Now we get to the night when everything changed.

This horrible event came in the dead of winter, so it was a bitter cold night when mom drove me to the library. I didn't bother putting any clothes on over my interface suit because of the inconvenience of having to remove them again, so I wore my thick, velvet cloak to keep me warm, and carried the other interface devices in a small notebook bag.

Mama often explored the library’s main portion with a flashlight while I was in the back rooms of the massive building performing and serving guests; she is much more investigative than daddy is and she finds the vacant place fascinating at night.

She kissed me on the head after we arrived, then she told me to "Feed it good!" which is her way of encouraging me to release myself without hesitation and give my inner monster a feast that will keep it satisfied for a long time; then, she gave me a comforting smile and we parted ways.

After somewhere close to two hours had passed, and while I was in the middle of my final performance, she came running into the Lounge room; pulled me from the pole, and pressed her hand over my mouth as she lowered me to the floor. She then turned off my mobile client, disconnecting me from the simulation, and in that second I heard what she had been hearing!

Just outside the library, a cacophony of howling was shattering the silence of the night; it was a pack of inverse lupine-shifters, and they were in the midst of savaging their prey.

The lupine feed on humans exclusively, and they only revel in such ecstasy once they’re in the process of butchering their poor victim alive.

At that moment, however, I was so grateful for the howling; it was enough to mask the horrified, agonized screams that every unfortunate victim makes before they, mercifully, expire.

I was in mortal terror as mom held me down and kept her hand pressed hard upon my lips; the local lupine packs were supposed to be in winter hibernation; what had made them waken so soon? And furthermore, they don’t venture into town; they prefer instead to stalk the trees close to roads or to find isolated houses whose occupants they can consume in secret.

I still cannot say why they were so uncharacteristic that night; all I knew in that moment was that mama and I were in desperate danger! If they caught scent of us we would never have been seen alive again; those locked library doors would have been no protection for us!

When the hellish noise outside finally grew distant and abated I was in tears and shaking uncontrollably. Mom picked me up and held me the rest of the night; she was not about to risk attempting the drive home with me, not with a ravenous lupine pack prowling about on a night when they should have been deep in the mountains, hibernating through winter.

After a long period of silence, she began rocking me and singing me a lullaby in a clearly traumatized and shaky voice. I listened as I started to feel safe again and I managed to drift off to sleep.

She shook me awake just before dawn and assured me that it was alright; the monsters never returned. She handed me a cup of warm mocha from the library’s cafe to get some energy into me and I sat up and took a few sips; I dreaded walking outside for fear of seeing the results of the lupine feeding frenzy, so to get my mind off of it I put my glasses back on and booted into the simulation to explain to Blade why I was disconnected so suddenly; he understood and patted me gently on the arm while the girls gathered round me and embraced me, telling me how happy they were that I came through the experience alive, but I had to explain to them that I might not be able to work there anymore, not with the local monsters behaving so erratically.

Yet, while I said this, it occurred to me that I could access the Lounge remotely; I would simply have to set up a pole at the house and create an avatar of myself to replace me. 

I became immersed in the idea when a distant, echoing knock upon the glass entrance of the library brought me out of my contemplation; I said a quick goodbye to the girls and to Blade, assuring them that I had an idea to keep working with them.

Mom had gathered my things from the prep room and walked me out of the old portion of the library to the entrance doors; a police officer stood on the other side shining his light through the glass as we approached. He asked how many were in there with us and mom assured him that it was just the two of us.

When she unlocked the door, we stepped out into the cold air and she wrapped my cloak around me and hurried me to the car, holding her hand next to my right eye to prevent me from seeing the carnage peripherally; some of the officers at the scene were in terrible distress at what had occurred.

We drove away from that place as more cruisers sped to the scene with lights flashing, we then turned onto the main road to head back down the mountain for home. After a long moment of silence passed between us, mom asked me if I was okay. I recall trying, but not being able to answer her; I think I was going into mild shock at that point, and I didn’t know the reason for the weeping officers until later that day. I was haunted by their mournful outbursts and felt a renewed urging to start crying myself, but I managed to stifle it.

The event made that evening’s news as multiple witnesses, including mother, were interviewed. Everyone was on a knife’s edge; a monster attack had occurred in the middle of town on a night when the creatures responsible should have been in seasonal slumber, and a patrol woman paid the ultimate price for riding those icy streets alone; she was pulled from her cruiser after the creatures overturned it and then was dragged to the steps of the library where they dismembered her and consumed her alive.

She left behind two grieving children and a very vengeful husband who, I feared, would attempt to find the unpredictable lupine pack in a hopeless bid to injure them in kind.

After arriving home I sat in my attic still wearing the tactile interface and nothing else; I recall staring at the wall in total silence, trying to gather the motivation to focus on a project, but all I could think about was that poor woman’s family, and just how close mother and I came to meeting the same fate. The killing happened on the steps of the very building we took refuge in; the lupine could have easily picked up our scent, but the scent of the victim’s blood most likely masked our own, so, in a way, her death might have been what saved us from being discovered!

My friend, Eric, came over after hearing about the attack and found me in my attic, still sitting on the sofa; still starting at the wall.

He sat next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and then he said something that stunned me! He said that I had been through a lupine attack before and survived, and that I would survive this one.

I asked him what he meant and he pulled out five old books from his backpack and handed them to me; “They’re journals” he said, then he began telling me most amazing story!

He began by saying that I gave him those journals and made him promise to give them back to me at a time of his choosing because I, for some reason, suspected that my memory was going to be purged and I feared that they would be taken.

I opened one of the journals and listened as he told me to turn to the entry I penned on page 14,