Marissa felt hands grabbing at her, forcing her down on her back. She tried to fight since she felt she could breathe easier if she were upright, but it was to no avail. Her head touched the examination table, and as soon as it did, the room stopped spinning and her breathing became easier. Suddenly she realized her eyes were closed. When she opened them, she was looking up into the faces of Dr. Arthur, the woman, and the masked face of Dr. Carpenter.

“Are you okay?” Dr. Carpenter asked.

Marissa tried to speak but her voice wouldn’t cooperate.

“Wow!” Dr. Arthur said. “Is she ever sensitive to the anesthetic!” He quickly took her blood pressure. “At least that’s okay. I’m glad I didn’t give her the whole dose.”

Marissa closed her eyes. At last she was calm. She heard more conversation, but it sounded as if it were someplace in the distance and didn’t involve her. At the same time she felt as if an invisible lead blanket were settling over her. She felt her legs being lifted, but she didn’t care. Then the voices in the room receded further. She heard laughter and then a radio. She felt instruments and heard the sound of metal hitting metal.

She relaxed until she felt a cramp like a menstrual cramp. It was pain but not normal pain in that it was more alarming than uncomfortable. She tried to open her eyes but her lids felt heavy. Again she tried to open her eyes but quickly gave up. It was like a nightmare from which she could not awaken. Then there was yet another cramp, sharp enough to bring her head off the examining table.

The room was a drug-induced blur. She could just make out the top of Dr. Carpenter’s head as he worked between her draped knees. The colposcope was pushed to the side on his right.

The sounds of the room still came to her as if from a great distance, although now they had a peculiar, echoing quality. People in the room were moving in slow motion. Dr. Carpenter raised his head as if he could sense her eyes on him.

A hand grasped Marissa’s shoulder and eased her back. But as she lay down, her numbed mind replayed the blurred image of Dr. Carpenter’s masked face and, despite her drugged state, a shiver of terror coursed through her veins. It was as if her doctor had metamorphosed into a demon. Instead of his eyes being crystal blue, they had become distorted. They appeared to be made of black onyx as dense as stone.