Cat was horrified to have to tell this story. Most of it filled her with shame and the rest just wasn't believable. Riley and Professor Walsh would believe her but they have to hear the other things too and had terrified her.

"My father was in the military, so we traveled a lot ..."

Riley looked up a memory had sprung from her first comment. When he had told Cat he was joining cadets. She had stared at him and asked why. He told her that he wanted to be a good soldier. She had said he would be the first good soldier she knew. The memory use to bring such joy it meant that Cat had faith in him, that he would be a good soldier. Now he saw that good just meant not hurting people and it sickened him.

".. We were in New Orleans at the time. Daddy had told me that morning that I couldn't go to the farm that summer. So I stayed upstairs when I heard him come in. I didn't want to fight with him. I could hear him before he even got in the house. He made Mama "invite" him in." Cat tossed her hands up in frustration. "I thought he was drunk again and just acting strange. So I didn't go down. Even when I heard Mama screaming... I didn't go down...."

Walsh poured some water and handed it to Cat, "It's OK take your time,"

Cat continued, "Then all of the sudden the radio was on full blast. All I could hear was frigging Garth Brook's "Callin' Baton Rouge" So I went down finally to see what was wrong. Mama was on the floor, blood on her neck...staring up at the ceiling ... she didn't move. I knew he had killed her and I wanted to kill him. When I turned to face him, he was waiting. All deformed and he had blood running down his mouth. I ran at him and attacked him before he could attack me."

Walsh poured my water, handed it over and asked, "Why attack him first?"

Cat thought about it for a few seconds, "Because I had enough, he had done it to me my whole life. That day he took everything, the farm, my mother. If I couldn't kill him then I wanted to die. It must have been shock, my adrenaline was pumping, I attacked wildly. He threw me at the kitchen table when I was down I picked up the broken chair leg. When he came for me, I stabbed him and pouf he was gone."

Riley had sat shell shocked through most of Cat's speech. Finally he was able to ask her, "What did you do after that? What about your mother?"

Cat remembered how the story didn't end there and preceded to tell them the rest of her story. "I went where I always went when Dad .... There was a cottage in the woods a woman named Sophia lived there. We use to talk. She wasn't surprised by my story and she helped me. The police report but it down as a home invasion. They also have Daddy down as abandoning his family months before to explain his absence."

Walsh wasn't satisfied, "What about you, what did they have you down as?"

"A runaway, Sophia wanted to make sure I wasn't a danger to anyone. I stayed with her until I came to school here." Cat figured that was about it, she wanted to go home.

But Walsh wasn't done with her, "So, you were never bitten. How do you explain the blood work?"

Cat was silent for a while, Riley thought she wasn't going to answer. Then finally, "I wasn't bitten .... I bit him!"

TBC