Chapter 3
1215 Words
3
She couldn’t have been more relieved to lead him out into the front office and see him take off in his car. Chuck had only politely nodded to the man’s farewell toward him, and now he stood from his desk and moved over to stand beside Stephanie.
“What’d he want here, Boss?” he wondered.
“To look at some pictures, I guess,” Stephanie guessed with a shrug. “He said he was staying up at the lodge for a few days vacation, too, so that’s why he decided to drop by.”
“He’s staying in the area?” Chuck nearly interrupted her. She snapped her head toward him in surprise at his brisk tone.
“Yeah, he said he was staying at the lodge,” she repeated. “What’s wrong with that?”
“I just don’t like that guy, that’s all,” her partner tried to explain away his anger. It wasn’t working very well, though. She was seeing it as a little irrational. The two men had only just met. Rather than love at first sight, it looked like it was hate at first meeting.
“Why don’t you like him that much?” she boldly inquired. It just wasn’t like Chuck to dislike someone so fiercely. He was always so good with the most difficult of clients, and here was a polite gentleman he didn’t want to deal with at all. “He’s not that bad, just kind of clingy.”
“I don’t trust anyone that slick,” Chuck vaguely explained. “He’s got something up his sleeve and I bet it won’t be a good thing for us.”
“You honestly think he’s like out to get us or something?” Stephanie persisted.
“I don’t know, I just don’t trust him,” he insisted. She thought he was being just a little bit paranoid.
“Well, when you stop being irrational and start being yourself, just call me,” she brushed aside his worries.
“Listen, Boss, you don’t know these people like I do,” Chuck reminded her. “I lived out in those cities for a long time. They work differently than someone like a small town like you does.”
“So now you’re thinking I’m a naive country girl or something?” Stephanie angrily asked as she sharply turned around.
“I’m just saying that I don’t think we should have him back here,” he insisted, but there was something else in his tone. It told her he wasn’t finished on that point of naivety. “But since we’re on the subject, I gotta point out how stupid you were when you went out wandering alone,” he gently scolded. “You can’t do that again.”
“Who are you, my mother?” she questioned.
“No, but I am your partner,” Chuck protested even as she turned away from him. “And I have you tell you that was a really stupid move that you pulled there.”
“I just needed a breath of air, all right?” Stephanie argued. She rubbed her temple. A headache was trying to come on and her head was feeling light. “I think I need some fresh air right now.” She tried to step around her partner, but he blocked her way to the door. “Chuck, this isn’t a game.”
“No, this isn’t a game,” he replied, and his voice was so serious it made her pause. She looked up into his face and read the fear in his eyes. She’d really worried him then. “You need to be more careful. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Boss.”
“Well, you’d be unemployed for a while,” she teased. She winced and closed her eyes when she felt a stab of pain in her arm. She reached up and grabbed the annoying limb. “I don’t know why you stick around here, though, when you’d be a lot more useful for someone else.”
“Yeah, well, I figure I’m needed here,” he answered. His eyes glanced down at her arm. “That’s still bothering you, isn’t it?”
“Just a little,” she lied, but he saw through it.
“You want me to get you home?” Chuck asked. She shook her head. It was only mid morning, she didn’t want to leave work this early.
“There’s just too many deadlines coming up, and I gotta get all that work done,” she pointed out.
“Just like you to be all serious and responsible just when you need to rest,” her partner commented as he shook his head in disbelief. “But I really wished you’d just go home and take a nap or something. You’re overworking yourself,” he gently scolded.
“You’re one to talk,” she playfully shot back. His pale skin told her he was in the building a little too often, too.
“Yeah, but I don’t look near as bad as you,” he countered.
“That’s a fire-able offense,” Stephanie answered as another spasm of pain shot through her arm. This time it was followed by a pulsing throb through her head.
“I’ll take my risks,” he challenged her, but he paused when he noticed her clenched teeth. “Just as long as you get back home and get some sleep.”
“N-no, I’m fine,” she argued.
Everywhere around her was starting to get dizzy. Then she collapsed forward, and Chuck caught her just before she hit the floor. The last thing she remembered was hearing his voice call out her name as she blacked out.
Stephanie knew she was drifting in and out of dreams and reality. There were worried voices and unfamiliar faces mixed with visions of the nightmarish beast from alley. She felt as though she were reliving that monster chasing her down the wet and narrow alley. Her breathing was ragged and her heart pounded away. She could feel the breath of the beast on the back of her neck and her scar pulsed with a horrible pain. Then there was a flash of a white corridor and bright lights passed above her. There were people dressed in white and bleached walls on either side.
Another flash and she was back in the nightmare. In her frantic running she looked back over her shoulder and tripped over something. She fell hard to the ground and turned around to see the monster standing over her. The full moon silhouetted his enormous figure as those large bright eyes glowed with an unearthly light. The monster leaned back and howled to the star-lit sky, and she trembled at the horrible sound as it echoed off the alley. Then the beast glanced back at her, and its expression was full of feral need. It swiftly reached out his razor-sharp claws and tore at her clothes. Her arms flailed out as she tried to knock its hands away from her as her breasts were exposed and her pants ripped apart.
“Stop! Please god, stop!” Stephanie shrieked.
“She’s feverish, hold her down!” someone ordered, and a pair of strong arms grabbed her and pinned them to a hard surface.
“Boss, you have to calm down!” she heard Chuck’s voice frantically order. She was out of the nightmare and back into reality. “Come on, Boss, you have to fight it!”
“She’s going to pull through, we just need to get her fever down before it damages anything,” Stephanie heard that mystery man’s voice calmly explain. “You don’t have to hold her down so well, young man.”
“Oh, sorry,” Chuck quickly apologized. Stephanie felt someone stick something sharp into her arm.
“We’ll just have her rest for a while,” the other man soothed. “She’ll be fine when she wakes up.”
The stranger wasn’t kidding, because after a brief few moments Stephanie felt herself slip into a dreamless slumber.
- Writer
