Halloween

1928

“Marie, what is wrong?”

She looked up and over at him. Like the year before, her hair was a mess. Her entire appearance suggested homelessness with disheveled clothes. Marie pulled her sleeve and stared at the bloodstain. She let out a sob and Edward stepped towards her. She didn’t know how she was going to explain this to him. She didn’t feel like talking.

“Don’t say a word if you cannot bring yourself to speak, my dear,” he said as he sat opposite her at the small dining table. “Think it and I shall know.” He reached across the table and held her hand.

The Hotel Cortez. It hadn’t long opened and hopefully it would serve to be the break Marie desperately needed. She headed inside and checked in at the front desk. With the keys to her hotel room in hand, she headed up the stairs. The hotel room was decorated rather beautifully with the sheets smelling fresh and the bed made. Setting down the case, Marie let back on the sheets and let out a sigh of relief.

“You visited to take a break?” asked Edward. Marie nodded. “But that didn’t happen?”
“No.”

“You won’t die,” he muttered. Marie stared at him as she tried to pull free of her bindings.
“Let me go!” she screamed. James March laughed at her. She knew his wife was listening to them, she almost always did. He combed his hair back as she carried on trying to escape. If she broke her wrists in the process, she wouldn’t care; they would heal again.
“Why would I let you go? This torture is wonderfully satisfying.”
“You bastard!” she screamed.

And then the torture continued.

“I managed to get out,” she whispered. “I don’t really remember much, everything sort of blended together. I was there for a month or so, I think.”
“The man is a lunatic.”
Marie nodded. “He is more of a freak than either of us, I think.”
“Indeed,” said Edward. He didn’t seem sure of what to say. Marie didn’t really know what to say either.

“My eye, you were right,” she said. “I didn’t wake up to darkness.”
“Can you still see out of it?” he asked.
“It’s blurry, not great really but it’s not darkness,” she said. She squeezed his hand and he carried on holding it firmly. “So you were right.”

Edward furrowed his brow and Marie realised he was staring at her hand. Marie opened her hand to reveal a white scar.
“You didn’t have that before.”
“No, James March did that,” she muttered bitterly. “He made me juggle knives. He figured if I was a freak, then clearly I must have worked at a freak show or carnival and could juggle.”
“You hate him,” Edward stated.
Marie nodded. “I do. I spent months in that Hotel.” She looked down again. “Months and I was only supposed to stay for a weekend.”

“Did you tell the police, my dear?”
Marie shook her head. “Doctors didn’t help me last time and the police around here are known for not taking too kindly to people who are different,” she sighed. “Besides, who’d believe I would survive all of that. I should have died in that hotel, several times.”
“Its a shame I can’t do more to help you,” said Edward as he looked down. “But I’m afraid I must go on tonight. Goodnight, Marie.” She smiled as he pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand.
“Goodnight, Edward.”

Then, as always, he disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. Marie watched as the green mist that followed him slowly faded away.