I just swam back down through the bone pit with my breathing apparatus and back up into the mire. That dinosaur scared the living and dead shit out of me."

"Ok. Maybe things've changed since I was there. I doubt if it's the same place at all. Motherfuckin' simulations. You're a talent of a woman, my girl. Can you sense other portals within other worlds?"

"Oh, definitely. There's thousands in this place and I can feel the portals beyond the way station. There're two or three per household here. They lead to other portals and those portals lead to other portals. I also think there are entrances into other peoples minds, not only other worlds. I had the bone saw man in my head at one time, literally, in my subconscious. I scared him off but it's like he disappeared through a disappearing door. One moment I was looking at him and, like a knob being turned, he vanished."

Judith doesn't like thinking that thought. Does this mean there might be a portal in her mind? Was David or Nigel or even the bone saw man in her mind? She doesn't want to think about it.

"How about my world of bad seasons. The one we just came through?"

Jane nods to herself. Wipes a drip of sweat from her forehead. Releases Rist's hand. Removes her homemade, scissor cut tank top. Exposes a lime green sport bra. Wipes her face with her wet shirt and sighs.

"We destroyed it. There's no need to go back to that place. The feeling that I had from being there was of hopelessness and then an ominous silent nothing. Fucking mint. I think that hell scape was your prison. I think I knew this because it only had the one portal and you were so vulnerable in there, in the snow. I remember you from the dark forest house and you were anything but weak. And oh! Um. Why are you naked? In the snow? In minus a billion degrees? What's up with that?"

"Alright, my girl. Thank you for saving my ass. It's hard to really explain. I don't know why I feel whole with nothing on. I just do. I was in that place for what seemed like a century before I got out the first time. I had no interest in the concept of clothing. No one could see me and I couldn't feel anything anyway. What good were clothes?"

Jane looks up at Rist. They both smile at each other. Turn their attention back to Judith. Rist crouches down beside Jane. Old Sol blinds Judith for a moment. The skull mask lady talks in her adult voice which turns into her lecture voice. Jane cringes.

"Me and Jane are going to dress you up. I would like to put clothes on you and see if you like them. You're stunning Judith. You're so curved up and athletically gorgeous. There're so many fashions and styles and accessories that can contour your body and maybe make you feel good about yourself. Also, the next time you find yourself in the snow, make sure you're dressed for it! It's called survival! Sometimes you have to wear clothes to survive!"

Jane watches Rist with a raised eyebrow and a side eye. She places her hand on Rist's shoulder. Pushes her away. Rist smirks and laughs. Jane stands up from crouching.

"I appreciate your wisdom, Rist. My ability to care about myself diminishes from time to time. It just doesn't occur to me to cover myself. I also like being buff. I still feel translucent sometimes. I'll give it a try, though. What do you have in mind?"

Jane points down the long conurbation path of perfectly flat concrete bordering perfectly built pastel houses. Witnesses her pointing direction for a moment. Turns her face toward Judith.

"I already know what your going to be wearing, Judith. I found a wardrobe in a certain house a long time ago. The clothes you wore when you saved me are in that wardrobe. And the home that the wardrobe exists in is the only pastel green house that I've found in this place. It seems convenient but that house holds the portal to the hospital room. The clothes, which don't look like they've ever been worn, are how I knew that one day you'd be right here."

Judith doesn't really want to think about clothes yet. Still has questions for Jane about the prison graveyard dirty lake place.

"Did you spend much time in my brittle grassy, hard snowy world?"

"Yes and no. I've had people watch certain portals, just on a hunch, a kind of gut feeling. The prison portal is one of the few that isn't situated within a house, so I thought maybe, just maybe you were in one of them. All the outdoor portals here smell like mint, so I was apprehensive but it was necessary to enter such places. We explored your world of dust and graves and then snow. People could see us. We weren't translucent in there. But we couldn't stay for very long. Me and Rist were both becoming cloudy and uncaring. It's like we were numbing and becoming vicious. Soul sick."

"That was surly my prison. It's not my world, though. My world was horrible but it was beginning to be nice. Terra and Rist existed in it. The Factory. The Leonards. The poor district. It's the only world I ever existed in. I have no other me walking around as me. I'm the only Judith."

~~~~~~~

The garden hose is a long, green serpentine length. Spews and sprays warm then cool water. Rist has a bottle of liquid soap. Squirts Judith with its lime green contents. Coats Judith in bubbles. Jane whips Judith in the butt once or twice with a rat tail wet tip towel. Judith scowls and laughs.

Rist and Jane wash Judith from elbow to ass in the back yard of the only pastel green house from an outdoor tap which connects to the plumbing of the place. Copper tap protrudes from a flowery mosaic of lengthy green paint stems and the brighter pastel lime and moss and dull emerald yellow. It reminds Judith of the neon flowers in Michael's foyer. The mosaic also reminds her of the blue ring he gave her which was long ago lost. Judith stops laughing. Gets serious about what she's going to do.

"Ok, my lovely friends. My mindset is getting greedy and compulsive. I need those clothes and I need to find a motherfucker."

~~~~~~~

Judith stands in front of a silvery armour frame mirror in the pastel green house. An enormous wardrobe stands on the far wall behind her which stores more than just clothes within its open belly. There's also a portal which connects to another vast winter land hidden in the dark wooden depth of it.

The room is decorated in a pinstripe white and lime wallpaper above a glossy copper tint wainscoting. Floor is a shag carpet with a berber border that somehow seems to look correct even though Judith isn't sure she likes the design of such a room. Colour of both rugs are exactly the same shade of forest green. The room is almost too much at once to really look at, kind of like what she's witnessing in the mirror.

Judith's wearing a green empire waist dress with coppery accents along the short sleeves and along the waist. Her stockings are copper. Wears green francy high tops with black laces on one shoe and grey laces on the other. In the bright electric white light of the room, Judith can pinpoint every freckle on her face. She doesn't view them as blemishes or anything out of place compared to anything else that's a part of her body. Makes smiling countenances at her reverse reflection. Does a little dainty twirl. Warms up to what she's put on her skin. Sticks her tongue out at herself.

Jane walks into the room. Judith notices the stare on the mire girl's face. Nostalgia? Surprise? A moment to be lost in thought? Jane drips a long tear down her cheek. Judith turns toward the mire girl. Hugs her for a length.

"Thank you, my girl. Thank you so much for saving my ass and helping me get to where I need to go. I love you Jane. You're my little sister and I'll always love you."

Jane hugs the graveyard girl back. Rests her head upon Judith's shoulder. Hold each other for a long moment in the bright white and green of the room.

Jane leads Judith out of the room by the hand. Takes her down a perfect rise and run of stairs into the kitchen of the house. Opens a pantry door. Inside scent molecules are an invisible blizzard of spices. Very dark except for a dim light coming from a distant open door which seems like a block away. Judith and Jane both enter into the pantry simulation. Walk toward the dim sanitary light. Come upon a slightly open door. Just a crack. Judith peers into the next simulation. A sign on the opposite wall reads morgue level. The hospital. Judith feels Jane's breath on her neck. Both witness a grey dress blur pass their dimly lit door. Their haunting eyes.

"Wait until she's through the exit and follow her, Judith. I don't think she's...I don't think I'm supposed to see you until the time of the house in the dark forest. I think you need to follow her though. You're going to probably watch me commit suicide and fail. I don't know if you know who Garett is, but you'll see him too, for a little while. There's also a version of Terra with black hair and a red dress with white polka dots. There'll be no one else. Well...a lot of green eyes. Otherwise the city's empty in this simulation. I have no idea how you're going to follow me into the mire from there."

"I'll figure it out, my girl. Thank you beyond thank you and I do hope we cross wayward paths again."

"Me too, Judith. Good luck, sis."

Judith walks through the portal into the hallway of the morgue level. Notices her shoes constrict upon her feet. Not used to wearing things. Witnesses back at Jane. The graveyard girl can only make out Jane's green eyes peering from the door. Turns toward the exit. A stairwell. Bits of a blue exit sign lay in pieces of thin glass and plastic. Discovers a dark reflection upon the dimly lit vinyl composite tile. Moves her hand and the darkness mimics her. When did this happen? When did her shadow return?

"Motherfucker."

Snaps her fingers. Elbows the push bar on the stairwell door. Follows down in Jane's footsteps like entering another underworld. Doesn't like the noise her francy's make. Wonders if Hecate or some kind of guard dog waits to eat up such noise.