Artemis had wore herself out in the process of capturing the Siren leaving her mantle: tied to a bridge dripping with blood. She: sat dazed and confused. Her home tidy, but her hair crazed and always out of sorts. She had walked home: handing her weapons to her sister Desdemona at the door. Her elder sister, crippled by violence: directly opposite to the fighting ethos of Artemis. This had been a long-standing problem, as Desdemona was often left: committing sins with her apathy and blatant inability to concern herself with anything that she found distasteful or unpleasant. This fault: forced Artemis to sharpen her weapons twice over, as she was expected to fight Desdemona’s battle whenever she needed assistance. Right as Artemis went to hydrate and relax: Desdemona informed her that the magic pet named chandler, had wandered off. The fluffy beast had yet to return home: her domesticated jungle beast probably scared and hungry. Artemis asked which direction the swift animal had ran as she sighed: standing back up, and grabbing her gleaming weapons once more. Her bushy-tail had been spotted: sprinting in the direction of the famous Augean Stables. Desdemona had been unable to catch the beast as she darted out the door, and she had lost hope each passing night for the safe return of her Chandler. They joked aboot how the laziness of the small hind: deciding and that it was best to go in search of the sassy animal, before another night fell upon them. Artemis left home once more, as she knew Desdemona would be distraught beyond words: had she lost the fluffy animal forever, as they split ways and formed a parties in their search for the beautiful beast. The animal having ran away from home: for seemingly no reason.

Artemis walked in the dark: kicking the small pebbles at her feet, as she noted how much she hated working at the stables. Wondered why the fluffy beast had followed her scent there in the first place. She reflected on her awful occupation: smiling at dead-eyed savages as they demanded corn, wine, and sweets all day long. Artemis was in charge of cleaning the stalls of the recently de-crowned King Augeas: an awful boar that treated women like shit: whereas,  Artemis was contractually obligated to shovel literal shit each day. Artemis smiled through her pain, as she watched the dead-eyed savages fill their oversized cups with carbonated sugar water: finding any reason to complain aboot their mini-vacation at the stables. Artemis swept corn from off the floor, and forced herself to make light of the situation, as she declared herself the “Queen of the Corn” and admired her own ability to haul waste and make flights of stairs her bitch. She didn’t mind all the guests at her work, but it was definitely an unwelcoming position to be in. Artemis often got in trouble for being herself: publicly ridiculed by managers who ran the stables frequently. The managers were horse jockeys: their joy taken in talking shit aboot Artemis and her crooked spine without her present. The unsightly managers: unaware of her Indigenous Warrior Royalty, as they never cared enough to learn the names of their employees on a regular basis. Artemis had fought their discrimination, as she had been forced to call for aid: by those that held the rights to the Augean Stables over the Centuries, as she finally realized they had actually been breaking the law with their ableism. Hiding their true-selves behind creepy smiles, as they proudly boasted to their own abilities in dehumanize their workers. Cheering to one another with vitriol, as they hid away from the public and played games on their shields in locked offices. Artemis waited patiently for her aid, and walked back to the scene of the crime: sad, and hoping to blindly find the quick beast somehow before she actually rolled up on the Augean Stables. The task of looking for a black furry animal in the dark: being difficult beyond all reason.

Artemis had originally started working at the Augean Stable with dazzling enthusiasm, as she had spent her youth attending the viewing of mustangs and show-horses quite frequently with her papa. She had no complaints to the lack of payment for her services: diverting from meeting her guests with wee fists, as they demanded to know “what are you?” as she ripped their paper tabs. Artemis and her ambiguous looks managed to offend guests on the patterned occasion. The dead-eyed savages often found ways to displace Artemis upon seeing her: pulling their hands away quickly, or asking a million questions as to her lineage, as though she were a monkey in a zoo. Guests and managers alike: didn’t find it funny whenever she pointed out to them...that she were a Homo Sapiens. Politely asking for them not to worry aboot it with a glare whenever they didn’t find her joke to be funny. Artemis assumed the guest were only in attendance to watch pony shows of men riding around dressed at bats, and spiders: constantly spilling butter down their obese consumer faces...jerring to one another in the muffled quiet. Artemis had never met the man known as King Augeas, but had read plenty aboot his wealthy. The prominent director... known for his sexual depravity. His illicit behavior finally uncovered: as  he finally slipped up in letting a hostage escape his stables. The sexual deviant had tried to force himself on top of one of his own prized horses. Artemis had barely survived her own rape, but she still managed to admire all of the men and women that stood opposite to the King Augeas. Protesting his degenerative behavior, as well as his many chins and personalities: wearing pink helmets in the battlefield, as they demanded justice. Artemis knew she had the honor of meeting such brave people, as she handed them back their torn papers. Softly telling the women who cried endless tears...“Me Too”: a magic charm that had once healed Artemis. She continued smiling, hoping someday these heroic women would be strong enough to talk about whatever had made their hearts so heavy. Finally strong enough to hear their stories and help ease their burdens... whenever that time came. The female energy causing a ripple of change to sweep the land, as Artemis now used her dreams to sooth the countless women that had once fell victim to King Augeas. Absorbing and surviving their nightmares alongside them in their dreams: until her new friends no longer feared the beast.

Artemis had once loved the stables: admiring the flashing brilliance of the glamour housed in the stables. It was here: that her papa had once gifted her with hints, as he showed her the race...in which Truman finally walked up the stairs, and out the door. Quietly expected her to understand as a child, his furrowed brow deepening: whenever he was forced into the stable of her choice, as it was always filled with gay song and dance. He would point out all the horses with a definitive beauty mark, blonde hair, or curly hair and say “that’s you”: allowing the child to pretend that as she was the star of every horse race. Her papa would point out she held similar twinkle in her eye as the divas: implying the same mischievousness...found only with chameleons. Laughing that his youngest avoided all things spooky, and making habit of startling her whenever she were alone. Afraid of anything, and everything... as he asserted himself “what are you breaking?!”, and smiling...as Artemis fumbled whatever she was holding in a jittery panic. Her anxiety: residual from the many nightmares she had each night. She’d be forced to return to a hallway with many doors, the horrors implicating that Artemis’s brain was broken in a sense. She had been raised sheltered by her papa, and forbidden from watching the mindless violence that occasionally triggered her nightmares.  It would be years: before she found the races labeled “Get Out, and Us” on the stable boards that lit up. Vaguely remembering her conversations with her papa, as he attempted to explain his urgency in jogging her memories. Forcing the girl to seek answers from the stories that came alive, and presented her with inspiration and reason.

Artemis wondered why he had said such things: wondering also...why he had called his wife, Hera whenever she left the room. A dead-eyed savage with a permed bob: her voice shrill as an owl, and her talons sharpened to rip out the eyes of all the women that smiled or held youthful bliss. The vindictive and violent woman: had waited until Artemis’s papa had died of leukemia...until felt safe enough, as to abuse Artemis physically. Boasting of her superior genetics: withholding food and sleep from Artemis and Desdemona in their youth. The woman clawed at Artemis’s face: any chance she could, as she scarred her lips and chin with her brightly colored talons. The woman loved hyping, and preparing Artemis for her future filled with incarceration: the expectations set by the statistics Hera spewed whenever they were alone. When that didn’t break her spirit: the woman being paid to “foster” Artemis...had decided she would “break her down” to conform to society. Holding the adolescent hostage, as she forced her to eat a large bag of live ants for a week: her punishment for having pointed out that the large bag was left open. Ungraciously informing Hera that her breakfast was infested with ants. Presenting the girl with animal torture as punishment, as her kind heart wept for the bugs she devoured and their putred smell making her gag with each bite. Artemis would begin avoiding looking at herself in the mirror from that day on...for this reason.

The abuse would only continue to escalate: Hera deciding to pounce on Artemis, as she wept uncontrollably: unconsolable in her grief, because she could no longer remember the sound of her papa mumbling her name. When Hera saw Artemis stood frozen in her hesitant fear momentarily, she said “I don’t know why you’re crying…he wasn’t even your dad”, and with that one statement: Artemis formed plan to escape the child abuser: with the intent to leave her childhood home..never to return. The inconvenience of Artemis and her grief was causality for her punishment of permanent groundation from the world. Hera forbid Artemis from having books, music and food in accordance to her moods, and when that didn’t break her: she forced Artemis to beat up Desdemona for spectacle. Her obvious goal, was to keep Artemis ignorant and submissive to her abuse: frustrated in knowing she needed Artemis to stay and preform child labor. Artemis and Desdemona had once ran a childcare operation as pre-teens: ruling over random kids, while Hera often sat on her throne of lies and made judgments of a fiery woman named Judy. Artemis would later regret leaving her sister Desdemona with a woman: warning her to steer clear of the woman famous for her Diet made famous in Santa Clarita. Artemis never knew why her papa had married the vile woman in the first place, but she looked forward to the day when she’d get to snitch to her papa. Spending years finding the truthful words that described what Hera had done to her developing psyche as a young girl. She wondered what he’d say, since he had been tortured by the Hydra as a child: unsure if he knew...that his Hydra-crest-wearing wife, had the audacity to torture Artemis...the second he had left her unprotected. Artemis avoided the Redwood forest where Hera now hid...avoiding saying her unless it were ill-intended and ashamed that Artemis had escaped captivity upon learning that child abuse, was a human-rights violation. A law the Hera had broken for over four years, as she attempted to force Artemis to bow at every expense. Explaining to the other citizens that she believed: it were her holy “duty to break Artemis”, as her book and Church had instructed her. Artemis never told the Kind-Hearted Hunters of the things that the hag named Hera: had once forced her to say, feel, or do in the past. The safe space of healing with the Kind-Hearted Hunters allowing Artemis to let go of her murderous rage, as time passed. Finally forgetting the voice of the woman that disguised herself from being recognized as an ugly beast.

Artemis arrived at crescent a drive, and plaza finally. Staring up at the brightly lit stable...mad to be there, as she often avoided the building at all costs. She began to scavenge the roadside, and eventually walking  into the dim stables...looking for her lost Chandler. Artemis became agitated calling for the autonomous fluffball in the darkened corridors. She looked frantically aboot: for the bushy tail that often swayed sassily in front of Artemis. Leading the way and exposing her bum with pride. She missed Chandler, as she wandered the stables calling her name: her voice being hushed by those in attendance. The building filled with monsters and demons alike. As Artemis popped her head into each one of the sixteen stables: she noted someone following her slowly in the dark. Artemis turned quickly: only to see, one of her managers holding the blacked fur of the green-eyed animal: stiff by the scruff of her neck, as though setting a warning and declaring war on her family. Artemis approached the man with long slimy hair: cautiously moving in to save her beloved moody pet that had began hissing. The manager scoffing in disapproval: his lip snarling upwards wickedly, as he stated that he knew the wild beast belonged to Artemis. His harsh voice booming across the  lobby of the stables. Holding the fur baby away with disgust as he excitedly expressed his intuition had been correct and his arousal in finally having found a clerical reason to rid her from their employee list. Artemis laughed at his small-mindedness, and told the so-called-leader to “fuck off” at last. Warning the pale and skinny man...that she’d give him until the count of three: to gently release his mangey paws from her beloved beast.

The manager had never been spoken to in such a fashion: by those who he openly called inferior, and so he took wise...abrasively letting go of the animal, as he tossed her to the side. Chandler looked over her shoulder past her own butt: glaring her opal eyes dangerously, at the manager who had the audacity to hold her without the permission of Desdemona, her boyfriend Kenneth, or Artemis. The small animal had enough shit to say in her hissing and growls, so Artemis let Chandler do her thing: until she casually returned by her side. Rubbed affectionately along the shins and purring in approval...of the human she actually knew. The small hind was now bored of  looking at the dead-eyed savages, and missed her home. Slowly blinking in her phase of uninterested judgement in the direction of the manager that had once captured her, and called her a stray beast.  

Artemis scooped her pet, as they walked to the lobby of the stables to leave. Weaving in and out of cattle lines formed to retrieve overpriced corn and hardened sugar dipped  and coated in cancerous dyes Artemis heard the managers forming plot to slaughter the “stray animal”: the slimy one had skipped the detail that it were a domesticated pet that belonged to Artemis, and set bounty on her head instead. Artemis felt her warm tears trickle down her face, pushing past the crowds of blurry face: barely catching view of her furry pet, as she transformed to the size of a majestic stallion. To this bad-assery, Artemis instantly stopped crying and said “whoa…holy-balls” to herself in surprise: as she wasn’t aware that the cute animal could do that. Alarmed the animal had free rage of their house in her previous size, and successfully reigned in terror: without the presence of her new super-sized features. The oversized beast lunged at the managers, and instinctively began to maul the smug faces of all those Chandler had seen demeaning Artemis: whenever she was absent to defend herself. Artemis stared in shock, as the gruesome battle inferred between the fluffy animal and the few that had mistreated the animal without reason. 

Artemis was unsure of what to do, as the animal was technically defending one of its owners and herself. The manager had brought it on themselves, and she was a bystander the judgement of Chandler.  Artemis wasn’t sure what the treatment was like between the manager and the small hind before her arrival, but the opinion on the matter was cleared up instantly. Chandler’s massive fangs tearing the plush cheek muscles along the left side of horse jockeys face...purring in delight, as she played with his eye: dangling from its socket. Chandler retaliating for having gotten the same treatment from the managers that Artemis had been privy to: telling by the reaction of the massive hind. The supersonic speed of the animal was no match for any human, and Artemis was no different: scooping her new play toy in her mouth, and walking off down a hallway. Her stride no match for Artemis sprinting behind her… yelling “enough”: too tired with the teenage animal and her rebellion. The beast glared at Artemis: warning the petite human that she was not one of her true owners: Desdemona, or her boyfriend Kenny. Her green eyes began to dilate, as she observed whoever had raised their voice at her and registered the voice to match her database of two.  Black fur tussled around her collar and shoulders, as she began to hiss and leaned her forehead set to charge. Refusing the orders, as she ripped at the throats of the mangled corpse. The price he paid for having dared speak ill of Artemis and her pimp-limp without reason. 

Artemis was not equipped to fight the massive fluff-ball: now terrorizing the onlookers, as they left their dark stables in droves, and walked into a horror house filled with warm blood...splattering the long and winding hallways. Artemis used their scurrying distractions to pull the corpse to safety, as she dragged it down the cursed vortex into closest restroom. The stalls of these smaller stables were aplenty, and too few all at once. Enchanted with sporadic waves of foot-traffic. The Minoan latrine...cursed to overflow if Artemis didn’t clean them routinely. Artemis had never been deterred by hard-work: putting her favorite delicate hoops upon her ears. Adjusting her Princess bun...high atop her head, as she scrubbed for next to nothing. Artemis was always stuck working beneath her talents, forced to pay ten percent to the Boar no matter how little she earned. He began to scour the land looking to collect his debt, as she had managed to rake-up forty-thousand dollars in debt. Attained by forcing herself to attend University, and now Boar and his Siren companion named Betsy had began stealing her tax-returns and harassing her emergency contacts to collect their dues. This was how to shoveling shit in the first place,  as Artemis thought a piece of paper would save her from dire poverty...for no proven reason. 

Artemis paced up and down the Minoan latrine: trying to develop plan as she avoided looking at the dead body she had dragged with her: overtly ignoring the screams coming from the hallway she had just skirted. She remembered that there had been a leaking faucet, and a toilet that refused to stay fixed. Artemis had told the managers of these two problems in multiple ways to no avail, and so she assumed they had been fixed since then. As she observed the leaks, she giggled to herself and said “never-mind” and shrugged for having been dumb enough to have given the manager a benefit of a doubt, as to them participating in their job: managing and shit. Forgetting it no longer mattered,  as the stables shook from the chaos brought on by the fluffy beast.

Artemis thought to herself...fuck it. She began to rip off one of the silver boxes that were tacked on the walls. The glimmering box denting, as she and began to break as many glistening sinks and latrines as she could: utilizing her make-shift hammer. She smashed the sinks until they sprayed the ceiling with fresh water: before taking to the porcelain filled with shit and blood. She took a finally blow to the last stall: watching as the shit crept over the corpse on the floor. Artemis began to gag, as the smell began to fill the restroom with congested air filled with feces and death. Evidently she had forgotten to hydrate throughout the day, and felt her eyes tunnel into blackness. Artemis finally collapsing from lack of oxygen and clean water in  her body: her seizure cast by Zeus for good reason.

Artemis woke up to her friend standing over her shouting. Her fellow stable-worker: Cat..slapped her hard across the face, in the hopes of making her friend gain consciousness. It worked, as Artemis stared at her old pal and propped herself up in the stream of sludge. Glancing around, as she made light of the situation by only saying “o no…we brown”. Both the women kindly smiled to one another, as they enjoyed making fun of their pigmentation together...so others couldn’t. Cat was also covered in the spraying shit, having walked into the stalls looking for help. Explaining in a panic to Artemis, that  there was a large black fluffy beast: mauling managers with its massive fangs and claws. Artemis mumbled as worked to stand up once more as she updated Cat that it were her loving pet, Chandler. A surprise to Cat herself, as she gazed at the mauled corpse in the corner. The two women speechless, as to what dark magic enveloped the fluffy beast.

The two hoped she had ended her slaughter of the gaggle of managers, but they were helpless in checking, as they needed more water to deter the sensitive beast. Cat and Artemis continued to rush about the bathroom: frantically running out of time. Artemis asked for her help, as the last sink was still intact and standing sturdy and in-place upon the counter. The two women took their silver boxes and stood on the faucet: bending it under their combined weight. They braced against the mirrors and wall, as they delivered the last stomps to the row of sinks. The line of sinks bursting open: spewing clean water everywhere, as it overflowed over the counters, and weaved itself over the layer of dense shit that began to build up upon the ground. The pressurized waters finally forceful enough to reach the hallways: doused in the blood spilled by the fluffy beast. 

The sink began to back up, as the pressure built up under the counter and the faucets began to stammer and rattle beneath the two women stand on a counter. The eruption of the pipes: finally sweeping up the two, as they were slickly whisked from their feet...into the hallway. Riding a thick tsunami of beast repellent. They helped one another up, as they looked around the lobby of the stables. The high walls glimmering with polished finish. The transformation of the dingy building interior: almost impressing the pair of professional cleaners. They admired their work, and began to look for the small hind known as Chandler. Wandering the immaculately rinsed building that now appeared empty. Cat pointed in the direction of the beast, as they followed the fluffy black tail as it turned a corner.  As soon as they followed suit and reached the sharp turn of the hallway: the beast had returned to her petite size once more. Staring up at them, and judging the pair...as though they were late for attending a ball. The animal began to lick her small paws clean, and Artemis collected her with one hand, as she thanked her friend for her help. Embracing her fluffy family, as she left the dead-eyed savages with their addictions to escapism and consumerism. Artemis took her Chandler and bounced: never to return to the stables where they made fun of her pimp-limp and ambiguous face. A mighty and wee package were the two: wielding and delivering the power and justice, and both labeled a beast.

Artemis arrived home to the scene of a distraught girl: sitting in the middle of the empty, her palms facing upwards, as she sat in the center of the bare room weeping. The woman had been crying endlessly, as her Kenneth had also left to go look for Chandler, and she was upset that she was alone with her thoughts for a change. Artemis handed her sister a sleeping fluff monster: hoping the return of her pet would console her elder sister. Desdemona had said that she and Kenneth had argued: wondering why Chandler had ran away in the first place. The two began to argue and blame the other for how each treated the animal in the past. Artemis informed her sister..that she could be nicer to their small hind, as she had noted that both Desdemona and Kenneth had an occasional temper that startled the animal enough to hide from their agitated feet. Artemis spoke over her sobbing, as she attempted to resolve the wailing girl, and unburdening her own heart at the same time. Artemis confessed that she had once harmed her own beast, as an angry and violent youth. Left spending every second of the day: regretting her actions, as her heart was often weighed down by her own sins. Artemis had lost her beloved animal known as Emilio, as he had wandered off...when her “friends” had gotten her evicted, and forced her to move residencies in the span of three days. Artemis harmed herself, and even longed for death each day because of her guilt.  She knew now: that the innocent animal hadn’t done anything wrong...other than love her unconditionally. Her honesty and tears causing her sisters to cease. For: she hadn’t known that Artemis harbored such hatred and anger in the way she had expressed in detail. Artemis began to cry without restraint, as she realized that every awful thing in her life that had happened since. The pure karma to repay Artemis for how she had once treated her best friend: a loyal companion...that just happened to be a small beast.

She lamented that she had dreams and nightmares: running around the urban jungle each night attempting to flee from from a dark figure who wished to harm her. Artemis scared to no end, as she searched for her beloved pet, her friends AJ and Buckles. Screaming for help as she searched the streets for the Viking on the reoccurring occasion. Desdemona informed her that she had recently been frightened by a dream: where Artemis was locked in a room...screaming, as she were beaten and raped. Desdemona helpless to break down the door in the hallway filled with red doors.  Artemis glared into the distance and avoided stirring up a reaction to her story. Artemis had never told anyone about the locked room in her dreams: the set being only a hallway and and a bare room. A hardened mattress being the only furniture, as fluorescent light and teetering fan flickered and shook ominously overhead. Artemis would often be kidnapped and held captive in this location most nights, as she relived the day of her rape as an infant over, and over again. Artemis lived in horror of sleep. Her dreams always beginning the same...with the slow unbuttoning of her one piece. Her squirming being enjoyed, as she tried to run for her life. The unarmed infant screaming at the top of her lungs as her hips spread: the grown man penetrating her willingly, as her body split in two and began to seize under the strain on her spine. Artemis would end up serving a life sentence: on behalf of the man with no face that had once raped her. His doing: giving rise to a beast.

 Artemis remembered her rape vividly throughout the day: being paralyzed and in pain as, she laid on her back...staring up at the light on the ceiling. Wishing the excruciating pain would cease for only one night: even if it meant her death. Artemis would spend her entire day...avoiding all those around her: seeing the faceless man in each of their dead-eyes. Wondering why he had drunkenly forced his erect penis into an infant. Taking pleasure in her ungodly howls and incoherent pleas for help, as the full-grown man tortured her as an infant, and registered his name on a list of condemned as his penalty. His skin colour, and “well-rounded background” giving him the right to rape as he pleased with minimum penalty. Her drunken birth mother was conveniently nowhere to be found, while her baby was being raped...repeatedly in the next room. Desdemona was not ready to hear such a traumatizing story, and she may never be ready for all Artemis knew. Deciding to keep her past a secret: out of the concern for her sisters comfort, and her fragile views of the world. Artemis said nothing, as she ignored her sisters intrusion upon her dream realm and shook off the eerie sense of deja vu. Hugging one another crying, as Kenneth walked in the front door nonchalantly: asking if anyone had found Chandler yet. The two giggled as they pointed at the lounging beast: her upturned belly facing the sun as she stared at them knowingly. Artemis would allow the world to know the details: of her illicit life of being born a “whore”, as she continued to write down her adventures. She’d be stressed by this task: glancing at the mounting pages and wondering out loud “what is this?”. Artemis: now afraid to stop writing for even a minute. Smiling as she tilted her head whenever readers finally began asking if she were real, as though she hadn’t given the world enough clues. Artemis had once planted herself in marble temples, and engraved her spirit within a magnitude of fine art in her past lives. They had been cursed to forget her existence, concealing her under magic inkL until her name was ready to be known to the world once more. Artemis had been born cursed with name Tila: after the Yurok God of Destruction. His famous tyranny followed by the myths of his devoted subjects taking one knee: stammering “yes, sir”: until modern kings adapted the customs. Her presence: only known by those who believed in a battle angel or holy ghost: a famously numbered but altogether  unknown beast.

Artemis had been the first name ever written on the  walls of caves and pyramids in the past. Yurok legends affirming the tales of migration, as she had once personally taught the mute ancestors how to count and speak their modern languages.  They had nicknamed her “You”, as she had confused them by making that same sound...as she pointed and attempted to direct them. Artemis being renamed “sir”, as her fellow attendees stood at her attention, and their primitive thinking able to process ranking to a bare minimum. Artemis had been told by her papa in the forest...that her name was hidden within their words: the pictograph “IO” laying proof to her reincarnation,  as the numbers transformed into a one and zero once more. Artemis knew it was silly and asinine, enjoying the daydreams of being so important to the world. She did not wish her readers the curses that ruled her every thought...seeking patterns obsessively. Enjoying the sight of her signature in all forms of art. Artemis wished to ward the madness from the minds of her readers, but knew she’d written just enough to help the world remember her. Allowing her readers to make with it...whatever they chose to see: their imaginations able to carry them to weird places within the darkened net. Her existence concealed by the Faceless Beast: hidden in rare text...locked away from the public eye, as it rotted away in cold underground bunkers. Artemis wrote for no crowd...holding the attention of few and plenty: the sparse intellectuals that feared no truths to be too disgusting to acknowledge, and holding themselves capable of learning the sins of their ancestors. Artemis knew she’d continue on her quest...with, or without her readers. Thanked them, as each vote of approval gave Artemis the pride of a thousand horses, and each completed read allowed her to finally breathe with ease knowing she’d tried to explain her circumstances in her second language with success.  Artemis would return to this story each time she held nightmares of unspeakable horror. Finding peace of mind: twenty-eight years after the fact. Proud that she had written bare description of her daily views and nightly experiences. The empty room no longer a secret that held her captive. Artemis tucked it away deep within her necromancy: in the odd, but growing fear...that she would eventually be inception-ed in the future. The two sisters and Kenneth grew closer: because of all the furry babies they cared for as a cohort, but it would be only Artemis...that still cried in endless shame of having lost her temper with animals. Her punishment: serving time in limbo...for having knowingly harmed her favorite beast.

Next Chapter: *[ XIX ] Artemis and the Nemean Lion*