The Doll

Chapter 3 ... Who is Pete?

(3)

I woke up to something tapping me. I was completely covered with my comforter and was still too lazy to wake up or move a muscle.

"Tracy if it's you cut it out," I said, actually hoping it was her.

The tapping continued. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"I said cut it ou----" I jerked the comforter off my head and was caught on surprise. "HOLY!" I looked up, to the source of tapping. They were pale feet. Of a woman. Wearing white. Eyes bulging out. Hanged on the ceiling fan.

I scurried out of the room wearing nothing but my nighties. I squinted, trying hard to remember what the stranger told me about his whereabouts. "Right across your room," I remember him telling. "My name's Pete Schwimer," he continued with a smile.

I ran across my room and found myself banging on his door. "Pete," I was calling out. "Pete, open up." Other condo occupants peeked out of their rooms and looked at me like a freak. When I figured that nothing inside Pete's condo was moving, I returned back to my room to grab a coat and my laptop.

I opened the door and peeked inside before finally going in. Everything seemed normal. I grabbed the laptop from the kitchen where I last used it, trying hard not to peek inside the open bedroom. I did, anyway, and there was nothing in it anymore. I turned to leave and grabbed my beige coat at the coat stand. I pushed the elevator button for L. I was headed to the coffee shop Pete took me to. 

There were only a couple of people in the coffee shop. Nothing unusual, it was damn early in the morning. I ordered for coffee and settled on a table near the cashier. I felt safer with people around. I opened the laptop and looked for WiFi access. Once my computer connected, I instantly opened Google.com and typed The Empire, Room 11D, my hotel room. On the first page I opened was the headline, "Mom and Daughter, killed or murdered?" After it was a picture of a family, happily smiling back at me. They were standing in a family portrait: Dad, mom, daughter-holding-doll. It took a while to hit me. My eyes shot wide.

"OHMYFREAKINGGOSH," I blurted out, having a few people give me snide glances. 

Pete was the dad.