Finished. I brought in some synergy from the first ficlet in the series as they both start in almost exactly the same way, only this time without the exclamation points.
This is nowhere near as good as Browncoatben’s and THX ’s entries, but I had fun writing it. I hope that someone found it a little entertaining.

Very well done. I liked the way you had the past and the future interwoven.

Excellent ending John, I also agree with Pyro, great tie between the “start” and the “end”.

You write that Monique “pets” his head. Did you mean “pat”? Just asking… ;-)
I, for one, found this series entertaining. This was a very gritty and unnerving entry. I found I wasn’t able to predict what would happen next, you crafted the twists and turns that well. Great job!

@Ana, thank you. I’m happy that I was able to entertain and provide some sufficient twists. I was really hoping that people would think I was telling this from two different perspectives for most of the series, not sure if that came across or not.
I did mean pets, as you would a cat. I was going for “pet” as in soft, gentle strokes.