Chapter One

The rain of May being

Gathered by the swiftly-flowing

Mogami River

~~Basho

“I’ll probably be in early, tomorrow, Kathy. Oh, and could you please make sure the copy machine is filled with paper and the screen is clean?  The last interrogatories that were copied had to be completely redone.  It looked like there were fingerprints all over the glass.  That was a monstrous waste of paper and ink.”  The attractive young attorney bent and make certain the elastic cord was holding the overfilled box of files and other papers tightly to the wheeled cart that made this part of her life at least a little easier.  Her clerk grunted in assent, her face buried in a pile of law books as she scribbled onto a yellow legal pad.  A trashcan that abutted the table was crammed with empty soda cans and the remains of a lunch eaten in haste.  

Emily knew that lunch.  She had had half the mu shu pork, some of the subgum vegetable and some absolutely amazing combo fried rice.  Unconsciously, she dragged her tongue around her teeth and found a bit of Chinese something that remained, working to prize it out from between her molars.

“Do you have that citation I asked about earlier?” 

Without taking her eyes from her work, Kathy grabbed a book from the pile and handed it to Emily, who saw the book had been peppered here and there with notated sticky notes to call attention to particular areas therein.  Emily shoved the book into the battered box and reseated the lid. 

“Thanks!”

Grunt.

The curly haired head at the desk nodded curtly, and took a long drink from the container next to it.  Emily nodded to herself and headed out the door, dragging the box behind her, the wheels of the improbably cart squealing as she went.  She really had to give that woman a raise.  When she wasn’t studying for the bar exam herself, Kathy really dedicated herself to keeping Emily well informed as to case law, leaving little time for anything resembling a personal life.  Dedication like that needed to be rewarded.  She reminded herself to bring that subject up at tomorrow’s partner’s meeting.  Andrews would probably be a prick about it, but Emily would remind him of how Kathy would frequently get his own clerk out of a bind.

She angled the laden box into the right place for it to get through the door to the office building and lugged it into the cramped elevator.  She thanked the gods that she had it to herself, as there was little room for one other person inside.  She had opined a few times that the elevator must have been an afterthought, as the building was close to one hundred years old.  Her bedroom closet was larger than the office’s elevator, for goodness sake!  The handle of the cart jabbed her painfully in the hip, and she watched impatiently as the antiquated dial on the elevator slowly count the floors down, grumbling that it always seemed to take forever.

The elevator door opened on the simple covered garage that protected the automobiles belonging to the building’s numerous tenants.  Knowing that she would have to bring copious files with her, Emily had parked as closely as she could to the elevator to ease her leaving from work.  She popped the trunk and stuffed the box in, noting at the back of her mind that thunder grumbled in the distance.  As she worked to reduce the size of the simple cart, one of the wheels crumpled inward and then fell off.  She could feel the thunder of her mind growing as her anger surged through her veins.  Emily gritted her teeth as her breath came hot and strong.  Thunder outside made her jump a little.  Just what she did not need at a time like this!

She breathed a sulphurous oath and angrily threw the wheel into the trunk and jammed the remains of the cart into the side of the trunk. Promising the cart a painful death in her apartment building’s trash bin, she slammed the trunk lid down and stomped to the driver’s side, where she climbed in and locked the door.

The thunder growled again, announcing that it was drawing closer to Emily’s location.  A flash of lightning had preceded the thunder by only a fraction of a second.  The last thing she wanted was to be outside, unprotected, during the scary part of the storm.

The drive home was long and aggravating, as she navigated the slow moving parking lot that was the Los Angeles freeway.  The clouds opened up about two miles from her apartment building, pouring rain that slowed traffic even further.  Her cell phone rang, but she ignored it.  The last thing she wanted was to be distracted while it was raining cats and dogs.  She breathed a sigh of relief as she was finally able to pull into the detached parking garage that served the brownstone apartment building where she lived.  The rain was so bad, she decided to leave the box in the trunk for the time being.  She needed to get something to protect the irreplaceable paperwork inside.

After grabbing her trusty umbrella from the floor of the back seat, Emily left the parking garage, stopping a moment to twist and knot her extraordinarily long dark hair into a bun that rested atop her head, held in place with a handy yellow Number 2 pencil, before stepping into the warm summer rainstorm. She made her way up the sidewalk toward her apartment building.  Her umbrella was woefully inadequate against the pouring rain, and was buffeted to and fro by the accompanying wind.  The heavy warm raindrops splashed hard against the sidewalk, spattering the grime of the sidewalk onto her beige slacks.

In her mind, she went over the activities of the day and again gave quiet thanks for all Kathy’s strong work ethic.  The d’Ambrusio case had been settled, and the office’s lightning-fingered word processor would have the paperwork drawn up for signature by midmorning the next day.  She had taken on two wrongful death cases for the firm today, one regarding shipyard asbestos exposure during the Second World War, and the other an aviation-related death.  Major Cox would have to be reminded that having paid her retainer didn’t mean he could call her any time his morning newspaper was late, the mailman didn’t knock when he had a package in hand or the neighbor's dog barked, tomorrow was the partner’s meeting where she had to press her case about Kathy’s salary, and she had to get the Thomas case ready for court on Monday. 

She wasn’t at all looking forward to picking the jury.  It was a tricky case as it was, involving her client, a person who wasn’t what people would consider “acceptable” (she was a prostitute), and the defendant, a rather sleazy individual who, using his deep pockets, usually got what he wanted.  The defendant had defrauded Emily’s client of some real property the young woman had inherited from a former client.  Harris, the opposing counsel, would do his best to challenge any juror who might possibly support Emily’s client.  However, Emily knew some of Harris’ tactics, so would attempt to mitigate his own choices using logic and guile.  At trial, he’d attempt to invalidate the will on the basis of the young woman conducting an illegal business and imply ulterior motives in the relationship between the two.  Emily would have to successfully argue that the young woman’s line of work had nothing to do with the genuine fondness that had grown between woman and man.  The sexual relationship had disappeared early on, and they had simply enjoyed one another’s company.
 
Emily’s mind filled with minutiae and trying to remain as dry as possible in the downpour, the trip from the parking garage to her apartment building passed almost unnoticed.  She was already fumbling in her bag for her keys before she got there.  Note to self.  Clean out the damned bag already!  The bag, a gift from her mother, was large enough to hold half the contents of her sock drawer, so Emily often put off cleaning the thing out.  While intended to make things easier, the sheer volume of the purse succeeded more in concealing what was desired at any given time.  Finally, she shoved aside an empty candy tin and heard the metal clink against what could only be her keys.  Emily grinned triumphantly as her fingers closed on the elusive item she sought.  Then Emily got a good look at the door.
 
Oddly, the front door was ajar.  That was more than a little unusual as there was an automatic arm above the door to close it when it was opened.  That, on top of the automatic locking mechanism in the knob, was intended to make the building perhaps a little bit safer, however safe anything could be anymore.  Somehow, that security measure had been circumvented.  She’d be sure to mention it to the building manager, Celeste, when she saw her.  Emily didn’t like things to be out of order and this type of thing disturbed her sense of rightness.  Martha didn’t have anything on Emily.
 
Emily walked in the door and saw that the automatic arm had been torn free from its wall mooring.  Screws from the arm and plaster from the wall were scattered across the floor of the front entryway…some of the plaster was stained pink from the blood that was pooled near the middle of the scuffed wood floor.  What appeared to be a blood-soaked green rag, vaguely identifiable by some torn lace and an exposed sleeve as a dress, with a lump of torn flesh distorting it, lay bunched in a corner.  A corner of her mind reminded her that the manager had been wearing that very dress that morning.  Emily, ever polite, had complimented her on it.

Then she became aware of a sickly sweet, coppery smell that threatened to overcome her.  The stench of blood and death filled the lobby. 

Emily felt her gorge rise, her lunch threatening a sudden reappearance.  She fought to control the reaction, and failed.  Unable to stop the violent rejection of her stomach’s contents, Emily suddenly retched, some of the stinking substance drenching the front of her suit.  Emily’s stomach and throat spasmed again, so strongly this time that it caused her to lose her footing and she twisted one ankle painfully as she tried to regain her balance.
 
She stumbled backward and into something large and dark that exhaled warm, fetid breath down the back of her neck.  Emily’s mind shrieked “run!”, but she couldn’t get her legs to respond quickly enough to escape.  Two enormous arms were abruptly wrapped around her front and began to pull her close.  The thing drooled saliva onto the back of her neck, like one of Pavlov’s dogs, responding to the anticipation of a meal.  Too horrified to scream, frozen in fear, Emily felt her bladder give way in response to her terror.  The sharp scent of her urine tainted the air just that much more, and the creature began snuffling eagerly at the sweet smell of her fear.  Emily shuddered, knowing she would soon feel the sharp teeth of the thing rip a hole in her small body.
 
But that didn’t happen.  The thing jerked suddenly and fell back, grunting in pain and shock.  Emily was pulled back with it, and she felt the thing’s arms tighten around her as though it was determined not to lose its prey.  It snarled and turned around to face a figure clad in black.  Emily grunted in numb response to the apparition before her.  Her mind still told her that her days on this earth had come to a messy and unfortunate end, and she felt badly that this stranger would likely join her in death.  Why didn’t he show some good sense and run?  Emily tried to yell just that, but only a pathetically soft moan escaped from her lips.

The dark figure wielded what appeared to be a rapier of some sort.  It slid the sharp blade past Emily’s ear and deep into the chest of the thing that held her.  The creature yelped in pain and dug long claws into Emily’s sides.  It appeared to realize that its attacker wanted to steal its prey.

Emily grunted again, her mind too numb to truly respond to the injury.  At this point, the only thing keeping her upright was the creature that held her so.  Were it to let go, she would crumple to the ground.  Blood streamed from the long tears the claws had made in her flesh and into some of her internal organs, down her sides, combining with the rain to stick her blouse to her flesh,  Her blood and other fluids, mixed and thus thinned by the rain, ran down the sidewalk and into the drain. 
 
Emily’s perception of events became blurred as shock set in from pain and loss of blood.  Only numbly aware of what was going on, she passed in and out of real consciousness, listening to the faltering though fast beat of her heart.  Part of her rationalized that she wouldn’t have to worry about that court appearance on Monday, but another part worried that without her signature on the settlement papers tomorrow; the d’Ambrusio case would go all higgledy piggledy once more, and who would look out for Kathy?  A particularly rough jostle brought her back to the here and now.
 
The beast now held her with one hairy arm and grabbed at its attacker with the other, an attack the figure easily evaded, once again sliding the tip of the rapier deep into the creature.  The creature dove at the dark figure, which sidestepped and pivoted on one booted toe as the creature stumbled past it.
 
The apparition whirled and sliced a long wound across the beast’s throat.  At that point, the beast dropped Emily entirely and brought both paws across its throat as if to staunch the flow of blood that poured outward across its chest and onto Emily who lay on the ground before it.   The figure darted forward and pulled her from the ground as the creature fell forward onto its knees exactly where Emily had lain.
 

“Do you want to live?” He demanded urgently, speaking in a strangely accented voice.  He asked her the question as second time, and Emily struggled to make a sound, any sound.  Her numb body seemed impossible to move, her blood loss had been so severe, not to mention the damage to intestines, liver, lung and kidneys from the monster’s claws.

Did she give a response?  She couldn’t remember, but strained to open her eyes in order to thank the man, however ineffectual his efforts had been.

Emily’s blurring vision saw a pale face filled with concern and pity, and her mind registered what a kind looking man before she passed out from blood loss.

To be continued...