Prologue 5 The Strange Mans POV

Charles Dewdney pulled over to the side of the narrow paved road, there wasn't really a shoulder, but traffic on the road was next to none, so it would be okay for a short time. He looked over at the woman he had just chloroformed in the passenger seat. Great, she was knocked unconscious. Charles liked to pretend he was a normal young guy while he interacted with friends and neighbors, but he had a deep secret that he only let show to the women that ended up as his victims, he was a killer, and he liked to kill women. But he couldn't kill just any women, no, that kind of behavior is the stuff that gets you caught. He made sure to target women who seemed to be homeless or walked the streets as prostitutes, or even hitch hikers who are estranged from their families. Especially indigenous women, Charles once had a friend who worked as an RCMP officer, whom not realizing Charles' wicked habits, mentioned that the RCMP didn't really look into cases of missing indigenous teens and adults, because according to other officers in the force, their usually found out to just be on a binge and end up home eventually more often than not. Charles studied his so called passenger, from her long black braids to her perfect nose to her tanned caramel skin. He could sense her tension when he asked her about family, and just by her pause he knew nobody was going to come looking any time soon, even if someone called police, they need to wait 48 hours before someone can be reported as a missing person. His trance finally broke from the girl and he pulled back onto the road, trying to find a desolate dirt road, preferably with tree cover to hide his impending vile activities. It was not long before he noticed an unpaved path and turned left onto it, it appeared to have lots of tree cover. He drove down the road long enough that his car would be out of view of the road. He stopped the car and opened the center console and grabbed a pair of scissors before getting out of the car and lumbering over to the passenger side door. He opened the door and dragged a limp, unconscious Lucene out of the car, eventually laying her on her back in the cover of the trees. He began to cut her clothes, starting with her shirt, then bra, then shorts, and underwear. When he finished he stood over Lucene, admiring her nakedness, he kneeled beside her and started to trace circles over her body with his fingertips, in fact it might have been romantic had it been consensual, but Charles was a man who did not care for a women's consent, he took what he believed in his head to be his, just as he had learned from watching his father interact with women from a young age, in fact Charles father eventually began encouraging him to participate in his so called conquests. Charles father would knock his victims out by serving them spiked drinks at his house, then he would rape them, the only difference between Charles and his father was his father did not kill his victims, and didn't bother thinking about whether or not someone was wondering after them, leading him to get caught, identified, and charged with kidnapping and sexual assault and landing in jail. Once Charles became bored drawing circles on her skin, he unbuckled his belt and positioned himself over her, and penetrated her.

As he was raping her, Lucene began to stir, but Charles did not stop, even as she began to hit at him and attempt to push him off. He gave her a hard slap in the face and stated 'Trust me when I say you won't be getting out of this alive girl.' Lucene spat blood at his face and remarked, 'you told me to trust you when you told me you would take me home, so how am I supposed to trust you at all.' Charles whispered in her ear, 'then I guess you should never have gotten into my car.' and with that he took his knife from its sheath and began stabbing, he did not know how long or how many times, but he made sure she would not breath again. He then took a small spade shovel from the trunk and began to dig a grave for his latest kill. He gathered up her clothing so he could dump it elsewhere, and rolled Lucene's limp body into the newly dug grave. After he finished, he drove back up to the road, and made his getaway.

(William's POV)

William awoke Monday morning to an officer standing on the outside of the bars looking at him. 'Finally come to let me out?' he asked. 'yes, you're damn lucky its summer and we didn't decide to take you on a starlight tour (a practice of police in the Canadian prairies of dropping indigenous people off in the middle of nowhere in the freezing winter), I will gather your belongings allow you to leave.' replies the officer. 'So can I get a ride to the hospital? If I'm lucky my wife will still be there waiting for me, I want to get there quickly.' William told him. 'Sorry, we dont give out free rides to those getting out of cells, should of thought about these things before getting arrested.' William was annoyed at the officer but held his tongue and grabbed his things without saying another word. He counted his money and took check of his possessions just to make sure nothing was missing, before walking to the hospital. William basically ran towards the hospital, which was about 15 minutes walking from the police station. He rushed through the emergency doors and approached the receptionist. 'Lucene Weaseltail, my wife, is she still here?' he asked her. The receptionist took a few seconds as she typed into the computer and replied to him, 'no, she was discharged on Saturday morning, two days ago.'

'What? you discharged her the next day after she has a baby?'

'Its quite common if the mother is doing well'

'Did she mention where she was going or who might be picking her up?' asked William.

'I didn't see anyone pick her up here, I can only say I saw her set off on foot'. she replied. 'She left the luggage so I will hand it over to you.' Upon retrieving the suitcases, William walked to the parking lot, started his car, and set off home.

Upon arrival at home, he found absolutely no sign that Lucene had been there, the towel where Lucene's water had broke was still on the kitchen floor, he called out to her, and heard no reply. Upon investigation he sensed that his wife had not made it home. He called the hospital in Fort Qu'Appelle, nothing. He called friends in the area, nothing. William was what they would call in Europe, a werewolf, he could take wolf form and had superior smell and strength. He kept his secret hidden even from Lucene, out of fear she might think he is a monster or may hurt her. He was able to successfully hide this by going on frequent hunting and Trapping trips where he could hide his other form successfully in the woods. It was time to use his superior smell to find his wife, who he feared might be in danger. It was not like her to just disappear.