Alpha Girl (28 page)

‘Yes, caused by the sucking of the skin. A love-bite.’

My father shot me a look and I avoided his eye contact. Who else could I have been with, other than this mysterious werewolf I’d told them about?

‘We would like to perform some internal examination, but your daughter is adamant that we don’t perform the examination. Perhaps you can convince her that it is for the best.’

‘Internal examination?’ my father asked, his eyes wide.

‘To check for damage, or perhaps the D.N.A of the attacker.’

‘I wasn’t attacked,’ I said loudly. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’

‘Be quiet, Rose,’ my mother snapped.

‘Please, Mrs. Goldman, your daughter has gone through a great ordeal. It is possible she is blocking out the memory of last night’s occurrence.’

‘I’m not blocking anything,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘I was drunk, and I wandered into the forest and took my clothes off. I passed out, and woke up. I got grazed and bruised after I fell over.’

‘Doctor, may we have a moment alone with Rose?’ my mother asked sweetly.

‘Of course,’ he replied, smiling kindly. ‘I’ll just be outside. Yell if you need me.’

They waited until the ward’s door had been closed.

‘What the hell is going on, Rose?’ my father shot at once.

‘Nothing,’ I said, panicked. ‘I wanted to be free last night, so I … I went to the woods.’

‘You were with
him
, weren’t you?’ my mother asked. ‘That – that
monster
.’

‘It’s not like that,’ I said, with wide eyes. ‘Mom. I know he isn’t the monster – I mean, the man who turned me.’

‘How do you know that?’ she asked.

‘I saw him transform.’ I looked between them pleadingly. ‘He looks completely different to the creature that hurt me. His fur is a mousey brown – not black. And he is far smaller in size compared-’

They looked between each other skeptically. ‘Rose, the doctors and nurses here seem to think you’ve been drugged and raped. Your story won’t hold up long. The blood test will show that there is no alcohol in your system. We have to let them do the internal examination to keep up appearances. If we decline, they’ll think
we’re
trying to hide something. They may even call child protective services if they think that we’ve mistreated you.’

My skin prickled with fear. ‘They can’t,’ I said. ‘They can’t do the test.’

‘Why not?’

My heart thundered. What was I meant to say?
Because the test will show that I have had sexual intercourse within the last sixteen hours?
They’d be sure to find Mr. Stone’s D.N.A.

My mother’s face became pale.

‘You’ve had sex with him, haven’t you?’

I didn’t say anything.

‘You have.’ My mother’s nostrils flared. 

My father cursed and sat down in a chair.

‘It was the first time last night,’ I said, my eyes pleading. ‘Please, you can’t let them do the test.’

‘Why not? You must let them know you had consensual sex. It was consensual, right?’

‘Yes, of course it was. But … but-’

But he is thirty-two years old and will go to jail if anyone finds out.
I couldn’t tell them that. As far as they knew, Mr. Stone was just some guy who could drive. If they found out that he was twice my age, and a teacher, no less …

I wasn’t sure what to say.

Outside, I could see the Doctor talking with a nurse through the glass pane in the door. They looked over and caught me staring.

Re-entering the room, a manila folder in his hand, the doctor approached my parents. ‘Well, we just got the result of Rose’s blood test back. The good news is she doesn’t seem to have contracted any sexually transmitted diseases. However, there was no trace of alcohol in her blood stream.’

‘See? I’m fine. Nothing has happened to me. I want to go home.’

‘You don’t want to do the internal examination?’ the doctor asked, glancing at my parents.

‘No,’ I said firmly. 

At that moment there was a knock on the door. I could see two police officers standing there. The doctor excused himself and went outside to greet them.

‘What are
they
doing back here?’ I said angrily. ‘I already told everyone I’m
fine
.’

‘They’re only here because we called them last night,’ said my mother. ‘They just want to make sure everything is okay.’

‘You shouldn’t have called them,’ I said through gritted teeth.

The doctor re-entered the ward accompanied by the two police officers.

‘I haven’t got anything else to tell you,’ I said at once. ‘I want to go home.’

‘Miss Goldman,’ one of the officers approached me with a black plastic bag in his hand. ‘My name is Officer Renstrom. Are these yours?’

He turned the bag upside down and a pile of clothes fell onto the bed. I picked through them.

‘Yeah, they’re mine,’ I said. ‘So?’

‘We found these clothes in a vehicle by the highway. Along with this.’ He held out my cell phone.

I snatched it from his hand. ‘That’s mine!’

‘The vehicle was a nineteen-ninety red Ford Escort. Does that sound familiar to you?’

I stopped breathing. They’d found Mr. Stone’s car on the side of the road, with my things inside it. But where was Mr. Stone? Why hadn’t he gotten back to his car yet? Was he in trouble? Hurt? Lost?

If they’d found his car, then they obviously knew whom the car belonged to from the registration number.

‘Look, I haven’t done anything wrong, and no one has hurt me. I’m back with my parents now. So everything is fine, right?’

‘Ma’am, we’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’s all right with you,’ said officer Renstrom.

‘Am I under arrest?’ I asked, crossing my arms.

‘No, of course not.’

‘Then no, I don’t want to talk to you.’

‘We need to talk to you about a man called Thomas Stone.’

I froze. What was I supposed to say? That he was my teacher, and that was it? How would I explain my clothes in his car when I’d been found naked in the woods? I could feel myself becoming irrelevant in the police’s investigation; now they were looking at Mr. Stone because they suspected him to be a sex-offender. 

This wouldn’t have happened if my parent’s hadn’t called the police.

I tried to play it cool.

‘What about him?’ I asked.

‘He’s a teacher at your school, isn’t he?’

So they knew. My mother gave a little gasp and I shot her a look.

‘Yeah, Mr. Stone,’ I said, flicking my hair out over my shoulder.

‘Can you explain what your things were doing in his vehicle?’

I shrugged, nonchalant. ‘Maybe he found them lying around somewhere. I
was
naked, you know?’

‘You think he stumbled upon your things whilst walking in the woods?’ Officer Renstrom raised an eyebrow.

‘Or in the street, or whatever. I told you … I was at a party. I could have left my clothes anywhere.’

There. That sounded believable. Right?

‘And why was the car abandoned by the forest?’ the Officer pressed.

I shrugged. ‘Maybe he’s looking for the owner of the clothes?’

‘I thought you said you could have dropped them anywhere?’

I sighed, exasperatedly. ‘Look. Mr. Stone is a good teacher, and has never laid a hand on me, okay? Is that what you wanted to know? If he abused me? Look, I say I’m fine, so that should be the end of it. It’s not a crime to park your car by the forest, is it? You’ve got no case if no one was hurt.’

‘Actually,’ said the second officer, speaking for the first time. ‘When we tried to contact Mr. Stone we couldn’t get hold of him. Upon further investigation we discovered that Thomas Stone has a history of violence and aggravated assault. He was arrested in two-thousand-and-nine for the attack of a co-worker-’

‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘He’d never.’

‘Miss Goldman … if there is anything you wish to tell us, now would be a good time.’

‘No, there’s nothing,’ I said, my jaw set tight.

‘It’s all right to talk to us. None of this is your fault.’

‘
Nothing
happened to me,’ I said through gritted teeth.

The police officer nodded, looking rather disappointed. What had he expected me to say?

‘Thank you for your time, Ma’am.’ The officers bowed their heads and turned to leave.

‘Wait!’ my mother said, standing quickly. ‘He had sex with her!’

‘Mom!’ I cried.

‘I beg your pardon Ma’am?’ The officers turned back to us.

‘He did! She told me. I didn’t know how old he was – that he was her teacher. She told me that he was with her last night.’

‘Is this true?’ Officer Renstrom asked me.

‘No!’ I said at once. ‘It’s lies!’

Friday – 16 days to go

My life is a living hell.

It’s been
two weeks
since they arrested Mr. Stone.

It’s been
one week
since the judge slammed the hammer, sentencing him to a minimum of eight years and three months in prison for sexual abuse of a minor. It didn’t matter that I had consented.

I watched him on the news, a coat covering his face as he was bowed into a police vehicle.

Meanwhile, my identity in the whole ordeal was kept a secret, and wild rumors began to spread throughout the school about Mr. Stone abusing multiple students in his classroom. It was all lies, of course. Even Sadie would tell anyone who would listen about how Mr. Stone had asked her to wear no panties to class. What a load of horse-shit.

But no one would listen to me.

I was invisible.

Counselors told me that it wasn’t my fault that an older man had hoodwinked me. I told them I hadn’t been tricked, that they’d gotten it all wrong. How could I explain our mutual attraction without sounding like an absolute lunatic? I’d just have to mention the ‘W’ word and I’d be sent to the loony bin.

I was forbidden from seeing Mr. Stone – that was, until my eighteenth birthday which was two days away.