Dancing with a ghost

Chapter 6

A sweet melody reverberated in the vast room. When the doors opened, every person present in the room turned their faces into my direction. I smiled and they smiled back. They all got up as I was walking slowly, following the path. My long and white dress huged my figure beautifully. 

At the end of the path I could see my beloved. James. He was wearing a suit. When I finally faced him, his smile was radiant. 

"Darling you are exquisite." 

"You are too James." 

A priest was looking at us, waiting to start his speech. I could see in his eyes that he was afraid, James had certainly threatened him. James was not a christian but, he wanted to follow the tradition. 

While the priest was making a monologue, I could not stop staring at James. I was lost in his beautiful brown eyes. Then two splendid words came out of his mouth. 

"I do." 

I repeted them too with no hesitation. When I saw the little diamond shining on my finger, I felt extremely satisfied. That ring was the reflection of our passionnate love. 

"I love you James."

He kissed me tenderly.

"I love you too Elisabeth." 

A splash resonnated in the room. Lacy woke up immediately but she could not make any movement : she was tied to a chair. The cold water freezed her. 

"Hello darling." 

The room was plunged into darkness however, she could perceive James' figure. At first Lacy felt surprised but then, she remembered everything. 

"Why am I here ?" 

She had a husky voice.  

"Come on darling you already know the reason." 

A tear rolled down her cheek. 

"Don't call me darling." 

"As you wish Lacy." 

James was hesitating over which knives to choose while Lacy was trying to untie her hands. He chose the longest and the sharpest one. 

"That rope is resistant, isn't it ?" 

Of course it was, it had cut the skin of her wrists that were now bleeding. 

He came to her and brought the knife to her neck. Lacy kept silence and held her breath. One movement and her life would end. A few more tears fell down. 

"It's funny to see how humans can be ridiculous."

Lacy frowned. What did he mean by "human". 

"I mean, you become easily coward when your life is about to end. Look at you, you are just poor and insignificant little thing that is crying for its life."

She hated him. 

"Do you fear death Lacy ?"

Did she fear death ? Not really. What would be life without death ? However, she feared pain. Lacy closed her eyes and did not answer. She did not want to make him that pleasure. 

In all of a sudden, her right arm caused her an atrocious pain. She let out a gasp. Her reflex was to see what happenend to her arm, now covered by blood. He had cut it. 

He firmly caught his chin. 

"Now answer me. Are you scared ?" 

"Yes..." She muttered. 

"Good."

He loved the power he had over her.

James pressed Lacy's injured arm. He put his fingers covered by the red liquid to Lacy's lips. This vision made him smile, he felt like she was wearing lipstick, the same color that Elizabeth usually put on her lips. 

The second thing he did is to kiss Lacy while thinking about his ex wife. Her blood freezed. How dare he ? Displeased, she let out a whine. James, on the contrary, seemed to love the taste of her blood. Or perhaps the taste of her lips. 

Then James' lips came on her neck. 

"I am not Elizabeth." 

James stopped immediately. Never he had felt that angry. 

"Who told you about her !" He yelled. 

Her silence annoyed him even more. 

The sound of a slap echoed in the room. James had slapped Lacy whose cheeks were red. 

"Tell me !"

"I saw her." 

She could not stop crying.

James, full of rage, kicked the chair that fell off. Lacy's head hit the cold floor. Then the door slammed. Lacy understood that James had left the room. He did not even put the chair up. She knew how important this woman was for him, however; she wondered how she could have dreamt of someone she did not know. 

For a moment Lacy felt realeased, nevertheless; she needed to leave that hotel or he would kill her soon. She had spent an hour trying to detach her from the chair. Her whole body was aching because of the position and her eyes were swollen. She did not deserve that. 

Tired by her struggle with the rope, the idea of escaping from Mr March had deserted her mind. She was now thinking about her mother. She should have had listened her. 

Her throat was dried. She needed water, but she was pretty sure James would let her corpse rotting there. Or perhaps he would finish his work himself. 

She was sure about one thing, she was probably living the last moment of her life.