Slowly, the young woman rose out of her sleep state into consciousness. The first thing she noticed was that she was breathing, but shallowly, and it wasn't giving her much relief, like the air was empty of oxygen. She opened her eyes to nothing. Confused, she closed them and opened them again--still, she could not see anything. She reached out a hand above her and didn't get far until a smooth surface stopped her. Frowning, she took both hands to the surface to explore it, feeling for its edges. She discovered she was in some sort of box. Having solved the problem of where she was, she started to panic over how to get out. She repeatedly pounded both hands hard against the surface of the box, and was soon rewarded with a mechanical wheeze as the apparent lid split itself somewhere near her abdomen and began to slide open. She squinted her eyes against the growing light and waited impatiently for the box open wide enough for her to sit up from her supine position.
	
	Bolting upright as soon as she was able, the girl began to look wildly around her, taking in the vast water surrounding her waking coffin. She stared in disbelief. Water was all she could see, except for a huge, blinding white structure immediately to her right. She looked up, but whether from the sheer height of the thing or from her position so near its base, she could only barely see the top. It appeared to be some kind of narrow arc with a criss-cross of beams, dotted with stained glass and other artwork, taking up the space between the two pillars. Looking down again, she spied a small plaque set on a rock at the base of one pillar. She found she could not read the plaque, even though she could see its large letters perfectly. At a similar spot on the other side, she saw a miniature version of the structure. She did not know what to make of it.

	She decided to next inspect the water. Looking over the edge of her box, she stared into the water's depths. The surface was strangely opaque, so she reached a hand tentatively to touch it. The water was warm, so she pushed her arm in as far as it would go. No bottom revealed itself to her searching fingers, and, dismayed, she pulled her wet arm back into the box with her.

	Despite herself, she felt her eyes spilling over and an involuntary sob escaped her. She tried to say her feelings aloud, to verbalize the utter bewilderment and fear she felt at waking up this way, completely alone and, apparently, having come back from the dead. But no words would come. She moaned a slow "huh", but somehow knew this was not a true word. Her voice was high-pitched and a little thready from disuse. More tears ran down her cheeks, and she hunched forward, hugging herself tightly. The girl began sobbing in earnest, and so she did not notice the second hiss of another box releasing its occupant to the drenched, alien world.