Oh, You Have Changed!

I really hadn't planned on spending that weekend the way I did. Someone else had thought that they should kidnap me and use me as their toy. The someone, in this case, was a man I had dated thirty-five years ago. My name is Isabel Duncan, I am now a fit and trim sixty-six year old woman. At least that is my normal description.

In my youth I worked with our State Attorney General's office. I had dated a person named Simeon Gritch. Simeon was a very strange character. He was the heir of a rather large fortune. He, early on, seemed to be very timid and hesitant around me. As I discovered, later on, it was an act to make me lower my guard. I hate to have to admit that it worked! I had truly started to believe that he was a good guy.

Three months into our dating Simeon invited me to take a trip with him up into the mountains. He was an avid climber, and I wasn't too bad at climbing myself. He said that he owned a lodge that required some climbing to gain access. It sounded interesting.

Now, when I say climbing I don't mean the type where you require pitons, rock hammers and ropes. This was simply steep hills where you needed hand holds to help keep your balance. I had done some real climbing in the past and this sounded more like a way to simply stretch some muscles.

As we approached the cabin I was extremely surprised. It was built in a stand of trees. Notice I didn't say that it was built in a clearing in a stand of trees. It was built in and around some beautiful trees. Some were Tamaracks. They probably went the better part of a hundred feet high and ten feet around at the ground level. The house used several of the trees as structural members. I was fully aware that this dwelling could neither be seen from the air, nor from the ground until you were within about a hundred feet of it. (This assumes that no fire was going in the fireplace.) I suspect that with a properly set fire it would still be hard to find the house, except by smell.

The lodge was spacious. It had some small windows, but in general it was built for privacy. I had, rightly, assumed that someone had hired a helicopter to drop in the building materials.

When we arrived Simeon started a fire in the fireplace. He was very careful to limit the size of the fire. He had snaked the stove's smoke pipe back and forth below the steeply sloped ceiling. The Smoke was relatively cool when it finally exited the lodge. The heat from the smoke was used to provide nice heat to the lodge itself.

When we arrived it had already become evening. It had been a long walk in. We were both tired and went to sleep early. We were even too tired to make out.

When I woke up I found that I couldn't move my arms and legs. It took only seconds to realize that I was held down with restraints. Simeon was sitting near the foot of my bed grinning at me.

"Good morning sleepy head. Are you ready to play some games?"

"Why have you got me bound and what do you mean by games?"

"Well, you see, I know that you won't like my games at all so I had to restrain you. After all, you will have a fatal accident on the way back to civilization. The fall from the cliff will explain all the bruises, cuts, and broken bones, that you will have. However, you'll get most of them before your trip off the cliff. Sounds like fun to me; and in my book my fun is all that counts."

"Bastard! I wasn't sure of how you would be away from civilization. Before you start anything, look in the bottom of my back pack."

With a quizzical look on his face Simeon walked over to my backpack and rummaged through it. He stiffened when he saw my insurance.

"Why the hell are you carrying a GPS tracker? It won't tell you where you are."

"No, it won't, but it does tell the people who followed us in here where we are. The other thing that you didn't find was the transmitter that has recorded, and broadcast, everything you have said. It is relatively well armored and is not easy to destroy. I suspect that you already have company waiting for you to open the cabin door. If they think something is going wrong they have some rather explosive means of opening doors. Be a good boy and open the door before they blow it off its hinges."

I won't repeat Simeon's language here. I don't use those words.

Simeon was arrested. He had previously had three women die who had gone camping with him. The US forest service had requested the help of some volunteers to follow us in. They were all graduates of either Special Ops groups or Marine Snipers. They didn't make mistakes and they could have tracked us even if I hadn't had the tracker with me.

After the trial and sentencing Simeon was given a life sentence. I thought that I was done with him.

A lot of water had passed under the bridge in thirty six years since I had known Simeon. I was truly not the same person I had been back then.

Unfortunately our brilliant liberal governor decided to relieve prison crowding by releasing prisoners that the parole board thought had been "rehabilitated". Unfortunately, Simeon was one of them. He could really act the part of a "good guy". Now, he was out.

Unfortunately for him he had no idea of the changes in my life. I had retired from law enforcement. Due to personal issues I had not married. It wasn't that I didn't like men it was just that I had some personal issues that would have made marriage very dangerous for me and my husband.

My home now was on a remote mountain plateau. Some friends had set me up with the needed financial support and I had taken them up on their kind offer. I didn't have a rural mail box. I rented a large P.O. Box in the nearest town, thirty miles away. I was out where I could see the stars and moon clearly every night. I was out where visitors were never received. I was at peace with myself.

I had heard news broadcasts about the types of people who were being released. It made my blood boil that the idiots in state government let out vicious killers simply because they seemed so nice, friendly, and intelligent. I guess the lessons of Ted Bundy were lost on such people. Sociopaths can be good chameleons.

Anyway, I hadn't received any notice that Simeon had been released. After all, why should the state warn a victim and witness that the killer they helped put behind bars had been released? Situation normal (SNAFU). The evil was being forced upon civilians by the uninformed and stupid "bleeding heart" pro-prisoner groups.

Simeon eventually found me. It had taken him two years and who knows how much money. One evening I was in my slippers and bathrobe reading when suddenly Simeon was there in the room with me. I had heard someone approach but wanted to find out who they were. Little did he know that I was safe even if he didn't think so.

"You look good for your age Isadora. How have you been doing?"

"I've been doing fine. I am surprised that they let you out. You fooled them, didn't you?"

"Of course. They wanted to believe that they had made me repent and become a good little boy. I simply give them the answers and attitude that they are looking for. Now, we have some unfinished business to attend to. We were going to play some games and we never got the chance to do that. How about we play some games tonight?"

"I don't feel in the mood for games Simeon. I suspect that you would seriously regret trying to play games tonight. Especially tonight since it is the full moon."

"You've apparently lost your mind Isadora. We are going to play and you can't stop it."

"Well, if you insist I guess we'll just have to play. However, I don't want to ruin my living space. Why don't we go out back to my wood pile and play there. It's a nice night out."

"You lead the way!"

I got up out of my chair, kicked off my slippers and walked out the back door. Simeon followed me relatively closely. He thought I would run. Fat chance of that. This was going to be fun.

Simeon had a large knife in his hand. He had an evil grin and said "I think I'm going to kill you by making a large number of cuts so that eventually you will either die of blood loss or infection."

"I have to warn you Simeon. You are dealing with something you know nothing about. You haven't even got the smarts to realize that I might have a reason for living out here all by myself. You don't ever think anything through, do you?"

"Yes! Die bitch!"

He lunged but I was no longer where I had been standing. I was fast enough that my move hadn't even registered in his mind.

"What did you do?"

"I just stepped out of the way. You don't expect me to stand there and wait for you to hurt me, do you?"

He snarled and jumped at me. Again, he was too slow. My reflexes were much faster than his, after all he was just a human.

"If you keep this up, Simeon, I'm going to have to hurt you. Is that what you want?"

He said nothing. As he jumped I jumped into the shadow of the large wood pile. While he was gathering his wits I was going through the change.

"Okay Simeon, I'm not playing any more. Your next attack will cause you intense pain. I won't kill you yet. I want to play with you for a while."

He ran toward the sound of my voice. As he got within about four feet of me and skidded to a halt. His mouth hung open and he was trembling all over.

"Wwwwwhat are you?"

"You won't believe me when I tell you. To answer your question, I'm now a werewolf. I had this little change about twenty years ago. I so seldom get the fun of playing with my food."

As I said food I jumped and bit the hand holding the knife. It was easy to hear the bones break. It was obvious that Simeon was not enjoying this. Anyway, I don't want to bore you with the gory details. I only played with him for about ten minutes. I had a pretty good appetite and he wasn't at all fat.

Life is good again. Simeon will never hurt anyone else. I've even saved some of his body's better cuts in my propane freezer. I'm sure that nobody will miss him. I wonder how long it will be before some other "meals on feet" show up so that I can stock the freezer for this coming winter.

After all, the predators that they let loose are lower on the food chain than I am.