soon Lawrence and Holo were far from the village, the blade still stuck in the frame of the cart, Holo was shivering and Lawrence looked back at her, "Holo...are you ok?"

at this, she came to her senses and tore her cloak from her, she threw the bloodied shred of cloth out the back of the cart, "RRRAAHH!" she began to cry and Lawrence stopped the cart as she leapt out, "Holo, what-" suddenly she began yanking off her clothes as red fur grew over her body, Lawrence understood, blood triggered her transformation, he could only imagine how hard it was to hold it in until they had escaped, she was still shivering, her gigantic wolf tail tucked between her legs, she hurried back to Lawrence and rubbed her nose against him, she snuffled and he saw tears flowing from her gigantic wolf's eyes, he hugged her muzzle as he tried to calm her down with kind words and careful strokes, "it's ok, we got away."

Holo whined like a distressed dog, Lawrence had never seen her like this, but then again nothing like this had ever happened, he waited for her to calm down and she eventually shrank and took her pseudo human form once more, she put her underwear, dress and hat back on as she trembled, "I'm sorry, Holo."

she snapped around, looking at him with her fierce apple red eyes, they were full of tears, "DON'T apologize...you...you got me out of there...you shouldn't apologize..." she embraced him and he patted her on the back as he stroked her hair, "It's hopefully over now."

Holo sat up front this time as Lawrence lashed the horse again and it galloped into the distance once more.

little did they know that it was far from over, a few hours behind them, but still following on their trail was the silver eyed doctor, he was checking his syringes, "hm...im low on strychnine...should go buy some...later..." he made a note in his medical journal, "morphine is fine...I still have a few needles full of hydrochloric acid...I need a few more syringes of cyanide...otherwise it's good."

he put the case back in his satchel and began to check his knives for sharpness, slicing into the leather of his left arm, after the first 8 blades he came across a dull scalpel, "useless." he tossed it over his shoulder, he chuckled as the bleeding in his arm stopped and the skin sealed up, "healing factor still going strong...what's this..?" he bent over and picked up Holo's discarded cloak, he pulled up his mask to reveal an old face, laughter lines and grey hair were exposed once more to the open air, he took a whiff of the blood, "smells like last night, this was definitely her..." he took a long drawn out sniff at the hood, "she uses berry shampoo..." he took another sniff, "sparingly...she smells like wet dog, must've been sweating...cant say I blame her..."

he flipped the cloak around and took another whiff at the lower portion, his eyes narrowing, "and she soiled herself...classy..."

he tossed this aside and continued on his way, lowering the mask back on to his face as he walked.

Holo was leaning on Lawrence's shoulder, she was feeling her stomach, she looked back up at Lawrence as if about to say something, but she seemed to think better of it, Lawrence smiled, "So, Holo, do you know anything about this...doctor?"

she looked as if she were about to start arguing and Lawrence backtracked, "or not doctor...?"

Holo sighed, "I must admit I have never heard anything about this man...this murderer..."

Lawrence stroked her hair, "Let's go to another town, I need to get the money I spent on that room back."

Holo nodded, "I agree...we need more money."

soon they pulled into another town to try to do business.

with the doctor not so far behind.