Utter surprise overcame her once she began to realize that the pain was withdrawing one atom of poison at a time, that the more he bit and spit, the less delirious she felt, that the longer he had his teeth in her flesh, the more soreness gave way to exhaustion, and her body slumped limply under his, her eyes closing involuntarily as she came to a conclusion that maybe she wasn’t dying anymore. Right before diving into complete darkness, a comforting sea of forgetting, she watched the way he withdrew his mouth from her completely, watching her with scrutinizing awareness. She fell asleep.