Mantis came from South America, she was born and rised in a country wracked by never-ending civil wars.
螳螂來自南美洲，在一個被永無止盡的內戰破壞殆盡的國度裡出生和成長。
Her village was attacked by enemy forces and burned to the ground.
This was when she was still a little girl.
在她還只是個小女孩的時候，她的村莊被敵軍攻擊，並且燒灼為平地。
Hunted by enemy death squads, she was separated from her family.
而在被敵人的「行刑隊」(註)追捕途中，她和她的家人失散了。
([註]行刑隊：拉丁美洲國家的極右派組織，專門謀殺左派或自由派份子。)
She barely managed to escape with her life...Ended up in the basement of this one building.
她雖然驚險地逃過了一劫....卻在某座建築物的地下室裡停下來了。
It was full of corpses that had been dumped there.
Almost all of them had been tortured to death.
這個房間裡充斥著許多被拋棄於此地的屍體～幾乎全都是遭到嚴酷的拷問和責打而致死。
She was petrified with fear.
And then she heard the sound of heavy boots on the floor above her, followed by shrieking screams, the kind that would make every hair on your body stand straight up.
她嚇得無法動彈～然後聽到了樓上房間裡傳來的厚重軍靴聲，令人毛骨悚然的尖叫聲也接踵而至。
She had stumbled across a makeshift torture chamber.
Somebody had locked the door, and she was trapped.
It was dark, it was dank. And it was full of a wretched stench.
她發現自己偶然闖入了一間臨時徵用的拷問室～而因為有人從外頭把門鎖上，致使她現在受困於這間黑暗、潮濕，又充滿了惡臭的房間裡。
She couldn't sleep with the scream of torture victims all around her.
All she could do was sit curled up in one corner of the room, trembling.
在被拷打的受害者們發出的尖叫聲中，她輾轉難眠。而她唯一能做的，就只有蜷縮著顫抖的身體，躲在房間的角落。
A week passed, then ten days.
She managed to keep hydrated by drinking filthy water pooled upon the floor, but there was no food.
一個星期，接著是十天過去。
她透過飲用房間地板上淤積的髒水來保持身體的水分，但這裡卻沒有食物。
Being trapped in that kind of place, half-crazy from hunger, did a serious number on her mind.
受困於那樣的地方，又被飢餓折磨得半瘋狂，對她的心靈產生了嚴重的打擊。
Did you know female mantis eat their mates?
你知道雌螳螂會吃掉他們的伴侶吧？
(註：在自然界確實是如此)
The screams went on day and night, she covered her ears but it didn't help.
她嘗試捂住耳朵以避免受到日夜不停的尖叫聲侵擾，卻無濟於事。
And then, she was saved...
By a little black mantis, that thaught her how to block out the screams, how to plug up her inner ears.
之後，她卻被一隻小小的黑螳螂所救....黑螳螂教會了她如何遮蔽那些尖叫聲，以及如何塞住她的內耳。
What the hell are you talking about?
你到底在說什麼？
(註：這邊如果以口氣較俚俗的翻譯法來翻譯的話，「你他Ｘ的到底在講什麼？」意思差不多接近。)
I'm saying, Snake, that when she couldn't stand the hunger any longer, she started feeding on the corpses...
But only the male ones.
老蛇，我的意思是，當她再也無法忍受飢餓的時候，她開始以屍體為糧食～但是僅用男性的屍體。
She didn't realize who was doing it.
In her mind, it was a female mantis, devouring her mates.
It was like one big, twisted walking dream.
她並沒想過到底是誰在這麼做～在她的意識中所看到的，只是一隻雌螳螂在吞食著她的配偶，就像一場巨大的、被扭曲的白日夢一樣。
There was no mantis, of course.
It was all a hallucination.
Nothing more than some story spun by another person she'd created inside.
當然這房間裡根本就沒有螳螂，她看到的都是一種幻覺～僅僅是在她自己的腦海裡虛構出來的另一個人格而已。
Her unstable mind was what made her so vulnerable.
她會如此地脆弱，也正因為她的情緒是如此不穩定。
Later they ripped out what was left of her psyche with drugs and hypnosis, and implanted the persona of Psycho Mantis.
不久之後，他們透過藥物和催眠抹除了她剩下的精神，並且植入了「精神螳螂」的人格。
(飛燕插嘴：我還蠻懷疑這到底是怎麼辦到的....![]()
)
It wasn't her will that controlled the BBs, it was Psycho Mantis, half-assimilated into her soul, pulling the strings.
控制著「美女與野獸」的，並不是她自己的意願～而是和她的靈魂進入半同化狀態，真正操縱著木偶線的精神螳螂。
Screaming Mantis was just another puppet.
尖叫螳螂，只不過又是一個新的「傀儡」而已。
Anyway, she survied several weeks down in that hellhole and finally got back to the surface.
But the screams in her head didn't subside.
總之，她在那個地獄裡面存活了好幾個星期，最後終於回到地面上。
但是那些在她腦海裡盤旋的尖叫，卻並沒有因此平息下來。
They would always be with her...Only this time, they weren't real.
這些聲音將永遠陪伴著她....只是這一次，這些聲音已經不再是真實的存在。
The inner earplugs didn't work anymore. The black mantis had disappeared.
There was no place left to escape.
她的内耳塞已經消失，黑螳螂也不見蹤影。她已無處可逃。
Which is why she was always screaming---to drown out the ones in her own head.
也許這就是她何以總是發出尖叫聲的原因～她想藉此壓制住那些在她腦海中揮之不去的尖叫聲。
創作內容
[角色隨筆]美女與野獸(B&B)系列4－是我非我：「尖叫螳螂」
飛燕的小書桌 (4)
