Paul had slept on the chair beside their bed. He didn't want to disturb Larene. He got up early, made coffee, and tried to sort out all the things he had neglected in the last couple of weeks. Around 11:00 he heard Larene moving around upstairs. From his treatment room he heard the bathroom door close. She took her time in the bathroom and getting dressed. Closer to noon, he heard her coming down the stairs. She entered his office wearing a wedding present from Judith. It was a short, lacy slip with an empire waist, black, with thin shoulder straps and red ribbon piping. Her long shiny golden hair flowed down her back. From where he was sitting, he could smell a hint of perfume. She came in barefoot and sat on his lap.
She whispered, "We haven't consummated our marriage yet..." Paul needed no additional encouragement.
They didn't descend from upstairs until late in the afternoon. They both glowed with love and affection for each other. Larene was chatty and entertained him with her animated gestures. They ate dinner at the table by candlelight. It was how they had always hoped their life would be.
Night came, and after they cleaned up after dinner, they decided to check on the wolf and fox in the lab. They lit the oil lamps for light. They observed the behavior of the two animals carefully and extensively. They looked fine. The wolf was being so gentle and friendly; they let it out of the cage and tied it with a leash to a support column. The beautiful animal laid peacefully on the floor. The fox was a little more restless, so they left it in its cage. Perhaps in a week or so, they could release the animals to the wild.
They were jotting down notes in their journals when the two big outside cellar doors suddenly flew open. Bela raged into the cellar screaming furiously at Paul for assaulting his mother and taking the wolf bane. He pulled his knife from his waistband. When Bela opened the cellar doors, the light from the full moon flooded the room. When the moonlight touched the wolf, it howled; a bloodcurdling sound. Before their eyes it grew bigger, the eyes of the beast glowed red, the snapping of the jaws was like that of a bear trap. It foamed at the mouth. The creature was horrifying. It looked like it wanted to rip all of them apart.
Bela yelled at Paul, "See what you have done! This is your doing!"
Bela lunged at Paul with his knife; burying it so deeply in Paul's chest he couldn't remove it. Paul collapsed to the floor. The monster wolf broke away from its leash. It stood up on its hind legs, now taller than Bela. The animal bit his head, almost engulfing his entire skull. Bela struggled with the wolf. He grabbed the silver letter opener from Paul's desk and stabbed the animal in its heart. The beast let out an ungodly shriek. It released its death grip on Bela's bloody head. Bela threw the animal down. He stood motionless for a few moments, disoriented and overwhelmed. He saw Paul dying on the floor, and Larene, curled up behind a desk, hiding. He gathered his senses and fled out of the cellar as fast as he could.
Larene half ran and half crawled to Paul. He was lying in a pool of his own blood. His skin was pale and getting cold. She held him up, crying uncontrollably. He looked at her, bathed in the moonlight. He looked at the fox in its cage, also in the moonlight and also unchanged. He whispered to her, "Maleva was right; the rabies mutated in the wolf, but stayed dormant until a full moon. The fox bit you, so you will be okay. The mutant rabid wolf bit Bela; he is going to become something awful – a werewolf."
She could see his eyes dilating. She could feel the life draining from him. He focused as hard as he could on her teary face.
"I love you," he whispered with his dying breath and his body fell limp in her arms.
Larene sat on the floor holding Paul for a long time. She felt a deep sense of grief, emptiness, and anger; her heart and soul had been ripped to shreds. She cried and sobbed until she couldn't shed another tear. She let out a huge sigh. She finally opened her puffy eyes. The reality of what had happened flooded her senses. Maleva's premonition and Paul's final words resonated in her head. It all was starting to make sense. Bela was going to turn into a mutant rabid wolf during the full moon; a werewolf. Larene was to be his intended victim. Maleva saw the sign of the werewolf's pentagram in the palm of Larene's hand. The werewolf would seek her out and kill her.
Larene anguished over her dismal future. She put her head down and managed more tears. She took a deep breath and looked up again. She stared at the monstrous mutant wolf, dead on the floor, with a knife pushed deep into its chest. The beast could be killed. The blade of the letter opener shone in the moonlight. A silver knife.
Looking at her dead husband, she made an oath to herself. She was not going to be a helpless victim just waiting for Bela to kill her. She remembered Paul's battle strategy: as your enemy advances, observe its weakness, and exploit it.
Paul forfeited his existence to give her a second chance at life; she wasn't going to squander it.
Larene gently laid Paul's head down. She got up. Larene felt a strange warmth; a presence, almost as if Paul was spiritually with her. The sensation comforted her. She walked over to the dead wolf. She pulled the silver blade from the animal's chest. Larene knew what she had to do.
There were many people that needed to be informed of Paul's death; his family, friends, patients, and most importantly, Captain Wellen. She would need Friar Johannssen, as there was a funeral to plan. There were test animals to either release or euthanize, and a host of other responsibilities and duties that a civilized community expects you to perform. Larene knew that she was the closest thing to a physician for many kilometers. The villagers would readily accept her in that role, to the extent of her ability. The prospect appealed to her and she knew Paul would have wanted that for her. Maybe later, she thought, as she saddled up Angel. Larene checked the time with Paul's pocket watch, a keepsake he would have wanted her to have. She could never be free to live a normal life, knowing that the next full moon could mean her death. Taking a look at herself in a broken mirror in the barn, in a moment of introspective clarity or perhaps it was an epiphany; an undeniable truth was revealed. They had created this werewolf monster. It was now her moral obligation to destroy it, before it killed her and many other innocent people.
The sun was just rising over the hills when she rode off on Angel. Larene had her work cut out for her.