S T A T E is a windowless, concrete room with three deadbolts on the four inch cement and metal reinforced door. No one gets out. Willow would know: piece by piece, body by body, mind by mind, heart by heart, soul by soul-the girl who became Willow helped build S T A T E. And no one got out. What they left behind: the pieces of themselves, bodies, minds, hearts and souls became the groundwork for a new S T A T E. A better S T A T E. Willow had been a witness to the broken people as they cracked and splintered. She had felt herself cracking too-small fissures at first, that had steadily grown into gaping ravines. But she had believed. She had believed in S T A T E. She doesn't believe anymore.