Part II: Laura's Even Longer Evening

Tonto had clawed the flesh of her belly, bitten her neck. He licked these wounds now, repentant, hoping she'd awaken soon, prove she would not die. He licked her crotch.

For perhaps an hour, she had moved not at all. (Tonto had only a rudimentary grasp of time, but the presence, which shared his thoughts, brought a clarity of mind Tonto did not comprehend, nor understand. Even resting in the background, as the presence did now, clarity remained.) Worse, she had bled. The normally white liquid leaking between her legs ebbed out in crimson swells, staining the ground beneath her. As he had licked her clean, however, the bleeding slowed. Ten minutes ago it had stopped.

Tonto looked at the sky. Six o'clock, maybe? Closer to seven. He arose and looked at Laura's watch, read the hands as seven-eighteen. Two hours to sunset. He used the passing minutes to cover her up, working the ruined dress over her breasts. The straps he could do nothing about. He thought quickly of catching one final look at her breasts (rather the presence did), but let that temptation pass.

He lay beside her on the ground, head on her lap, tail slowly thumping. She breathed easier now, stomach rising and falling, the soft snorting she earlier evinced, gone. He rose and pulled at her hem, managing to get her measurably covered. He lay again with his head on her lap. More time passed.

The first crickets of evening began to whir when a stir ran beneath his muzzle. Tonto looked up. He stood. Making a final check of the clearing, he shook his head and marched into the trees to the girl's right. For a moment he looked back, then disappearing into the forest, he could not be heard.

Chapter 1

Laura dreamt of Jimmy Compton.

She was in his Dodge Charger again, in the back seat, his hand down her pants and inside her panties, the middle finger splitting her lips. "Wait!" she pleaded. "Please!" She wrestled beneath him and succeeded only in further opening her legs. The finger dove inside.

"Jimmy! No!"

Jimmy savaged her neck, raising not one, but three separate love bites. Her bra was undone and two more were on her left breast, either side of her nipple. Her nipple was wet.

"Jimmy, please!"

Jimmy pulled away in frustration, hissing: "Jesus, Laura! I thought you were ready!"

"I am!" she protested. "Just please, slow down!"

Jimmy went back to her neck. "Don't fucking tease me, Laura! I hate being teased."

Laura struggled against his hand. There were two fingers inside her now. "You're hurting me!" she pleaded.

Jimmy put another love bite on her shoulder, right at her neck, and Laura scrunched herself up. "No!" she cried. "People can see!"

Jimmy only laughed.

"Jimmy!"

Then his mouth was on hers and his tongue inside, and even though angry and hurt, Laura had to respond. Her muscles relaxed and her thighs fell apart, and instead of pushing away his hands, she wrapped her arms around Jimmy's neck and kissed him hard. Jimmy became totally inflamed.

"Jesus!" he hissed, moving the two fingers inside her. "You are so hot!"

Laura, her heart racing like a horse, her hormones unreigned, worked Jimmy's tongue with her own tongue, and his fingers with her crotch.

"Jesus!" he hissed again. "Jesus Fucking Christ!" Then Laura's top was over her head and her bra swept aside, and then Jimmy was struggling with her jeans and pulling them down. Laura raced along in this whirlwind, her bloodstream aflame, her mind out of control. When he thrust open her legs and thrust himself inside, she wrapped her entire body around him and fucked.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God, Jimmy! Ohgod-ohgod-ohgod!"

Jimmy slammed her up and down on the seat.

"Oh, my God, Jimmy! Ohgod-ohgod-ohgod! Jimmy!"

Then he was coming and Laura was coming and there was no condom between her and his sperm, brutally hot and burning, flowed into her womb. "Ohmygod-ohmygod-ohmygod!" she wailed. She bit his shoulder and he bit hers and Laura went through her first orgasm and another one too. When Jimmy collapsed Laura continued to come and came for seemed like ever. Then she too, collapsed

While Laura lay resting, panting and covered in sweat (or sometime within the next seventy-two hours), sperm fertilized her microscopic egg and her first child conceived. The zygote worked steadily through her fallopian tube and into her uterus, where it burrowed into the soft inner wall. Her hormones changed. Her body changed. Everything changed.

Chapter 2

Not fully conscious, Laura struggled against the rope, succeeded only in further skinning her wrists. She groaned miserably, struggling more. "Please," she murmured.

Something touched her shoulder.

Laura started to scream but the touch became a gentle hand and a young girl's voice said, "It's okay. I'm here to help you." She told Laura not to struggle because it would only make matters worse. Laura broke into sobs instead. She begged: "Please! Please get me loose!"

"I will. But don't struggle," the voice said gently again. "You're bleeding."

Delicate fingers touched her wrists, though Laura felt nothing.

"I'll try not to hurt you," said the young girl. "But this rope is tight. And something's been at it." The loop around her right wrist loosened and Laura, overcome with joy, let her arm fall to the ground. She had no choice: The muscles were useless. The other arm fell and Laura continued to sob.

The girl came around the tree on her hands and knees and took Laura in her arms. "It's okay," she said, rubbing Laura's shoulders and biceps. "You're loose now."

The girl appeared to be Laura's age, maybe a little older, with wavy brown hair and huge, expressive brown eyes. Her hair was cut two inches above her shoulders, parted in the middle and pulled back on either sides. She had high cheekbones and a thin nose, a wide mouth, and lightly freckled skin. She was dressed plainly in a sleeveless white shirt, khaki shorts, and open-toed sandals. Weeping with joy, Laura let herself be cradled.

"I got you," the girl said. "I got you. Cry, okay? Cry all you want." The girl pushed back Laura's hair. "You're all right. I promise."

Laura could not say a word, only weep. She wept a very long time.

"You've been raped," the girl said. "I have to get you to a hospital. Can you stand?"

Still weeping, Laura shook her head.

Carefully, the girl placed the straps of Laura's sundress over her shoulders and buttoned them to the front. She lowered the dress's hem. She held Laura in her arms. "My name is Susan," she said.

Laura whispered her own name, and then, "Thank you so much." She sobbed. "I thought I would die here."

Susan held Laura's head against her bosom, stroked her tangled hair. "Who did this?" she said.

Laura shook her head slowly.

The girl was still. "I'm sorry," she said. "I guess I know who."

Laura continued to weep. "You're...you're Bruce's sister?"

Susan sighed. "Yes," she said, as though being Hitler's sister were better.

Laura said, "He tied me up."

"He does that," Susan said. "Ties people up."

To exhausted for anger, Laura whispered: "He's done this before?"

The girl nodded.

Laura sobbed even deeper. "Why? How can you let him? He..." Her words trailed away. How could she ever explain?

Susan stroked her hair and sighed. "I am so sorry, Laura."

Laura clutched to Susan's chest. "I want to know. Tell me"

Susan, eyes sad and gleaming with tears, shook her head. "Later. Let's get you back to the house." She started to rise.

Laura, remembering suddenly, looked around.

"It's okay. He's not here. Not now."

"No," Laura said, letting herself be pulled up, but continuing to look. "Your dog."

Susan looked at her, blankly..

"Tonto. Your dog."

Susan shook her head. "I don't have a dog."

Laura was confused. "You don't?"

"Not that I know of," Susan said. Just the same, she looked around. "Can you walk?"

Her legs uncertain, Laura tried a step. Then another. She said: "Bruce had a dog. He said so."

"Okay."

"Did you see one?"

"No, Laura. I didn't." Susan looked concerned. "Is it important?"

Laura's face grew hot. She changed the subject. "I don't think I can walk," she said. Her legs were very shaky.

Susan grinned, softly. "I could carry you. Piggy-back."

Laura managed a laugh. "No," she said. "Let me just stand here awhile. Get my balance." She tried halfheartedly to straighten her dress, each movement making her balance shift. She felt drunk like a sailor. Adjusting the top made her abraded nipples scream.

"Here," Susan said, placing her fingers beneath each strap and pulling out the front. "Better?"

Laura laughed/sobbed. "Can you keep it like that forever?" She adjusted the waist and then the hem, trying, unsuccessfully, to smooth the wrinkles. The dress was terminally ill. Light-headed, she backed against the tree.

Susan moved in against her, held her about the waist. "Take all the time you need, okay? I won't let you fall."

A deep ache pulsed in Laura's gut, cycling up and down like a sick heartbeat. Her left nipple ached fiercely. The feeling between her legs was indescribable.

"Maybe you should sit down," Susan advised.

Laura shook her head. She had sat all day. "It's passing," she said. She looked apprehensively at the ground, remembering the oil slick of sperm, but saw nothing. Other than being leveled by her rear end and thighs, the grass was untouched. Stranger yet, there were no signs of the ground being hoofed, by either the goat or by Tonto, which Laura distinctly remembered.

"When was the last time you ate?" Susan asked. "Had something to drink?"

Laura couldn't remember. Ages. Years.

"Are your parents home?" Susan asked.

"No," Laura said. She had to concentrate. "Not until tomorrow morning. Probably."

Susan was incredulous. "You're alone?"

Laura nodded. Again she looked around. Had she dreamt it? No. There was no doubting the feel of her crotch. She explained about her parents.

"Poor Jeremy," Susan said. "It must be so tough. On all of you." She guided Laura away from the tree, a hand on her left hip, the other holding her biceps. Her knees like worn out hinges, Laura trudged alongside. Seeing the volume of poetry, Susan bent to pick it up.

"Thank you," Laura said. She clutched the book to her chest. Tears spill from the corners of both eyes.

They went slowly down the hill, side-stepping a stump rotten with termites, skirting a fence post overgrown with poison ivy. Strands of twisted and sprung barbed wire showed amongst the leaves. They came to a graveled driveway.

Susan said, "We'll get you to the house and into bed, okay. Then the police. I'm sure they'll want to collect evidence."

Laura started. "What?"

Compassion pinched Susan's face. "I know, okay? How awful that sounds. Getting raped is bad enough, believe me; having them do that to you afterwards..." Susan gave a shudder. "I understand how you feel."

Oh no you don't, Laura thought, miserably.

Susan continued. "My cousin's a rape crisis counselor and the first thing they tell you is not to clean up."

Laura was close to panic. Examination? Tell a doctor what had really happened? The police? "No!" she exclaimed. "No police!"

Susan halted. "What?"

Laura's voice became shrill. "No doctors! No police!"

Susan shook her head. "You've been raped, Laura. Tied to a tree. Have you seen your back?" Her voice was tight with dismay. "The little bastard's a monster."

Laura shook her head violently. Horrid images - both of what lay behind, and what lay ahead - shut down her mind. "It - it wasn't Bruce," she stuttered.

Susan became still.

"He tied me up - " Laura suddenly gagged and nearly retched " - but he didn't rape me."

"Then who?"

Laura shook her.

"Laura - "

"Please!"

Distraught and angry, Susan said: "You have to tell them! You were raped within a hundred feet from my house." Her voice quavered. "It could just as easily been me ."

Tears flowing down both cheeks, Laura shook her head. "You don't understand," she sobbed.

"Then tell me!"

"I can't. It's too - " Laura broke down completely, racking with sobs. Only quick movement by Susan kept her from falling. "Okay, okay. Let's get you to the house."

They stumbled along the driveway, Laura clutching the book to her chest, Susan supporting her around the middle. Behind them, unseen by either, a huge black wolf moved into the clearing and watched, eyes blackly intent.