The city is a giant hazard of decomposition. Structural collapse post structural. Tilting away from a man made teleology. Ancient concrete has the likeness of corpse flesh. Flakes to dust. Holds its rotting form together as tethers slowly unravel like unkept promises. Every piece of glass is a shard. Every beam of bent metal is rust. Conurbations are husks. Not even shadows of shadows pass under the ominous whim of time's inclement. No past grand narrative survives. For anyone who once called this place home, nothing's left to lament.

But Judith laments.

Smell is of cloying sulphur. Odd, sickly, sanitary mint. Like the Terra torture room scent, sewn by the stitches of extinction into the topography. Mixes with the vast, leaking Hieronymus bowels of the earth. Full of death. No sign of another's existence. Judith feels like she's back in her dust bowl world. Invisible. Forever alone.

Yet, this city by the mire is not the ruin from her visions of Jane. Maybe this future is the late present. Time like under the pressure of deep water. Crushes everything.

Judith ponders recent events. Why so many of the Terra? Maybe each Terra revenant came from their own individual simulation. Stolen from their own worlds. Worlds destroyed by wars between ruling authoritarian classes against desperate homo sacer classes. And this world is the inevitable outcome. Maybe this is the outcome without Terra existing to lead the downtrodden. To lead the many ghosts of each world and help save them.

More thoughts form. It's like this place was a disposable whim to a different reality. A first reality. Maybe a reality within a particular reality. Maybe one Leonard regime is responsible for all. Then again, maybe every world is a simulation without a genesis. No teleology. Maybe it all just is.

These thoughts come from the memory of what Michael said about his portal to another world. A world manufactured by his wits and imagination. Technology. Knowledge. Certain blind fold luck. Infinite heads or tails. A universe where a single painting might be slightly different or an entire civilization might've never existed.

Judith wonders about what the chances are of all this. Like being chewed by a megalodonic in one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of man made existences.

"Motherfucker. Fucking fish..."

Judith's chin moves up. Eyes catch grisly sky. Shakes her head. Imagines that motherfucking tyrannosaurus fish floating above her. Heading her way. Its countenance and mouth and organs aren't something she'll soon be misplacing into the dark fissures of her mind.

The underworld and it's murky horror held an initial wonder for Judith. Ultimately didn't last long. Now, it's a memory of that fish and a recollection of almost being eaten alive by a hundred revenants. A hundred hearts and a hundred brains from a hundred stolen Terras. So it seems to the graveyard girl.

Judith trips and stumbles away from her thoughts.

The streets of the city are a walking hazard. Heaves of concrete high enough to climb up. Jump down. Almost like a labyrinth as she attempts to manoeuvre through such crumbling tectonic. Trees and light posts are a topple. Litter in bits and pieces of where they once stood. Tangles of dead power lines lay as if snares for giant rabbits. Bricks like jagged crenellations expose osteal furnitures. Bits of yellow ivory piano keys. Reflection-less shards of mirrors. Like the city is sinking into the earth and being covered by it. This place and the whole of its presence is a collapse. A disintegrating cemetery stretching for the flight of crows.

As Judith masters her bare footing along the peaks and valleys of heave streets and topple structures, she places thoughts into her freshest memories of her time with Michael.

After that magical night of sex and violence, the two found themselves entering his lavish Leonard home. A blue two story with a basement where he invented his program and machine for the simulation. The portal was also situated down there. Set against a slowly spalling concrete wall. He described the portal as a mirror within a mirror.

When they entered his home, Michael took his rings off. Dropped them in a navy blue marble bowl upon a leafy carved foyer end table. A single blue stemmed rose in a yellow vase stood beside the bowl. The stem had the illusion of neon green inside the vase. Judith imagined herself as a bright sunny yellow and Michael as a deep dark blue. The two together were the lambent emeralds in their eyes. She wasn't done feeling his meanings upon her. Feeling his dark star sunshine.

Smelt the minty perfume of the blue petals. Turned to Michael. "Shower for two, my man. Now!"

Michael took her hand. Kissed it while beaming into her eyes. Lead the way out of the foyer and living room. Through a hall of dark blue. Underwater simulacra. Up a corridor of two flights. Another hall. Turned right.

Judith's eyes widened. They stepped into the blue mosaic of tile shards upon floor and walls. Turned on a yellow light. The room sparkled with deep forest greens. Smell of honey tobacco and Egyptian mint.

The shower was enormous. Smooth pebbly stone floor. Livid rock tile on the ceiling. Stainless steel shower heads built into the leaden simulacra cavern. Sliding obscure glass doors opened soundlessly.

When the black haired boy turned the water handle with his raven hand, the shower became like a warming, verging on hot rain fall inside the rain room. Was like another world existed in the house. A completely different hemisphere. The shower was like a portal.

Judith began removing her tank top until Michael grabbed her hands above her head and leaned her back side against the mosaic wall. He kept the tank top draped over her face so her sight wasn't in play. He kissed and licked every inch of her belly and ribs and breasts. Underarms and neck. Wouldn't miss a spot. Unzipped her jeans. Found her loins with his raven hand. Judith moaned. Shuddered. Goose-bumpy. Slick. Michael let go of Judith's hands. Slid his face down and made eye contact with her loins. Pulled her pants off entirely and feasted upon her crotch. Licked. Nibbled. Tasted her deep flavour. Moved her legs up onto his shoulders. Sit on his face with her back against the wall. Gripped his hair. Shoved his face harder into her. Fingers fondled her anus. Moaned. Tightened thighs. Wetted his face. Smiled up at her. Dripped with her flavour.

Set her down. Nudged him toward the shower. Opened the glass door. Judith pushed him under the shower head with his clothes still on. He grinned and laughed.

Her turn to taste his nether region. Judith unzipped him. Let her mouth be an orifice for his sculpture. Slid in and out. Lips. Teeth. Gripped his scrotum. Clung a hand to his ass. Gouged. Fingered his hard backside. Let him move his sculpture quickly back and forth into her throat. Hands in her hair. No gag reflex. Guttural moans. He became abrupt. She made him explode semen into her mouth. Held his flesh head on her tongue. Salty sweet. Swallowed. Witnessed his face of ecstasy. Eyes were still in the back of his head.

She stood. Long kisses. Long hugs. Soaked. He finally stripped.

They lathered each other with his favourite mint vanilla body wash. Shampoo. Conditioner. Washed each other. Held each other. Slow danced to the sound of the manufactured hot rain.

Michael turned the nob. The rain stopped. Left the shower. Dried each other off. Brushed their teeth with his toothbrush. Michael led her into his bedroom to rummage clothing. Gave her a long, blue shirt. He put on a pair of white briefs.

"So, my lovely Judith. Would you like to see the lab of a mad scientist?"

She smirked into his eyes.

"With all my nethers and curious natural inclinations, my man."

"Alright. Shall we?"

Judith nodded. Lead her by the hand out of the master bedroom door and down two flights of creaky, light blue carpeted stairs into the enormous bright black, dimly lit open concept basement. When Michael turned on the big lights, another world opened up, much different than the rest of the house.

Clutter of computers and consoles. Lab behind a glass cube with a large blue Amon eye on the wall. Glass flasks of different shapes and sizes. Beakers. Inverted and retinal microscopes. A blood gas analyzer. Black crucible. Rows of white freezers and fridges. Stainless steel operation table.

The walls had tools and shelves which hung like jaws and thin facial features. A smithing station for forging tools or parts. An entire wall dedicated to 3D printers.

A mirror stood by itself along the only uncluttered area of the basement. Up against the opposite wall of the stairs. It was around six foot by four foot. Ornately framed. Carvings were of blue eyes that all seemed to be staring gravity at Judith.

"There it is, my tasty treat. The portal to another world. A world that I was able to simulate based on this one. Would you like to visit the other side sometime?"

"That would be great fun, my man."

"It's an amazing place that has a habit of looking, sounding and acting like this place but with some slight variations. Such as, I don't exist in there. I've no doppelgänger. We should see if you do. I have an inkling, due to our connection, that we won't be seeing you there, either."

"I'm not required to be back at the Factory for another two days. We could go after we wake up from the sleep I'm thinking of, if that suits your will?"

"It certainly does, my tasty treat."

Judith smiled at that. Thought of herself as Michael's meal for a moment. Coming from him, she didn't mind.

"Come on, Judith. Let's go to bed."

As they made their way out of the basement, Michael ran ahead of her. Went into the foyer. Took one of his blue rings from the bowl. Came back to Judith. Held her right hand and placed it on her ring finger.

"For you, Judith Coal. I wish to endow you with trinkets."

Judith smirked. Witnessed her hand and the sparkly blue stone within the ring.

"Doll me up with trinkets all you like, my man. Just make sure to endow me with your tongue and sculpture more regularly."

Michael couldn't help but blush for a quick moment. Hugged her deeply and took her to bed.