Moon, Bitten

Chapter Three

It was that Thursday of her third week in the hospital that a name fastened itself to the faceless man that haunted her dreams.

Danny.

She paled markedly as it slipped seemingly effortless from an aimless compartment of her mind, the name prompting a tremor to coil its way down her spine as it unleashed a flurry of snapshots, all of which disclosed five, terrifying years of absolute violence.

She cast a wary eye to the door, alarmingly aware of her vulnerability.

Was he looking for her?

Did he know of the baby? He couldn't have possibly known if she hadn't?

Tossing her linen aside she stood onto shaky legs, gripping the railing to steady her swaying frame.

She had wasted enough precious time.

As her memory came flooding back, along with every horrifying recollection of Danny Horner's abuse, she recalled most prominently and painfully, the many temperamental stages that brought on immeasurable rage.

She shivered, closing her eyes as she pictured it now, storming her in a blind haze of red, fueled by jealousy and fury, pummeling all the anger that which fed his violent monstrosity into whatever he deemed fit.

Flee! Her mind beseeched.

He could already be in the hall, crouching, waiting to snatch and cast her back under his iron command. At that shuddering thought she glanced fearfully at the door, her heart accelerating rapidly against her breast.

He hadn't known about her great aunt and certainly wouldn't know to look for her in Asheville, North Carolina.

Tears nearly choked her as her fingers tentatively brushed the hollow at her throat, daunting recognition settling on just how close he'd come to actually killing her.

Asheville was her only means of survival.

And now was the time to run.

Kate left her past in that Albany hospital and fled from one Greyhound to another, traveling those 690 miles of paved blacktop. The framework of Albany's finest fading unto the ashen sky.

Her thoughts remained heavy, constant with an impending fear that he would find her. Her memory was all but restored, not a single, painful moment left obscured.

She sank deeper into her suede seat, her sub consciousness retrieving those infinitely frightening moments to remind her all too well of just what she was fleeing from.

Danny Horner.

The cause of her every waking fears.

He'd been charming, chivalrous even after the tragic death of her parents. He wooed her hopelessly off her feet and she'd fallen head over heels in love, believing him her valiant knight.

She rebuked that unsettling thought.

What she thought was a knight in shining armor was merely a sly wolf cloaked in sheep's skin.

He'd beaten her senseless.

His word was law, which meant certain clothes and make-up were prohibited. If she appeared desirable to another man or caught a wandering eye, she paid a dire price that left her unconscious and badly beaten to every inch of her life.

Five painstaking years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of a man she had loved wholeheartedly and for what?

Just to awaken in a hospital bed with no recollection of the events prior to it?