Monday October 27th had come and was half way over when Bailey was in her last class of the day at her school which was Chemistry. She sat at her desk listening to her teacher but allowed her mind to drift off to thinking about the wolf. She thought of the possibilities of what of person he would be. She considered a whole mess of possible personalities and physical traits for the boy who could be from his wolf form. Bailey would occasionally listen to her teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, but would go back to thinking of the boy who was stuck in a wolf's body. Bailey had finally come to at least three possible personalities and two combinations of physical traits. Near the end of her class, Bailey snapped out of her day dream and listened for the homework assignment. Once she took down notes for the homework assignment and class was dismissed, Bailey did her best to get her things from her locker and go back home with her three younger sisters as soon as possible. Bailey liked Mondays but she didn't want to hang around very long on the path back home or else she would bump into Moose again. He had recently become clingy towards her ever since the wolf came to their town and continued attack members of their community. Moose was mainly concerned about Bailey's safety but she'd rather be dead than to talk with Moose for another second. Bailey had walked down the hallway and found her sisters waiting for her outside the school. She came up to her sisters and they began to walk down the path that they usually took when they couldn't catch the bus back home. Diane, Lila and Suzy were talking about the wolf and what they were planning to do for Halloween in hopes that the wolf situation would be under wraps before Halloween took full swing as a holiday. Bailey listened on to her sisters' conversation when all of the sudden they ran into Moose. He smiled at the three youngest Pickett girls and then gave a toothy grin to Bailey. She just rolled her eyes as he approached her and her three sisters stepped back to see what Bailey and Moose would talk about.

"Hey, Bailey. How's my darling?"

"Moose, I'm not your girl anymore so you have no right to call me that."

"But you'll always be my girl."

"No, I'm not. Now, if you will excuse my sisters and I, we need to get back to our home."

"Bailey, why don't you let your sisters go for now? We haven't been able to talk much."

"Moose, I'm tired right now. We can't talk right now."

"Bailey, why don't you hear what I have to say?"

"Moose, why don't you leave me alone?"

"Why should I? I don't think that there's no harm in just talking."

Bailey rolled her eyes and her sisters saw it. They spoke among themselves and then Diane spoke up.

"Hey, Bailey. We're gonna shove off now. We'll let you iron out your problems together. Bye and see ya at home."

With that being said, Diane, Lila and Suzy leave Bailey alone with Moose. He grins at Bailey.

"Well, Bailey looks like your little sisters don't mind giving us some privacy. Why don't we take a walk and talk things out?"

"There's nothing to talk about, Moose."

"Ah shucks, Bailey! You can't deny that there's still something strong going on between the two of us."

"There's nothing going between us. We have been over for a while now."

"Now you may say that but I'm sure that sparks will fly between us again. I just know it."

Bailey didn't like where the conversation was going. But, elsewhere, a certain wolf had observed the interaction between the familiar teenaged girl and the teenaged boy that seemed to be bothering her. The gray wolf wanted to intervene the conversation but he also didn't want to be seen by anybody else. Cody decided that he could go out as his human self if only he could find the strength to turn back to his human form. As Cody prowled around in the shadows of the corn field that was located near the path, he watched the teenage boy talking to the teenaged girl. Cody waited just at the right moment to change back into his human form and act as if he just came into town and pass by a not-so-pleasant conversation and just claim to want to intervene. Moose kept on talking to Bailey while she kept on telling him to leave her alone.

"Moose, please, go away. I really do need to get back home and do my chores and homework."

"I think that you can afford to spend a few minutes talking with me."

"For the last time, Moose, there's nothing to talk about."

Moose stepped closer to Bailey and stared at her. "Oh, yeah?"

Bailey stepped back in defense and felt scared as she looked back at Moose. She didn't like which direction things were going. She wished that the wolf would pop out and scare him away but she knew that it wouldn't plausible for the wolf to do that. Bailey just wished that someone would come to her rescue and give Moose a good reason to leave her alone. Before Moose could get any closer and make Bailey shutter, a tall, skinny boy with dirty blonde side swept hair and blue-green eyes walked up behind Moose and gently tapped him on his right shoulder. Moose could feel someone tap at him and so he turned around to see who it was.

"What do you want, little feller?"

Cody wore black shoes, skin tight jeans and a v-neck shirt. His shock collar shrunk in size with his body and so did his tracking bracelet. His collar looked light some sort of accessory so Moose didn't notice it very much.

"Hello. I'm new in town and I just happened to walk by and seeing you two converse with each other. And even this may not be any of my business, but I happened to notice how uncomfortable this beautiful young lady seemed to be."

Moose looked back at Bailey and then at Cody again.

"You mean, Bailey?"

"Yes."

"You think that she looked uncomfortable with me?"

"Yeah."

"Why would you say such a thing? We used to be together and I intend to bring us back together."

"Maybe she doesn't want to be with you anymore. Have you considered that?"

"No because I know what's best for my little corn flower. Bailey and I belong together."

"How can be so sure of that? Bailey also has an opinion and you should ask her what her opinion is."

"Why would I need to do that?"

"So that you and Bailey can come to a final conclusion whether you two should be back together or not."

Moose waved his hands down at Cody as if shoeing away a swarm of flies all at once. He began to walk away and as he did this, he spoke to Bailey one last time.

"Bailey, we'll talk later."

Bailey ignored Moose and didn't even care that he walked away from her and her mysterious savior. She just stared at Cody and cracked a small smile. She happily approached him. Cody seemed to have noticed Bailey's beaming and elegant face for he had turned his head toward her direction.

"Wow, thanks."

"It's no problem."

"So, you're new in town?"

"Yep."

"Maybe you should leave now."

"Why is that?"

"We recently have been under attack by a wolf…well I think it's more like a werewolf."

Cody went on to pretend to seem interested and raised his left eyebrow as if he was interested in what Bailey had to say.

"What makes you think that there's a werewolf in town?"

"I've encountered the werewolf at least three times and I have ascertained that he has been put under a spell and that he eats human flesh. I mean, come on, what normal wolf eats human flesh to survive?"

Cody shrugs his shoulders. "None that I know of."

"That's exactly my point."

"So, if you have had three encounters with this werewolf, why haven't you been eaten by him?"

"I don't know. I think that he trusts me and believes that I can help him out. He seems to intuitively know that I'm intelligent for a human being. But he must be very intelligent himself if he's seeking help from a human."

Cody felt honored that Bailey complemented his intelligence.

"Well, I'm sure that the werewolf has something planned if he chose you to help him out."

"I guess you're right. The funny thing, though, that is that he is less bloodthirsty when he's around me and if he was a human boy then maybe I would have been tempted to get know him, maybe have a crush on him and want him to be my boyfriend. Gosh, I feel so silly. It kind of sounds like I'm falling in love with the werewolf even though it's a brutal killer."

Cody wanted to tell Bailey that he was able to turn into his human form and tell her that he was the werewolf and that he still would need her help to lift the curse. No matter how tempted Cody was to tell Bailey the truth, he bit his tongue. Bailey looked at him and a thought occurred to her.

"Hey. What's your name? I never did hear what it was."

"You don't need to know that. I'm just a passerby."

"No. I would love to know your name. Maybe we could become friends."

"I don't think so. I'm not going to stay around town for very long. I wouldn't want to disappoint you by becoming your friend before I would have to leave town. Once you would know my name then you would get attached to me and I don't think that it would be fair to you if you knew who I was."

"Well, how am I supposed to properly thank you if I don't know your name?"

"You don't have to do that. By the way, I sort of overheard you calling the boy that was bothering you by some name that started with the letter 'M'. What was it again?"

"His name is Moose."

"Okay. Got it. Well thanks for the nice chat, Bailey."

"How did you know my name?"

"I just heard Moose say it."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"It's okay. Anyway, I have to get going."

"But you just got here. Can't you stay a little longer so I can know your name?"

"I'm sorry, Bailey, but I have to keep moving on."

"Why?"

"I have a place to be, out to the west side of this county."

"Oh. Well, uh, good luck with your journey."

"Thank you. And good luck getting Moose off your back."

Bailey blushed hard and watched Cody walk away from her as he flashed a charming smile and graciously waved goodbye to her. As Cody walked off into the distance, Bailey's cheeks felt hot and her heart was pounding. Her stomach had butterflies in it and her palms got sweaty. Was it possible that she had fallen for a kind guy who just happened by? Bailey didn't know that it could happen but it happened to her. For Bailey, she believed at that moment, it was love at first sight with a mystery teenaged boy who came in at the right time to get Moose to leave her alone. She wished that he could stay around so they could get to know each other and so that she could know his name. Bailey wanted to know his name but she was more concerned on identifying him with sort of surrogate name. She thought to herself and thought of the name Sigmund. It was of Old German origin and it meant 'victorious hand or protector'. Bailey didn't know the boy's real name but she wanted to become attached to him and, to her, he was her protector. Bailey watched 'Sigmund' walk away in the distance until she could no longer see his lean figure anymore. Bailey frowned once her savior was out of sight but she then continued on her way home with a bounce in her step.

When Bailey got home, she had a smile on her face and did all of her homework and chores without a single complaint coming from her mouth. She would happily hum to herself as she did her chores and homework. She even busted the table after dinner and washed the dishes as well. Everyone knew that something wonderful had happened to Bailey earlier that day but they never had the chance to ask her what was the source of her happiness. But Eunice was able to sit Bailey on the couch before she headed off to bed.

"Bailey, what's gotten into you? You seem so chipper. Did you and Moose get back together?"

After that comment, everything went sour. Bailey scowled at her mom.

"Mama, with all due respect, why the heck would you want to talk about him?!"

Eunice was taken back. Bailey had used such force and restrained anger when she mentioned Moose. She felt guilty for her comment soon after Bailey showed a great amount of disgust toward the very mention of Moose's name.

"I'm sorry, Bailey. I didn't know that mentioning his name was taboo to do around you."

"Well, now you know. Don't mention that name again near me, please."

Eunice for certain that Bailey didn't want to talk about Moose.

"Okay, sweetie. I get it…So, what made you so happy in the first place?"

Bailey had to take a moment to let the question sink in and then she scanned her brain for the memory. Soon enough, Bailey remembered the cause of her happiness and then totally forgot her irritation toward her mother and cracked a smile. She looked back at her mom with joy seeping out of her body.

"Oh, mama, the most wonderful thing happened to me earlier today when I was on my way home."

"What is it, Bailey?"

"I meant this wonderful and kind boy who was new in town. Moose was bugging me to no end and, in a way; this mysterious boy came to my rescue. He got Moose to leave me alone."

"Oh, how sweet, Bailey. Do you know his name?"

"No…He said that he was passing by and he thought it wouldn't be fair for me to want to know him when he knew that had to be on his way very soon."

"So, you don't know his name?"

"No. But I chose a name for him and it's Sigmund."

"Why that name? Was it because he looked smart?"

"Well, yeah but that's not the point. I chose the name Sigmund because it means protector and he had protected me from Moose. He was a savior, my protector."

"Oh, I see now."

"But I don't know what to do with myself, mama. I know that 'Sigmund' had to be on his way, but I wanted him to stay so I could learn his real name. What should I do? Do I just forget about him and be happy that he just came along?"

Eunice shrugged her shoulders. "What else can you do? You'll just have to move on from Sigmund and pick a nice boy who won't be leaving town so quickly."

"But that's the problem. I don't want to find any other boy. I want to get to know 'Sigmund'."

"Well, Bailey, he's probably long gone by now. You're just going have to get over the boy and move on. It's how life is. I'm sorry, Bailey. Goodnight, darling."

Eunice got up and patted Bailey in one of her shoulders. Bailey watched her mom leave the living and then thought to herself. Bailey pouted, knowing that she probably wouldn't meet her savior again. Bailey frowned a little more and then got up from the couch and went to bed.

Elsewhere in the deep of the night, Cody was back in his wolf form walking around corn fields. He stayed around the town to seek help from Bailey but stayed hidden for his own safety. Cody could finally identify the lovely, intelligent farm girl as Bailey. He loved the sound of her name, Bailey. He loved her name, he loved how she looked, tasted and smelled. He just simply loved her. He also made a decision to stay around not just for his benefit but for Bailey's benefit as well. He wanted to keep an eye on her and keep her safe from the Moose guy. Cody walked along in the tall grain until he found a patch of tall grass. He circled his body around in the patch of grass and then laid down to rest for the night.

To Be Continued…