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But I kept trudging forward, despite the pain inup When I was a little closer to the fixture at the other end of the oval, I still wasn’t sure what, exactly, it was

A es dancing over its surface, but they weren’t standing still, and they didn’t seelyphs are set in, I thought, pausingand flexingthe better of ht, irritably, as I worked un to ache as if the pain had been transferred And as soon as I put ain flared up through both ht on ain, the pain receded, and then flared, as each foot lost and then regained contact with the floor

Shit, I thought It’s the floor A h my mind of the Little Mermaid: the "real" Brothers Grimm version of the story and not the Disney version In that tale, after her deal with the Sea Witch gave thedriven into her feet So that when she danced with her prince, later in the story, and everyone lauds her grace and skill, they should really have been praising her sheerAfter checking the soles of my shoes to make sure they weren’t ripped open, I tried a few more steps But still the pain increased I swore, but persevered a littleout loud this time

"Shit!" I shouted, asup through the heel of or, as I looked up toward the mirror in front of h that I could finally see what the ht, wondering what the succubus was doing at the end of the hall Why on earth is Iris… But just as I finished that thought, Iris shifted to become Anyan, the man I alie shape, until I re reality I shuffled painfully forward, anyway, towards Anyan But then theat --finally--so healthy and hale

It’s everything I have to live for, I realized, as I took another painful step forward This is a test To see what I’ll do for the people I love

More i step: Caleb and that unit I’d coear, including sonant belly

I finally knohat those crazy people alk on spikes feel, I thought, trying to ony And I’m only halfway there

A few more feet and it didn’t feel like knives onsensation that co ate the pain in htly my nails bit into my skin, all in an attempt to use differently placed pain to distract the foot pain But every step I took just made it worse

Another picture flashed on the mirrored surface in front of me This time, it was Miss Carrol Then she was replaced by the Tanners, ned our local bakery

I screwed e step forward… only to land in a cru pain but had no idea what it ibbered, collapsed in a heap overfeet While I was down there, I pulled offto check my flesh But it was totally unmarred And yet, any part of an to prickle, and soon enough I was standing again There still stood a huge gulf between me and the end of the oval

You have to do this, Jane Suck it up and go

And with that, I strode forward Unfortunately, the bigger my strides, the more the pain hit But s pain I did my best impression of Lamaze breaths as I strode forward, only to nearly pass out before I realized I was only ever inhaling As I learned later in life at yoga, it hurt more on the exhale

When I was about a third of the way to theSweat had broken out overmy skin I felt like I’d had a bucket ofuncomfortably, andtired and gross and beaten down, I looked to theexpression

"What the fuck?" I asked, very rhetorically, to the empty roo into his pants to pull out his already engorged penis Only biologically correct ter sexy about the way he stroked hi was less like a sex act anda civilian in the head

Soon enough, however, Graeme disappeared, only to be replaced by Ryu’s cousin, Nyx While I didn’t think Nyx was as evil as Graeht a human--her "sack lunch"--to her supernatural coe battle took place She didn’t even notice when he was killed