Not one ray of light disrupts the vampiric darkness of the chamber. She cannot remain motionless; her heartbeat shakes her. Alone, she fights the battle within.

A maddness overtakes her. She paces about, desperately trying to hold together the skull which is about to explode. Tighter and tighter she presses, but the pressure is too great. She pulls down on the jaw, pressing her nails into the gums. A sharp cry. Tears fall.

The taste of blood.

Her body begins to shake. With a sob, she drops to her knees on the cold stone floor. She feels the movement behind the eye. In a flash, she grasps the thing underneath. She squeezes with all her might, until the nails break the skin, and the thing is directly in her grip. It squirms. She begins to pull it out through the wound. She pulls and pulls for what seems like ages. And suddenly she is face to face with the snake-like creature that has been devouring her brain. She grasps its head in her hand and squeezes until it stops moving. She shouts, beating it into the ground with her fists. The wound beneath her eye stings with the salt of her tears.

Nauseated, but no longer with the threat of cranial combustion to worry her, she lies down to sleep.