affame_le_geant_breath_like_gasoline fyn gula ring................. ........ring......... .................ring "hello. you've reached the home of dr. couge oktuber and praayli oktuber. please leave a message. if this is a medical emergency, please page the doctor at o7-311. thank you." ....beep............beep.............beep....... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep... (the sound of heavy, anxious breathing) "um...prrayli..i need to you to tell thora...ahh...um...i think she and mr. mcgruder should try to get here as soon as they can.um..........i can't talk long.....someone is here asking about the bag in the cooler....praayli. please..... i'm scared......." click. bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................... "who was that?" cayris foxglove asked. he was standing beside the answering machine where it sat on an endtable from pottery barn along with a halogen lamp from ikea. the cushiony leather couch that the mandrill, not long ago had sat in and listened with rapture to couge and twinkletoes as they filled the room with the cheerful music of accordion and guitar was now a temporary holding cell, with praayli and thora as its dazed and frightened captives. cayris was eerie in his relative ease, but when the girls did not respond, still shocked from seeing couge dead on the floor in a puddle of his own blood and twinkletoes, his body turning from the bright red of alarm to the sickly grey of shock, dragged outside, he exploded in a fit of rage, his large wolf teeth snarling and flinging acrid saliva in all directions. "I SAID, WHO THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" and he lunged and struck praayli with his black-leather gloved hand. she tried to cover her face, but was not quick enough. the blow hit her with the full force of his wrath, knocking her into thora, who immediately embraced her like a mother when her child is suddenly injured. there was blood on the black and white fur of her dutch rabbit face at the point where cayris's steel spikes had impacted. the blow shook praayli into a bleak reality. the life she knew was all but gone. it was a nightmare that one wakes from shouting, piercing the darkness, bathed in sweat. but the sting on her cheek was not a dream. the iron taste of her blood, having flowed from the fresh wound to her trembling lips, was now the only thing that seemed real. she tried to remember the voice on the answering machine, hearing cayris's scream reverberating in her ears, but it seemed to belong to a world she once visited, where she actually had a husband who was a doctor and a sister-in-law who ran a neighbourhood garden shoppe. but it was all long ago and she could never go there again. "i know who it was," thora said. her voice quivered. she rocked praayli in her arms and with trembling hands wiped the cut with a dishrag that had been tucked in the pocket of the apron she had put on to help praayli was the dishes. cayris, not pleased, rushed at thora, grabbed her by the loose folds of the dress at her chest and yanked her off praayli with one quick, decisive movement. she was on her feet, held in place by his force, inches from his fiery, yellow eyes. she could hear praayli whimpering behind her. "speak." cayris said. his breath smelled like gasoline. 030210 what's it to you? who go blather from