"Is she alive?" I asked, ready to run to the infirmary.

"No," Paul answered softly.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"She wrote a note. She has never stopped believing we were like those that took her initially. The thought of being forced to live that way terrified her. She had been looking for a way out of her choosing, permanently."

He sighed and continued, "When we told the other women, they weren't surprised. One of them told us she believed the choice of when and how to die should belong to them. Another of them broke in front of us, screaming we could take their freedom, but not their souls. After...