What happened?

I awoke again, laying in the muddy grassy knoll of Turner's pond's edge.

I rolled onto my back to free top half of a rock laying beneath me.

I could see blurred images of the emergency response vehicles. The red and white lights, seem to be smeared together across the starry night sky.

I was choking. Water in my nose. Coughing, vomiting.

Then I was met with an excruciating pain on my left side, from my hip area to me knee and beyond my knee, I was numb.

I was afraid to look down.

My thigh bone was broken and piercing through my skin in a sharp point that resembled an animal's tooth.

I was bleeding pretty bad. My face hurt.

I could feel a gash above my eyebrows in the middle of my head.

I tried to take off my shirt but the pain was so intense, I slammed my face against the ground in frustration snd slowly tugged it back down over my body, less disheveled.

I could hear the rescue workers calling out hello.

I tried to yell back a response, but my voice wouldn't work.

My neck was hurting almost as badly as my leg.

Reaching my hand up to my throat, I could feel it was swollen nearly adjacent with my ears.

I was sobbing silently when I heard one EMT cry out. "I see someone here".

heard one EMT cry out. "I see someone here".

I was overcome with relief until I began to hear footsteps were travelling away from me.

I tried to yell again, nothing but pain.

I was breathing erratically.

Then I saw a flashlight pointed in my direction.

I lifted my weak arm into it's ray of concentrated brightness.

"Over HERE TOM!!! I HAVE ANOTHER!!" The EMT called out to his partner in despair.

I began coughing uncontrollably again as he looked into my face.

I lost consciousness once again.

When I awakened next, it was by a white light shone directly into my eye.

I was discombobulated to say the least.

There was tubing in my nostrils and in my mouth.

Down my throat.

My left eye was sore and swollen and had a bandage covering it.

There was tape covering a large portion of my face.

As I regained focus I realized I was in a hospital room.

It was as white as a cloud.

I began to scan the room and I could see the nurses station.

I was wearing a neck brace and unable to move my neck at all. There was a small white haired man sitting in the corner. He had his hair in a tapered afro and he was looking into his lap at something.

I blinked my eyes a few times and the next time I regained consciousness the tubing that had been in my throat before was gone.

The eye dressing was still there and I felt soreness from the top of my head into my toe tips.

I still couldn't move my neck.

I laid there awake for about twenty minutes when in walked a nurse.

She had about ten big braids in a large bun secured by lots of bobby pins.

"WELL isn't THIS exciting!!" She exclaimed approaching me.

I tried to speak, but barely generated a whisper.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We were hoping you can tell us." She responded, gently pulling my blankets up closer to my stiff and sore neck.

"There is a detective here, he's been waiting to speak with you".

The woman turned and left through the glass door only after pulling the fabric curtain closed.

The man who had been sitting in the room on the other day entered and introduced himself firmly.

" Ms. James, my name is Detective Benjamin Brooks, I am with the Turner county sheriff's department and I'm here to try to find out exactly what happened to you and your boyfriend, Ramsey Duke, on Halloween night 13 days ago".

I lifted myself from my reclined position in my bed and motioned for him to hand me the note pad and pen set sitting on the nightstand in between us.

"Are you able to speak?" He asked, seeming to realize my request.

In my loudest whisper I could muster up I replied,"Yes."

"Ok," handing me the instruments, "Whatever you remember, from when you left your house." I sat for a minute, and began telling the tale, I knew the average person wouldn't believe me, but I was to exhausted to change the facts or concern myself with the opinions of my sanity.

I wrote: "Duke was taking me to a party with his friends, but once I got dressed he was upset that the costume I'd chosen was a but revealing. Once we passed the second bridge, he'd got gas and told me we were just going to go home and stay in instead. On our way back I told him I would like to get dropped off at my sister's instead, she was having a small family get together I had wanted to attend anyways and I was sure they wouldn't mind my costume. He began screaming at me and driving crazy, swerving the car and speeding. The next thing I know, he started punching me. He said we were going to be together forever, even if he had to kill us both. We crashed into the bridge walls and went into the water. I climbed out the window and he was still grabbing my legs. I kicked and pushed myself away. As I climbed but the pond's shore, I thought he was gone initially, but he grabbed me with some kind of cloth, around my neck. I was dying. All I could see was the silhouette of the trees and the moon shining brightly. Officer Brooks a giant something was in that water with us. I didn't see it but I felt it behind us, and I heard it, growling, and breathing and then he let me go and I passed out. I know it sounds crazy. I smelled it and heard it and I could feel it there. Where is Duke?"

I handed him the notepad.

He read it quickly, making several faces and then pulling up a chair close to me on the same side he had been standing.

He took a deep breathe and for the first time, displayed humanity in his demeanor.

"Ms. James, Mr. Duke was found, exactly forty-two feet from you, sliced into exactly four parts" he motion with both his hand, the shape of a cross, "Split. And I said sliced, not chopped or tore, because there seems to be cauterized perfectly. As if lasered with an advanced surgical instrument."

My face likely landed on bewildered as did that of the Detective.

He said what I was thinking," it would make more sense if he had been mauled, are you sure it wasn't a person you two encountered? You're certain?"

I attempted to nod in agreement, he ascertained my affirmative response.

"Ok ma'am, well thank you for your statement. We will be in touch." He glided out the room without making a sound.

I leaned back into my bed, engulfed with questions. Most of all, "What happened?"