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her thoughts, he smiles at her, which causes a chill to run down her spine again, but then he turns to walk down the path to his left, all the while never taking his eyes off of her. 
    She finally breathes for the first time, “That was creepy.”
    Her instincts are screaming for her to run as fast as she can and get the hell out of there.  But her legs are stiff from fear so instead she walks at a faster pace hoping she doesn’t draw any attention to herself.  Her car is only about twenty feet away now. 
    Anna -Marie reaches her car within seconds, although it felt much longer.  She sticks her key into the door then feels someone grab her arm and spins her around.
    “What the f- !” Anna-Marie screams in shock, which quickly turns to fear as she meets the eyes of her assailant.  She gasps as she finds herself facing the strange man that was on the path in front of her only seconds ago and his big hand is still tightly wrapped around her forearm.  The poignant smell radiating from his pores and the dirt ridden clothes clinging to his enormous frame makes her want to gag, and had she not been in utter shock from fear, she would have.
    “What do you want?” Anna-Marie chokes out in a shaky voice.  She tries, but fails to sound brave.  He doesn’t answer; he just stares at her with cold dark eyes.
    He s queezes her arm harder and tears form in her eyes, “You’re hurting me!”
    To Anna-Marie’s complete and utter disbelief, he suddenly drops her arm. 
    She is confused. 
    He’s not even looking at her anymore.  He seems to be staring in the distance at something past her.  He begins to form a dark menacingly mocking grin on his cracked lips.  That’s when Anna-Marie notices the teeth.  He has jagged pointy yellow teeth with gooey rank saliva beginning to drip off of them like a rabid animal. 
    Then he shocks her even further by taking a step back and then another one, all the while he doesn’t take his eyes off of whatever has captured his attention in the distance.  Anna-Marie is too afraid to turn to see what it is. 
    Instead s he takes that chance to get into her car.  In a flash she has the doors locked and the engine started.  She peels away, never once looking back to see if he were following her. 
    It isn’t until she slams her apartment door shut and locks every lock that she finally breaks down. 
    “What the hell just happened?” she asks herself through convulsive sobs, using the door frame to hold herself up. 
    She can’t make her body stop shaking as her shock sets in.  Her legs feel weak as if they are unable to hold her weight any longer. She slides to the floor with her back against the door and hugs her knees close to her chest and cries even harder. 
     
    ***
     
    The rest of the weekend goes by in a blur.  She didn’t leave her apartment once.  Both her mom and Peggy called a few times, but she was in no mood to talk to anyone, opting to keep the conversations as short as possible or just not answering the phone all together. 
    By Sunday evening Anna drove the two-hour drive from her hometown in Pamlico County to check on her for herself.  Anna still has a key from when she stayed with Anna-Marie after Dylan died, so she let herself in.  Anna finds Anna-Marie in a ball on the couch, staring blankly at the TV. 
    “ Anna-Marie, honey, are you okay?” Anna calls from beside the couch.
    Startled, Anna-Marie lifts her head up and looks over the side of the couch, “Mama?  What are you doing here?”
    Ann a moves from beside the couch to in front of it to get a better look at her only child.
    The shocked look on her mother’s face says it all.  “I’m fine, really.  I’m just tired.  You didn’t have to come all this way just to check on me.” 
    Ann a walks over and sits beside her.
    “Well , you didn’t sound so fine on the phone yesterday and you sure don’t look fine now.”
    “Mama , I told you, I’m just tired.” 
    “You look like it.  Are