Absently, I bit my lip, pretending at this posture, already knowing my role in our arrangement. He could still stop, even signed and sealed. A crossro...ds bargain meant nothing without the final deliverance.But he wouldn’t.They never did. He left me to endure the tedium of his torture courtship, not longer truly weighing the cost of his soul, barely noticing the details that might have saved him as one of the chosen. He wasn’t ugly, pock-marked, dimpled-chin, gangly and awkward, certainly. The door fellopen. "Do you want to be safe? Do you want the cage to keep me out?" He reachedin and grabbed both her ankles with his hands. When he began to drag her outshe lost it, moaning uncontrollably and tossing from side to side. Then shestopped and went limp. The sedative in the water had kicked in. The Morning After When she woke up she was stretched out on the couch. On the TV Gilligan andthe Skipper were being chased by a gorilla. She hit the off button on the remote. Sunlight. Even if I had been the one who had made the decision, somewhere deep inside me I had hoped that Helen would apologize to me, but now I supposed that it would never happen.My condo, four rooms and a kitchen, filled the whole fourth floor of the house, and I decided to start socializing by being nice to the other occupants of the house.On the third floor, there were two smaller apartments. Both were occupied by some elderly, most likely retired couples. On the second floor there was one very. She was as real as real gets and I really believed I could trust her completely. She had a great personality, she was probably my best friend and she was drop dead beautiful. I could only wait and see what this was all about. Michelle arrived about fifteen minutes after twelve with two coffees in her hands. I let her in and we went straight to the sofa and sat down. I couldn’t be positive, but Michelle look as nervous as I did. It didn’t take long for the conversation to start. “Tim, I don’t.