Blackout. Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

mouth to scream. Nothing came out. She coughed, gagged, felt as though she were being choked. Her eyes fluttered, shot through with pain that instantly radiated downward. Man, was she having a stroke? Seeing things?

       Monsters?

      An incredibly tall monster with shoulders taut with muscle and a chest to match, all covered in hair or fur like an animal or a really good Halloween costume?

      This thing had, she would have sworn under oath, turned into a man, then back again. She thought she had recognized the face, before it too had become something else. Something horrifyingly wolfish. Maybe, though, picturing anyone from the D.A.’s office as a beast was merely wishful thinking.

      “Put me down!” she tried to shout, though the words didn’t actually emerge. Her mouth wasn’t working. Her face was numb.