Cassie Returns Home

Cassie and Sten spent another pleasant hour in the garden. They spoke about men in general and Frau, the Highwayman, and Hiro in particular. Cassie maintained that the Highwayman wasn't really a bad guy and Hiro was really special. Sten, on the other hand, said that life was tough here in The Station.

Cassie was bemused by that point. Stores of all sorts could be shopped in without paying. One could have a castle just by dreaming it up. Things were beautiful all the time. What was so tough? Frau got frightened and that was nearly the end of the world? She kept that last thought to herself.

Eventually she realized it was time to leave and made her goodbyes and headed back to her perfect little cottage/cabin. She walked along a shaded road with blooming cherry trees on one side of the dusty path and blooming apple trees on the other. The sun was sinking toward the horizon and the sky was filled with opalescent colors. Peaches and plums filled the sky. "Fruit salad," thought Cassie as she hummed to herself.

Life here was idyllic. The bar was quite hectic. She had noticed that fights broke out in the bar on a rather frequent basis, but that no one was ever seriously hurt. Well, she didn't think they were seriously hurt. She had never actually seen anyone in that state.

She was nearing her home when she was suddenly grabbed from behind by a man with rough, calloused hands. One of those hands was clamped firmly over her mouth and nose making it impossible to scream effectively and difficult to breathe. Perhaps it was the panic that was making it difficult to catch her breath.

Within her line a sight came a large bladed knife. The sun glinted off the blade as it was laid against her throat. The man held her tight against his body. He was more than a head taller than she and much wider. And it all seemed to be muscle. He half lifted her off her feet and dragged her off the road and into the trees.

It wasn't a dense forest, but it turned dark almost immediately. Cassie tried to think the sun back into a high noon position but it wasn't working. Apparently this horrid man was keeping her from daylight not only by the trees but by blocking the sun.

He threw her to the ground and then laid one large booted foot across her stomach, pinning her to the earth. She looked up and saw a relatively handsome man. Tall and looming over her. Even in the gloom she noticed he would have looked much better without the scar across his forehead. She wondered why he combed his hair back and then was struck by the ludicrous thought. Panic apparently made you notice strange things.

The knife went whizzing past her head and struck the ground less than an inch from her left ear. She could hear the zip as it passed by and the thwack as it embedded in the ground. From the corner of her eye she could see it vibrating as it settled into the dry and packed ground.

The man knelt on one leg and positioned himself between her legs. She was going to be raped. She could sense not only the violence, but the angry need for power and control from this man. As he knelt there he slowly grimaced. Perhaps that was supposed to be a smile. His right hand gently cupped her face and then he began to squeeze her jaws, causing and incredible amount of pain.

Cassie looked at the man and overhead noticed one of the largest tawny golden birds she had ever seen. It looked larger than an eagle and was the wrong color. "Concentrate on something other than pain," she told herself. "Don't let this man take your soul. Lie passive, don't fight. You will be okay."

She knew she wasn't going to be okay. The tears leaked slowly from her eyes. The man started to laugh.