Chapter 18

Colin left shortly after, thanking Valentina profusely for her help. Valentina watched him leave, he stopped in front of the waitress, the woman placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed softly. She wondered if they knew each other.

After she finished her croissant she waited patiently for Remy to come back. He did, barely five minutes later.

"Dr Ramirez is free now, her secretary just called, so we can go back to her office."

Valentina nodded as she swallowed hard.

"Okay."

She murmured as she stood up. Remy got the check and paid and she walked out of the cafe with him closely behind her.

The Doctor's office looked serene, but there was something about the colours that put her off. It was all too neutral, like they were trying too hard to make it look relaxing, but it ended up unnerving her, at how unnatural the beige colours looked.

The beige sofas, the white walls, the rug and the wooden furniture, she smiled politely and looked straight at the Doctor.

Now Doctor Ramirez couldn't have been a day over fifty years old. With a short pixie cut, thick glasses and maroon colored lipstick, she had a face that you could have sworn you saw before. She looked like the kind of woman you'd run into at a grocery store, or anywhere really.

But the more Valentina looked at her, the more she noticed the unnerving stare that the woman had.

The woman looked at her like she was staring into her soul. It irked her and also made her so uncomfortable that she avoided eye contact.

"Mr Remington Albrecht. Valentina Combe, it's such a pleasure to meet you."

"Dr Calloway has told me so much about you."

She and Remy exchanged glances, the woman's hand was really warm and soft when she gave them both a firm handshake.

As the formalities, they settled in their seat, Valentina and Remington sat on opposite side of the large sofa.

"Would you like some coffee? Yea?"

She asked quietly and Valentina quickly shook her head.

"We had breakfast."

She mentioned.

The woman nodded.

"Oh I see."

"Mr Remington I hope you don't mind being here. It's the first session and I'll just be asking some questions that only you might be able to answer."

Remy nodded his head.

"Oh I don't mind."

The woman looked at a file in front of her, it was opened, she flipped through the first three pages and looked up at Valentina again.

"All your blood work and MRI scan came out normal. No sign of damage or anything. Your case is truly a mystery."

"Except for the fact that I don't remember my memories."

The Doctor nodded.

"I know. I want to know exactly how much of it you remembered when you woke up and how much you remember now."

Valentina shook her head.

"Nothing. I remembered nothing when I woke up. Nothing now."

Her statement plunged them all into an uncomfortable silence.

"I see. Mr Albrecht is this true?"

She asked and Remy nodded.

"She still doesn't remember anything. Doctor Calloway mentioned that her being in her usual routine and environment will trigger and make her remember her memories but none of that has happened yet"

"And it's been quite a while..."

Doctor Ramirez murmured.

Valentina shifted in her seat. She was getting nervous. Will this even work?

"I noticed Mrs Combe doesn't have any prior medical history, I tried to request for the reports from you ..."

Remy shook his head.

"No. She doesn't. We only just met and got married recently. Valentina doesn't have any family."

"Not one?!"

The Doctor repeated and Remy nodded.

"If she did, I know nothing about them because she never told me."

There was another deeply awkward silence.

"And how has your relationship been like since this incident?"

The Doctor was looking at Valentina, but she had no concrete answer. How could she talk

about that when she barely remembered how they were before?!

"Remington is a nice guy. But I still haven't been able to remember anything. He said we weren't really in love when we got married so I guess that kind of contributed to it."

"How so?!"

The Doctor seemed curious. Valentina turned to Remy and she could see that he was ignoring her and pretending not to want to stare at her.

"Valentina and I got married really fast, in months. We were getting to really know each other."

"I see. And what do you think of Remington? Do you think you have or had developed feelings for him ?"

Valentina raised her eyebrow.

"I don't know. I don't remember anything. When I look at him I don't particularly feel anything."

She said and she immediately regretted saying the words as they left her mouth. That must have been a little too harsh. She shouldn't have said that.

She turned to Remy but he was looking straight ahead, he didn't even spare her a glance.

"Okay. Very well then. I guess I have my work cut out for me."

The Doctor turned to Remy.

"I'll ask you to leave now, since I still have to talk to Valentina on her own. You may leave the room Mr Albrecht."

Without hesitation he stood up and left. Leaving Valentina in the room with the Doctor.

...........

Outside of the doctor's room, in the waiting room Kale called him again. He sighed as he picked up the phone.

"Calling me every five minutes wouldn't make me leave here any faster."

He drawled.

"Oh I wish it would but I have something else to tell you."

Remy sighed as he rubbed at his tired temples.

"Oh please don't tell me. Please don't tell me Marielle has run off again to do something stupid."

"She has. She appeared calmer so I left her for a moment, I went back in now to check in her and she's gone."

"I hope she doesn't do anything drastic."

Kale added.

Drastic?! Well that was right up Marielle's alley, but he knew her and he knew her well, she would never do anything to jeopardise the pack.

Nevertheless, he didn't like the fact that she had disobeyed him, when he had given a clear order that she should stand down.

But apparently she had other plans.

"I will try and make it back as soon as possible. We'll take the first plane out of here. Be there soon."

He murmured as he ended the call.

He decided to wait in the waiting room while he made a few more calls.

About thirty minutes later, Valentina finally emerged from the Doctor's office. There was a blank expression on her face as she walked forward, clutching her purse to her chest. She looked distracted.

Remy was tempted to ask if they had made any luck with her session but the looks on their faces told him otherwise.

"Mr Albrecht. We should discuss how to plan our sessions with Valentina, since you don't live in town."

Remy nodded.

"That's alright. We'll be leaving soon, we have to go back home quickly."

The doctor smiled.

"No problem."

Then she turned to Valentina and squeezed her shoulder.

"I'll see you next time Valentina, but don't forget all we've talked about."

"I won't."

Valentina said as she nodded.

They walked out of the office.

Remy looked at Valentina for answers.

"What's up?"

Valentina shrugged.

"She asked me a lot of weird questions. Lots of them."

"Okay. We have to go home now, so we'll go back to the motel, pack our things and leave."

"Why? What's the rush?"

She asked and he looked straight ahead.

"I have to deal with some things back at home. So we have to leave."

Valentina wanted to stay in the town a little longer but she didn't particularly want to start a whole argument with Remy.

"Are you sure we can't just stay the night?"

"Why the rush?!"

Remy sighed.

"I'm sorry but we can't. It's really urgent."

.........

They arrived back home late at night. Valentina tired and her eyes heavy with sleep. Remy went out but found no signs of Marielle. She had left.

Valentina went to sleep, she was tired from the long trip and just wanted to rest.

This time, while she slept, she had another confusing nightmare.

*I was walking down an empty road, in a tattered dress, my knees were scraped, my hands were covered with blood. The sight chill in the air made me tremble slightly. The road is long and dark, there are no lights, save for the moon's shimmery glow. I look around, it looks like I'm alone.

*Not for long, I hear a growl and I turn around frantically, trying to get which direction it came from. I stop walking, my bare feet rooted to the cold asphalt in fear. I could feel that I wasn't alone. Someone, or something was with me and I didn't know who or what it was.

*I hear the growl again. It sounded like a warning, it was deep, feral and in that moment I knew had to run, as fast as I could and get away.

*I run.

*I run and run as fast as my legs could carry me, now breaking out into a sprint. The growl gets louder and now I know that something is in the woods, chasing me, but I'm too scared to look, I'm too scared to turn. I increase my pace, my heart in my mouth and my mouth opening to scream, the creature jumped out of the woods and appeared in front of me.

I stop abruptly and in the process I trip and fall.

*The large black wolf looked rabid, with the crazed look in its eyes and the saliva and foam at the corner of its mouth.

*This was it. This was the end, I thought as it pounced.

*But in the final moments, the face that appeared in front of me was not one of the wolf, but... it was my own face, me with long tangled black hair and my canines sharpened.

*How? How is this me? How is this me?! I thought as I trembled in fear. The aberration towered over me. Though the face was human, the limbs and fur was still all wolf and the face looked more wolf than human even though I could tell that it was my face.

*As the wolf snarled and drew closer with its jaw wide open. I did the only thing I could do.

*I screamed.