Jen strode homeward through the little strip of forest separating her house from Gillian's, wondering how Sam would greet her. She made it to the front door, gulped, and walked through.
No one was home. She looked frantically around but found no one. Where could he be?
Jen sat down on her bed and, gifted with free time, began to consider her present life. Her parents were dead from her own hand, she was in a unheatlhy relationship with her brother, and she'd caused the next door neighbor to kill her husband and become her devoted slave.
Something would have to give, but what?
Perhaps I should run away she thought. I'll ditch Gillian, make her blame everything on her dead husband, change Sam back into a dog, and then make a new life elsewhere.
She felt exhausted from all the strain and excitement and took a long nap before returning next door. Gillian ran and hugged her. "Oh, you're back! You're back! I'm so happy!"
"I know, I know. Give me some breathing room for God's sake."
Jen looked around the ravaged house, and walked past the guest bedroom. She gasped.
"Oh, I didn't tell you!" cooed Gillian. "After you left I disposed of Frank's body and took a short walk out by the woods and our other neighbor's farm, and guess what I saw! A young man, naked as the day he was born, with his thigh caught in one of my husband's wolf traps! My God was he in agony! He told me it'd been a frat prank went wrong, and after I freed him he fainted from the pain. I dressed his wound, gave him some sedatives, and made him rest in the guest room. What a handsome young man; too bad he runs around with bad company!"
Sure enough, there in the bed lay Sam, out cold under the sheets. His unshaven, wolfishly handome face paradoixically looked boyish and innocent in repose. Jen gazed at him with mixed feelings and wondered what she should do with him. She glanced out the window and saw it was getting dark. Her old affection for Sam vied with her desire to be rid of him and his shapeshifting, incestuous cravings. She felt horribly torn. But the moon would soon rise, and she'd have to make up her mind soon. She took a deep breath.