The water is tepid, but I don't mind, and I drain the glass. When I hold out the empty glass for the nurse, she doesn't move. For a moment I think she isn't going to take it. When our eyes meet, she steps forward and jerks it out of my hand. 

     Clearing his throat, the doctor draws my attention to him once again. "So, you were driving to Seattle and got lost. Why didn't you simply turn around?"

     I take a deep breath, releasing it slowly. How can I explain the emotion of terror to someone so clinical? "Well, we should have turned around, I see that now in hindsight. But right before we took that detour there was a man...he was actually next to the detour sign."

     "One of the road crew?"

     "No, I don't think so." Trying to remember the details is difficult. They're too insubstantial for my mind to catch and yet they hover on the edge of consciousness, just out of reach like feral cats. "He was scruffy, like a bum. he was walking towards the detour route and when he heard our car approaching, he stopped. He actually turned around and watched us. Stared at us." The image is crisp in my mind now and I feel cold. Pulling the bed clothes up to my neck I continue, "He just stared at us as we passed him. His eyes...his eyes were..." I can't explain it, can't convey the instantaneous terror I felt upon seeing this man. The nurse crosses her arms, the corners of her mouth arcing downward as she and the doctor watch me.

     "After we passed him, we saw him turn onto the detour route as well; he followed us and we were afraid to turn back. We would have met him again if we turned back and..." It sounds cowardly even to my ears, but it's the truth.

     "So, you passed a bum with a rather intense gaze and you were afraid to turn around." The doctor crosses his arms now and I don't want to talk any more. They won't believe me no matter how I try to explain it. "So, you kept going, even though you were lost?" The tone of his voice has changed.

     There's a twinge of pain in my jaw, the sting of the cut there as the muscles contract, and I realize I'm grinding my teeth. I need to remain calm; he's only trying to help us. "We didn't know we were lost then, it was much later, after...after..." I can hear my heart thump-thumping in my hears and I take another long, slow breath. The lights in the room are too bright and yet dim at the same time. The feral cats of memory have edged a bit nearer.

     In the next bed, Nancy stirs and struggles to sit up. The nurse sheds her ill-tempered manner, rushing over to help. The doctor moves to Nancy's bedside as well and I feel suddenly cast aside. I don't mind.

     "What's happening?" Nancy asks. She winces as she leans forward to allow the nurse to plump up her pillows.

     "I was just asking Dovie some questions, trying to find out what happened to you girls out there," the doctor says. I can't see his face, but it sounds like he's smiling, the bastard.

     Nancy looks over at me, her eyes round. She'd been just as terrified, eve more so, during our race through the forest. During our escape from...eventual death. 

     "Maybe you can tell us how you ended up in the forest and what happened there." The doctor reaches down and pats Nancy's hand. "Take your time."

     I see Nancy slide her hand away, tucking it beneath the sheet. Because she's pretty, men want to be near her, touch her, paw at her. I'm grinding my teeth again. I want to scream at the doctor to get away from her. She isn't a toy to be played with and discarded, thrown away when it's broken, like garbage. None of us are.

     Nancy looks over at me again, the doctor and nurse both following her gaze, their smiles slipping a bit as they look at me as if they can see my thoughts. I ignore them, nodding to Nancy. "Go ahead, tell them what happened."

     "Well..." Nancy begins. "It's really all my fault." The nurse hands her a glass of water, standing nearby as she sips it. "We were losing our jobs at the hospital because it was closing. We just graduated from nursing college, see." Nancy flashes a brief smile at the doctor and nurse before focusing on her glass of water, turning it around and around in her hands. "I thought it would be a good idea to have a change of scenery, take some time to decide what we were going to do, you know? So, I applied at the Lakeside Inn out on the peninsula for the summer season."

     The nurse pats her shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with that. A change of scenery often does a person good."

     Nancy takes a deep breath. "But I applied for Dovie as well. I forged her application and didn't tell her. She didn't know anything about it until we got our acceptance letters." She looks over at me again. "I'm so sorry, Dovie."

     I smile at her. "It's ok, you know that." She still hasn't let go of the guilt.

     The doctor turns to me as well. "Were you angry at Nancy for doing that? Falsifying an application in your name?"

     "No." I shake my head slowly. "It irked me a bit at first, but what else was I going to do? I was losing my job." I smile at Nancy again. "And this is a very Nancy-like thing for her to do. She thought a change of scenery would be good for me too. She's very kindhearted and I tend to be...a bit overly serious when it comes to work." In truth I had been terrified. There were wild animals out on the peninsula, bears and cougars. Nancy had convinced me at last, insisting we would be perfectly safe at the Inn. Perfectly safe...

     Nancy laughs. "Yes, I'm always coming up with these hair-brained schemes, but Dovie never complains. She's my best friend and a very good sport."

     "So, you two were taking a summer job out on the peninsula to decide what to do with your nursing careers?" The doctor is focused on Nancy again.

     "Yes." She holds her glass of water out for the nurse, who steps forward to take it. For some reason this irritates me. "We weren't certain whether we wanted to stay in Bellingham, move down to Seattle or go someplace else entirely. There are hospitals everywhere." She blushes, the healthy pink in her cheeks creating a surreal image of her in a hospital bed. "And we also wanted to meet new people and, well, have some fun."

     The doctor chuckles. "Boys, you mean?"

     Nancy's blush deepens and she refuses to meet the doctor's eyes. He continues, "So you girls were driving to the peninsula and got lost in the detours. You must have gotten a late start."

     Nancy shakes her head. "No, we weren't driving straight to the peninsula. We were going to stay a couple of nights in Seattle first and do some shopping. We had a room rented at...what's that place, Dovie?" She leans forward to look over at me, her fingers twisting and plucking at the sheet. her smile trembles, giving me an uneasy feeling.

     "Mrs. Halvarson's," I reply, as all eyes turn to me. "She has a boarding house near the waterfront, and I think her brother has a restaurant as well."

     "Her brother-in-law." The nurse corrects me. "I've heard of it. It's a very respectable establishment for young women."

     "Oh!" Nancy's brow creases and her smile fades away. "She'll be so upset that we haven't arrived. It's not our fault." She clutches the bed clothes tightly as her voice begins to rise. "We got lost and then that man...that man..." When she looks at me again, I can see the fear in her wide eyes. A single tear escapes, racing down her cheek. For an instant, we're both back in the forest and I can feel my heart racing. "Is he still out there? Haven't they caught him? We need to tell the police!" Nancy's almost screaming now, trying to climb out of the bed as panic overtakes her. "Dovie! We have to run! We have to run!"

      The doctor and nurse step forward to restrain her. A hypodermic syringe appears from somewhere, probably the nurse's pocket. I try to fling my bed clothes aside, but with one arm bound tightly in a sling I become tangled. "It's alright Nancy, we're safe." I continue to fight the bed clothes one handedly. "We don't have to run, we're safe. We're safe, Nancy." By the time I get my feet freed from the sheets and swing my legs over the side of the bed, Nancy is already slumping back onto the pillows. She's stopped fighting. The nurse straightens her sheets as the doctor turns to me.

     "Whoa now, you need to stay in bed. She's fine."

     I sit on the edge of my bed, watching Nancy as she lies there, her eyes blinking sleepily. "What did you give her?"

     "Just something to calm her down. Now you need to keep still. That collar bone was a very serious break you know." Finished with Nancy, the nurse moves over to my bed, lifting the sheet for me to slide my feet under, and smoothing it around me. I lie back and close my eyes, my shoulder throbbing. The doctor is right, I know how badly my collar bone is broken.

     "Do you need something for pain?" The doctor's voice has an unexpected kindness in it.

     "Just some aspirin please." The nurse's shoes swish-swish as she leaves the room.

     "Nancy seems very upset about this man in the woods." He watches me closely and I meet his gaze, unsure what he wants me to say. "Do you want to talk to the police?"

     I can't believe he's asking me that. A man chased and terrified us, would have killed us and yet...was he even a flesh and blood man? I look over at Nancy; she seems to be sleeping. Returning my gaze to the doctor, I give him an answer. "Yes. I would like to talk to the police."

     He studies me a moment more before nodding. "I'll have someone come tomorrow to talk to you. I think it's better if Nancy gets some rest first."

     The police officer is young, he can't be more than twenty and I'd be surprised if he even shaves. He's nervous and obviously new at the job. Well, maybe he'll be more open minded than an older man. Pulling up a chair, he sits between our beds so he can talk to both of us at once. Good for him.

     "So, you two ladies were driving down from Bellingham when you saw this suspicious man. Just tell me everything that happened, in your own time.

     Nancy smiles at him. She's feeling much calmer this morning. "Well, he was near the detour sign, the first sign. He looked a bit disheveled, like he'd been on a two day been on a two-day bender, you know? And when we got near, he stopped and turned around to watch us drive past. Dovie? You got a better look at him, didn't you? I was watching the road; I didn't want to miss the turn."

     "The man looked like a bum. His clothes were wrinkled and dirty and he had...he had dark hair and looked like he hadn't shaved in a few days. Like he'd been living rough." I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and in my mind I see the bum on the side of the road. He's turning his head to look at us. It's all happening slowly, as if in a dream. A nightmare. Opening my eyes, I look at the young officer. "His eyes were black," I blurt out.

     The officer looks at me. He doesn't understand. "Ok," he says, writing in his notebook. "Dark hair and eyes."

     "No. His eyes were totally black. Even the sclera, the white part." I point to my own eyeball, casting my gaze sideways so that he can see. "His eyes were totally black. it was...unnatural looking."

     The officer looks at Nancy as his eyebrows slide up his forehead. She nods. "Yes, he was so creepy. And when we turned onto the detour route, I saw him in the rearview mirror. He followed us. He was walking, but he followed us."

     The officer looks at me again, eyebrows still raised. "It sounds unbelievable, but it's true," I say. We all sit for a minute, then he bends to scribble in his notebook, the scratching of his pencil the only sound in the room.

     "Alright." He takes a breath. "And then what happened?"

     "We drove for a while," I begin.

     "Who was driving?"

     "I was," Nancy says. "It's my car. Oh! Have they found my car? I don't know if it can be repaired but our thigs are in the trunk. Everything we own!"

     The officer's eyes are kind. "I'll have someone go and see. It may have to be towed to a garage, but we can get your things for you."

     "Thank you. Anyway," Nancy glances at me and I nod for her to continue. "We drove for a while and came to a fork in the road. I stopped because there wasn't any sign. We got out of the car to try and figure out which way to go."

     "And did you determine which way to go?"

     Nancy licks her lips; there's tension in her face, so I take up the tale for her. "We found a detour sign." The young officer leans back as if satisfied, but I shake my head at him. "It had been pulled up and tossed to the side of the road, off into the trees. We couldn't determine which way it had been pointing." I give a slight shrug, instantly regretting it as pain shoots through my shoulder. "We guessed and took the right-hand fork."

     The officer bends to his notebook again and we all listen to the scratch of his pencil. Nancy continues, "It started raining a bit then, just a drizzle, and it was getting misty in the woods. The rain was making the road slick." She stops, her eyes filling up with tears and I know she's blaming herself.

     "It wasn't your fault, Nancy." I use my soothing nurse voice. "It was an accident."

     "So, you had an accident?" The young officer looks at me. "Is that how you...?"

     "It's a broken collar bone. And no, that happened later." I can hear the tremble in my voice and cough to cover it. I need to remain calm. Remain rational.
     "We were singing," Nancy says. "Singing along with the radio, trying to be cheerful." She stops, her face crumpling. "A deer ran across the road and I swerved..." Tears begin sliding down her cheeks and she makes no move to wipe them away.

     "It's ok, Nancy. It was just an accident. It could have happened to anyone." She ignores me as her tears continue to fall. Only her hands move, picking and plucking at the sheet. I turn to the officer again. "We slid off the road and hit a tree. The car was damaged rather badly."

     "But you weren't injured? Either of you?" He looks back and forth from me to Nancy.

     "It was an accident," she whispers, staring at nothing.
     "No, we weren't injured, just shaken up." I look over at Nancy. "Nancy? It's ok." She turns her head slowly to look at me, her eyes focusing their way back to the present. "We're safe now." She smiles at me and nods. "It's going to be ok." She nods again. I wonder if the nurse slipped her something to keep her calm, but suspect we're dredging up memories that are just too terrifying for her to process.

     The officer scribbles in his notebook before looking up expectantly. I continue, "We started walking along the road." My heart is pounding again. "Along the road," I repeat.

     "There was a sign," Nancy says. Her voice is a bit too loud in the room. "So, we knew we were going in the right direction." Her smile wavers and a laugh bursts out. "There was a sign..." She continues to smile as her hands pick and twist at the sheets.

     "Nancy?" I begin struggling with my bed clothes, trying to kick my feet free.

     "I'm ok." She takes a deep breath. "I'm ok, Dovie. We're safe here, aren't we? And the police will catch that man, won't they? She looks at the officer.

     "We'll certainly do our best." He gives her a confident, sharp nod and clears his throat. Squaring his shoulders, he takes charge. "So, you were walking along the road and saw a sign. Did you see any other vehicles?"

     I quit struggling with the bed clothes and flop back on the pillows. "No, there were no other cars."

     "That's odd, isn't it? I would think there would be quite a lot of traffic going from Bellingham to Seattle."

     "Yes, I thought it was odd as well." I glance at Nancy, but she's staring into space again.

     "And then what happened?" The officer holds his pencil at the ready.

     "We heard whistling." I feel a cold chill creep up my spine like icy fingers.

     "Whistling?"

     "Yes. Someone was walking along the road behind us, whistling." My hand is trembling, so I slide it under the sheet. Out of sight, out of mind.

     Nancy begins to sing in a soft voice. "Glorious shades of night are coming, it's eventide..." She breaks off with a cry, covering her face with her hands.

     "Nancy, don't!" I can't stop trembling now and when my eyes meet those of the young police officer, I know he can see the fear in them. "It was that man, the bum from earlier. Somehow he caught up to us."

     "Well, someone must have given him as lift." The officer leans back. "That's the logical explanation."

     I know better and shake my head slowly. "Then why didn't we see a car? He just came walking out of the mist, whistling that song...he called to us..." I have to stop. Turning in the bed, I fumble with the glass on the bedside table, knocking it over. The officer leaps up, rescuing the glass and pouring it half full of water. My hand is shaking so badly when I take it from him that it nearly spills anyway. When it's empty, I hand it back to him. "Thank you." I keep my eyes down. I don't want him to see the fear again.

     He pours more water, turning to offer it to Nancy but she ignores him. She's retreated into herself and sits motionless. Setting the glass down, he returns to his chair. "Is she ok? I mean, should I get the nurse?"

     I look over at Nancy. She doesn't move. "Nancy?" I use my nurse voice again. "Hey Nancy, aren't you a little tired?" She doesn't turn her head, but nods slowly, her mouth forming the word 'tired'. "Why don't you lie back now, and get some rest? Just a little nap and when you wake up, we'll have some ice cream, ok? Won't that be good?" Her mouth forms the words 'ice cream'. After a moment she lies back on the pillows.

     I meet the officer's eyes now. "It's too much for her. She can't deal with the fear...and the pain." I look over at her again. She appears to be sleeping. "She's had some past trauma. It's just how she copes."

     "But she'll be ok?" His face is pale. I nod and he clears his throat, taking charge again. "Well, I guess you'll have to tell me the rest." He looks at his notes. "This man called out to you? What did he say?"

     I take a deep breath to calm myself and raise my eyes to meet those of the young officer. Is that a reaction? Does he see the terror? I release my breath and begin. I tell him everything. How we ran for our lives. How the bum pursued us. All the details. We had hidden a couple of times, but he found us and could have easily caught us. It was as if he was toying with us in a game of cat and mouse. And he was everywhere at once, all around us. We kept changing directions until we were so turned around, so totally lost, that we didn't know where to run to.

     Tears are rolling down my cheeks, but I can't seem to move to wipe them away. My body is shuddering. Useless. I bite my tongue in an effort to get the words out through chattering teeth and taste my own blood. It's warm and metallic. "All the while he was chasing us..." I have to close my eyes, trying to get my racing heart under control. I give up and open my eyes again. "All the while he was chasing us, he told us thing."

     "Things?" The officer had stopped writing, his notebook forgotten.

     "What...what he was going to do to us. He knew things about us too, details about our lives. Private things." I look over at Nancy again, but she appears to be asleep. The bum had known all about Nancy and what that man had done to her so long ago. The room swims out of focus and I hear myself talking. I hadn't meant to tell him this, but I can't stop myself. I'm like some sort of automaton, simply repeating back what had been recorded earlier. I bite my tongue again and stop, the bright burst of pain serving as a period to my last sentence. My teeth won't stop chattering. I reach out a shaking hand for the glass of water, but the young officer gets there first, holding the glass to my lips. I drink, teeth chittering and dancing against the glass. I'm wishing it was gin, not water. Gin might make me forget, or at least dull the pain. When I'm finished, we take a few minutes to compose ourselves.

     I raise my eyes again. "I don't even know how we got away. I don't remember much after I fell and broke my collar bone."

     The officer smiles. His eyes are moist and red rimmed. "You stumbled out onto a road just as a car was passing. They brought you to the hospital. You were very lucky."

     I nod. "By the grace of God," I whisper. It was a phrase my mother had used often.

     Dovie Gray. I sign my name and sigh. I'm not quite sure if it's from relief; I don't actually feel relieved to be leaving the hospital. There's nothing ahead of us now, we're unemployed with nowhere to go. Actually, that's not true. We still have our summer jobs, if we can get there.

     "Well, you girls have a good summer and I hope we don't see you again!" The nurse laughs at her own joke and Nancy joins in. I give a tight smile. I don't want to see that nurse again either.

     Nancy turns to me. "Are you ready, Dovie?" Her expression seems too bright. Something is off. I get a tingling sensation on the back of my neck as if I'm being watched and I feel a presence behind me. Just as I begin to turn, I hear him.

     "Glorious shades of night are coming, it's eventide...when the ancient forest hides the brilliant sun, I'll find you..."  The baritone voice is low but there's no mistaking it. I can see him, strolling down the hall, carrying a mop and bucket. he's dressed neatly in a janitor's uniform this time.

     I try to run, but my limbs won't move.  I feel like a mouse, watching the approach of a cat. We both know what the outcome will be, and so I wait, helpless to resist. The nurse is talking, but it's background noise, a faint buzz. Like a pesky fly. A fly on a body. I get a sudden image in my mind of Nancy, lying on the ground, dead. Flies crawling over her. A rush of nausea floods through me and I feel dizzy.

     A smile lights up the bum's face, except for his eyes. They remain black pools of nothingness, as before. "You girls thought you got away, didn't you?"

     There's a scream behind me. The bum's smile grows wider and he laughs, those black eyes squeezing shut as his head tips back. It's in that instant that I break free from his spell, spinning around to Nancy, but she's not there. I see her, running with arms extended to push the door open. Releasing the pen I'm holding, I hear it clatter to the floor as I sprint after her. Everything seems mixed up, dream-like. I know I'm running but am I even moving? I can't tell. 

     "Nancy!" I hear my own voice, but it seems distant as I slam through the door after her. She's already across the sidewalk, running blindly. Panic and fear drive her forward ruthlessly. her foot leaves the sidewalk and lands on asphalt. "Nancy!" I scream again as she plunges into the street.

     I collide with something, with someone. They come into focus as a sharp wave of pain surges through my body. I can feel my collar bone shift and I gasp at the sensation. I'm going to be sick; my knees try to buckle under me. Strong hands grip my arms, holding me, supporting me. There's a squeal of brakes and a scream. It takes me a moment to realize that the noise isn't coming from me. I look up into the eyes of the man holding me just as a thud seems to echo through the street. Sorrow fills his eyes. Michael. The name is in my mind, gentle and comforting. His smile is full of regret as he nods. "Yes."

     Did I speak out loud? I feel sick again. It's too hot. There are people running, I can't see them, but I can feel them, all around us. Why? My eyes search his. That's the question isn't it, or rather the questions? I have so many questions. His hands tighten on my arms as the tears roll down my face. "It's not your time," he whispers. And then he's gone. His absence feels enormous as the world spins into focus. The truck, the driver in his too bright white shirt, the crowd of people making shocked noises, and Nancy. Nancy on the ground. One of her shoes has come off. It's scuffed; I can see it from here. I'll polish it for her, I'll get it done before she wakes up and she'll never know. I try to take a step forward, but everything seems to be moving. The street is swaying and there's a rushing in my ears. Everything's getting dim. I wonder if it's eventide as the sidewalk rushes up to catch me.

      

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