Episode 77: Sara Ivy
Written By Karl White
Those who knew her said she carried herself with quiet care, and deliberate restraint. Every gesture measured, every word chosen, moving through life, she was a whisper. There was nothing imposing about her frame, nothing that hinted at what coiled beneath the surface, and that was the deception she lived with. It took more strength than most could fathom to contain what she carried. To wear the calm like an armor. The curse pressed hardest from within, but she held on fiercely enough to keep the monster still.
Sara Ivy - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Sara Ivy, was born in Marysville, Michigan in 1980. Shy and introverted as a child, growing up she kept mostly to herself. Her joy came from getting lost in a good book. By her teen years she turned to writing to express her feelings and desires, as a means to avoid personal interactions. In high school she won several short story competitions, which eventually led to a scholarship to the prestigious Redford University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Reluctantly, she accepted...and moved far away from her home and comfort. College, like most of her life, was fraught with anxiety and awkwardness. At the urging of her older sister, Jody, she joined the Beta Kappa Nu sorority, in a misguided attempt to make friends. It opened her socially, at least a little. Sara worked to become more extroverted, more outgoing, but her nerdiness remained an anchor in the sea of popularity. Still, she found a kindred spirit in fellow bookworm Mark Gable, whom she met in a creative writing class. Tall, and awkward, he too was a bit of a social pariah, but they enjoyed each other’s quiet company.
In the spring of 2001, the final sorority formal before Sara would graduate was fast approaching. The rest of her sisters begged her to attend...so she asked Mark to go with her. Both had jobs lined up after school. Sara was headed to New York to work for a small publishing company. Mark planned to head west...so this would be their last hurrah.
The event was held at a fancy lodge, deep in the woods. She and Mark danced the night away, moving ever closer as the evening wore on. Slipping out, they drove through the warm spring rain to a secluded spot in Mark’s station wagon. But in the throes of passion, among the sea of cedars, they were being watched. Thomas Crowley stalked the woods, seeking a meal of human flesh.
Crowley on the hunt - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Through the condensation-covered window, Sara spotted him. Panic snapped through the car. Mark scrambled toward the front seat, but before he could even turn the key, the werewolf Crowley struck. He crashed through the driver’s side window, tearing into Mark with savage force. Sara fled out the back, sprinting barefoot into the dark -- She ran through the woods towards the lodge. But the beast, hungry for her blood, pursued.
Crowley seized her before she made it to safety. Sara’s screams were swallowed by the music from the party inside. He pinned her down, ripping and tearing her flesh, jaws poised to deliver the fatal bite -- but he stopped.
Looking at Sara, bloody on the ground, a sense in him shifted. Not a reprieve, it was something else. A flicker of memory. A crack in the curse.
In his ruined mind, a repressed image surfaced, his mother Selma. As a young boy he'd found her after she had taken her own life. Grief surged, brief, involuntary, overpowering. And in that single, haunted pause, the predator faltered. The werewolf recoiled as if burned by the past...then retreated into the night, mourning without knowing why.
Sara was found minutes later, barely clinging to life. Police and paramedics arrived unable to comprehend the scene, the wounds, the blood, the sheer violence of it. She was rushed to the hospital and survived despite the severity of her injuries.
When she awoke, Sara did what all who received the curse do, she tried to rationalize and reconcile what happened. But deep down she knew. Long were the days of the werewolf being just a superstition, and even though to most it was a creature of fiction, Sara had read enough stories to piece it together -- seeing a man, but attacked by a beast. She kept the truth to herself.
Officially, police concluded she was the sole survivor of an animal attack. Which Sara was more than happy to go along with. But inside, dread grew over what was coming…so she fled.
Alone, she hid away in a cabin, deep in the Upper Peninsula of her home state of Michigan. Staying as far from civilization as she could.
The curse arrived in waves -- surging headaches, unending pain, and an all-consuming hunger for blood. But Sara, the shy girl who had spent her life suppressing emotion, refused to let herself change. She shut down so tight, staring the beast in the eyes and not blinking. For months she held it at bay, though it was a war. In doing so, she also buried her elemental powers. She lived on the edge of rupture, where even slight stress could push her toward collapse. Eventually, she realized no matter how hard she fought, the monster would break free whether she wanted it to or not.
Her first change surfacing - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
The first night she changed was the most difficult ordeal she had ever endured. A tense, anxiety-filled night that birthed a confused, curse-ridden creature whimpering and howling in despair. The physical pain of transformation, coupled with the complete loss of control, was more than she could bear. And still, she held back her natural powers, creating an imbalance that made everything worse.
In the aftermath, her life fell apart. She turned down New York. There was no way she could live in a crowded city with the affliction breathing down her neck. Instead she packed up and moved to Des Moines, Iowa, taking a job as a librarian. It was a more realistic place for her -- thirty miles in any direction, she could find isolation if the curse ever became uncontrollable.
But the radical change ushered in a dark time for Sara. Her writing stalled. She withdrew. She even contemplated ending it all, while concentrating every ounce of her emotional strength on keeping the transformation from happening again.
Over time, she gained control, restricting her animal side. But it came with consequences. Denial made her more agitated, more restless. And she discovered the longer she avoided changing, the less control she’d have when it finally happened. If she became angry, frightened, anxious...it could trigger disaster, turning her into a ticking time bomb.
Her elemental powers also began to surface in strange ways, flickering lights, agitating animals nearby, rumbles of thunder in an otherwise calm sky. Her abilities were strong, she just didn’t yet understand how strong. To help suppress it all, Sara began taking anxiety medication, keeping all parts of her werewolf side subdued. But her troubles were far from over...
Session with Dr. Keller - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
In 2005, years into her self-isolation, Sara struggled to keep the lid on her life. Over-medicating, she went to a psychiatrist after her prescription ran out. Doctor Kyle Keller seemed mild-mannered, but he too was holding back a monster. A serial killer in disguise. When Sara came into his office, he noticed a vulnerable young woman, alone. In her, he saw fear and weakness, and that attracted the wrong kind of attention, from the wrong kind of man.
Keller manipulated her anxiety and neurosis, luring her in, unaware of what boiled beneath the surface. Drugging Sara, she awoke in the basement of his country house, bound and gagged. Enduring torture, physical and psychological, Sara lost control. The long-suppressed werewolf tore free from restraints and pursued Doctor Keller through the night. A savage reversal, as the hunter became the hunted.
That transformation revealed something rare. Sara discovered she had command over Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Sound...and Light. Using them against Keller during their cat-and-mouse chase. And afterward, she still didn’t grasp what possessing the combined powers truly meant.
After her run-in with Keller, she connected the dots of his crimes, anonymously tipping police off to his murderous activities. Using her curse and elemental powers to protect herself, Sara felt something she’d never known, empowerment. And with it came obsession. She wanted to know what she was. She began tracking Indigenous legends of the Children of Nature.
She also began looking into other unsolved crimes. Using her instincts and abilities to see below the surface. Her world had illuminated. The curse she once tried to suppress, she now saw as a gift...and there was no going back. Sara also wanted to find the man who made her, and dispense justice for what he’d done.
For more of Sara Ivy’s story, listen to the Nocturnum Collective Podcast -- Featured in Season Two: Predation.
TO BE CONTINUED…