She had the glazed expression of a white mouse watching an approaching pit viper.Valerie held out one of Sir Lance-A-Lot's heavy-duty condoms, the Bac... Door Man model. It was an ominous black color."I can't put it on," I told her. "I'm totally limp."Valerie nodded to Prudence, who lifted up her skirt and stuck her hand down into her panties. Lacy ones, too, I noted. I could see her hand working at her crotch for a few moments. Then she removed her hand, straightened up, and stuck her fingers. Had she been alive, her hair would have been strawberry-blonde, her complexion would’ve been subtly pale, and her figure would’ve been long-limbed and slender. Instead, her ethereal skin was a light-blue hue, her hair was starkly white, and her form was a fleeting wisp that barely held together in the wind. It must’ve been hell for her to see what she could have become. “Are you still going to Tera’s house tomorrow?” she asked me, her voice soft and fearful. “What other choice do we have?” “Go. ”“PLATO,” Marcella yelled, “I told you I didn’t want this to happen.”“My informants said you talk to the PLATO,” the woman said with a sneer. “They didn’t tell me you expected it to talk back.”“Virus, PLATO,” Marcella screamed. “Virus! Virus! Virus!” “Oh,” the woman said, “You have programmed the PLATO to create a virtual world for yourself, haven’t you? And you think your programming has gone wrong.” She stepped back and frowned slightly before saying, “We didn’t think your programming skills. I was outside for quite a while but I could still hear him yelling and swearing at me. I knew I couldn’t go back inside so, finally, I just started walking. I don’t know how far it is back to the house but it doesn’t matter. I’m never going back, anyway. I’m done with him.”I asked her what started the fight. After a moment of hesitant silence, she said, “Well ... he was drinking and I knew what would happen if he didn’t stop so I took a shower and got all cleaned up. Then I tried to get him to.