All she wanted to do was get away.

Caught in the grasp of blind terror, she raced through the autumn woods and across bleak farm fields. She ran and ran, not knowing why or from what. Her lungs burned and her heart felt as if it were about to burst, but she didn't care. She just kept running, trying to get somewhere...

"Help me!"

Genesis sat up with a start, sweat collecting in the small of her back. She was under a sheet on an examining table, inside the lab. A nearby machine was printing its readout and, brushing back her hair, she felt the electrodes on her forehead which gave the machine its information.

The door to the lab opened and von Reichter came in, turning on the lights. "Be careful with your electrodes, please," he said to the fusebox.

During the past week he had kept Genesis in the lab to monitor and study her dreams. When she was sleeping, a camera recorded her movements as he watched them on a video screen in another room. She still reported a few positive dreams. Interestingly, most of these were highlighted by the appearance of a little dog. In her waking life she had very suddenly decided to name it 'Lilli.' Much of the time, however, her dreams were intensely frightening and made her lose sleep. At the moment things were not looking very good. The doctor could see in her the beginning of psychological repercussions.

He looked at the newest section of readout, sighing in frustration at the tall, dense zigzags illustrating her brain activity just before waking. He let it drop out of his hands and settle onto the growing folds of printer paper on the floor. Genesis was sitting up now, hugging her knees and resting her head on top of them. Von Reichter began stroking her hair and a tiny noise found its way past the lump in her throat.

"I'm so tired." Her voice was small and soft. "What's wrong with me?"

Her question struck a nerve in him. For someone to say that something was "wrong with" one of his creations implied that his work was flawed. Normally this resulted in punishment for being insolent, but Genesis was tired and unwell - and was talking about herself, besides.

"I'm going to help you, angel. It's only a matter of time." He replied calmly. Genesis clung to him like a child as he made her lie down again.

"I want to have a dream about Lilli."

"That would be nice." Von Reichter walked back towards the door and picked up a phone mounted on the wall. The number he dialed was brief, meaning it was to a line also inside the compound.

"Come to the lab. We still have the new supply shipment to look through. Good." He hung up and made his way past Genesis to the back of the room, where a cluttered workbench stood amongst piles of shipping boxes.

Lying on her stomach, his creature sighed in relief. She didn't want to be alone or in the dark just now.

A minute later Krumens opened the door. He saw Genesis watching him from her table, and was startled again at how sickly she was beginning to look. Her expression was constantly weary and she had lost some weight. (Von Reichter complained that she barely ate anything.)

For a moment Krumens felt pity for the haunted woman, and even a little guilty. But he reminded himself again that he was not the one responsible for what was going on in her subconscious. If anyone, that blame belonged to nature. And thanks to nature's quirk, here he had the oppurtunity to get his problem solved.

Von Reichter turned from reading a checklist and acknowledged his assistant's presence. He turned back and Krumens began to cross the lab. He neared Genesis, who was pretending to be asleep, and watched carefully as his master picked up a file, his back still to the room. When he started to flip noisily through the contents, Krumens made his move.

Genesis snapped her eyes wide open at the sound of the man's voice only inches from her face.

"I hope you haven't been dreaming about that train ride," He whispered, feigning concern.

She was confused. "Train ride?"

"Why yes, the one you took with Lilli, poor little thing." Then, before poor Genesis could even think of how to reply, he was off as innocently as before.

The room began to spin. His words dredged up from somewhere deep in her subconscious a tidal wave of images, sounds, and the memory of throbbing pain. Her heart began to race in fear and confusion and she lay paralyzed, hearing thoughts which were not her own.

What happened I'm upside down I'm burning oh God Lili Josef oh please they have to live let us live don't make us die in here -

She unsteadily pulled herself upright and looked frantically around her. This had to stop now.

Who's there who's holding me this is all your fault Max you stupid bastard why can't I feel my legs am I dying don't let Josef die you have to save him oh God don't let my baby die -

She found what she was looking for on the steel tray. Soon there would be relief -

"Genesis! No!"

Von Reichter had just turned at the sound of what he thought was something metal falling and instead saw his shift-clad creation standing in front of an equipment cart, trembling and clutching a scalpel. By the way she was gazing at the object it was clear what her intentions were. Krumens watched in silent shock.

"Put the knife down, Genesis," he said, steadying his voice and being careful not to make any sudden moves. "Put it back on the tray where it belongs."

She turned to look at him. "I have to make it stop." For a terrible moment she was the spirit of Maria standing over her dead body, as she had appeared in Von Reichter's own nightmares years ago.

"I promise you, Liebschen, I will make it stop. But if you end your life now I'll never be able to. You have to live for me to help you." She seemed to waver slightly. He was on a roll. He continued to talk to her as he carefully passed something from his pocket behind him to Krumens, who saw what it was and slowly moved away with it.

"Live for the one who gave you life."

Genesis looked again at the scalpel in her hand. Her eyes filled with hot tears and she shook her head slowly. The knife fell from her hand as she too fell weakly, overwhelmed by her emotions. Von Reichter caught her and she started to cry. Krumens reappeared with a syringe full of the morphine his master had passed to him and drove it into her arm. She never saw him coming.