The Hourglass Hell

How much money? Split it amongst her caged escapes. How much time? Scatter it amongst the users. Any brain left? Rot it with her choice of toxin. Lungs, too. What's left of her heart? Those stitches won't hold much longer. Forget it. The eyes? Pretty, we'll keep those. Full lips. Long hair. Sunken cheeks. Would've been beautiful. Once. The skin? Too many scars. Well, no methods perfect. Is there anything left we can take? Ah, the soul. Well, it's withered, but still there somehow. They never really leave. Alas, it's not ours to take. One thing we never figured out. Well, we're done with her. Send her back to her cage and her hourglass. That will be all.

Why?

Excuse me, intern.

Why? Why do we do this?

This was her choice. She made her decisions, practically ran here if we got her age right. You see, each step she took, each painful decision and self-medicated escape, led her slowly, or rather quickly in this case, to this place right here. Pain begets pain. Chaos begets chaos. And our role in this? Well, we salvage whatever we can and set her back to this world empty. A zombie of sorts, speaking in their terms. She is now malleable, willing to do our bidding. Cause more chaos, pain, destruction. Lead more down this path. An endless cycle. This is our livelihood.

But, I don't understand. Why would she choose this?

Because, she never saw that she had a chance.