My name is Katherine Leanne Granger. I am twenty-three years old. I was born in Rhy'Din city, on the first day of January. I have a little brother. I have parents. I have -

Oh gods, the lights are flickering again. No. No, no, no, this can't be happening again. Not again. I can't do this again.

- more cousins than you can easily count. I like music, I'm good at music. I can sing, and play almost any instrument. I dropped out of college at sixteen because I wasn't interested in it anymore. I went to work on one of the family farms. I enjoyed it. It was -

Dark. It's all gone dark again. I can hear them, creeping through the creaking timbers of this broken down old house, laughing, hissing, whispering my name. I can't be the only one left again, can I" Maybe someone else is hiding, like me. Maybe this time I won't get out.

- peaceful there. I used to spend hours singing to the sheep I was in charge of looking after. No one told me I was wasting my time, or that I needed to be better than I was. I was a slut; my dad would say I was promiscuous, but that's not true. I slept with anyone and everyone. It never made me very - I'm whimpering, trying not to cry in fear. Why, after all this time, am I still scared to tears of these things" How long has it been" How long have I been living like this, one day to the next, terrified of the darkness that I can't predict' Terrified of the things that come with the darkness"

- happy. I thought I was in love once. I got my heart broken by my own brother that time. But it was a good thing. It got me out of my rut. I left Rhy'Din. I came to Earth. I sold some of my songs. I got discovered. My dream -

A scream fills my ears, and suddenly I'm running, stumbling over a floor littered with sharp debris and slick with blood, feeling my way in the darkness away from the sound of someone else dying. I know the feel of those claws, the breath on my skin, I know it and I never want to feel it again. I'm still bleeding. I know there's a window here somewhere. If I can just get it open.

- came true. Someone believed in me, gave me a contract, let me record my own songs, publicized me. I performed live, I went on talk shows, I toured America and part of Europe. I was working hard, I was enjoying living my life, I never did anyone any harm. I went home for Humphrey's eighty-third birthday, and everything was good. I couldn't -

It feels like wood beneath my fingers, rough and splintered, tearing at my skin as I scrabble for some way to push open the shutter, to let in the light. I can hear them now, coming closer, following the sound of my panic. They want to finish me this time, I know they do. I'm a blot on their record, the survivor who keeps surviving. But I won't survive this time. Not if I don't get out.

- have asked for anything more. And then it all came crashing down. I never made it back to Earth. I was knocked out, and when I woke up, I was in a broken down old house, locked in with six other people. Everyone looked as scared and confused as I was. There was a note on the floor. All it said was Seven is the key; you must embrace the darkness. And then -

A hissing laugh, and the feeling of claws ripping fresh grooves into my back. I scream in panic and throw myself against the wood that has already torn open the flesh on my fingers. The shutter gives way, and I fall, fall, fall, tumbling hard into thorns and brambles, but free, I'm free. There is light all around me, moonlight through the trees, and above me the hissing is angry. I have to get away. I have to go before they come and find me again.

- all the lights went out. When they came back on, three of us were dead, ripped open and bleeding onto the floor, and no one knew how or why. Days later, the darkness came back, and took another two lives. Over and over again; days would pass with us locked inside, unable to escape this place. The darkness came, and took us away, one by one. I was the only one left. I remember being sedated, being treated for injuries. But when I woke up -

My legs don't want to work properly. I can feel blood pouring down my skin from the fresh wounds opened on my back, but I have to run. I have to keep going. I won't let them take me back there. Not again. I can't do it again. It never ends, it never stops. The moonlight is fading. The darkness is coming. No. No, no, no, no, I won't do this again. I run.

- I was back in the house, with six different people. Different people, but the same number. The house had been tidied of bodies, but the blood remained. And the note, exactly as it had been before. And this time, when the darkness came, I ran away. I ran away and hid, and listened as one by one they were killed off. Endured the pain when the things that hid in the darkness found me and hurt me. Was sedated again, treated again, and -

Up concrete steps set fast in the forest all around me, through trees and into mists, looking for any sign of people, anywhere, anyone who might help me. There must be a road somewhere, a town, a village, even just a farm. Somewhere I'll be taken in and kept safe. Somewhere the darkness can't find me.

- put back into the house. Over and over again, and each time it got worse. Left alone for longer, toyed with by those things to which I cannot put a name or even a description, patched up and put through it all again. I almost forgot my own name. But I can't forget, not now I have hope. Seven is the key and I am number seven, always number seven. Well, a key fits a lock, and I -

Lights through the trees, and I am stumbling into a town. Small, yes, but a town, with people who are horrified at the state of me, and why shouldn't they be? I am covered in blood, my clothes torn, my eyes wild with panic and fear. But they didn't follow me, they didn't catch me, they won't take me back this time. I am safe.

- have found the lock that fits me. My name is Katherine Leanne Granger.

And I have survived.