"You have been found GUILTY!!!!!!"
"NOOO!!!!!" Wiggins screamed as the noose appeared around his neck, and the trapdoor opened. He continued to scream as the rope tightened around his neck. "It's only a dream! It has to be a dream! It's got to-"
He heard a pounding, and suddenly, the scaffolding vanished, as his eyes opened, and his bed and blankets appeared before them.
The door to his bedroom opened, and Wiggins found himself looking at a lovely-looking woman. Well, she would have been a lovely looking woman, save for those glasses, that mangy-looking hair, that flat chest, and the fact that she lack a certain hourglass-like shape. Of course, she was lovely if the last thing you just saw was a rope around your neck! But, the worst thing of it all was this - she was a stinking werewolf!
Wiggins had been blessed with a forgettable face - more than once his mother had to come back to the school because she had picked up a different child, instead of him. He could blend in a crowd, even if he was right in front of it. His victims could barely remember his features - between twenty and forty years of age, normal nose, light brown-blond hair, brown-green eyes, average height - just average, really. But a werewolf, that was different - each person had a smell to them. You could be in a crowd of a thousand people, and they'd still pick you out, so long as they had your scent!
Wiggins looked at the bitch - he could rightly call her one - and said, "Mind leaving me alone?"
"Depends," she said. She began to search the room. "I smelled fear coming from this room, and I heard you scream."
Wiggins groaned. "It was just a nightmare, dog-breath."
Too late! he remembered.
She was on him quickly, her jaws on his neck, having shifted into that middle form that some werewolves could hold onto, without going from man to wolf, or wolf to man, all the way. Just a little bit of pressure, that was all it would take, and he wouldn't need to worry about rope.
"Alright!" he gasped out. "I won't say it again!"
She growled, and let go of him. "I'm getting tired of doing that. One of these days, Wiggins Wet, I won't hold back."
"I think the Commander would be upset if you did that," Wiggins said, rubbing the area her teeth had been at.
"Given that you are Legally Dead, at least as Johnathan Rich, I don't think he'd complain too much," the werewolf said. "Besides, you know my name - Maria Whitefoot."
Wiggins looked down at her paw-like feet - they were black. However, it was a bad time for him to point this fact out, so he kept his mouth shut.
"So, let me guess," said Maria. "Was it the one about the rope around your neck? Or was it the one where I crushed your skull with my feet?"
"Rope around my neck," said Wiggins.
"Once you've been hung, it can be hard to forget the feeling of the rope around your neck," said Maria, as she shifted back into her human form.
"It's also pretty hard to forget the time you caught me when I tried to escape from this mess," said Wiggins. "There I was, enjoying a nice rest, as Jerry Stodgins, when you broke into that inn, dragged me from my bed, tossed me out the window, and decided to step on my head, shoving my face into a pile of horse apples!"
Maria looked at him, her eyes colder than ice. "You shouldn't have tried to do a runner. You should have just accepted the job, or, better yet, have been honest to begin with!"
Wiggins looked right back. However, he had to look away. He knew exactly what she was. The Official Story was that Maria was his secretary as he investigated accounts of those with suspicious money habits. The True Story, at least to those who could recognize a werewolf-in-human-form, was that she was his bodyguard. However, the Real Story was this - she was his Executioner if he stepped out of line - well, she hadn't said this, but during the trip back to the city, she bought an old troublesome billy goat from a farmer, for a good price, and then, when they were a ways away from everyone else, he watched her kill it, and then eat it. She didn't need to tell him anything else about the reason she was with him. She was always there, never far from his side. Granted, it made things easy when he had to bring a Plus One, and needed to deal with those who employed muscle, not to mention that time in the alley when someone tried kill him, but he knew that she was the one keeping him on a leash.
Wiggins then looked over at a timepiece he had, and decided that it was time to.....
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