The lamp beside her bed was on, for she knew this was one night she wouldn’t be able to sleep without it. In fact, trying to sleep at all seemed like a useless gesture even with the comfort of the lamp’s yellow glow. Her eyes tracked the progress of a large, black bug crawling busily across the ceiling over her bed, but its presence didn’t bother her. A hundred bugs wouldn’t have concerned her. Not tonight. Her thoughts were far away, reliving over and over the events of the past evening. She never did find any sleep that night. At one point, she arose and turned on the lamp beside her bed. Reaching inside the bottom drawer of her nightstand, she drew out the letter she had received from Dr. Green. Was it only a few days ago she had first opened it with shaking hands? Now she removed the letter from its envelope and examined it more carefully than ever before. A part of her couldn’t help noting with relief there were no hidden needles affixed to anything. Not that she really believed she could have missed something like that before, but still… She read through the letter, looking for any sign, any clue that should have told her from the beginning she was dealing with a madman.
