Once Upon A Midnight

by Stephanie Rowe

  The little girl fumbled with the phone. It took a few seconds, but he finally heard her say, “Hi, my name is Jessie Marcus. My family and I were moving into our new house on Ridgecrest Drive and my dad and little brother were bitten by rattlesnakes. We are headed down Gold Rush Trail on our way into town. Can you help us?”

  Cade’s heart burst with pride hearing his daughter speak with such confidence. He prayed he would have the opportunity to tell her how much he loved her and compliment her on her bravery.

  Life flashed before his eyes, and Cade understood exactly how little time he spent with his family during the construction of the house. The big fancy dream home didn’t mean a thing if he didn’t have his family to share it with. Regret loomed heavy within his soul, and the fear of possibly losing his son twisted deep inside his gut.

  Bonnie’s white knuckles gripped the steering wheel. “Jess,” she shouted. “I don’t know the way to the hospital. Tell them I don’t know the way!”

  Jessie relayed the information to the 911 operator and a moment later, said, “Stay on this road. A police car will wait for us at the corner of Gold Rush Trail and Stone Church Road. The officer will escort us to the emergency room. The hospital has been notified and they are ready for us. Everything is going to be all right.”

  The police car came into view. Bonnie honked the horn, and Jessie hung her body out the window and waved.

  With lights flashing and sirens blaring, the police car pulled out in front of their SUV.

  A small sigh of relief blew through Bonnie’s lips, but her eyes never left the road.

  They turned onto Main and flew past the line of cars which had pulled off to the right. The road cleared in front of them. They screamed through several red lights and raced towards the hospital.

  Momentarily forgetting his pain, Nathan exclaimed, “This is so cool!”

  A few intersections later, the hospital came into view and the SUV pulled up in front of the emergency room. Hospital personnel stood waiting their arrival.

  A pair of strong hands pulled Cade from the car. Someone grabbed his leg, and he couldn’t stop from screaming out in agony. They placed him on a gurney and strapped him down. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nathan being rolled inside.

  Cade lifted his head in search of his wife and daughter. Bonnie had collapsed next to the car and was crying uncontrollably. Jessie’s comforting hand rested upon her shoulder, but her eyes were locked on him.

  As the hospital doors closed, his beautiful daughter smiled and blew him a kiss.

  2

  Summer

  Twenty-eight Years Later

  BLURRY-EYED, JESSIE Marcus ignored her throbbing head and pushed the blankets off her body. After a couple of unsuccessful tries, she forced herself into a sitting position. The inside of her thighs burned. It had been a long time since she had that much sex, and her muscles felt it. Battered and bruised, her entire body ached. Jessie was frightened, but she couldn’t quite grab hold of why.

  Snatches of an eerie dream crept back into her consciousness. Mixed up images of Derek and the mountain lion which had attacked her the previous day, were all jumbled together. Jessie frowned and mulled over the episode.

  In all her years with the Forest Service, there hadn’t been a single account where a second lion interrupted a kill. The large cats were solitary by nature. Nocturnal hunters, being out at midday was not the norm. The devastating drought had depleted the area’s resources and might have been a contributing factor, but the odd behavior went against everything she knew to be true.

  The memory made her shudder. Instead of being sore from too much sex, her body could have been a lifeless mangled mass. The cat would have hidden her remains in the underbrush. Between the lion and other scavengers, it wouldn’t have been long before her bones were picked clean and her family would never know the cause of her disappearance.

  Lucky didn’t come close to describing Jessie’s narrow escape. Facing off with a full-grown mountain lion, poised for attack, Jessie raised her arms above her head, trying to look as large as possible. She bellowed at the top of her lungs hoping to frighten the animal off, but the look in the blue-gray beast’s steely eyes told her he wasn’t falling for her bravado. His lips curled into a sinister grin, and his body settled back onto his powerful haunches. The cat was waiting mercilessly for her own fear to make her incapable of action.

  Jessie knew she might not survive the day, but it would not be because she failed to act. She shifted her weight in preparation of the assault. The fast, rhythmic, thumping of her heart pulsated through her head, and kicked her senses into high alert.

  The cat caught her slight movement and adjusted his oversized paws accordingly.

  Jessie saw it, and the very instant the mountain lion leaped, she dove to the side. A blur flew overhead and a searing pain raked down her arm.

  Another lion had attacked the first and knocked the blue-gray animal off its deadly trajectory.

  Wrapped in the other’s clutches, the two animals, rolled across the floor of the forest and refused to release the other.

  Jessie wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. She scrambled to her feet and ran for the road and the safety of her old, but dependable, Ford F-150. In a blind panic, she tripped over roots and slipped on poison oak. Finally, after sliding down a hill, she landed on asphalt. Jessie was on Catamount Ridge Road, but her truck was nowhere in sight. She assessed the situation and decided to keep running. The direction didn’t matter since she didn’t know where her truck was parked. Her only thought was to get her butt out of there as fast as possible.

  She was at a serious disadvantage being downhill from the cats. No matter how fast she ran she could be taken down. At any moment, the cat’s powerful jaws could clamp down on her jugular, and drain the life out of her.

  Jessie heard the rumbling of an engine coming up from behind. She turned and saw her beat-up lump of a truck heading towards her. In her terror, she thought the figure seated behind the wheel was the mountain lion coming to chase her down, and Jessie ran faster.

  A fellow ranger pulled up beside her. Relieved, but confused, she grabbed the handle, and scrambled inside.

  “Drive,” she yelled.

  “What happened out there? I heard a scream.”

  The adrenaline levels racing through her veins weren’t releasing fast enough for her explanation to sound the least bit coherent. She needed to get off the mountain, and she needed to do it now. Jessie slammed a balled fist into his shoulder and barked out a direct order. “Drive! Go! Now!”

  The ranger cut her an odd look, but thankfully didn’t argue. He hit the gas, and the truck lurched forward. With his knee pressed to the steering wheel, he shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it into her lap. “Put some pressure on that arm.”

  Jessie looked down and saw her blood soaked sleeve. Her eyes widened at the sight. Warm red fluid oozed out from under the tattered shreds of material. Dirt and debris caked the edges of the wound. Not wanting to know how badly she was injured, Jessie twisted the shirt around her arm a few times and used her teeth to help tie the ends together. When the task was complete, she drew in a couple of deep breaths and let some of the panic exit her body. It was promptly replaced by an unwanted side effect of the day’s adventure.

  Shock.

  Cold sweat dripped from her brow and her limbs felt weak. Lightheaded and dizzy, it became increasingly difficult for her to breathe. Darkness crept in from the edges of her peripheral vision. Before she passed out, Jessie bypassed her chest and forced air deep into her lungs.

  Eighty-seven controlled breaths later, she was able to make her first intelligible sentence. “I was tracking you when I came across two mountain lions.”

  The dark haired ranger shook his head. “It must be slim pickings out there. You don’t usually have over ten cats within a hundred-mile radius.” His piercing blue eyes glanced her way. “Why were you looking for me?” he asked.

  “I’ve been here two
weeks.” Her words were too shrill and shaky for her taste, but Jessie soldiered on. “I figured it was time I met the long-term hut monger under my command.”

  He let out a low, gravelly chuckle, “Long-term hut monger?”

  “What do you expect? No one has seen you in months. Your reports come in regularly, but you do not. You’ve been shacked up in that tiny cabin—”

  Derek interrupted her official reprimand. “A monger is a trader, a dealer, someone who maintains goods for sale. That is not what I do.”

  The man obviously had way too much time on his hands. She pictured him sitting alone by the fire, reading a fucking encyclopedia. The asshole obviously thought it was a fitting time to correct her syntax even though she was bleeding all over her truck and fighting to maintain some semblance of self-control. In a flash of anger, any sympathy she had for the dick-brained ranger was gone. Jessie couldn’t wait to fire the son of a bitch. Budget cuts were slated across the board, and his position with the Forest Service was about to come to an end.

  She drew in a deep breath and counted to ten. Derek Foster had rescued her from a terrible death. Praying for patience, she clamped her mouth shut and stared blindly out the windshield.

  A deer darted across the road.

  Derek hit the brakes and swerved to avoid a collision.

  Jessie had not buckled her seatbelt and her forehead slammed into the dashboard. “Heaven help me,” she moaned. “I survive a mountain lion attack only to die from blunt force trauma to the head, while on the way to the hospital. This is not my day.”

  But Derek didn’t take her to the hospital. Somewhere along the way, Jessie lost consciousness. When she woke, she found herself in his bed, in the small cabin the Forest Service provided him. The wound on her arm had been cleaned and bandaged, and an ice pack had been placed upon her forehead.

  Derek loomed overhead and handed her some pills. “These will help.”

  After swallowing the tablets, things got seriously weird. Horny did not accurately describe the feelings that came over her. Jessie Marcus, divorced woman, age thirty-five, who battled her way up the ranks of the Forest Service, had jumped the bones of one of her underlings. Not just once, but three times. No thought of propriety or consequence, either professionally or personally, had entered into the equation. It was hard to understand how a person could go from being totally rational, with an overabundance of caution, to being out of control with lust, all while practically bleeding to death.

  In the throes of passion, the chimera of a mountain lion appeared above her. The coarse coat pricked her skin, but instead of fear and panic, the pleasure factor quadrupled and sent her orgasms to places she never dreamed existed.

  • • •

  JESSIE RAN HER hands over her tender breasts and tried to smooth out some of the wrinkles in her crumpled shirt. It didn’t work, but at least it was one piece of clothing she didn’t have to find. Another wave of dizziness hit her when she reached down to pick her panties off the floor. Jessie grabbed the bedpost and hung on for dear life.

  Everything about her felt off. She wondered if it was the drugs she had taken earlier or if she was suffering from a concussion.

  The lacerations on her arm throbbed. Luckily, you didn’t get rabies from being clawed. That came from being bit. It was the icky mouth juices that did you in. What you got from a dirty claw was an infection. Either way, Jessie had to get to a doctor.

  She wasn’t in any shape to drive, but Derek was nowhere in sight.

  Hanging on the edge, both emotionally and physically, Jessie shook off the nausea and got down to business. She managed to pull on her trousers and grab her boots. On a pair of wobbly legs, she zigzagged her way across the room and retrieved the truck keys off the table.

  Her truck was parked outside. It was hazardous driving in her condition, but she didn’t have a choice. In the light of day, Derek seemed more dangerous than the mountain lion. Too many things didn’t make sense. The hospital was only a half-hour away. There was no logical reason for him to bring her here. Then he drugged her to make her compliant. The sex that followed had rocked her world, but without the added stimulant, Jessie would have never agreed to, let alone been the aggressor in a relationship with an employee under her command. It was grounds for instant dismissal, and no matter how great the one-night stand was, it wasn’t worth throwing away her career.

  The traffic-free, mountain trails weren’t too difficult to maneuver. The truck drifted off-center now and then, but it wasn’t until she neared civilization and hit real roads that it became too treacherous to continue. A predator lurked in the eerie silence of the forest, but she had to stop. Easing off to the side of the road, she grabbed the microphone to the vehicle’s CB radio. The three-foot curly cord fell loose in her hand. Even in her fuzzy state, Jessie understood the device had been rendered useless on purpose.

  With her radio sabotaged, Jessie was left with only one other option. The signal was sketchy this high up, but she had to try her cell phone. Pain exploded down her arm when she reached across the bench seat to open the glove compartment. The effort was all for naught, because her phone was not there.

  The hair on the back of her neck bristled, and her entire being sensed a nearing threat.

  Jessie searched frantically for the source, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Weighing her options, such as they were, she pulled back out onto the road.

  • • •

  THE LIDS OF Jessie’s eyes were stuck to her eyeballs, making them hard to open. Gradually, she blinked a bit of moisture back into them. Focusing was difficult, but she could tell she was in the hospital. It was too much effort to stay awake. Since she was safe, Jessie decided to let someone else be strong for a while.

  As she drifted back to sleep, she couldn’t help wondering if she had been admitted into the psych ward.

  • • •

  DAYLIGHT POURED IN from the picture window in the stark hospital room. A low growl resonated from somewhere nearby. The memory of the mountain lion flashed through Jessie’s mind, and her head jerked towards the sound.

  Her father’s long, lanky body was stretched out on a small uncomfortable looking hospital armchair. He was asleep and snoring softly. One leg was propped up on the edge of her bed and the other rested on the floor.

  She had access to his good leg, so Jessie kicked it off and waited for her father to wake up.

  Cade’s eyes flew open when his foot banged on the hard tile. His gaze locked onto his daughter, and a relieved smile washed over his face. The old man eased his aching body out of the chair and rolled his shoulders. “Hey there, Pumpkin. It’s nice to see you coming around and getting back to your old wonderful self.”

  Jessie reached out and squeezed his gnarled knuckles. “Have you been there long?”

  “My aches and pains are not important. You gave us quite a scare. What happened out there?”

  She tried to pull the last few days together and realized the missing time frame could have been more than a few weeks. Jessie touched her injured arm and winced. At least she knew that was real. “I was involved in an altercation with a couple of mountain lions. One of them took a hunk out of my arm.” That was all the explanation she had to give. After that, she didn’t know how to verbalize what happened next. “I’m a little foggy on the details. The ranger I went up to find, fixed me up.” Tears welled in her eyes. There seemed to be only one explanation for her disjointed memories. “Have I been in a car accident? Did I hurt anyone?”

  Cade cocked his head and chose his words carefully.

  “Honey,” he began softly. “Derek Foster brought you in. You’re right about being in a scuffle with a mountain lion, but Derek found you and brought you down the mountain. There was no car accident. You have a good-sized goose egg on your forehead, that’s why you’re confused. The doc says your brain needs time to heal, but that all your memories should return.”

  The warm, comforting pressure of her father squeezing her hand he
lped ease her growing anxiety.

  Jessie looked into her father’s concerned eyes and sighed. Remembering everything that happened up on Catamount Ridge wasn’t something she looked forward to. That psych ward was looking better and better. At least there she would get some damn good meds to help muddle her already frazzled mind.

  3

  A WEEK LATER, Jessie walked determinedly down the streets of Silverton, California. Located deep in the heart of gold country, the town’s history was rich in folklore and legends. In all the years she spent growing up in the small town, Jessie had never witnessed any sign that the bizarre tales held an ounce of truth. Lost miners supposedly haunted the forest. Claims being jumped and pickaxes were other staples of the countless campfire stories that had frightened the brave children who dared to sleep out under the stars.

  Silverton, in gold country. An oxymoron Jessie could never resist citing.

  She headed for the ranger station to check in for the first time since the mountain lion attack. Memories of that day plagued her dreams, but after seven full days, Jessie wondered if she would ever fully remember.

  The official story about how she ended up in the hospital was far different from the one she recalled. Apparently, Derek Foster found her truck up on Catamount Ridge and tracked her up the side of the mountain. He found her bleeding and unconscious in a pile of brush about a mile away. The ranger supposedly cleaned and bandaged her arm with the supplies he always carried in his backpack. Then he heroically hauled her ass back to her vehicle and drove her directly to the hospital. Since he had called them on her fully functioning radio, the staff had been waiting for their arrival.

  Evidence backed up his version of the story. There was no damage to her truck radio, and the fact that Derek used it to call the hospital had been confirmed. Jessie found her cell phone exactly where she left it in the glove box. Blood on the passenger seat suggested her presence, and the timeline indicated she had only been gone several hours. In addition, the body of her truck hadn’t sustained any additional damage. It had not been in any kind of accident, at least not that day.