Its cruel currents had swept Serena far from the barren brown cliffs of the shore and into the endless, heaving nightmare beyond. Eventually, those currents had carried her from the land of eternal daylight into the sea of eternal night. Serena remembered her final sunset, as the bloated red orb sank below the horizon never to rise again. The sky overhead faded, first to a pale gray then to black, until only a narrow band of amber stretched across the lonely horizon, giving evidence to a red sun far beyond. Yet, that bow of light was fading as she was carried deeper into eternal night. Only the flames illuminated her surroundings now. Not that there was anything to see beyond the black boiling ooze, heaving and churning in an endless dance of suffering. Her once beautiful skin had become a reddish brown hide, covered with boils and sores that erupted and healed in a never-ending cycle of destruction and regeneration, as her body’s incredible healing power fought an eternal battle with the scalding black oil that engulfed her.
