The following excerpt from Merville Thomas' crime fiction thriller, Shadows Over Spectral Waters, describes Beth's first realization of the threat she faces.

Her first sensation was that of intense pain.  Where was it coming from?  She couldn’t quite isolate the source.  It seemed to be reaching into her very core.  Then it localized. Her head… yes, it was her head.  She tried to touch it, but she couldn’t move her hand.  The thought of being paralyzed came and went when she felt the cord around her wrist, and then the same feeling around the other wrist and both her ankles.  Am I tied?  How could that be?  She immediately thought of Nick, playing one of his sick drunken games.  He’s taken advantage of one of my blackouts.  I’ll castrate the bastard!  Like an unexpected jolt of electricity, a flash of memory, Dr. Karev …. smoking…. accountant.  Christ almighty!  Her eyes remained shut, but she could sense light through her closed eyelids and she became aware of the sound of breathing, deep and rhythmic, someone very close to her.  She opened her eyes and turned her head toward the light. She was instantaneously blinded by the glare.  She fought to adjust to the brightness and slowly her eyes adapted.  She could make out the source of the glow, some kind of lamp on what looked like a bedroom nightstand.  She tried to locate the whereabouts of the breathing and was able to make out a dim figure, seated she thought, at the periphery of the lighted area.  She listened and watched.  The person seemed to be sleeping.  Dr. Karev?  Suddenly, the figure stirred, something falling to the floor with a soft thud.   She froze, holding her breath, only letting it out when the rhythmic breathing returned.  Her view of the object was obscured by the edge of the bed.  Carefully, she lifted her head, the effort causing her such a searing pain running from the front to the back of her skull that she abandoned the effort.  Resting for a few seconds, she tried again at the same time straining against the bindings.  The play in the restraints coupled with her struggle to fight through the pain allowed a split-second view of an elongated item lying on a thick pile area rug.  She stiffened … a knife, a big, long knife!