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Chapter 1

They called her Shant, her captors, amusing themselves with the nickname even as they abused her, consumed her life, and assailed her soul. She was always bound, usually gagged. They kept her stashed away in a small, dank, abysmal room, but sometimes they took her away to clean the room.

And sometimes they also took her out for their own use.

She didn't know just who they were. Most who presented themselves were human, but some were things, creatures of warped body and mind. Some of the most monstrous even appeared in human form.

She had heard of many of these monsters, years ago, during her normal, happy childhood. The worst, to her, could only be vampires monsters that drained her of her blood, of her life force, for their own nourishment. They dragged her out. They kept her helpless. They consumed the fluid of her life, but worse, they absorbed some of her inner energy, her life spirit. They were vampires in the traditional sense, yes; but they were also psychic vampires, invading her mind, stealing her spirit.

Or so they had tried.

Shant didn't know where she was. She didn't know how long she'd been a captive of the brutal monsters. Sometimes she even had trouble remembering who she was, where she came from. She couldn't always remember her home, her family, or her friends.

But she would always remember her child, they child that had been conceived just before she was first taken, the child that had been stolen from her by the creatures that held her captive. She didn't know what had happened to her baby, but even after all these years she remembered, and the memory burned in her soul, always spurring her on, always giving her reason to keep fighting.

And today she would escape. She would escape or die trying.

She had been born with the ability to see the future psychic powers, so they said. She'd never been able to do much of anything else with the so-called power, not when she was young. Worse, her captors held her in a room that seemed by its very nature to block her inner abilities.

But they often escorted her out of the room, whether for cleaning or for other vile purposes, and out past its door she could feel her power again. Day by day, week by week, year by year, she had taken every available chance to focus her inner strength and will, to teach herself to use the powers of her mind in a more direct manner.

Even when left in the strange power-void of her cell, she worked to focus her concentration, to expand her mind, her awareness. The process

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