Like pain? Try not wearing a corset

Twenty minutes later, Dr. Joan Watson decided to go to her sleeping compartment and asked for an escort. The raven-haired lady in the red dress who sat at the next table volunteered to take her but the mysterious Dutch lady who called herself Professor Adrienne Van Helsing and her redheaded assistant Yosemite Tam intervened and said that they would take her instead.

"But what about the wolf lady?" asked Joan, still holding on tightly to the black corset that was her only item of attire.

"What about her?" asked Professor Van Helsing.

"Well, shouldn't you have her arrested or something?" asked Joan.

"I wish I could but unfortunately, neither you nor Yosemite Tam have much evidence for your accusations," said Professor Van Helsing. "It would be your word against hers -- unless she changes back again -- and there seems little chance of that at this point. Besides, Yosemite Tam and I will be around to protect you."

Joan blushed at this part. The Dutch woman was speaking to her as if she were a little kid. Besides, if Joan had a decent weapon, she would not need their protection.

Still... An imperfect ally was better than none. Two were even better. And it was not likely that she would meet yet another wolf lady that night.

So Joan reluctantly marched out of the dining car under the supervision of the professor and the cowgirl and tried not to think about how much of her skin was visible outside her corset.

Geez, Joan, she thought as she entered the train car where her sleeping compartment was located, stop being so paranoid. Next time you know, you'll be conjuring enemies out of thin air.

At which point, something she could not see suddenly tugged at her corset and removed it from her body.

"Hey!!" Joan cried.

But before her two self-appointed bodyguards could respond, her black corset moved down the corridor and disappeared out a door at the opposite end.

"Well just don't stand there!" cried Joan as she frantically tried to cover her breasts and her womanhood. "Somebody go get my corset!!"

"Oh, dear," said the Professor. "I fear we may be too late."

"Why do you say that?" asked Joan.

"Because when that door closed, it looked like that corset was throwing itself off the end of the train," said the Professor.

"Corsets can't do that!" cried Joan.

"That one just did," said the Professor.

Joan turned toward Yosemite Tam, only to notice her staring at her instead of the far end of the corridor.

"What are you looking at?" asked Joan.

"Oh, nothing," said Yosemite Tam. "Only that I've spent a lot of lonely nights on the lone prairie -- and yet never have I dreamed of seeing a girl like you."

"You don't mean to say..." said Joan.

"Now is not the time for that, Miss Yosemite," said the Professor. "Now go run and see if you can retrieve that corset of hers."

"What about that invisible something that stole my corset?" asked Joan.

"Invisible something?" asked the Professor. "You mean like an invisible man? Surely you must be joking. Everyone knows that there is no such thing as an invisible man."

"Then what stole my corset?" asked Joan.

For a moment, the Professor stared at Joan with a strange look in her eye that made Joan feel even more naked than she already was.

Then the Professor said, "Oh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."