The Haunting of Anna McAlister (22 page)

Tom held her hands in place with one of his own. Anna had never felt such incredible strength. She couldn’t break his grip. With his free hand Tom grabbed his belt, which was within easy reach on the left night stand. It’s positioning indicated that it had intentionally been placed there, as if Tom had anticipated that it might be needed.

He moved very quickly, expertly looping the leather tightly around her wrists and through her fingers as if he had done this a thousand times before. He then secured the belt to the headboard. Tom’s breathing came in sharp gasps of excitation. Anna started to cry.

“Stop it!” Tom screamed his order. “Stop crying now!

“I can’t,” Anna wasn’t sure in which language Tom spoke or she answered.

Tom slapped her again, this time hard enough to leave red marks on her cheeks. He kept slapping until Anna swallowed her cries and lay perfectly still.
 

With both hands, Tom ripped open the buttons on Anna’s blouse. He reached for a pair of scissors, also conveniently within arm’s length of the bed. Anna’s eyes widened as he ran the blades over her stomach and neck before cutting her bra in the middle of her chest. The bra fell away to either side exposing her breasts.

Anna could feel Tom’s erection pressing hard against her stomach. He moved it up and down against her flesh as he squeezed her breasts. She could feel the cold metal of the scissors, which he still held in his right hand, pressing against her soft flesh.
 

“Tom, stop,” Anna said. “That hurts.”

Tom tossed aside the scissors. He twisted her breasts and Anna screamed.
 

The sound of her agony was chopped short by Tom’s hands around her throat, cutting off her air. Anna looked up at him and pleaded with her eyes.
 

Tom’s laughter grew louder and sounded as if it were coming from far away. Keeping one hand on her throat, he reached behind with his other. Anna felt him savagely yanking at her pants, tearing them open and pulling them apart. He pushed them down far enough so he could shove his hand into her panties. He ripped them aside and dug all of his fingers into her.

Tom shrieked with pleasure and shouted something obscene in French.
 

There was a sudden knock on the hotel room door. Tom paused as if momentarily confused.

“Monsieur Desan, stop,” Anna choked out the words. Tom looked down, but she knew they weren’t his eyes that were seeing her. He squeezed her neck hard and dug in deeper.
 

The knocking came again, this time in was louder than before.
 

“Is everything all right in there?” A voice with a French accent called from the hall. “Hello. Hello?”

Anna looked up at Tom who stared savagely back.
 

“Can I be of assistance?” the voice called. When no one answered, Anna and Tom heard the person fumbling with keys, trying to fit the right one into the lock.
 

As if a switch had been flicked, Anna saw Tom’s face change back into itself. His eyes cleared and his lips uncurled. He looked at Anna.

“Anna? What’s happening?” Tom quickly released Anna’s throat and removed his hand from below. “What am I doing?”

He rolled off Anna and onto the floor. “I don’t understand, Anna. I’m, I’m so sorry.”
 

With his weight removed, Anna was able to get her hands free from the belt. She struggled off the bed, pulling up what was left of her pants and holding the torn halves of her blouse over her breasts. She felt her cut bra dangling at her sides.
 

Anna managed to open the door just as the bellhop fit in the right key from the other side. She turned the handle as he turned the key.
 

“Pardon, Mademoiselle,” the man in a hotel uniform said. He looked at the remains of Anna’s clothing and at Tom, huddled naked on the floor across the room. “Is all okay?”

Anna looked at Tom. He was shaking and starting to cry. “
Oui
,” Anna said to the bellhop. “It’s okay.”

“Then I am sorry to interrupt. But, a package just arrived from America for Anna McAlister.”

“A package?”

“
Oui
. For Anna McAlister.”

“That’s me.”

“
Tres bien
,” the man sighed with relief. “I was not looking forward to carrying this back downstairs.”
 

The bellhop picked up a parcel that had to measure at least four feet long and a yard wide. From his effort Anna could tell that it was quite heavy. The parcel was wrapped in plain brown paper. The bellhop handed it to Anna, giving her no choice but to release her blouse so as not to drop the package. When she did, the blouse opened and she saw the bellhop staring at her exposed breasts.
 

Anna quickly dropped the parcel onto the bed. She held her blouse together with one hand and reached for Tom’s wallet on the dresser with the other. She tipped the bellhop 200 francs and slammed the door shut.
 

Without saying a word, or looking at Tom, Anna moved to the package. It was addressed to her in care of the hotel. There was no return address. She quickly tore off the paper and ripped open the reinforced cardboard box. Anna gasped and stepped back.

“What is it?” she half heard Tom ask.

Anna again looked inside the box. She looked at her reflection on the top of the highly polished oak chest that she had buried in her yard. Opening it slowly, Anna stared down at Ariene’s music boxes, noting immediately that one was missing.
 

Anna jumped when she felt the hand gently touching her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Tom said softly. “I don’t know what got into me.”

Anna quickly closed the lid of the case.
 

“I thought you buried those things.” Tom looked over her shoulder. Again you could see both of their faces reflected in the wood.
 

“I did.”

“Did you have someone dig them up and mail them here?”

“No, I would never have done that.”

Anna walked slowly away from Tom and the boxes. She wanted to be sure that he really was who he again seemed to be. Her throat, vagina, breasts and face ached from his assault. With her tongue Anna could tell that a filling was missing and another tooth seemed to be loose.
 

Tom meanwhile quickly put on his pants.

“Why did you do that to me?” Anna lost control. She raced back to Tom and started pounding on his chest. “Why?”

Tom held her close. She could tell that he was fighting to keep back his tears. “I don’t know. It was like I wasn’t really doing it, but I knew that I was. I mean I was watching my body, but couldn’t stop what it was doing. I saw you there, but it wasn’t really you. You have to believe me baby, I wouldn’t hurt you. You know that, you have to know that.”

“What did you do after you left me today?” Anna asked.

“I’m sorry about that too. First of all I came back looking for you. That was weird. I saw you walking into a bunch of people, so I ran back to get you. But, when I got there, I couldn’t find you anywhere. I figured that you must have gotten a cab.”

Anna sat down on the bed. Tom sat down next to her. She didn’t move away.

“So then I just came back here and walked all around this damn hotel.” Tom put his hand on Anna’s knee. She flinched but left it in place as Tom continued.

“I hoped that maybe I could find something, or feel something. I must have walked every inch of this place.”

“You went to room 531?”

“That was my last stop. It’s really a great room, you know,” Tom said casually. “It’s a lot bigger than this one.”

“You got inside?” Anna sounded shocked, excited and scared. “It wasn’t locked?”

“No, in fact when I got there the door was just a little open. I knocked, but when no one answered I decided to take a look inside.”

“The hotel manager said that the room had been locked up tight for fifty years. That no one had gone in there.”

“Well, he must have been wrong,” Tom smiled. “When I walked in all the lights were on and everything looked great. It’s actually more than just a room, it’s a live-in suite, like an apartment . . . only bigger.”

“What did it look like inside?”

“Fantastic. It’s filled with antique furniture that looks as new as when it was made. The workmanship is incredible.” Tom took a deep breath. “And you know what’s even weirder. I think someone’s still living in that room.”

“Why do you say that?”
 

“The table was set for two with this incredible china and crystal. That stuff had to be worth a fortune. Oh yeah, I also remember that there were red roses everywhere.”

“How long were you in that room?” Anna asked.
 

Tom paused and thought about the question. It was as if he were trying to make sense of something he didn’t understand.
 

“How long, Tom?”

“Hmm,” Tom said with a little laugh. “That’s funny. I’m not really sure.”

“Did you see anyone?”

Again Tom paused as if the question didn’t make sense. “No, I mean I don’t think so.”

“Tom, there’s a big difference between
no
and
I don’t think so
.”

“I was just getting so tired. I remember not being able to keep my eyes open so I came down here. Then, I don’t know, I must have gone to sleep.”

“Must have?”

Tom nodded his head. “Yeah, I must have because the next thing I knew I was . . . well, you know.”

Anna rubbed her neck. “Yeah, I know.”
 

“Oh, baby,” Tom put his arm around Anna and hugged her close. “Again, I am so, so sorry. I would never, ever hurt you. When you mentioned that guy I must have just really flipped out . . . or something.”

There’s a lot of ‘or something’s’ going on around here
, Anna thought.
 

“Come on,” she said. “Phillipe’s waiting.”

* * *

After the three people shared the second bottle of wine, Anna did what she promised herself she wouldn’t. Despite her vow of secrecy, Anna told Phillipe the whole story from the purchase of the music boxes back in the states to their arrival at her room earlier that evening. Anna left out her encounter with Tom. She blamed the sun for the sudden redness of her face, and a recent auto accident for the new bruises on her neck.
 

“I did not notice them earlier at the library,” Phillipe said.
 

“Then I guess you weren’t looking at my neck.” Anna ended the interrogation with a tease.

Tom had agreed to meet and have dinner with Phillipe. He was polite and said very little. While Anna and Phillipe did virtually all of the talking, Tom sat silently at the table playing with his dinner knife.
 

“What I don’t understand,” Anna said. “Is what happened to the music box with the rose. That seems to be the most important one, and that’s the one that’s missing.”
 

“Maybe it had something else to do,” Tom said while slowly slicing down the middle of his napkin.
 

“What?” Anna asked.

“Oh, nothing important,” Tom twirled the knife on its tip. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation with Phillipe.” Tom’s eyes never left the blade of his knife. “So sorry.”

Anna stared at Tom. “Excuse me? Do you have some kind of a problem with my . . .”

“I would love to see those music boxes,” Phillipe interrupted. “You say you have them here at the hotel?”

“All but one,” Anna gave Tom a final angry glare before finishing her wine and refilling her glass. “Would you like to see them right now?”

“No!” Tom shouted and stabbed the knife down into the table.

Anna and Phillipe looked at Tom in complete silence. A shadow seemed to pass over his face and then was gone.
 

Tom let go of the knife, which stood on its blade. He took a deep breath. “Oops, I guess I’m stronger than I thought,” Tom batted the knife with his hand but it just swayed back and forth while staying embedded in the wood.

“Why don’t you want Phillipe to see the music boxes?”

“Remember what happened to Duncan and Jeffrey,” Tom warned.

“He’s right,” Anna said. “Maybe we shouldn’t. . .”

“Nonsense,” Phillipe said. “You can’t tell me such a story and not show me the music boxes.”

“Maybe you should just go back to your university of wherever you came from and not get involved in something that isn’t any of your damn business,” Tom snapped.

“But I am already involved,” Phillipe said. “Sorry.”

“He’s right Tom,” Anna said. “If he’s going to help, he needs to see everything.”

“Okay, but let’s wait until tomorrow. Our room is such a mess.”

“Oh now you’re just being silly,” Anna dismissed his words with a semi-drunken wave of her hand. “Have you seen your office or your bathroom lately? Compared to them, our room is sterile. Come on, let’s go.”

Okay?” Phillipe looked at Tom.