Otherwise, do enjoy the story and send C&C (love ya!) to my email addy and flames (grrr!!! ) to the farthest pits of Hell. ^_^ Thank you for your time and patience and do enjoy the story!

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

She lifted her head wearily, sensitive ears ringing from the nearly insane relentless dripping from some leaking water pipe only Gods knew where.

She shivered. Not because she was cold, but because of the overwhelming dread she was growing accustomed to, the slimy and sticky feelings of her sweat matting the torn scraps of cloth she wore. You'd think that after 5 years of this Hell she'd have gotten used to everything.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

She sighed and laid her head back down on the thin cot. So thin in fact that she could feel the hard cement beneath it, the cold seeping through the worn material and touching her with its icy finger.

She closed her eyes and tried to bring recall memories. Warm and sunny memories that were filled with happiness. The memories were so old now though, so far and faded, as worn around the edges as she and the mattress she now lay upon.

And sometimes, she even questioned the actual truth behind those memories. She had been here so long that she could no longer tell what was just a concoction, a well-imagined deception her mind played on her, torturing her with its bitter-sweetness or an actual memory from her life long ago.

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

She shivered again and wrapped her thin arms about herself. It had seemed centuries had passed between the life she lived now and the life she had once lived. Or maybe that was just something her mind had come up with. Maybe.

She smiled bitterly, the darkness and constant dripping of water the only witnesses to see the tears that leaked past her tightly clenched eyelids.

Drip. Drip.

And the water continued to dribble soundly in the dark room, where only the sounds of soft whimpers and choked sobs coupled with it.