Someone wrote to me and said that I needed to update. True true, I haven't updated in almost a year. That's what happens when you hit college. This was something that I shot out very very quickly so I'm sure it's full of errors… yet I can't be bothered to edit. Feel free to point out mistakes to me.


Catherine stepped out of the room and closed the door, leaning against it and closing her eyes. Slowly she reached up to rub her temples with her index and middle finger.

"How is she?"

She didn't have to open her eyes to know the expression on the face before her. It would be nearly expressionless, but the eyes would radiate with sadness and concern.

"She's not speaking about it." Catherine turned to Vincent. "She's so young… I tried to get her to at least talk about her family… but she's closed herself off."

Vincent shook his head. "She's terrified," he said softly. "We had her upstairs because we wanted father to be able to check in on her occasionally… but the sound of the children, the echoes of the pipes, the sight of any and every man here all affected her so badly that we thought it best to bring her down here.

They walked to down the entranceway to where the water from the city spilled over the edge and created a huge waterfall. True, Catherine reflected. There was no way that the girl could hear anything over the water. But at the same time… wouldn't that frighten her more? The idea of not being able to hear someone when they were coming?

And was it really going to help her if they encouraged her to shut herself away, deep in the underground tunnels where no one could find her… help her?

"I'm not sure what to do Vincent," said Catherine after they had walked a ways and the roar of the water was behind them. "I can't get her to talk about what happened so I cannot take her above or start the search for the man who did it-"

"I've already tried looking for him," Vincent said. There was a small, almost inaudible growl to his tone, and Catherine knew that if the man had been found there would have been no need for a prosecution. "I found his scent litter all over the bushes, but he had fled. I'll know that smell again, if he passes by."

She reached out and gently took his hand. "Vincent…" she pressed her cheek against his arm. "I'm worried about this. We have to do something about that man… we can't just allow him to roam, hurting others… but finding him could be difficult. Above, we have a special medical examination that is done after a woman has been raped-"

"Father has already conducted it," Vincent cut in.

Catherine jerked back and looked up at him, surprised. "Father has? But how-"

"John keeps him up to date on his medical examinational methods with journals and so forth." Vincent looked disturbed. "Mary assisted. I wasn't there, of course, but Father told me it was horrible."

"You mean intrusive," Catherine sighed. "I wish there was another way. It's such a horrible humiliating thing to go through after you've been… hurt."

Vincent squeezed her hand. "If you need these things for record… we can send them to John. That was you may be able to get the ball rolling."

"Not without a statement." Catherine shook her head. "They'll never accept the report without a statement. That's our main problem… time is running out. If we do get her to make a statement eventually they may wonder why it's taken so long and not accept the proposal to start searching for this man."

They stopped walking. They had reached the little entranceway below the apartment complex.

"How about this…" Vincent paused. "We'll send the information to John with Mary. He can draw up the proper paperwork and Mary can make a statement saying to found the girl in the park. We can say that the girl fled afterwards, but at least that would be a more plausible explanation. After all, anyone would understand a girl disappearing or not wanting to speak after such a horrible event."

Catherine opened her mouth then closed it, thinking. She paused and finally said, "It might work. We'd have to be extremely careful-"

"Yes."

"But it would be enough for a start… enough to get a search party together. How fast can you make this come together?"

"I'll talk to Mary and have Jamie get a message to John immediately."

Catherine nodded. "We're staging this a day late… I hope none of the samples will be messed up."

"You let John and Father worry about that part. They're experts in medicine."

There was a lengthy pause. Catherine looked at Vincent carefully. These things always seemed to cut him deeply; sensitive as he was. Though to be fair, they always hurt her too, bringing up that terrible memory of the day Vincent had found her.

He gently touched her jaw where the scar was. They shared the same mind.

"It took you a while to heal as well Catherine. We must hope that this girl has your strength."

She smiled a little, feeling tired. Then she gently tipped her head up and kissed him goodnight.


Leda was laying on her side listening to overwhelming sounds of water pounding against the earth. In her mind she was displaced, whirling into darkness, the events of that night relentlessly and torturous; playing in her head over and over. She thought of it when she was awake- she dreamed of it when she was awake. She felt entirely different, as though she'd had a complete out of body experience. She wondered if she would ever feel normal again.

At first she had been nearly hysterical by the constant voices, the strangers who kept coming to her, asking her questions, poking her, prodding her… wasn't it enough that she had to think about it? Why did she need to speak of it? Now it was quiet… it was horribly quiet except for that water pounding over and over and she sat in the corner of her room, her hands over her ears rocking back and forth… and back and forth…. And back and forth…!

The man appeared. A dark shape, a faceless man… sometimes she thought she saw a glare, a malicious sneer. She begged him to leave her and he laughed. She pleaded with him until he became angry and threw her to the ground.

For a long time she had barely been able to acknowledge anything, so wrapped up in her mind, so displaced as she had been. As time rolled on she gradually came to her senses enough to ask the obvious questions. 'Where am I? What is this place?'

She decided to find out.

She opened the door and walked down the passageway, towards the sound of rushing water. When she reached the clearing she stopped, amazed.

Thousands upon thousands of tons of rushing water fell from the pipes at the top of the cliff to the bottom of the canyon. It was unlike anything she had ever seen, a waterfall that represented such beauty and power in the middle of an ugly and dirty underground sewer. Above it, instead of birds, bats lingered, flying over the water and catching bugs.

She shivered and drew slightly closer to the wall.

"Hey! Hey watch out!"

"You better run!"

"I'll catch you!"

The sudden sound of voices echoing loudly off the canyon walls from all directions made her startle. She turned to flee down the fall to the confines of her room and tripped over a stone. Falling she scraped her knees roughly against the rocky pathway and cried out. Her voice was drowned out by the sounds coming from below. Expecting the worst, she covered her head with her arms.

"Look out Ana!"

"No fair! Kipper you always win!"

"Not his fault you're so slow!"

The obvious lilt of children's voices made her peer from her sanctuary. She crawled to the side of the cliff and looked at the pools below. Three children were at its edge, undressing with the obvious intention of jumping in.

Leda stared at them with utter fascination. Their smiles, their laughing and jokes… it was so utterly foreign, so strange and distant. For a moment time stopped and she fought hard to think of a reason, any reason, that anyone would have for happiness.

Shrieks could be heard from below as toes touched the cold water. One of the boys bravely dived in entirely, sending a splash big enough to drench the other two. A moment later they were all in the water.

"Having fun?"

A new voice. Leda gasped as she saw the Lion man stroll over to them. He stopped his stroll just under a patch of light spilling from the streets overhead. The children looked at him in delight.

"Vincent! Vincent come in with us!"

He laughed. It should have been frightening but his countenance was so gentle that even Leda could not help but be soothed.

"You know it how long it takes for me to dry off. I think I'll leave the swimming to you."

"Aww Vincent!"

"Please?"

The Lion shook his head. Coming to the water's edge he very carefully bent over and reached out a hand as if to test the water temperature. Then he quickly snapped back, splashing the children and making them gasp in surprise. They all quickly tried to retaliate but he had already stepped back beyond their reach.

"Aww come on Vincent!"

"Vincent!"

Suddenly, the answer appeared. The answer to the questions that had been pushing into her mind, her spirit. How could there be happiness, where she was, how she had gotten here…

This wasn't real.

It was so simple, so logical. It had never really happened at all… none of it. Lions did not exist. Strange pathways and tunnels… there was no way that this was real, that people could exist in such a dark and dreary place and be happy.

That man… that night… it wasn't real.

A nightmare… a horrible and lifelike nightmare, but certainly not anything to fear…

Because… because none of this was possible… because horrible things like that did not happen-could not happen. Not to her. To other people, yes of course, to strangers in the newspaper or on television but to herself, it was so personal, too close-

"Hello."

A gentle voice. A gentle face. She looked up to see Vincent standing above her.

"Hello," she said quietly. Her throat felt gravely from lack of use. He looked surprised.

Very slowly she picked herself up, resting on her knees. He reached out to help her and she took his hand. It was warm, hairy, and clawed, yet it did not pierce her skin, so careful was the Lion man.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, looking at her bloodied knees.

Leda took a deep breath. She looked at him with a remarkable calm that seemed to disturb him more than anything.

"Yes," she said. "I'm alright."