My name is Jake Gillmore. Up until that devastating day that ruined my life, it was just ordinary.

I worked for a frieghter company called Lightspeed. They ship anything, from produce to livestock, from planet to planet. I was one of those stiff's who worked in the loading dock, drivin' a hoverlift; loadin' the pallet's and other cargo into the transport ship's. Not my job of choice, but it paid the bill's.

The only ray's of sunshine in my life were my Wife and our Son... Those are good memories. My wife Lana, a five foot seven, one hundred and five pound knockout. Her hair's long and flowin' red, eye's as blue as ice and her lip's are beautifully full and alive. She was my one true love. Then my son, John was born and suddenly I had two great loves in my life. The last time I saw him he was eleven. Like me, he was not an athlete, but a thinker. A good strong jaw, and developing those ruggedly good look's like his old man. He'll have to beat the girl's off with a stick.

Hopefully he'll take my advice and wait till he's grown up and spent some time for himself travelin' and explorin' before he start's the dating game.

Listen to me. I'm dronin' on and on, sorry. I like to revel in the good memories as much as I can, but if you'll stick around I'm sure my story will entertain you.

What was the tragic twist of fate that ruined my life? It was a year ago, as far as I can tell. One day, down on the loadin' dock, I was finishin' up loadin' a ship with produce. Much to my surprise Lana and John stopped by for a surprise visit. Out of the shadow's of another ship, a Terian stowaway emerge's and hold's my wife up at gun point in full view of me. Big mistake!

Wavin' that gun at my family. Terians aren't the brightess bunch in the galaxy. Ugly, worty creatures that look like a frog and fish combined into humanoid form. Three finger's including the thumb, and webbed feet. Every time I think of them I see that one, and I'd gladly kill him again, to protect my family.

That's right. I killed him. When I saw him and his gun, my vision of the world turned to red, and the next thing I know I come back to myself; a lifeless Terian gripped firmly by the throat in my hand's. A bullet wound in my arm, and a life shattered.

The case was open and shut in no time. My sentence a lifetime banishment to the horrible planet known as Torment.

Torment... That's a fitting name for this place. When it's day time the temperature reaches the hundreds, and even though it's constantly bright, there's no visible sun ever! The light permeates everywhere. There's no escaping it. It penetrates even into the caves and through the depth's of the local flora. It's as bright as the sun in all directions. No shadows are cast and no shade is made. Until night, escape from the light is impossible. Then the night is the same extreme. No visible moon or starlight.

Don't ask me how, it just work's that way here. Even with a flashlight you barely can see what's directly in front of you, up to a foot. The temperature drop's to the negative's and a fire barely bring's comfort what with casting any light and warmth with in a one foot radius.

The planet is sandy, yet abundent with plant and animal life. The tree's grow thin at the bottom and get thicker at the top. The bushes constantly shift and move and all the animal's are vicious and blind. I don't mean that they can't see due to poor eye's. I mean that they have no eye's at all. What they lack in sight they make up for in hearing, though.

The only thing that's helped me to stay sane, is my faith in Jesus and the Lord. They give me the strength to carry on. In a place like Torment, strength is what one need's.

Another blistering day on torment. Today, like any other day I started by leaving my camp, and going to the water hole. The water is red, bubbling and has a hint of vanilla. Oddly the water is as cold as ice, even though it bubbles. Now if I only cared for vanilla, yuck.

The other day I spotted a Leeug. That's a creature about the size of a lion, that look's like a leech in color, smoothness and mouth, but it crawl's like a slug. Even worse it has four tentacle arm's with claw's on each end. It was disturbingly close yesterday, so I'm obviously a little on edge today.

It's a little suspicious to me that I even spotted it, since they have the ability to perfectly blend in with their surroundings. Why would it be out in the open?

Now that I think about it I wonder why, on a planet inhabited with eyeless creatures, would a species be able to blend in with it's surrounding's? Hopefully I never find out.

Anyway I went for a swim and let down my guard as I began to relax. Idiot. When I came out of the water I caught a glimmer of a silhouette, near my clothes. Since I'm a convict I don't have the luxury of a gun. The wood on this planet is fragile so I can't fashion a weapon out of it. So I was left with nothing else but my own two hand's for defense.

I rushed the creature (a Leeug it turned out to be) and in it's shocked state I connected with a right. Then a left. It tried to bite my hand, but I dodged in time. Unfortunately my dodge positioned me for the worst.

Just as I caught my balance, it happened. It's claw's sank into the orbit's of my skull, and with one quick jerk my eye's came out amidst the sounds of the ripping flesh and muscle. I don't have to worry about the light anymore.

I now know that the Leeug has a numbing poison on it's claw's, meant to help it disable it's prey. It was keeping me from feeling my torn out eye's, and if I'd have been sliced any more it would have disabled me completely.

In the absence of pain my body surged out adrenaline and I used it to wrestle one of the Leeug's claws into my hand, and stab it to death with it's own weapon. In my stabbing I ripped the claw free from the creature, and kept going until I had it underneath me, and until I could feel the solid thump of stabbing terrain beneath it.

After my victory I crawled towards the sound of the bubbling water, and washed the gore off of me, and tended to disinfecting my eye's. I turned my shirt into a bandage and wrapped my eye's up to help stop the bleeding.

Feeling slightly dizzy I placed the Leeug claw in my rear pocket, and stumbbled towards my camp. As best as I could figure.

After an hour I began to worry. I had walked from the water hole to my camp at night many times. Half of the time I did it without a flash light, and it didn't take this long. Maybe I went the wrong direction, since I was dizzy from the blood loss. Just as I started to panic, I came to a tree and found the arrow I carved into it to help me along my path at night. I also numbered them, and this one was number three. I was close!

Then I heard it. Several grunt's in different directions. The Leeug's were upon me. I guess they travel in pack's and the one I killed was just the tip of the iceberg.

I drew the claw from my pocket and began slashing in the air wildly in all directions. I knew that my effort's were in vain. I was no doubt doomed!

My name is Lana Gillmore. My husband Jake saved me and our son John over a year ago from a Terian mugger.

In the confusion of the fight the mugger shot himself, and my poor husband collapsed. unable to grasp what had happened, his mind shut his body down and threw him into a state of mental torment.

Even now, viewing him through the window of his room at the Serene Winds Insane Asylum, he lay on his side staring into oblivion, muttering to himself in unintelligible whispers. He wear's a straight-jacket and requires constant care. Maybe somday he'll come to term's with what happened.

Maybe someday.

                            The End.