Encounter

Chapter Ten

A bright light came into focus out of the blackness. Sarah was coming out of her unconscious state. She saw a blurry image take form in front of her, it was a young man most likely in his mid-twenties. He had piercing green eyes which were studying her, as he shone his torch in Sarah's eyes.

"Mrs. Willows, you're back with us," The man said with a warming smile. Sarah held her arm out, against the cupboard door behind her, slowly sitting herself up, the room was still blurry and only the man in front of her was in full focus.

"Be careful Mrs. Willows, you've hit your head nastily against the cupboard and you've lost a bit of blood, so you might be a bit woozy." The man said, holding up a glass of water. "Take this, it should help you." Sarah took a large gulp of water, and felt it glide down her throat, quenching her thirst. The man continued to examine her, he was wearing a dark green shirt with a strange emblem on the chest with yellow writing below, North Wales Ambulance Service.

"I'm a paramedic, a rapid responder." he said, noticing Sarah looking at his uniform in a confused manner.

"Where am I?" Sarah grumbled, unable to think straight, as she held the back of her head. It was throbbing in pain.

"You're at your workplace, the dental surgery in Colwyn bay," the paramedic replied. "Do you remember what happened before you blacked out, Mrs Willows." The moments before she became unconscious came screaming back in her mind's eye, causing her to shiver slightly.

The black wolf came into her vision, how it had been watching her, how her tooth and gums had been burning in pain and how her tooth had snapped away from her gums, causing her to bleed all over the floor. She slowly felt around the inner part of her mouth. She felt where the missing tooth would have been.

"Yeah, you've lost a tooth. The dentist has checked your mouth over as I was arriving. He has no idea how or why your tooth has dislodged from the gum, but you lost a lot of blood because of it," The paramedic said, pulling out a sphygmomanometer and wrapping it around her arm.

She felt it tighten around her arm, as the paramedic checked her blood pressure. "Your blood pressure is ok," he said, unwrapping it from her arm. "As I said earlier, do you remember what happened before you collapsed?"

"I saw something, something was in the room with us," she said, unable to stop her ramblings.

"What did you see, Sarah?" Mr Dickinson asked from the other side of the room.

"Well, I saw a, I saw a," Sarah said, struggling to get her words out, her breathing elevating. "I saw a wolf. It was standing there by the prep table." Sarah instantly regretted saying anything, as she noticed the two men exchanging bewildered looks at each other.

"Sarah, there was no wolf in the room. It was just me and Mr Stubbs, Don't you remember? We were doing a tooth extraction," Mr Dickinson said in a concerned tone. Sarah needed to get up, and felt around for something to help her get to her feet. "Maybe I was seeing things then," she lied. She knew in her heart and soul that she had seen the wolf, but they were never going to believe her.

"I need Nathan, have you called Nathan?" Sarah said, feeling waves of emotion flooding over her. Before they could answer her, she heard an all too familiar voice coming from within the waiting room.

"Where is she, is she through there, is she alright?" Nathan bounded into the room, without waiting for a reply. He strode straight over to Sarah, taking her into his arms lovingly. "Your boss called me, I was so worried about you, are you ok? Is she ok?" Nathan said to Sarah, then changing his attention to the paramedic.

"Mr Willow, your wife has taken a fall and she has lost a tooth and some blood. I have checked her over, and she appears to be fine, but." The paramedic said, looking over at Sarah.

"I saw something that caused me to collapse. It is nothing really. Nathan, you have nothing to worry about," Sarah interrupted before the paramedic could continue. She felt a small tear forming in the corner of her eye.

"What did you see Sarah?" asked Nathan.

"Nothing, it's nothing really," Sarah replied.

"She has told us that she thought she saw a wolf, sorry but Nathan needs to know," Mr Dickinson said, while Sarah cast a filthy look his way, for telling on her.

"A wolf? Is that not the wolf from your nightmare?" Nathan said the look of confusion, plain across his face.

"I must have been seeing things," Sarah said, tears rolling down her cheek.

"Right. I think it best we get home. It is clearly wasn't a good idea for you to come back to work yet. You are still suffering from the accident," Nathan said, walking over to her coat and pulling it down from the coat rack.

"No Nathan, I'm fine really. I don't need to go home yet. I can carry on working," Sarah insisted, her face still pale. Nathan shook his head defiantly.

"Sarah, you're not ready to be back at work yet. I think this incident today proves that." Nathan returned, looking angrily at her. "I say this for your own good."

"Sarah, I think Nathan is right. You suffered a very devastating trauma the other week, and it takes time to get over that," Mr Dickinson said, putting his arm around Sarah's shoulder. "No one here would think any less of you if you did go off."

Sarah could now feel her blood boiling with anger. She knew a hundred percent that the wolf had been in the room and it was that mutt who had caused her gums to hurt and her tooth to fall out.

But she could see where this conversation was going. They did not believe her and they were never going to listen to her about going back to work. She could feel herself getting upset more and more.

"Fine," she said angrily. "I'll go home, but I will be coming back to work next week. I refuse to be put off coming back to work for more than two weeks." Sarah snatched her coat from Nathan furiously, and stormed toward the door, throwing the door open and leaving the surgery. She could feel the tsunami of tears attempting to break its way to the surface. She barely held it together, as she made her way out onto the street looking for Nathan's car.

Nathan quickly joined her side, not saying a word to her. He looked slightly hurt that she had snatched hear coat from him so aggressively. She looked over at him as they walked over to his car. She felt sorry for being aggressive toward him, he was just looking out for her. But he did not believe her, he was the only person that she needed to believe her but he didn't.

She held the back of her head, which was still pounding in pain. It was worsened by the fact that her mind was still racing and thoughts about the black wolf would not be erased from it. She got to Nathan's car and felt a prickle on the back of her neck. Sarah looked into the distance and saw a black shadow looming in the entrance of an alleyway ahead of her. It was a large black wolf.