Feverish, I'd actually dreamed of the day I would sell my invention to Oryx Plastics. I'd never heard of them before; I just saw the horned animal and identified it. When my suffering ended, I looked them up and discovered they were real.

I'd applied for patents before, and never gotten through the whole process. Something changed, my passions ignited, simply by getting sick and visiting the doorstep of death. I'd spent four days in the hospital with food poisoning and invented it in my mind. I called it 'Cold Custody' and it would revolutionize the safety of food packaging.

To describe my invention in simple terms, the resealable plastic strip for frozen and refrigerated foods would change color from blue to red if the food wasn't kept at the right temperature. What I had eaten had spent almost thirty hours sitting on a loading dock outside the grocery store and it had spoiled. My poor taste and smell receptors were from an infection I'd suffered from a similar food poisoning when I was in college.

The recall didn't happen until I was already hospitalized.

"Dr. Emily Parker, we are certainly interested in purchasing your invention." The acquisitions department of Oryx Plastics had told me over the phone, in my dream. It had seemed so real, and then I had begun to develop it in my lab, in real life.

I had no idea of the nightmare I would endure to make my dream come true.

It started when I first began the application process for my new patent. Cold Custody was immediately rejected, as being implausible. I had to set up an appointment to demonstrate my prototype. As I made preparations, I worked late into the night.

As I left my lab I felt a cold dread from the two men watching me leave. They were staring at me and I felt like an antelope, and they were the lions. It was a cold and calculated gaze, predatory and merciless.

The next morning I returned to find my lab was ransacked, vandalized and robbed. The prototypes were all gone. I had to cancel my appointment with the patent office and file a police report. My insurance didn't cover the burglary, and I was left without funding, since I had paid for everything with the last of my inheritance.

I had to close my lab and sell most of my equipment. At home I continued my work, recreating the prototype of Cold Custody. One night I was turning out the lights when I saw them again, sitting in a car across the street from my home.

I felt terrorized and called the police. While I waited for them to respond, there was a knock on my door. I thought the police had shown up already, although I didn't see a patrol car. Something told me not to open the door. Instead, I asked loudly, "Who is it?"

And the response was the sound of glass breaking in the back bedroom where I had set up my lab. I panicked and hid in the coat closet while they robbed me a second time. I sweated and cried, afraid to confront them or to run outside. Before they left they fired a gun into my front door, a warning, a threat.

When the police finally showed up they focused on the two bullets in my front door. The destruction of my lab was barely a concern, compared to the gun the lions had used.

For a few days, I stayed with my sister, but she told me her story about the ex-boyfriend who had stalked her and terrorized her. Sindel explained to me that by living in fear she had given him what he wanted. It was only when she resumed her normal life and pursued her relationships that she defeated him. I had never met Mike, as he had kept Sindel isolated from the people who cared about her.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

In the end, he had given up. Despite years of abuse followed by months of terror, she had won, because she had not let him take away the life she wanted.

"When you give into the fear, it is worse than dying." Sindel told me. "I decided I didn't care what he did, I wanted out, I wanted to live again."

She had also rescued a kung fu Pitbull named Caradine. Caradine was the sweetest and smartest animal a girl could want, but he had the temper of a dire wolf whenever someone bothered his girl. Caradine was very dangerous and very protective. Deadly sweetness.

One day her ex had come over drunk and broken into her house. Caradine had discarded his normal chilled attitude and menaced him, making it clear he would tear the man apart if he didn't leave. Sindel had told Caradine to sit and he had obeyed, but if she had said nothing, Mike probably would have gotten mauled.

"I had gotten over my fear, but I also took measures to ensure it could never come back." Sindel sipped her wine. I nodded.

When I went home, I began again and applied my inventiveness to making a homemade firearm. When the zip-carbine was complete: I loaded both barrels with ethanol-filled syringes. I kept it under my bed with the trigger mechanism detached, for safety. I felt secure, knowing that I could protect one invention with another.

I began work again, and when it was complete, I set up an appointment with the patent office. The lions knew it was time to pay me another visit. I suspected that they must know, with some precision, the exact status of my application.

I was on the phone with Sindel when she mentioned that Mike's office job had kept him busy. I told her I suspected someone at the patent office was intercepting my efforts to fulfill my dream, and that is when she gasped and said, "He works at the patent office!"

Just then I heard a pounding on my front door, using the same tactic they had used before. I told Sindel to call the police, and then I went to my bedroom and prepared my weapon. Instead of hiding I went into my lab, the window still boarded up, and waited in ambush.

"Emily!" I heard my sister's upset voice, somehow echoing in my mind, as I had hung up the phone.

An axe head burst through the plywood board and was used to split it and pull it free. I was very afraid, but kept myself steady, fighting down the terrified feelings. There was a man there, a lion, wearing a ski mask and armed with the tool to enter and smash stuff with. He seemed confident that he could destroy my work a third time, and ruin everything for me.

When he was inside I turned on the light. He looked at me and tried to menace me with the axe. That is when I shot him in the leg. He screamed in pain and fell over. I resisted the temptation to shoot him a second time. I wanted him to live.

He staggered around, dropping the weapon. He began to crawl towards me, yelling for help. In his stupor, he cried out for the other lion, the one named Mike. I went to the front door. From the hidden corner of the coat closet, I opened the front door. For a moment he wasn't there, but he had heard the door opening from halfway around the house and returned. He had no idea I was there. I held my breath, my fear beating in my ears like wild drums.

Mike came in, waving the gun around like a pathetic version of John Wick. He went right past me and saw his friend lying on the floor, unconscious. That is when I shot him in the back, aiming it at his huge butt. I didn't wait for his response, but ran outside and hid in my front yard, through the front door.

My heart was beating and I was suddenly afraid, having realized I had crossed some threshold. It wasn't over until he fell. I heard gunshots, as he dizzily and drunkenly shot up my house. He came outside and fell down the stairs, one last gunshot flashed towards me.

I felt a coldness on my face and reached up. My hand came away bloodied, and I felt that my right ear was gone. Panic washed over me as I realized I was shot, and then I collapsed.

In my fevered dreams, in the hospital, I was running free across the savannah. The lions could not catch me, and I shed my fear, leaping higher and higher, running faster and lighter. Soon I was in a place where they could never catch me.

When I showed my prototype, it was exactly like I had first known it, in my dreams. The patent examiner complimented me for my diligence and creativity. There was also an official apology from the patent office, mentioning the security breach and assuring me that it had never happened before. I said it was okay, and that I was just glad to be moving forward with my application.

My dream wasn't entirely fulfilled, I still had one last and very important phone call to make.