by Jocelyn Cross
As her memories suddenly came rushing back, Angelica was filled with terror as she lay in the bed all alone. Feelings of helplessness welled up around her in the darkness and her tears began to return. She worried that Luc would not understand these horrible feelings and finally voiced her concerns as she whispered into the comforter, "Why don't you come hold me, Luc? Why don't you come and tell me everything is going to be alright?" She sniffled as her tears fell, her body trembling from the emotional cocktail in which she was immersed. She had a sudden need to be comforted ... by Luc, experiencing a powerful longing for her savior. Again, she murmured into the pillow. "Oh why don't you come hold me, Luc?"
Normal ears would not have picked up on her mutterings into the huge down comforter. Certainly, they would not have heard those muttered yearnings through the closed door, and down the hallway. But Luc had much better hearing and vision than anyone who knew him. They marveled at what he could pick up in the woods: the soft step of a deer, the slight change in shading across a ravine that others could only verify as a predator through the use of a telescope mounted on their high-powered rifle. Luc always picked up the tell-tale signs well before his friends and acquaintances.
Tonight was no different. As Angelica murmured her fear and longing, Luc suddenly lifted his head, tilting it in the direction of Angelica's bedroom. He moved silently down the hallway, afraid to disturb his guest and even more afraid that he had heard her mumbling through a dream. Carefully, he opened the door and peeked inside. Angelica was tucked into the huge comforter on the bed with her back to the door. With the stealth of a predator in the wild carefully approaching his prey, Luc moved cautiously closer to the bed. Was she asleep?
Deciding that Angelica was indeed sleeping, Luc knelt cautiously on the bed, leaned over and gently kissed her cheek. He whispered, hoping that in her sleepy haze she would somehow understand him, "You're safe here. I won't let anything harm you." Then he slowly moved off the bed so she wouldn't be disturbed.
"Don't go," she said in the darkness. "I'm so scared! Would you at least hold me for a little while?"
Though she did not turn, he knew she was awake. Saying nothing, Luc kicked off the moccasins he was wearing and slowly lifted the comforter to slide in next to Angelica. Seeing that she was naked beneath the comforter he had a decision to make: should he lay on top of the covers or slide in with her?
"It's OK," he heard her say quietly.
To understand how these two got here, we have to go back to the accident on the highway.
The Accident
The tractor-trailer had just made the big hairpin turn in Snoqualmie Pass, north of Yakima, Washington on Interstate Highway 90. It was winter and the day had started clear, but a sudden snow storm had swooped in bringing much need fresh snow for the ski areas the driver had just driven past. The hairpin turn had kept the ski lifts to his left, even as he made the sweeping turn to the point where the highway split. The new snow would be welcomed by skiers and lift operators alike, but not to those caught on the highway in the sudden squall.
The truck driver both cursed and thanked the snow storm. He knew that this late in the day he would have been driving right into the setting sun and the limited visibility was dangerous on this mountain highway. But it was no less dangerous to be driving in the limited visibility of the falling snow which also significantly curtailed his traction on the road.
The driver had noticed the huge bull elk at the edge of the road, through one swipe of his windshield wipers. He moved to the left hand lane hoping to avoid the huge animal and as he completed his lane change, the bull leaped into the traffic in front of a white pickup truck that would have been otherwise nearly invisible without its lights on. The pickup driver swerved as the massive animal lunged, but beast and truck collided.
This caused the pickup truck to swerve wildly into a little red sports car as it tried to pass the pickup. Both vehicles and the careening elk skidded in the road. The tractor trailer driver cursed loudly as he mashed on his airbrakes, down shifted and hit the emergency lights at the same time. Still, on the hill, it caused a massive pile up of some seventeen vehicles as they all crashed one-by-one into the now overturned and jack-knifed 18 wheeler.
The sports car driver survived with minor injuries but the pickup truck driver, the tractor-trailer driver and the elk all died on the spot. There were no other fatalities, though many behind the lead vehicles in this accident incurred significant damage to their smashed vehicles and more than a few bumps and bruises.
Accident investigators later cursed their luck that the tractor-trailer driver had died. They, the police, and the state highway patrol all had questions about his cargo: a cargo that apparently consisted of a lone female who lay sprawled inside the trailer, noticeable to many of the drivers who plowed into the overturned trailer. She must have been injured because each of the drivers who had seen her described her exactly the same: a blonde woman wearing only a hospital gown with what looked like an intravenous tube inserted in her arm.
But by the time investigators and rescue personnel made their way to the overturned trailer, the woman was gone and nowhere to be found.
A large, dark presence lurked in the woods watching the beginning of the accident. It was a predator that had been carefully stalking the bull elk and was, perhaps, the reason the elk had strayed to the edge of the highway. Hunkered down in the snow, hidden behind a huge pine tree, the predator's snout was just visible. A plume of steam floated into the cold air when it exhaled. Leaning forward, its yellow eyes glistened piercingly through the falling snow and it realized it would be unable to seize its prey from the tangle of vehicles and humans on the highway.
As the animal looked about, it noticed the weakest of the humans - a feeble body in the back of the huge tractor-trailer. That sight had caused the animal to stiffen, readying itself to pounce on the potential prey. It rose from its hiding place, revealing itself as a predatory wolf. But, rather than dashing down to the scene of the accident, the vision of that feeble body in the back of the trailer caused the wolf to turn around and run at full speed back up the hill and away from the tangled mass of metal on the highway below.
It did not run in fear from the humans ... it ran with a purpose. It ran with determination.
It would be incorrect to say that the accident was the worst thing ever to happen to that young blonde woman who had been in the back of the trailer. The worst thing had happened some days earlier, though she would not be able to say with certainty exactly when, because her mind had been cloudy or fuzzy for some time. Through limited flashes of memory she remembered walking down a street, though she couldn't remember which street or even what city! She remembered turning when she heard a man asking her if she knew the time. When she turned to answer, she saw a cloth coming towards her face, and then there was nothing but blackness as she had almost immediately passed out.
There were snippets of other memories: an attendant in hospital scrubs - though she had no clue if it was a man or a woman; an intravenous tube in her arm... and she recalled at least one time when the IV bag had been changed. The room was dark except when lights came on for the person in scrubs.
She also remembered the environment changing when she was wheeled out to some big truck. Her hospital room was replicated in the back of the big truck and the only thing she could remember was how different the legs to her bed were after she was put into the truck. The new legs had big bolts on them securing them to the floor, where the first hospital bed seemed to have wheels.
And then her world suddenly turned over in a screech of bending, clashing metal. She had been tossed from her bed and the doors to the truck had burst open. Somehow she had recognized she had been in an accident, but why did she remember being in a hospital before the accident and not after? It was all so confusing.
And finally, there was the appearance of the large man at the door. She was shaking from the cold and felt ice and snow beating in on her from outside as the man appeared. She could not see any of his details other than the simple awareness that he was a tall and powerfully-built man. She had pleaded to him, "I'm so cold! Please help me!" Then she passed out.
The first driver who managed to stop without being a part of the accident put his vehicle flashers on, pulled as far to the side of the road as possible and hoped that there would be enough warning for other drivers to stop. He knew the area well, living fairly close by, and he knew this was a dangerous stretch of highway at any time, but especially during a snow storm. He drove a Hummer H1 and knew this part of the highway well enough to roll up the shoulder and pull close to the overturned trailer. He drove with a purpose as he had seen someone inside and he pulled as close as he could.
The Hummer was painted a unique mottled variant of white, gray and black - pretty much a camouflage paint scheme for wintery snow. Even with the flashers on, the driver was worried about other vehicles ramming into his Hummer as it was all but invisible in the falling snow. He glanced quickly yet methodically at the vehicles piled up behind the big truck and noted no precarious situations.
Hopping quickly from his Hummer, the man walked up to the open rear doors of the trailer and noted what seemed to be a hospital patient lying on her side. He stepped in, stooping through the overturned doors, and approached the woman. He stood tall, looked carefully at the inside of the trailer noting the hospital-like bed, the overturned IV stand, the IV bag on the floor and its line running to the woman's arm.
The woman wore only a thin hospital gown. She raised her head, eyes glassy and unfocused and moaned, "I'm so cold! Please help me!" Then her head dropped to the floor as she passed out. The tall man lifted his chin and sniffed the air. He could smell the sedative in the IV, but there was no scent of any injury. Crouching near the woman, he quickly inspected her and discovered she was uninjured and had no scars from any surgery.
Again he raised his chin, head rotating from side to side as he sniffed the air. There was something amiss ... something not right. There was an aura and a scent of danger. Glancing out the opened doors into the snowy highway disaster, then back at the unconscious woman, he made a quick decision.
He pulled the intravenous line from the shunt in the woman's forearm then picked her up as easily as he would have lifted a small pillow.
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