Socio

Realizing that Socio, as she now thought of him, had entered the apartment and installed webcams when both she and the doctor were out, Shannon scrambled to locate the cameras as quickly as she could. The problem was that they were probably up high in the vents somewhere and she had no way to reach them. She was so short that she couldn't reach the vents standing on a step stool and she had no idea where she could get a hold of a ladder. Shannon collapsed in a fit of tears and then once again she heard a sound coming from the door, and again her heart pounded in her chest, threatening to break free altogether. And then in stepped Dr. Warren. The doctor took one look at her and knew right away that something was wrong. Shannon didn't even try to hide it. She couldn't have if she wanted to. "What happened?" asked the doctor, almost in a shrill voice. Shannon got up and ran into her arms and sobbed openly. After a moment, the doctor guided her to the couch, much like she had the last time she’d broken down. "Tell me what's wrong." "Now I know why his friends call him Socio." "Who?" the doctor asked impatiently. "Doug Maxwell, the security guard who started working here less than a year ago." The doctor looked thoughtful for a moment and then she said, "I think I know the one. Fairly young? Slender? Dark hair and eyes?" Shannon nodded and went on to tell the doctor everything from the affair to the breakup and then to the harassment. "He was the one I had a fight with the night I was almost raped by the cabby. I told him I never wanted to see him again, other than when our paths would cross here in the building but he just won't leave me alone." Shannon pulled back a minute and gazed into the doctor's eyes, startled by what she saw. Everyone got a reaction from someone at one time or another that they least expected after confiding in them about something. To say the doctor's ballistic reaction came as a real surprise to Shannon was the understatement of the century. She expected the doctor to be hurt and angry, of course, but she also expected her to be a lot more concerned for her safety than anything else. Especially since it wasn't like they'd been together for twenty years and she was just now learning about some recent affair. Nonetheless, if looks could kill, Shannon would surely be dead right then and there. At first, Dr. Warren did nothing but glare at her, muddy brown eyes turning liquid black. Her mouth was set in a tight line across her face and she began to tremble. Just when Shannon wasn’t sure if she was going to burst into tears or scream and shout at the top of her lungs, she did neither. Instead, she lunged at her and shook her by the neck viciously as she swore at her and threatened to kill her. The first thing that went through Shannon’s mind, besides the pain of having her throat squeezed, was utter shock and disbelief. This was the last reaction she expected from the doctor. In fact, she wouldn’t have expected anyone to react as if she’d just confessed to having murdered everyone in their family and in the torturous way that the doctor was trying to do to her right now. It was just too extreme a reaction given the situation and the short length of time they’d been together. Once Shannon’s shock wore off from the sudden and unexpected attack, it was replaced with sheer terror. The doctor was surprisingly strong and Shannon was having an awfully hard time breathing. She wasn’t sure what might occur first: suffocation from having her throat compressed, or her neck broken due to the frantic shaking. She continued to struggle to suck in enough air in which to scream for help, not that she expected it to do her much good. “I’ll kill you!” screamed the doctor. “I’ll absolutely kill you!” Shannon took advantage of a momentary gulp of air to scream but the doctor quickly cut her off. “How dare you do this to me after all I’ve done for you! How dare you!” Now, Dr. Warren was hitting and punching her but at least she could breathe. “I gave you a place to live!” Shannon turned her back toward the doctor to try to fend off the blows. “I bought you a new wardrobe!” Next, she tried to scramble for the door but the doctor was pushing her toward the balcony. “I support you and make sure you have medical care!” Shannon screamed whenever she could, shielding her face from the relentless blows. “Now you’ve gone and thrown it all away! You’re an ungrateful piece of shit and now you get to die by being tossed out of this building instead of by the fire that might have killed you instead.” Shannon couldn’t believe what she was hearing or what was happening to her. She had no idea the doctor had such a dark and crazy side to her. She shouldn’t have told her what was going on, as she would never have guessed her to be violent in any way. She would have had a hard time picturing her trying to defend herself, let alone attacking someone who hadn’t raised a hand to her first. And then the thought of her throwing her over the balcony for anyone to witness was even further beyond anything she could fathom. Was this bitch on some kind of drugs that she was unaware of? The doctor continued to pull her towards the balcony with one hand, grabbing her hair as the other fumbled to get the slider open. This wasn’t happening, Shannon thought again. This really wasn’t happening. But then Dr. Warren got the slider open. She slid it open so hard, letting in a burst of arctic air, that Shannon was surprised the glass didn’t shatter. Shannon was now jammed against the metal railing, ribs bruising painfully. She gazed downward and shivered. What she had always considered a magnificent view was now going to be the last thing she ever saw as it claimed her in death. Then there were two voices shouting, and one of them belonged to Socio.