Have you ever had that feeling? You know the one. That primal warning to stay away from something, some place or someone? It causes your muscles to tense, your senses to heighten and the pupils in your eyes to swell as if to gain access to every minute detail in sight.

That's the feeling that crept into the pit of my stomach when I first met Dr. Archibald. Call it crazy, paranoia or some other adjective that might compete with that natural instinct; but that hair-raising reaction activated every nerve sensor in my body the first time I was left alone with him.

His dark eyes stared blankly just a little too long. His fists were clenched just a little too tight and a twitch occurred in the most subtle of ways along the corner of his lips beneath his facial hair. It was as if he was a lion hiding in the tall grass as it stared mercilessly at a gazelle - hungry, silently fierce and most of all predatory.

Most people wouldn't have picked up on it. I, myself, knew I had a habit of letting my active imagination run just a little too wild and free. It was fun to allow for that type of mental freedom - most of the time. This felt different. I knew, to some degree, I wasn't wrong to feel the way I did - to feel afraid.

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The paradox. There is always a paradox when you allow your mind to drift in ways that others, at least in my experience, perceive as dramatic or over-romancing. Regardless, there was a deeply conflicting and concerning paradox when it came to Dr. Archibald.

Despite my own body's biological warnings to stay away, there was one problem. I was intrigued. That's where it began. Intrigued gradually turned into charmed. Charmed more rapidly turned into attraction. And that is when I was the most frightened. Frightened of Dr. Archibald. Frightened of myself. Frightened of what I might do. Frightened of what he might do to me; or what he had done to someone else.

The unjust part of this was that I had branded him something long before I had an ounce of proof that my perceptions were correct - my baseless, emotion-driven, quiet perceptions. But was it really unjust when your perceptions turned out to be correct; to be right on target?

I was in danger. I knew that. But still… I couldn't stay away.