"Show Me Your Teeth"

[LitWriter2013]

"Show Me Your Teeth"​

Maggie waited for the police to leave the ICU before she approached one of the Nurses. "The dog attack victim. Could you give me her room number?"

"Are you family?" the Nurse asked. Before Maggie could respond, the Nurse's face lit up. "I know you! You're that wolf expert ... um, Margaret Davidson. From that nature show."

"Davis," Maggie corrected with a smile. "Yes. I am. The room number...?"

"Do you think this was a wolf?" the Nurse was asking as she moved around to the other side of the Nurse's Station Desk to retrieve the room assignment list. "There aren't any wolves around her, ya know. The cops said it was a big dog. Was it a wolf do ya think?"

"I won't know," Maggie said, trying to keep her tone polite, "until I get a look at the victim."

The Nurse laughed, embarrassed. "Oh! Of course. Um ... they already moved her upstairs. Room 1212. Down the hall, elevator to the--"

Maggie thanked the young woman and turned away quickly. Two minutes later, she was passing by the room, looking inside to see if there was anyone else in there. She saw no one of concern, but what she did see wasn't good news.

"Excuse me," Maggie said to a passing nurse. "Is that the dog attack victim."

"Yes. Are you family?"

"No, I'm with, um, State Animal Control," Maggie lied. "I ... was told the victim was a woman."

"She died," the Nurse answered with a matter of fact tone, "at the scene, the police said. This is her boyfriend, I guess."

As the Nurse stored away a piece of rolling equipment, Maggie stared into the room. "Is he going to live?"

"Yes. The damage was superficial."

"Was he bit or just clawed?"

"Excuse me?"

"Was he bit?" Maggie's tone was sharp. She drew a deep breath, smiled, then explained, "If the dog had rabies, it would be important to know whether the victim was bit or just clawed."

"Oh! Got it. Yes. He was bit ... several times apparently, as he tried to get the dog off her. He told the police it was big ... like a bear. Can you believe that?"

Maggie watched the Nurse depart, then -- ensuring no one was watching -- entered the room to stand over the man. The damage was significant: scratches and bites to his face, neck, and shoulders. Maggie lifted the blankets for the unconscious man and found more bandages on the victims abdomen.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She returned to the door, looked for witnesses, then returned to the man's bed. She pulled a syringe from her jacket pocket, popped off the lid, inserted the needle into the tip of his finger below the nail, and injected the clear liquid. She dropped the syringe into a nearby red HazMat container, patted the man on the shoulder, and told him, "It's better this way."



"Isn't that just horrible?"

Maggie looked up from her lap top at a woman sitting at a nearby table. "What's that?"

The woman pointed to the news playing on the muted flat screen on the coffee shop's wall. "That poor woman who was attacked by a wolf. They say the damage to her face was just ... horrible."

The woman cringed at speaking the words. "And they said she was so beautiful, too. How do you live after something like that?"

Maggie returned to her lap top, casually saying, "I wouldn't worry too much about it. She died. And it wasn't a wolf."

"Oh, not that woman," the customer corrected. "The other one. Up in Jackson Park. They say she's fine ... 'cept for the..."

The customer curled her fingers and made clawing gestures at her face, grimacing with disgust. "They say the damage is ... eww."

Maggie spun to face the television, seeing emergency crews helping an injured woman onto a stretcher. her face and upper body were bandaged, but she seemed to be able to walk with help.

Maggie raced across the cafe and stood on her tippy toes to turn the volume up.

"Ma'am, please don't adjust the tele--"

The barista went silent at the sharp, harsh look from Maggie.

"...are saying that the second attack went undiscovered until this morning because of its remote location on the far side of the park," the reporter was saying. "Unlike the previous victims, sources at the scene are saying that this third victim, an unidentified 26 year old female, is expected to survive. You may recall from earlier reports that a female victim -- as of yet unidentified -- was killed at the scene last night. A second victim found fleeing the scene and also as of yet unidentified died in the hospital last night. His death is under investigation, but sources at the hospital who wish to remain anonymous say the cause was likely a blood clot in the heart or brain."

Maggie turned away and headed quickly for the cafe's exit.

"Horrible isn't it?" the woman repeated again.

Maggie paused, smiling broadly to the surprised customer. "No. This is wonderful."

 

[hells_fury]

Midnight the Night before

Midnight, the Night before

”Alright Jan I’m out of here.” Sadie smiled to the older woman as she left the hospital. She left her scrubs in her locker and she carried no bags or purse with her. She wore a pair of runner leggings, with a white tank top and a black hoodie over it. Checking both shoes she smiled.

The hospital was on the edge of town it was an odd place to put the only ER for miles, but here she was. Standing at the edge of the path that led through the woods she glanced down at her stop watch before beginning her stretches. It was late, later than usual but the ER had been packed and they needed all the hands they could get. She rolled her shoulders back and took a long slow breath.

Her ID’s and keys both securely placed in her inside pocket she smiled. She pulled her ponytail tight and took off at a slow job. Sadie was an avid runner, and participated in every race she could find in her area. Due to this she spent most of her time working, studying for her exams or running and working out. She didn’t hold much of a social life and people seemed shocked when they discovered that.

She was a beautiful woman; she had the perfect curves and a stunning face. Most thought her a model, but that had never been something she desired or went after. Now she was working in the ER in her town and going to college to become a surgeon. Though she was officially an intern now she still took classes on campus. Simply because she thought it best to consistently learn something new.

Her pace was slow and comfortable as she trailed through the woods, her thoughts elsewhere. Two ear buds were secured in her ears as her IPod played a rock mix of music she had selected. She hummed to the music as she continued her run up into the deeper parts of the forest. She knew her path like the back of her hand; she traveled it every night for weeks.

Glancing behind her she stopped hard in her tracks, she could see someone behind her. Perhaps a man, she could tell it was someone it was no animal. Furrowing her brow she shook her head and continued to run as she turned the sound down on her IPod.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up and fear began to course through her veins. Glancing over her shoulder she could still see the figure of the person. Was he following her? She wondered to herself. Looking forward she quickened her pace hoping to put distance between herself and whoever it was behind her.

Sadie Marie Paige wasn’t one for fear, but she had run this course several times and never had she run into anyone else. It had been one of her favorite things, it was secluded and private and it allowed her to be alone. Now though all of those things seemed to be playing against her.

 

[LitWriter2013]

He'd been waiting for her for what seemed like hours. She ran this route almost every night and had always begun between ten and half past. It was now after midnight.

He glanced into the night sky, at the bright moon hanging between two large elms. The Lay Person would look up at that seemingly larger than normal orb and see a full moon. But, it wasn't. Not yet. Not for another six minutes. As he looked off toward the path she should have already been coming down, he considered the fact that there were really only two types of people in this world who would know the exact precise moment that the moon became full: astronomers and ... people like him.

He grimaced as a shot of pain ravaged his body. It began in his gut and radiated out through him, ending in the tips of his fingers and toes ... and even in his ears. He shook his head and rubbed his ears roughly. How the hell can my EARS hurt? he asked himself for the umpteenth time since he'd become what he was.

Where the hell is she?

This had to happen in an exact, precise way to work. Minutes counted. And the minutes were--

He perked up at the sound of feet pounding upon the barked trail. It only took a moment for him to recognize the cadence: it was her. She was still more than a mile away, barely inside the park, but he knew it was her, and he knew she was coming. He cocked his head, left, then right, listening to her approach. Then he looked to the moon again. He didn't have to see it to know: she wasn't going to get here in time.

He leaped from his perch on an ancient glacial erratic and began running her direction. He had to close the distance between them, and quickly.

Five minutes.

In the time that she covered a quarter of a mile of well groomed jogging trails occasionally lit by hooded, light pollution-preventing lamps, he covered half of a mile of rough ground, occasionally thick woods, and cold water creeks, all of it more visible to him than the trail was to her.

Suddenly, pain erupted within him, tensing every muscle and causing him to collapse and roll down a small incline into a shallow creek. It took him another full minute to recover and rise to his feet. He cocked his head, listening, but the rambling brook was covering the sound of her. He lifted his nose to the air and breathed in deeply.

He smiled and looked quickly off toward a clearing. She was there!

Two minutes.

He stepped out into the trail and turned, just in time to catch sight of her near a turn in the path. Pain again; he bend over, grimacing, releasing a short grunt. When he looked back up, she was standing still, a silhouette against the moon's reflection upon a distant building.

She'd seen him. She headed off again, and he could tell from the sound that she was speeding up.

He sprinted after her, not caring whether she heard or saw him now. There simply wasn't time, and if it didn't happen tonight, it would be another month before--

He collapsed to the ground again as the pain enveloped him, calling out in despair, "A-a-a-a-r-r-r-o-o-o..."

Time! Just ... give ... me ...

He struggled to his feet and sprinted, this time through the woods around which the path she was following curved. He was wracked with stabbing pains as his body began the change.

No! Not yet! NOT YET!

He was just yards from the edge of the woods and could both smell and see her through the underbrush when midnight sharp struck him. He collapsed again, rolling through the dead leaves and slamming into a tree trunk. He struggled to hold in the pain, crawling to the edge of the woods.

She was stopped on the path, looking directly his direction. With his enhanced vision, he could see that she couldn't see him. If she had, she certainly wouldn't have been standing there idle, staring.

The pain became unbearable. He lifted his head toward the bright, full moon and released a long, ear splitting howl that the night goers across town would hear for miles.

The pain faded quickly; the transformation was over. He'd failed to reach her in time, not that his new consciousness understood that. Mentally, he was half the man he had been just moments earlier. Ironically, what he was now retained some of the urges he'd been carrying with him through the woods.

He looked to the path. She was gone. In a flash, he was in the open and moving faster than she could possibly hope to, runner or not. He used his sense of smell to find her direction; that took all of five seconds. After that, he caught sight of her, running at full speed down the trail that, in just a quarter of a mile, would exit her from the park into the city.

She didn't make it, of course. He was on her in another nine seconds, knocking her forward so hard that she flew thirty feet before she hit the ground and rolled off the trail, into the brush, and down a slight embankment.

He stopped at the edge of the woods, looking down at her with hungry eyes before slowly making his way down to her.

From the bottom of the draw, she wouldn't see the man she saw a quarter mile back, standing on his two feet staring at her through the darkness. She would instead see a bear sized figure with the unmistakeable outline of a wolf.

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie was in shock that would describe what she was feeling in this moment besides the blinding pain that pierced through her body. She could feel the ache of being shoved and flying across the land. Her back ached and she could swear she sprained her ankle. Regardless of her pain when she opened her eyes as saw the man standing there she had to look twice. It wasn’t a man; no it was something from horror movies only worse.

Fear shot through her as her mind tried to deny what her very eyes were seeing right now. It couldn’t be real it had to be an effect of hitting her head. It didn’t matter what was in front of her though whatever it was, wasn’t something she wanted to stick around and meet. Getting up off the ground she took off, her ear buds popping from her ears as the cord wrapped around one of her arms.

She ran with everything she had within her. Fear coursed through her veins, she didn’t know why she was running, if it was merely something she was seeing because she hit her head then why was she so afraid of it. Stopping she spun around and looked behind her. She could barely see her vision was blurry; she had a concussion she made the discovery as she realized she could barely focus on anything.

Of course the adrenaline and fear coursing through her forced her to move, to turn around and run. She needed to get home to take a bath and just relax. Take a few Tylenols and sleep whatever this was off. She ran and sure enough she would stop again as she realized she was no longer on the path, she had strayed from her normal running path. Now she wasn’t exactly sure where she was.

Looking around Sadie took a few steadying breaths. She listened for the beast, or the figment of her imagination and waited. She didn’t know what to do, she was a smart girl though. Pulling out her phone she looked down at the screen, it was shattered. Trying to turn it on a soft glow came but the screen was fuzz. She couldn’t make a thing on it out. Throwing down the phone she screamed into the night, why she wasn’t sure. If she was trying to hide now she just gave away her location.

Looking up to the sky she found the moon, she had always ran in the direction of the moon, it would lead her out of here. She had to trust in that now. Without a second thought she took off her breaths came quicker as she ran from fear and not her normal cadence. She pushed herself harder and faster than she ever ran before. The ringing started inside of her head, and she knew she had more than just a concusion right now though she couldn’t afford to stop.

Stopping would mean facing whatever that was back there and she wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t even believe she actually saw anything, no it was her imagination, but she had seen a man before. With that thought she began yelling for help. ”Someone HELP! ANYONE” Her screams were met with silence as she ran she knew she was alone.

She made it over a few branches and fallen trees with ease. As she looked back over her shoulder, she ran straight into another down tree, being knocked back and onto the ground the wind blown out of her she gasped for air as she looked around quickly her eyes searching the darkness. There was no more light from above now, she was too deep within the forest at this point. She was lost.

 

[LitWriter2013]

He watched her scrambling through the woods. She was disoriented. That was simple to understand, even in his current mental state. In fact, he probably sensed that about her in this condition more than he would have five minutes earlier.

He let her stumble about for a minute or two before he sprinted through the woods, circling around to in front of her. He crouched behind a downed tree and watched her pass less than two feet from him, never knowing he was so close.

She was exactly what he wanted. She was exactly what he needed. Of course, if she'd been on time, what he was about to take from her would have done him much more long term good. But, returning to the issue of his mental state, he neither knew nor cared about that now.

”Someone HELP!" she hollered. "ANYONE”

He couldn't have her calling for help. In a single leap, he covered the thirty feet distance between them, arriving just as she smacked into a tree and fell to the ground. He stood over her, looking down into her face. She was staring directly at him, yet didn't seem to see him there. If more of his human mind had been functioning, he would have realized she was too disoriented to tell the difference between his dark mass and the dark sky behind him.

But it wasn't the human mind that was in control now. It was the animal one.

He snatched at her, grasping an arm and flipping her to her front side. She let out a pained puff of air, then tried to scream. He reached up to her face, to smother it into the dry leaves but caught her delicate skin with his claws instead. She screamed out in pain as the soft skin of her cheek and neck were slice open in three parallel slashes.

Again, he pressed her face down, this time muffling her screams in the dirt. The other hand -- paw as it was now -- reached to her back, grasping a fistful of her top and ripping it away from her. Again she screamed, but the sound went no where. Another jerk and her leggings ripped away from her, leaving her bare, fair skin buttocks as plain to his night sight as the moon would have been to those walking in the park.

tackling her to the ground. She fought instinctively, and -- just as instinctively -- he grasped at her, trying to secure her to the ground.

She screamed as his claws scraped across her face. The small bit of human thinking that remained in him at the moment directed him to silence her. He flipped her to her front and slammed her to the ground, pressing her face to the leaves.

He'd knocked her

 

[hells_fury]

Pain raked across Sadie’s body she could feel the attack before she could see it. She could feel every single tear of flesh. She could feel her own blood seeping from her body. Drops of it fell against her lips and she could taste the irony substance causing her stomach to turn and toss. The pain tore through her vividly now, concussion or not she could feel everything that was happening to her.

The beast had flipped her and ripped her leggings, the sound of the material tearing from her body sent a new spark of fear coursing through her. Another scream escaped her before her face was smashed into the leaves to silence her. She could barely breathe, could barely understand anything. She couldn’t deny what was attacking her, it was no human or any animal she had ever heard of.

Her mind raced with vivid images of what would happen to her. She could see herself dying and being eaten as dinner or worse, her mind didn’t want to go there but something else forced her to. She could see this thing taking her in the most intimate of ways, forcing her giving her no choice. An icy flare of fear coursed through her veins at that thought. Another scream burst from her before she head was smashed into the ground and pain and darkness took her.


Slowly Sadie woke up on a bed, looking around she blinked her eyes adjusting to the bright lights. She shot up from the bed as she looked around her. She was in a hospital; looking down at herself she saw the gown and the bed beneath her with no memory of how she got here. Fear coursed through her veins as she sat there. What happened to her? How was she still alive now?

Screams pierced the air around her as she got up from the bed, yanking her IV’s and monitors off of her body. She was shaking and made her way quickly to the door as she opened it and saw no one. The hospital was eerie and quiet. Where was she? She knew it was a hospital but where did they have her. Another kind of fear pierced her, was she even in a hospital? Her eyes said yes but her mind seemed to be warped now, her reality seemed to be flipped upside down.

Beep…Beep…Beep. Her head snapped in the direction of the machines as they wailed at her. Her head pounding with pain she dropped to her knees, holding her head in her hands. Tears staining her face as she screamed. She could feel the pain again and the images of the attack, they would think her insane if she told anyone, what she had come to know she saw. She couldn’t have, no it was a bear or a wolf. Yes it had to. But why was a bear or wolf so far from where it belonged? The question stung and bothered her, made her mind think and wander to other possibilities things she refused to believe.

 

[LitWriter2013]

The night nurse rushed to Sadie at the sight of her on the floor, calling for help. Within a minute, three other workers were there, returning her to her bed and reattaching the various wires and tubes with professional urgency.

"Where the hell's that doctor?" someone called.

A woman came shooting into the room, answering, "Here! Make some room!"

A moment later, the needle in the doctor's hand was delivering a mild sedative to one of the tubes, and less than a minute after that, Sadie was once again as calm as she had before she'd regained consciousness.

Accusations of a loss of control moved about the room, but eventually the crowd -- which had now grown to eight -- dispersed, with a mid-shift volunteer candy striper remaining at Sadie's bedside to keep an eye on her.



It was sun up when another doctor entered the room and introduced himself to Sadie as the man who would be doing most of the reconstructive surgery on her wounds.

He saw the look in her eyes at the word reconstructive. One entire side of her face was hidden by bandages, as was her upper left arm, lower right arm, and her waist line, clear around her trunk.

He asked softly, "Has no one talked to you yet about the extent of your injuries?"

When she responded in the negative, he donned a disappointed expression. He scooted closer to the bed, opening the chart and glancing at it, just to remind himself of the damage that had been done to her by the dog, or dogs, as the police said might have been the case.

"The wounds to your left and right arm shouldn't cause permanent damage of a too serious nature. We need to reconstruct one tendon, which might lead to a little loss of motion, but -- as I said -- it shouldn't be too serious. However..."

He hesitated, looking back to the chart. He did so not because he didn't recall what it said: instead, he simply didn't know how he was going to explain this to her.

"Sadie, I'm going to be straight with you." His tone was soft and very sincere. "The damage to your face ... it's permanent. We can repair the depth of the wounds, but ... you will always have scars. And there will be some loss of movement. It'll be like ... how do I describe this ... like having suffered a stroke. Your smile ... it'll be a bit crooked, like one of those black hat guys in the cartoons."

He tried to add a tiny bit of comical relief to the situation, but he could see it wasn't working. He looked back to the chart, then continued. "The damage to your torso. Well..."

He drew a deep breath, releasing it slowly. He looked to her and said, "The police can't explain what happened to you. It ... the wounds ... it would appear as if the creature -- the police are calling it a very large dog -- as if it grasped you at the waist, just above the hip bones. It's claws penetrated, causing damage to..."

He choked up a bit, an uncommon thing for him. But, this was a common attack for him to be describing to a patient. He looked to her again. "Sadie. This is going to sound crazy, but ... well, neither the police nor the emergency room surgeon who tended you could come up with a better explanation than..."

He took her arm just above her wrist. "Sadie. It almost looks like this ... this dog or what ever it turns out to be ... it would appear as if you were raped."

He saw her reaction and squeezed her arm with reassurance. "It's ... hard to fathom, I know. But ... there is vaginal tearing that would surely indicate penile penetration. And the location of the claw marks on your hips... Well, to be honest, that's ... we just can't explain that."

He could see that this was beginning to overwhelm Sadie. He pulled another syringe out of his jacket pocket and quickly but inconspicuously injected its sedative contents into the tube feeding her arm. As he waited for it to take affect, he asked, "Is there anything I can do for you, Sadie. Anyone I can call. Name it. I'll see that it gets done. Oh, and there's a guy waiting downstairs to see you. Says he's your boyfriend or fiancee or something, but ... well, I wanted to wait until I talked to you about--"

He glanced toward the big bandage covering half of her face.

 

[hells_fury]

The word rape rung inside of her mind, tears sprang from her eyes. She could feel the affects of the drugs but her mind wasn’t fully numb nor was her body. Her heart ached, she could feel the weight upon her. Sobs released from her body, she had been raped, not only raped though no she had been raped by a beast. A beast, a creature, or a very large dog as the cops had put it. She heard the Doctor’s words as he spoke, but her mind wasn’t keeping up.

The mention of a man waiting for her caught her interest, Paul was here to see her. He would make her feel better he always did. She tried to smile but couldn’t do so. ”Water…please.” She breathed out to the Doctor.

Her breathing was deep as she tried to relax tried to understand. As the water was placed close to her she found it difficult to drink through a straw but with a few tries she managed to finally get a drink. Laying her head back on her pillow she nodded her thanks to the Doctor. ”You can send him in, just if I scream come running is all.” Sadie tried to make the situation lighter with a lopsided smile as she looked at the Doctor.

Tears stained her face as she laid there looking up to the ceiling. Shock was racing through her, she figured the man waiting to see her was her boyfriend Paul, he was always perfect to her, a runner, a lover everything to her. She hoped Paul would stay with her in the hospital though she would understand if he couldn’t he was detective after all. That was her allure to him, his dangerous job; of course that was how they had met. In the ER it was ironic now him coming to see her, when she had saved him from a gunshot wound.

Sadie’s mind felt as broken as her body. She would forever be scared and have damage done to her. She knew the effects of a stroke she had seen them, she would never be the same again. She had been an athlete before, she had taken pride in being healthy and taking care of herself and now she was a mess, she would never be whole again. She watched the Doctor leave not being able to make out what he said as he left. New tears sprang to life as she laid there, her chest heaved up and down as she tried to come to terms with this. Her life would never be the same again, ever.

 

[LitWriter2013]

Paul hesitated at the door, just out of Sadie's view. Most of her face was masked by bandages, turning over his stomach.

C'mon, dick! You have to be there for her. She was there for you!

He lifted a hand unconsciously, feeling the slight divot of a scar where the bullet shot by a doped-up, would-be robber penetrated his torso. Sadie had been in the emergency room that night and, it was said later, was the only reason Paul was still alive.

He wished he could say he fell in love with her because of what she'd done for him. But, to be honest, he'd fallen in love -- or lust -- with that perfect ass and angelic face. And now...

He caught the doctor as he came down the hall. "Can I ask. The damage. You know..."

He gestured to his face to emphasize what he was getting at.

The doctor looked past Paul to Sadie, then back to the man with the badge on his hip. "I don't know what to tell you, Detective. It's ... it's severe. Even with reconstructive surgery." The doctor moved closer to him and laid a hand upon his upper arm. With a very sincere tone he said, "When I told her someone was waiting for her ... a guy who said he was her boyfriend ... I saw in her eyes what you mean to her. Just remember. Looks are only skin deep. Love ... that goes all the way to the heart."

Paul watched the doctor depart, then turned back to Sadie's room. Skin deep, he told himself. Skin deep.

But as he entered and saw the bruising around the edges of the bandages and realized what the damage itself must be like, he could already feel their relationship ending.

Sadie caught sight of him and he smiled. He moved to her side and took her hand, saying softly, "Hey, baby."

 

[hells_fury]

She flinched at his touch but slowly relaxed. Sadie gave Paul a lopsided smile as she looked at him as best she should. Swallowing slowly she took a slow deep breath. ”Hey baby” She breathed out to him. Her eyes falling shut as she laid there. The pain was coming back she could feel the edge of the pain killer wearing off and then as if on time the machine let another drip fall and she could feel the fuzz return. Another lopsided smile found her lips as she looked to Paul.

”I’m happy your hear Paul” Tears sprang to her eyes, she wanted to tell him what the doctor had told her but she didn’t know how to. She knew he would see the bandages at her hips see the wounds across her body and he would know how bad the attack really was. Swallowing the lump in her throat she looked away from him as she cried again her chest heaving up and down as her breathing became shallow and unsteady.

”Paul they…they say…it.. whatever…it was…ra…rap…raped me.” She stuttered out to him as she tried to speak between her sobs. She wept again her chest heaving the pain ripping through her. Not the physical kind of pain no the emotional kind. The kind she didn’t know how to deal with that, didn’t know how to control it. She looked back to Paul her one free eye down casted. Her tears continued to flow as she laid there looking at him.

 

[LitWriter2013]

Earlier:

Raped.

No man ever wanted to hear that his lover had been violated by another man. And, on top of that, to be so brutally savaged, too.

Paul was talking to the Detective heading the case in the hospital lobby.

"We think that maybe a man with a dog attacked Sadie," the man told Paul, looking over his notes. "There was evidence of a sexual assault, so we ran a rape kit. Results should be back in a day or two. After her initial surgery, the doctors snapped us some pics of the wounds. Paul, I gotta tell you ... this is a strange one."

"What's so strange about it?" Paul practically snapped back at the man. "Some fucking creep raped my girl friend, then let his dog almost eat her?"

"But ... that's what's so confusing," the Detective said, handing Paul an iPad and tapping it, bringing up the photo gallery. "The pics say something different."

Paul's stomach turned at the sight of Sadie so brutally savaged. He looked away for a moment, then scrolled through the images slowly. The detective was right: there was something wrong with the wounds.

"These here," he said, pointing to the claw marks on Sadie's hips. "The dog did this?"

"Supposedly."

"No fucking way. Look at how far apart the punctures are. It's like a fucking bear grabbed her from behind and..."

Paul scrolled a pic left, then returned to the one before it. He did this three times -- back and forth, studying them -- then looked up with an odd expression. "Remember that guy in Vermont, about four years ago...? The one with the ceremonial claws that he'd made gloves out of?"

The Detective laughed. "So ... what are you saying? This guy grabs his victims from behind with claw gloves, making it look like she was raped by some sort of animal?"

"Well, how the fuck do you explain it? No dog did this! A dog doesn't grab a woman at her hips from behind and fuck her!"

A uniformed cop who didn't know the sensitive context of the conversation had the worse timing as he walked up, heard the conversation, and joked, "Doggy style?"

He never saw the punch coming at his forehead. As the flat foot landed flat on his back upon the floor, dazed, Paul rubbed his aching fist in his other hand. The Detective stepped between the two law officers, telling Paul, "Go upstairs! Go see your woman. See if you can learn anything more about this ... before they make me go in and interview her.


Later, upstairs:

Despite having been told about the rape, hearing Sadie say the word only caused Paul's stomach to turn over yet again. Seeing her face bandaged so -- knowing that it was mutilated below -- only made things worse.

"It's okay, baby," he reassured her. "I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere."

Even as he was saying it he knew it wasn't true. His true attraction to Sadie had been her beauty. He wanted to believe that he wasn't that superficial, but he knew he wasn't. He was a pig: he knew it. Even when he'd been laying there in that hospital bed, tubes running into him from every direction, the only thing he'd been able to think about was getting into the pants of that sexy lady doctor.

And now that sexy lady doctor was ... well, she was just that lady doctor. With their intense work schedules, they hardly ever saw one another. But, without fail, every time they got together, they fucked like tomorrow was never coming. He loved fucking Sadie. He loved staring into that flawless face and watching her reaction to the euphoria flooding through her, pleasure that he was giving her. Now...

"It's okay, baby. We'll get through this."

"Excuse me, Detective?"

Paul looked to the door, finding a woman in a conservative suit stepping into the room hesitantly.

"Hello. I don't mean to interrupt." She shoved her hand out. As Paul took it, she told him, "I'm Margaret Davis. I study ... well, that's not important. I wonder ... could I have a moment with Doctor Paige?"

Paul was looking for an escape, to be serious. He squeezed Sadie's hand, told her he would be just outside, and stepped out with a bit of urgency.

Maggie took Paul's seat, smiling to Sadie: her expression showed no surprise at Sadie's horrible wounds, as if she was immune to such injuries.

"Hi, Sadie. My name is Margaret Davis, but I'd like it if you would call me Maggie. I study wolves, and ... well, I want to talk to you about what attacked you."

 

[hells_fury]

It all happened so fast she had troubles keeping track. On minute Paul was with her, he was by her side. Something had felt off though she could see it in his eyes but she never got the chance to ask him. Now a woman was there, looking at the woman she blinked away her tears.

Haven’t I been through enough? What more do they want from me? They already know my story know what happened to me.

This woman was asking an odd question, she asked what attacked her, didn’t she know it was wolves or a bear or whatever story they had decided on. Sadie didn’t know her mind felt warped as if reality was no longer real. She couldn’t make sense of her memories. Looking at the woman she swallowed hard as she laid there. ”What do you mean Maggie?”

She was being cautious, for all Sadie knew the woman could be a shrink and she didn’t want to end up on the psych ward. Laying there she controlled her breathing, the memories continued to flash before her eyes but there was so much she couldn’t account for. So much she couldn’t figure out. She knew she had been knocked out, that must have been when the rape had occurred. She wasn’t sure she wanted to remember it. Blinking her eyes she wiped away her tears with one hand as she refused to let her mind go there.




OOC Note:
Italic words are her thoughts
Bold words are what she is saying.

 

[LitWriter2013]

Maggie was careful with her questioning of Sadie. The young woman had mental injuries to get past as well as physical ones, and the last thing she needed now was some strange woman questioning her about what kind of animal had attacked her.

She asked Sadie to describe exactly what she'd seen. Was it a man? Was it a dog? Could there have been both, as the police believed? That last one seemed to confuse Sadie; the doctor had seemed certain that the animal itself had strangely raped the female victim, where as the cops were certain it was a man who had done the rape before sending his dog after Sadie, probably with the intent to kill her.

Maggie never used the word rape. She didn't even refer to the sexual assault by those words, instead simply referring to the attacks as The one by the man and The one by the dog.

It wasn't long before Maggie could see that Sadie was getting frustrated, or exhausted, or both. The drugs dripping slowly into her made it easier for Maggie to pry answers out of the young woman, but the pain they were supposed to be helping with -- as well as the emotional trauma of learning she'd been raped -- made Sadie quick to suddenly clam up or ask to finish later.

"You've been a big help," Maggie said when she realized that Sadie was done for the moment. She patted the broken woman on the arm, then stood and crossed to the dry erase board used by the nurses to record vitals. She set one of her business cards there, then turned. She drew a deep breath, exhaled, then crossed to Sadie again and, with a serious tone, said, "Sadie ... I'm going to tell you something important, and you're going to think that I'm crazy. But ... as time goes on ... as the days and weeks to follow pass ... you're going to start remembering more about what happened that night."

She glanced to the door to ensure they were alone. "You're going to remember things that ... don't make sense. You're going to think you're crazy. Sadie, you're not. I know you're not, but the others ... they will tell you that you're imagining things. When this happens ... when these memories return to you ... call me. I will believe everything you tell me."

She stood, looked down upon Sadie for a moment, then told her, "I was attacked by this animal, too, Sadie. I was attacked and almost died. I know what it is ... and I know how to stop it. I'm the only one. I'm the only one who can help you."

(OOC -- Sending you a PM, too.)

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie laid there as she listened to Maggie, it all sounded odd and wrong to her. Something in her though felt that she was right. Something clicked inside of her at the woman’s words. She watched Maggie heading for the door. Swallowing the lump in her own throat she looked at her with a confused expression. ”Maggie I don’t understand any of this. There was a man, but when I screamed for help he was gone.” Her tears speared her eyes once again as she laid there.

The vision of that man was still fresh in her mind, she never saw his face but she saw his silhouette. She could remember that much, she could remember the thing that attacked her at first. It was massive in size far bigger than anything she had ever seen before. A part of her wanted to know more but there was a part of her that denied it all refused to believe what her eyes had seen. ”It can’t be, my memories must be figments of my fear my imagination because of the attack.” She whispered to herself as she laid there.

She felt her world slipping away, her mind leaving her. She felt like she was going mad. Sadie was a month away from becoming a surgeon. She was so close and now her life was flipped upside down and inside out. Nothing made sense to her now, nothing seemed to be real anymore, and she felt like she was living in a fantasy world, perhaps though that would change once she was released from the hospital. Paul came back to mind in that moment and she smiled softly. ”Will you get Paul for me?” She asked the woman standing there hoping she would follow her request.

 

[LitWriter2013]

”Will you get Paul for me?”

Maggie's friendly expression faded to a concerned look. She stepped back into the room, hesitated -- unsure -- then moved close to her again.

"Sadie. I ... I want you to be prepared for when Paul leaves you." She gave the young woman a moment to understand her implication, then added, "You are not the woman he fell in love with. Physically--" She glanced conspicuously to the bandages covering almost half of Sadie's face. "--or emotionally ... because of the ... assault."

Again, she didn't specifically refer to Sadie's rape, but she was pretty certain the woman understood. She stepped a bit closer still. "I am not trying to be cold. I am trying to be realistic. It happened to me ... after my attack. My lover..."

She drew a deep breath, the emotion of her explanation obviously affecting her.

"I should go," she said, trying to smile as best should could. "I'll look for Paul downstairs. But..."



Twenty minutes later, a nurse entered the room to check Sadie's vitals, offer her sedatives or pain killers if she needed them, and refill her water bottle. She asked Sadie if there was anything she needed, then said suddenly, "Oh! I almost forgot. Some woman ... Margaret maybe...? She said to tell you that Paul was downstairs, who ever that is."

She gathered up the trash from Sadie's bed table, then said, "Oh, and that gorgeous hunk that was visiting you earlier. He asked me to tell you he had to go to work."

She gave Sadie a smile and headed out.

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie laid there with a tear stained face as she tried to make sense of everything. Maggie had said so much and she didn’t know what to think. She watched the nurse in the room, as she heard the nurse’s words she looked up to her. ”Paul was up here?” She asked curiously. ”I thought he was down stairs?” Confusion took her again. None of this was making sense to her; Maggie had only confused her further and now the nurse. She could assume it wasn’t really all that hard to understand, but in her mind it was.

”Miss can I have something to help me sleep and to help with the pain?” She asked softly as she laid there. Her mind didn’t seem to be working and sleep was the only thing that sounded remotely nice to her. Paul left for work apparently and Maggie said Paul would leave her. She didn’t want to believe it but she really didn’t know. She laid there and more tears stained her face.

 

[LitWriter2013]

(OOC -- Just a tiny bit of "god moding" in this first paragragh.)


The night had been hard on Sadie, despite the sedatives and pain killers the nurses administered over the hours to come. In the morning, on yet another type of pain reliever, she returned to consciousness and tried to open her eyes at the sounds of voices, but the side effect of the new drug was visual sensitivity. She grimaced and kept her eyes closed as she listened to the conversation taking place almost over the top of her.

"The scars are permanent?" The voice was Paul's.

"The reconstruction team will make them less so..." That was the doctor who had told Sadie she'd been raped. "...but ... she will always have them. I think what's more important here are the emotional scars."

There was a short pause, and the Doctor asked softly, "Are you going to be here to help her with those?"

Paul didn't answer.

"I understand how hard this must be for you. When two people in love face a tragedy like--"

There was a sound ... like someone almost chuckling, or expelling a burst of air from their lungs in surprise.

After a moment, the Doctor said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I must have misunderstood. I was under the impression that the two of you were ... close."

Another pause before Paul mumbled almost incoherently, "Not this close. At least ... not for me. It was just ... you know."

"Does she know that? I'm pretty good at reading emotions. And I sensed a love in her for you, Paul."

More dead air. Then, as if he didn't know how he was going to tell his former lover, "I assure you, doc. It's one way."

(OOC -- Wow! What a pig! Okay, sock it to him, cry quietly, or find a scalpel and do some damage: it's your turn.)

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie listened and she could feel the knife twisting in her chest through her heart. Holding back her tears she opened her eyes tightly so she could see just enough but not blind herself. Her fingers twisted the sheets beneath her fists as she laid there. Forcing herself to sit up she grimaced at the pain but she had a new force driving her now. Looking at Paul she could feel her anger and hurt rising. ”Get out of my room now Paul, I never want to see you again.. EVER so you can give my case to someone else… Or I will just let your boss know why I don’t want you here, because you are nothing but a pig and an ass…”

The anger was so bad she was shaking. She could feel her heart breaking and she could feel herself wanting to cry to subside to the pain but she couldn’t. She hated hearing what she had from Paul, she hated him more for being that kind of man, if you could even call him a man. She laid back down and turned her back to Paul. She didn’t want to see him, she just wanted him gone.

Her body ached again as she laid there. The pain from the breakup, the assault, it all seemed to rush forward now. She laid there and held her breath waiting to hear Paul leave the room. Right now a few minutes, even a few moments felt like an entire lifetime.

 

[LitWriter2013]

Paul's stomach rolled at Sadie's voice, instantly realizing that she's been conscious despite the doctor's assurance that she was "dead to the world" on the new meds. He took a step back, as if expecting her to come out of the bed and savage him as that man and dog in the park had done to her two night's earlier.

He wanted to apologize for hurting her, but she turned and dropped to her bed, turning her back to him and ON their relationship.

He wouldn't think it until later, but she had so quickly and easily done what Paul had had no concept of how to do: end them.

The doctor gestured for him to make a quiet exit, and he did.

Meanwhile, beyond the door, past the nurses station, out of hearing range but able to see -- and understand -- exactly what had happened, Maggie smiled just a bit. Something she hadn't explained to Sadie was that Paul's departure from the young woman's life was a good thing.

For Maggie.

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie laid there refusing to allow herself to cry, refusing to be that woman. She had to fight now, fight for her life, for everything she valued. Taking a slow breath she rolled to her back and sat up in the bed. Looking down at the sheets that covered her she shook her head as she looked around the room and sighed heavily. She needed out of this bed, out of this room. She needed to breathe the fresh air again. Paul was gone now, she knew what kind of man he truly was and that was not something she wanted in her life. No she didn’t have any time for that in her life.

”Hey doc, is there any way I could get out of this bed. I need to move my legs again, to walk. I need to get a bit of fresh air, this room feels like prison to me right now.” She sighed as she spoke. She hated asking for help, hated feeling useless and helpless. She had been independent most of her life; she had managed to live her life on her own accord. Now she was at the mercy of others though, this trauma would affect her entire life and she knew that.

Sadie knew that this would change everything for her. She would see the true colors of people and she wasn’t sure how well she would be able to deal with that. She knew she would have to, she knew she would have no choice but to figure it all out. Taking a deep breath she spun her legs over to the side of her bed. The sheets falling away, moving the gown she looked down at her hips. Taking her right hand she traced the line of the claw marks as she looked at them. She hated seeing them, but it was like she had earned her stripes, she survived an attack that should have killed her and she knew it. She bit her bottom lip refusing to cry.

As her eyes and finger traced the scar she furrowed her brow. She had seen several animal attacks and this looked nothing like those. Looking over her shoulder at the dry erase board her eyes found that business card. Perhaps Maggie could help her, perhaps she was the only one who could right now.

 

[LitWriter2013]

He was the fifth doctor Sadie had dealt with face to face since the attack four days earlier. Each one had had his or her specialty; this one's, she said, was a revolutionary technique of facial reconstruction, using real human skin produced from artificially created stem cells.

"The results have been stunning," the woman said for at least the fifth time during her hour long meeting with Sadie. Standing behind Sadie and looking into the mirror with her, like the hair dresser at the local beauty shop, she pointed to the various scars and described the percentage of repair that was likely.

Repair. It was a word she used often as well. That and likely.

She could see the frustration -- or disappointment? -- in Sadie's eyes. She stood tall for a moment, studying her patient. "I'm sorry that I can't do more for you Sadie. I really am. Like I said, I can repair the depth of most of the scars, and the neurosurgeon can likely return some of the movement to your cheek and lips on that side."

"Why don't we take this up again tomorrow," Sadie's assigned physician -- yet another doctor she'd only just met today -- chimed in politely. "Sadie needs to rest."

The reconstruction expert said her goodbyes and promised to stop in again tomorrow. She walked out to the main corridor with the other doctor, leaving Sadie with the mirror still in front of her.

With the bandages removed, the result of the attack was all to real. Three slashes began high on her face, between her forehead and her right ear. They descended parallel to one another, getting deeper as the cut through her cheek. A chunk of flesh near her jaw bone had simply been ripped away.

They resumed at her clavicle and, as they extended across her body to her left breast, had become puncture marks. One of the doctors had told her she might lose that breast altogether if they couldn't repair a pair of nerves and a key blood vessel that was threatening to collapse.

At her waist and hips the damage hadn't been nearly as deep but it had been much more pronounced. While the damage to her face and chest could have been blamed on any of a number of weapons, that at her hips was undoubtedly caused by claws. The animal -- or as some of the cops still believed, a man with clawed gloves made special for the attack -- had most certainly grasped Sadie from behind, just in front of her hip bones, then pulled her viciously back toward him, first clawing her for a couple of inches, then sinking the claws a full two inches into her. Her left hip bone had even been nicked and was going to have to have wayward bone fragments surgically removed.



"What does she remember?"

Maggie looked to the man before her. "Not much. She remembers seeing a man first, then what may have been a big dog. I questioned her while she was still hazy on the drugs, so -- obviously -- she wasn't very coherent."

"Is she accepting your help?"

She hesitated. She'd received a call from a blocked number -- which she new the hospital did for security reasons -- but she couldn't be certain that it had been Sadie and there had been no message left.

"Go back." His tone was almost as much pleading as it was demanding. "She needs your help. We need her to need your help."

"Her boyfriend abandoned her."

"That's good." His answer was quick. "What about family? Friends?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen anyone else with her, but ... I could have simply missed seeing them."

"Go back," he repeated. "This is the best opportunity to end this that we're had in over two years."

A long, quiet moment passed before she reached through the bars to touch him. He shrank back, saying, "Don't. You know we can't."

Her eyes began to glaze over. "But soon...?"

"Soon."

A loud roar startled Maggie, and she turned to see one of the lionesses atop a log, entertaining the zoo's visitors. She looked back to the man, standing beyond the wrought iron gate that separated them. She hated meeting him like this, with bars keeping them apart. But she knew, as he did, that to be in physical contact would only confuse the situation and, possibly, prevent them from ever being together again.



Sadie's doctor entered her room the next morning with a big smile and her discharge papers. He laughed and said cheerfully, "Time to go home. You've been paroled."

He gave her a list of all the doctors assigned to her case, the number of the hospital shrink, a list of support groups, several prescriptions and more. Finally, he gave her an order, and a bit of advice. "Keep up on all of your follow up appointments, and don't miss even one. I have a nurse assigned to monitor your appointments, and if she sees that you don't show up for something ... well, she can get mean, I'll tell you. And ... Sadie ... don't let this stop you from living your life. This might be a game changer, but it's not a life ender."

They chatted about prescriptions and so muscle/nerve exercises, and when he stood to hand Sadie her bag, he found a business card sitting on the lamp table. He looked at the name, wondered whether he knew a Maggie, then handed it to Sadie, asking, "Yours?"

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie was happy to finally be home, she had her prescriptions now and had been keeping up with her appointments and everything. Her boss said she still had her internship but in the situation she was currently in she wasn’t ready to return. It had been a week and now she sat on her couch drinking a glass of wine. Looking over the business card Maggie had given her she sighed. She needed a friend, someone to talk to, who wouldn’t send her to a shrink. Shaking her head she grabbed her phone and dialed the number that was on the card.

She didn’t know what to expect but soon it became too much and she hung up the phone. She felt crazy, insane as if she was losing her mind. She wasn’t ready to face it yet. She couldn’t face it yet. A few more days passed and soon weeks turned into a month. Sadie couldn’t deny it anymore something had happened to her, something had changed within her.

She was living like a recluse now and wine was her best friend. Her friends and family couldn’t stand to be around her anymore and tonight she was drinking her sorrows away. Grabbing her phone she dialed Maggie, she was belligerent drunk at this point. She didn’t care what anyone thought of her, her life was destroyed and no one had any respect left for her now. They had told her to get over it but no one really understood her anymore. Something was different and now she needed answers. She listened to the phone ringing and waited the voice mail answered. She left her name and address asking for the woman to come over before she ended the call and grabbed another bottle of wine for herself.

 

[LitWriter2013]

Maggie was out the door less than three minutes after Sadie had called. The hospital had caught her off guard by releasing Sadie earlier, and when Maggie tried to get Sadie's address, she'd been denied because she wasn't family.

"If I was family, I'd know where she lived!" she'd barked at the admitting nurse.

She'd been panicking for weeks, not being able to find Sadie. In this age of internet anti-privacy, Maggie would have thought it easy to simply Google Sadie's name. And yet, she'd found nothing.

And now, here was the call!

When she arrived, she knocked several times but got no answer. Sadie had sounded as if she were drinking, so Maggie took a chance and tried the lock. It was unlocked. She pushed the door open. "Sadie?"

With no reply, she wandered in slowly, and repeated her call again.

Three more calls went unheeded and finally, standing in the living room access, she was looking at Sadie, passed out on the couch with the remains of a wine bottle dripping slowly upon her chest.

Maggie went to her and help her upright, telling her everything was going to be alright. "I'm going to help you to your bed, sweetheart."

She did just that, getting the younger woman to her bed, stripping the stained shirt from her torso and, after laying her back, peeling the raggedy old sweats from her legs. Maggie could sense Sadie's desperation and surrender to life when she didn't even flinch at having a stranger strip her mutilated body down to a bra and pair of panties.

With Sadie's eyes drunkenly closed, she took a minute to look over the scars from the attack. There had been a great deal of healing over the twenty days since the attack, and the doctors had already begun performing a great deal of reconstructive surgery. But the damage was still undeniable. Sadie wouldn't be winning any beauty contests in the future.

Which was ironic and sad, too. Maggie looked beyond the scars, as only she could, and saw a young, beautiful woman laying before her. For any woman to have something like this done to her -- homely, ugly, fat, whatever -- would have been horrific, unfair, and inexcusable. But to have someone so beautiful savaged in this way just seemed like a waste.

Of course, Sadie hadn't been doing like some women -- and men even -- did, playing on their beauty to get through life. She gone into medicine where she could have -- and might still -- make a living without the need for a winning smile and an eye catching figure.

Maggie had been one of those women who had needed those very things. She hadn't always been a Wolf Biologist. She'd once been an actress. Oh, it had been small time stuff: local theater and commercials, a few magazine advertisements. She'd been no supermodel, as her pay would have verified.

But her own wolf attack -- six years ago, at age 24 -- had ended that, and even after she had been repaired to her current beauty, she'd taken another path and abandoned that previous life.

She through the covers over Sadie and watched over her until she was fast asleep. Then, going to the kitchen to make a quick call -- to confirm that she was in -- she made a pot of coffee, settled back with a good book in a chair near Sadie's bed, and waited.



It was almost 4am when Sadie bolted upright in her bed screaming and looked around with a desperate look. Maggie was sitting under a small reading lamp but quickly jumped up to turn on the overhead light.

"It's alright, Sadie," she reassured her hostess softly, moving to sit on the bed and take the younger woman's hand. "I'm here with you. You're alright."

She gave Sadie a moment to gain some clarity in the moment and in Maggie's presence inside her apartment. Then, point blank -- because she saw no other way to do it -- Maggie looked into Sadie's eyes and informed her, "You were attacked by a werewolf, Sadie."

 

[hells_fury]

Sadie felt like she was being suffocated as she heard Maggie’s words. She tried to deny it tried to shake her mind and force herself to try to make a reason as to why this woman would lie to her. Sadie looked at Maggie and took a slow deep breath as she sat there before she stood up and began facing. One of her hands traced along her face at the scars. ”My job doesn’t even want me back they think.. I am in a sensitive state of mind which is basically a nice way of saying they think I am going to loose it.”

She shook her head as she left the room and stumbled to her kitchen. Seeing a pot of coffee already prepared she made herself a mug adding some milk and sugar to it before taking a slow long sip from the mug. She smiled at the relief the coffee bought her. ”My own dog couldn’t stand to be around me, he tried to attack me… I had to sell him.” She shook her head as she went to her living room and grabbed a throw blanket before sitting in the lazy boy chair.

Sadie shook her head as she drank more coffee from her mug. ”I have seen things that don’t make any damned sense in my dreams. I can’t tell a soul because if I do they will admit me into the psych ward.” Sadie shook her head as she sat there pulling the blanket around her before taking another drink.

 

[LitWriter2013]

Maggie understood Sadie's confusion. She had, of course, gone through the same herself.

”My job doesn’t even want me back they think. They think I am in a sensitive state of mind which is basically a nice way of saying they think I am going to lose it.”

She shook her head as she left the room and stumbled to her kitchen. Sadie headed for the remains of the still warm pot of coffee. When she smiled at the soothing taste of the drink, Maggie smiled herself. It was the first time she had seen a positive expression from Sadie since she'd met her that day after the attack.

”My own dog couldn’t stand to be around me," Sadie continued. "He tried to attack me… I had to sell him.”

She shook her head as she went to her living room and grabbed a throw blanket before sitting in the lazy boy chair.

”I have seen things that don’t make any damned sense in my dreams. I can’t tell a soul because if I do they will admit me into the psych ward.”

Maggie refilled her coffee mug with the last ounces of thick coffee, then put another pot on. She moved to the living room and sat on the love seat across from Sadie.

"I told you that I was attacked. I told you I've been through this, too. Sadie ... I'm going to tell you exactly what this is. You're going to think I'm crazy, but consider the facts as you already know them before you invite me aboard that bus to the psych ward."

She sipped at the coffee, wincing at the hours-old liquid. She took a moment to form her thoughts.

"Six years ago, I was very much in love with a married man, who was planning on leaving his wife. I was modeling and acting ... had a nice home ... lots of friends and even more acquaintances ... you know, the type that like to hang around with the beautiful people. The only thing missing was a man to call my own, and soon, I would have that, too."

She took Sadie's mug, refilled it amd hers with the fresh coffee, and returned again.

"Then ...while my lover was on a hiking vacation in Idaho, he and his wife were attacked by an animal. The police said it was a wolf ...a big wolf. But Rangers from three different jurisdictions, including Yellowstone -- who tracked the animals via electonic collars -- said no. Either way, his wife was killed, and he was left in a wheel chair with a leg that was still there but no longer functioned."

She sipped at her drink, unsure of how to phrase her next statement. Maggie wanted to instill in Sadie that she was the only understanding help Sadie was going to get, but she also didn't want to sound cruel.

"I stayed with my lover ... stuck by his side through his pain and surgery ... through the loss of all he knew."

She saw Sadie's expression and knew the woman was thinking of Paul.

"Then ... just under a month later, some thing happened. He had been acting odd for a few days. Despite his injuries and the constant pain he endured, he insisted that we make love one night, under the full moon, no less ...in the park! We had never done something like that ...sex in public. Sadie ... it was the most intense, animalistic thing I'd ever encountered. I'm not saying he was cruel, or that he hurt me. It was just ... not him!"

She smiled, stood, and chuckled. "And ... I have to tell you. It was the best sex of my life, although that's not relevant to the issue at hand."

She finished off her coffee, went to the kitchen for yet another refill, and -- after joking about caffeine being her drug of choice -- continued with her story.

"The next night, he disappeared from his apartment. He was gone for three days. I had the police and his family searching every where for him. The press even ran a story on the local news.

"That third day after receiving a strange call from a guy who lived sixty miles away, I found him ... sitting on top of a stump near the edge of a country road ...naked and smiling to me!"

She chuckled, remembering the incident.

"When I hurried to him, carrying the crutches I'd brought with me..." Maggie donned a surprised expression, almost as if the incident of six years earlier was happening to her now. "Sadie ... he stood up! On his dead leg ... he stood up and walked to me ... walked to me and put his arms around me ... and said, 'I've had the most wonderful time, Maggie'."