The curtains parted as the girl of dreams walked onto the stage. Guilt and treachery followed the girl like an omnipresent shadow and scandal clung to her breath like the Plague. The people in the audience stared open mouthed and wide eyed as she shed her clothes. The sounds of soft breathing increased in volume and rapidity as all at once, and in time with the sound of the girls breathing, the audience took lustful deep breaths at the sight of her naked flesh.
   The girl stood irreproachably still while holding her clothes and stared out at the faces in a silent plea, but they were not fooled. Red flooded into the color of her cheeks and the heavy breathing of the audience scared the girl into a fetal position. She dropped her clothes and curled up on the floor.
   The dirty wood of the stage left black marks on her skin as the girl held her shins and crushed her breasts with her knees. The curtains fell to the ground and revealed a set built from shame. Actors dressed in the same nakedness as the girl danced across the stage laughing.
   Adrenaline ran through the girl's veins like a drug and took over. She pulsed on the stage and ran her hands along the lines and curves of her body while quietly moaning to herself. The audiences breathing stopped and held silent as time passed slowly. Deep pounding shook the stage as the girl squirmed. Poison poured from her mouth as a man dressed in all black walked across the stage.
  The actors stopped dancing and watched as the man picked the girl up off the dirty stage and into his arms. The man looked down at the girl the same way one would look at a torn dress, something that must be fixed but not cared for.
   He inhaled her shame as the poison dripped from her mouth and onto his clothes. She gasped and breathed quickly as her chest heaved with the effort. The audience let out their breath in a thunderous gasp and breathed as quickly as the girl and just as suddenly they stopped breathing as the girl fell limp in the mans arms.
   The audience breathed in one last time as they took in the girl's shame. The poison that bled from the girl and gathered around her naked body in a pool of crimson started to ripple as the girl began breathing again. She sat up and looked out at the audience as tears streamed down her face.
   Sorrow burrowed deep into her heart and threatened to end her. The putrid stench of the last breath of the audience lingered in the air as the girl sank to her knees and cried over her loss.
   The loss of her shame saddened the girl more than she was prepared for and had she not experienced it firsthand she wouldn't have believed the heartache. Silence swept over the room like death. The only sound penetrating the stillness of the scene was the girl as she cried quietly into her hands and knelt in the pool of her purged stigma. The crimson stained her skin with its envy and rage.
   The girl stood and exited the stage to no applause as she stared out at the dead crowd that inhabited the rows of velvet seats like uninterested critics. Cleansed of a lifetime of shame the girl of dreams left to wander once more in the minds of the shameless.