Thank you so much for being so kind. Hope you enjoy this one. I know this story is weird lol. :-)

Chapter Eight

Liz sat in the living room, trying to distract herself from the mind-numbing silence in the house by watching a movie on TV.

She found she couldn't really concentrate; What happened this morning at the park with the man, Red, wouldn't seem to leave her mind. It had been so... strange, what he was telling her. And yet, he appeared as if he truly believed what he was saying to her.

She sighed loudly, turning her hand over to stare down at the scar on her wrist, the bite. Apparently, according to him, the dog that had unintentionally bit her as a little girl while saving her from the fire at her childhood home had infected her with some virus, one completely undetectable by modern science. She couldn't say she believed what he had told her one bit, because it simply did not make sense.

She didn't feel sick or diseased in anyway. She felt completely normal and healthy. So why would this man tell her that?

Insanity, was the only plausible reason she could come up with. The man had to be insane. And what was he going on about, when he mentioned about companionship and a change that was supposedly bound to happen to her? The man definitely had to be mentally ill to actually believe such a thing.

Yet Liz wasn't thinking in any normal, sane way herself, was she? She was beginning to suspect that Red the man was Raymond, the dog. Didn't that make her the mentally ill one for thinking that way?

Tearing through her irrational thoughts, her phone started buzzing on the coffee table. She leaned over to pick it up, glancing down at caller ID. Tom. Tom was calling her. He was supposed to be home tonight after his weekend annual teacher conference yet, here it was, already nine-thirty in the evening and he still hadn't shown, leaving Liz all alone in the house.

She flipped her cell open, holding the phone up to her ear. "Hey," she greeted.

"Hey, babe. How are things going?"

She settled back into the couch cushions, making herself comfortable. Just the mere sound of her boyfriend's voice on the line made her heart thump in her chest. "It's awfully... quiet in the house," she remarked with a smile. "And it's all ready past nine. I thought you were coming home tonight and that the conference would be finished by now?"

"Oh, yeah. About that..." He paused for a moment, and Liz thought she heard a woman laughing in the background. "There has actually been a change of plans. I won't be home until tomorrow night now." She heard the woman talking in the background loudly.

"You have company?"

"Yeah, just another teacher. We decided to get dinner. I thought there was no point in driving home now because it'd be too late when I got in. I'm staying at the hotel for another night."

"Okay." Liz wasn't sure how she felt about that. A part of her felt worried and slightly insecure, despite the fact that there really was no true reason for her to feel that way. She had no reason to not trust Tom to behave himself and, besides, it wasn't unusual for partners to have friends or colleagues of the opposite sex, was it? "Okay, well, have fun. Enjoy your dinner." She couldn't help the disappointment that showed in her tone.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" Tom asked her cautiously. "Look, if its too much, then I guess I can just come home early and-"

"-No, don't," Liz cut through him quickly. "It's fine. Really. I'm just being silly."

"Come over here," she thought she heard the woman say in the background in an attractive, sultry voice. "It's your turn to buy me a drink, remember?"

"Well, I gotta go, babe." It was obvious Tom hadn't expected her to hear what was going on in the background, but Liz could hear the woman clear as day. "See you tomorrow night when I get home."

"Okay. Bye." Liz hung up on him, throwing her phone back down onto the coffee table carelessly. She rested both feet on the coffee table, grabbing a cushion to crush it into her chest, hugging it. Why did she feel so profoundly lonely all of a sudden?

The next morning, she got Hudson fed and let him outside the front yard to do his business, then once he was safely back inside the house, she went upstairs to get changed into her workout gear.

She still felt in a funny mood over Tom's decision to stay back in Boston for one more night, but hopefully a bit of vigorous exercise would bring her out of that. She had heard the woman on the other line and obviously they were doing more than just having a harmless little meal to eat for dinner together. But she had to remind herself that she had no true reason not to trust Tom, that she was being ridiculous and unfair to him.

For all she knew, the woman could just be a friendly colleague, someone Tom had gotten on really well with. It didn't mean there was a likelihood that he would be unfaithful and cheat. And, if she had to be honest, Tom didn't seem like the cheating type.

He could be friendly and a bit too generous with his time, to the point where people tended to take advantage of that. The woman had probably talked him into having dinner and a few drinks of alcohol with her, and due to his good nature, he had felt swayed to agree and do that.

It was hotter this morning and by the time she ran briskly to the park, she was sweating profusely. She paused to catch her breath, bending slightly to swipe her slick palms down the front of her track pants. She heard a barking noise and when she glanced up in the direction of it, she felt all worries strangely leave her mind when she saw that Raymond was in the park this morning, running towards her.

She felt all her present concerns over Tom immediately leave her system when Raymond reached her, his ears twitching as he panted with his mouth slightly agape.

It was then she saw what he held between his teeth in his mouth.

For a second, she assumed it was another bagel or another tasty morning treat for her for breakfast. Yet when she crouched down and he dropped the thing he was holding out of his mouth and into her lap, she discovered it was what seemed to be an envelope. She grabbed it, holding it curiously while patting Raymond affectionately on the head with her other hand, laughing breathlessly when he licked her fingers.

"What's this envelope?" she asked once Raymond sat beside her. "Is this for me?"

She looked at Raymond, catching his almond-shaped greyish-green eyes. He never said anything, of course. But he stood and wiggled his way closer, sitting again so that his luxurious coat brushed along her arm every which way she moved.

She pried the envelope open with her thumb, breaking the seal. Photos, she realized, when she pulled out the contents. There were a set of photos in an envelope.

Liz's heart seemed to stop in her chest when she inspected the first one. Tom. It was a photo of Tom, though it appeared he hadn't known someone was taking pictures of him. He was entering a building, his work suitcase in his hand. Next picture showed a zoomed-in shot of him sitting in what looked like to be a restaurant, a woman with him.

The blood drained out of her face when Liz looked at the last shot; The woman was there in the next photo also, but they were embracing, looking close as they walked together out of the restaurant. Her arms were slung around Tom, his face near hers. It appeared almost as though they were kissing. She swallowed against a sudden dry lump that had formed in her throat, glancing at Raymond in confusion from where he was still sitting beside her.

"How did you get these?" she asked shakily, turning one of the photos over to see what date and time they were taken. "These were taken last night? Tom was in Boston for his teaching conference?"

Her first instinct told her to ignore it. Denial was always less painful than having to acknowledge the truth. No, this couldn't possibly be true. Tom would never cheat on her. Someone was tricking her, trying to make her believe otherwise, trying to plant a seed of doubt and betrayal into her mind. Yet the photos were there, and they were a real piece of crucial evidence. Could someone really possibly stage shots like that, particularly the last one?

God, and she had felt something was bound to happen last night. There was a gut feeling there that had told her, almost intrinsically, that something was going to happen. That Tom was going to cheat.

The pain from her boyfriend's betrayal was so excruciating, it almost felt crippling, as though Liz couldn't move up from the grass. As if somehow he could sense her emotions, a humans, Raymond stood; one paw pressing down on her left thigh, his claws cutting in painfully as he moved, his snout touching the shell of her ear as he gave her a sniff. He began licking her, tentatively, around her earlobe, as if he could somehow sense she was in need of comfort.

"How did you know to give me these?" she asked desperately, winding an arm around the front of his strong body, holding him pressed to her side. "Did someone give you these to give to me? Your owner Dembe?"

It came to her again; that niggling, foolish suspicion that Raymond the dog was Red the man.

"Are you him?" she asked, slipping a hand over the side of his face, trying to get him to remain still and stop licking her, wanting his luminescent eyes to meet hers so that she could properly understand. "Are you that man?" She sounded so crazy but in that moment she couldn't actually bring herself to care. "Are you Red?"

Self-awareness slowly settled in, and she pushed him away gently, forcing herself to stand. She felt so hurt over what she had seen due to the pictures of Tom with the woman. But, most of all, she felt so ashamed of her behavior for asking a dog if he was a human, that he could ever be one.

"Thank you for giving me these," she whispered appreciatively, placing the photos back into the envelope. She folded it carefully, shoving it into the pocket of her grey hoodie jacket. "It hurts but it was something I needed to know." She felt like she wanted to cry; She could feel it in the way her jaw was set, the way her eyes started blurring with tears.

Not wanting to be one of those women that cried in public, she turned away from the dog, desiring nothing more than to head straight back home so she could grieve in private and, hopefully, sort out what she was going to do as far as her and Tom were concerned.

It happened so fast- one minute she was striding away, a sob escaping from the back of her throat, Raymond brushing up against the side of her leg, alerting her that he was following her, walking alongside her.

Then, in the next, she felt an arm brush against her; Warm, human skin and wiry light hair from someone's forearm at close contact. She turned to look, alarmed, and Raymond was nowhere to be seen walking next to her. No, in his place instead it seemed, was the man Red.

Liz was very nearly bowled over sideways when she tripped against one of his shoes, and the only reason she did not fall was when he caught her tightly with a hand by the forearm, holding her up and keeping her steady, one arm curling around her as he held her almost tight against him.

How he came to be by her side so fast, it was a mystery. She looked around, trying to find Raymond frantically on the grass, yet he had seemed to have vanished bizarrely out of thin air.

"Forgive me," Red said in concern, his throaty, baritone voice causing her to give up on her search for her Siberian husky friend to really take notice of the man who was still holding her upright with an arm around her. "Are you all right?"

He was invading her personal space bubble, and she didn't like it one bit, regardless of how thankful she felt that he had stopped her from crashing down to the ground. But he was the one that had made her almost trip in the first place, with the way he practically materialized next to her out of thin air.

"You okay?" he asked again, when she couldn't seem to find her voice. His eyes searched around her face, that unease she felt around him settling down on her shoulders again.

She had to clear her throat before managing to say angrily, "Excuse me but you're kind of invading my personal space." When he untangled his arm from around her slowly, she felt relief overtake her as she stood back, placing a more comfortable distance between herself and him with their bodies. She still couldn't believe how fast he had appeared next to her.

"I'm sorry about Tom," he said, and just like that, Liz immediately realized why she didn't feel comfortable around the man very much.

It only served to bring a fresh bout of pain up to the surface. She shivered, feeling cold all of a sudden, and she brought her arms up to wrap them around her stomach. She knew he was only trying to console her, but it pissed her off.

"Yeah, well. While I appreciate your concern, its really none of your business, is it?" she spat out, irritation coating her tone. Who did this man think he was? And why couldn't he just leave her the hell alone? "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but I really wish you would just leave me alone."

She stepped closer towards him over the grass, ignoring the discomfort she felt at being so close, looking him over. He obviously had no concept of personal space; He did not back down or move away at her sudden imposing closeness. He simply stared back at her, his head angled slightly to the side.

"You know what you are to me?" she muttered under her breath, lowering her voice. She knew she was being rude, but she didn't care. This man, whoever he was, had to stop this. His eyes bore into hers, the intensity in them disturbing. "You're some sick, deluded man who insists on bothering me. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but you're obviously some type of stalker obsessed with me."

She spat the words out with spite, though she couldn't tell whether her words were having any proper effect on him or not. His face was impassive with no emotion breaking through from under the surface.

"Prattling on about these little twisted... fantasies or ideas of yours, about how I'm infected with some stupid virus because a dog accidentally bit me when I was a little girl? That I'm going to change?"

Finally, she seemed to rouse some form of emotion out of him. She saw the way his jaw tightened then loosened, the corner of his mouth twitching. "As I said before, Lizzie, I don't expect you to understand nor do I certainly expect you to believe me. I suppose the proof is in the pudding."

Jesus, he just didn't get it, did he? "My God," she huffed out under her breath, incredulous. "You know what you sound like? You sound exactly like one of those crazy people that believe in the apocalypse... shutting themselves off in their bunkers thinking they're preparing for it, when really, they're just deluded and insane."

Usually she would never be so rude to a stranger, yet the photos with Tom had pushed her beyond breaking point. It was bound to happen eventually.

"The point is, I don't like you," she went on, infuriated. She thought she caught a fleeting, brief emotion glisten in his eyes; Hurt maybe? But it was quickly replaced with a closed-lipped smile and a nod that made her feel like actually hitting him. "I don't want you hanging around me anymore, staging your little meetings with me in the park. Your stalking of me ends right now. Don't come anywhere near me, don't talk to me, don't say anything to me. Certainly not about your stupid beliefs about how I'm infected."

"What are you going to do about your issue with Tom, Lizzie?" He asked, diverting the topic onto something completely unrelated, stunning her. She couldn't believe the gall he had. Was he not hearing her? Was she not making any sense?

"What I'm going to do with my issues with my boyfriend has absolutely nothing to do with you."

He glanced away from her for a moment, tilting his head, as if considering. When he met her gaze again, Liz felt a fresh new wave of unease billow through her. "Well, I beg to differ. It has everything to do with me."

"Oh? And how do you figure that?"

Red pursed his lips, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Because certain things you can never go back from," he said thoughtfully, seeming to pick his words with care. "Now you may think that you don't like me, and you don't have to. That doesn't truly matter. But whether you like it or not, certain things are... unchangeable. The night of the fire, when that... dog bit you, whether you want to believe it or not, your fate was sealed, Lizzie. It is something that you can... never go back from."

"My fate was sealed? What? That I'm changing? That I'm infected?"

"He's coming for you. And who knows? He may even be closer to you than you realize." His voice dropped to a lower, gravelly level, and it sounded like a threat. "And whether you like it or not, he will have you."

There he was again, confusing her by saying cryptic things that she didn't understand.

"Just leave me alone," she said in finality, ending their conversation. It seemed to be heading nowhere and obviously he wasn't going to listen to her. "You're even more insane than I initially thought you were, sprouting your theories of nonsense."

"For the sake of preserving Tom's life and excusing him from having to endure tremendous pain and anguish, I do suggest that you consider ending things with him," he got out urgently, like his say was important to her when realistically, it was none of his business. It angered her most of all. She needed to get away from him before she did something.

Turning her back on him, she rushed away from him, walking through the entrance of the park. When she passed through it, she paused for a moment to glance back at him to make sure he wasn't following. He wasn't, at least. But he was staring after her, rather despondently, and the fact that he was, it was frightening most of all.

Hope you enjoyed this one? Is Red still a little creepy? Basically, what happens, when a male dog bites a female in this universe that I'm writing about, they are eventually to become mates for life/until one partner dies. Not only that, but Liz will eventually change into dog form herself LOL. This is probably way too crazy, but hopefully you still like it despite that?