Alice sat quietly and nodded slowly. She felt like a thing. Only worse. For she did feel, vaguely. A general sense of sorrow and despair in the background, which darkened her thoughts and perceptions, and made it impossible to believe that things would ever be better. She could not resist without disappointing those she loved. And so the resistance had to turn inwards, until there was nothing of her left. "I'm ready to go..." she said quietly, wiping the last half-dried tears on her face. She rose.