A tiny girl found herself racing through the woods behind her home, trying to get away from her own monsters, when another one stepped in front of her. He was shabbily dressed, clutching an all-to familiar brown bag. She skid to a halt.

        "My, my, aren't you a long way into these woods, little girl." He said that as he crouched down, showing an almost friendly smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

        She took a step back, and he stood, dropping the friendly demeanor. "You shouldn't run from me, little one."

        That caused the child to flee, away from the monster who greeted her, and back to the one she knew. But she was small, so easily caught and thrown to the ground by the drunk. He knocked the wind out of her, but her fear forced her to turn over, to face him, to know something of what was coming. If she thought his eyes were cold before, they were nothing compared to now—pitch black, deadly. His teeth were wrong, the girl couldn't describe it, at all.

          His teeth weren't what scared her. It was his hands—no longer clutching alcohol, but his own belt, undoing it. Her own dad had done that before—once on her for a beating, and on her mother for something she shouldn't have seen, and she had no idea which one this guy was after, not until he started undoing his pants.

         Only then did the child scream.

         Only when he touched the hem of her dress did she fight, kicking, clawing, but something was wrong with her own hands and teeth. She left marks on him, that did no good, as he bore down on her with his weight.

         "A little fighter, enh?" The bastard chuckled, an almost worshipful look in his dark eyes. It made her want to vomit.

         That's when the dog attacked—or a bear—she really couldn't tell. It ripped the man off of her, tearing him up one side and down the other, leaving bits and pieces of the man around them like a fairy ring of death. Then it curled up around her, allowing her to come to terms with what had nearly happened, as she sobbed into the creature's fur.

        In the years to come, all she could remember of the incident was the unbearable weight of a man against her thighs, and the safety of a ball of fur, surrounding her.