It was more than worth it, she thought walking to her car in the drizzle, trying not to laugh. She managed to contain herself only as until hearing the dull thud of the car door latching closed. Then, quite oddly, she began to laugh.

She had been saving that laugh for years, nursing it for a particular delirious moment in a far off future. A moment dulled and numbed by the tail and of anastheic where she would finally be done. She allowed herself only a little of that laugh now, careful not to waste all she had gathered. It will come, she told herself, only a little bit longer now.

For months she had been coming here. Most nights of the week now she donned an all-black exercise outfit and sacrificed two hours of her evening. It was a numbers game played at a glacial pace. Some days she would make headway, other's she'd be forced to retreat. Overall, however, she managed to grind her way forward. For the first time tonight, she saw the end in sight:

If anyone had been watching her, they might have thought her unhinged. But this wasn't insanity, this was euphoria.

This, was the eave of victory.