Belinda awoke feeling excited. She'd been looking forward to this day for the last week and a half and now it was finally here.

Horseback riding was one of her favorite bullshit interests, and today she was going to get to do some.

She shot out of bed and went straight to the bathroom, pulled down her panties, sat on the toilet and took a long, hot piss. She had a vapid look on her face, but her mind was actually racing. "I wonder what kind of horse I'll get to ride" and "I hope it's a pretty horse" and "I sure love horses." You know, things like that.

Belinda enjoyed doing many things. Things like skiing and camping. Camping! Most people rightfully considered this to be a complete waste of time and an idiotic way to spend a weekend. But not Belinda. She thought it was "fun."

But that was just the tip of the iceberg. She was into all manner of outdoor activities that any normal thinking person would avoid. Once she even expressed an interest in hang gliding. "Jesus," people thought.

"Does the list of dumbass shit Belinda wants to do never end?"

But her boyfriend was gentle and indulgent. Successful and attractive, Matt was always understanding and awesome to her. Though her interests and hobbies were fucking retarded, he loved her deeply and truly wanted her to be happy.

He warned her about horseback riding, though. He was an experienced man in the ways of the world, and he knew there was danger in riding horses. He had repeatedly cautioned her and schooled her on choosing the right horse when the big day finally came. He was really cool and he didn't want anything to go wrong.

Now she was looking over the horses at her friend's stable. "Hmmm" she thought. "Which horse shall I choose?"

Her friends were with her while she picked. Irresponsible and uncaring, they had been drinking. They were always trying to break Belinda and her boyfriend up and set her up with some guy who wanted to take them all waterskiing -- for a price. Belinda always resisted the temptation to go do this in favor of doing exciting things with her boyfriend, but it didn't stop them from trying.

There were various horses to pick from. Their name plates showed their names. Things like "Gentle George" and "Smooth Sam." There was even one named "Lightening."

"That's cause he's fast," Jill said.

"Yeah, no shit," everyone would've thought, if they weren't so stupid.

"Hey, how about this one," Belinda said. She'd stopped in front of the stable labelled "Dickhead."

"You want to ride 'Dickhead'?" Donna said.

"He looks like a fun ride."

"Well he's thrown several riders," Donna explained. "Plus, he bites."

Belinda nodded thoughtfully.

"Look, he's biting you right now."

Belinda looked down and, sure enough, Dickhead had sunk his teeth into the fleshy part on the back of her arm. She jerked away and a large hunk of flesh remained in his mouth just briefly before he swallowed it in a gulp. Belinda's arm was bleeding and she was in incredible pain. Dickhead had a satisfied smirk on his face, but he didn't look at Belinda. He just kind of stood there, the blood dripping from his mouth.

Then he made a triumphant little sound and jerked his head.

"This is the one I want to ride."

"Okay, whatever" said Donna. Her friends never had her welfare in mind. Why start now? "Saddle him up and let's go," she said as she led a horse called

"Tranquil Tom" by his bridle in the saddle room or whatever.

So they go out riding and everything is okay for a little while. They rode over hills and did some things which were generally irresponsible but not harm was done.

"This is fun, because we're such stupid bitches," Jill said.

"Whoo, ride 'em, cowgirl!!" That's the kind of shit they said as they rode around like idiots on these two thousand pound creatures.

Belinda was enjoying herself, when Dickhead began to act peculiar. Though he'd been only moderately "spirited" earlier, now he began to get out of hand.

Smelling the blood on her arm (the girls had bandaged the wound with some tampons and clear tape) his appetite for flesh was reawakened and he began to twist around and kick, attempting to twist his mouth around to the bitten area.

"Whoa," she said. But not in a horseback riding way, more in a Joey Lawrence kind of way. "Whoa."

The girls laughed as Belinda struggled with the horse. She'd been so kind to Dickhead. Had petted his neck and buried her face in his neck smoothing the hair on his neck. She was really into the horse's neck. Like some kind of sick fettish. "Whatever!" Matt would've said, if he'd been there.

Dickhead became furious at his inability to get around to the blood on her arm and he took off like a shot. Donna and Jill laughed as Jill poured them mohitos from a large thermos.

Belinda panicked as Dickhead approached a wooded area. He wasn't slowing down. A tree lay ahead. That was the last thing she remembered.

Belinda awoke feeling groggy. She tried to move but she could not. The nurse noticed that she was awake and called a male doctor who came in and gently explained what had happened. There had been an accident and she'd suffered a compound fracture of both femurs. She had landed hard and lay twisted up in a mess on the ground. She'd also broken her arm and her collarbone and a rib projected out of her chest. Plus, Dickhead, once she was thrown, had come trotting back and eaten her face off while her friends laughed and drank mohitos.

"We see this sort of thing all the time," the kindly male doctor said, sadly shaking his head.

There was nothing in his manner to suggest that he wanted to sleep with Belinda or take her hiking. Matt had stuck by Belinda and, above all, it was important to Matt that Belinda have a married doctor who respected the boundaries.

It was a miracle she was alive. That was the good news. She was alive. But she also suffered a spinal injury and would never walk again. She had chosen the wrong friends, the wrong activity, even the wrong horse. For the rest of her life, she would pay the price for all her wrong choices and bad decisions.

She could see now that she should've listened to Matt and the others who urged her to just hang out and be cool. But it was too late. She was paralyzed and her face had been devoured by a horse. She was broken and miserable, and she had only the rest of her life to accept the fact that nothing would ever be the same.

Most boyfriends would've laughed in her face, or rather, laughed at the mass of tissue and exposed nerves that had once been her face. But not Matt. He was the only one who ever cared about her.

Though Matt had avenged her death by killing Dickhead the horse, she would never be able to ski or rappel or hang glide. Never again would she wake up and walk on her own to the toilet, pull down her little panties and take a long, hot piss, the sweet urine streaming from the flower between her legs. She would only lay in her own filth and wish she'dlistened to reason.