Here It Comes, Here Comes the Night

“C’mon, Joe,” I quietly pleaded as we walked down the hallway to our room for the night, “Do we really have to stay here? This place gives me the creeps.”

Joe rolled his eyes and chuckled at me, “yes, luv. We’ve already paid for the room. This is a nice place, and probably one of the last places any of the fans would think we’d go… so unless you want to have to deal with all those girls-“

“Fine, Joe. You win… I’ll deal,” I looked around the old hallway, “this place is really creepy though.”

He shrugged as he found our door, and started to open it, “I’ll be right here. I wont let the ghosts get you.”

He suddenly let out a cackle, startling me. I jumped and smacked his arm. “Not funny Joseph!”

“Really?” he asked, as he continued to laugh, holding the door open for me, “I thought it was.”

I sent him a glare, as I pushed by him into the room. It was a kind of small, but nice. There was a queen-sized bed to the back of the room, placed against the wall towards the middle of the room. A door off to the left of the room, I assumed it was to a washroom. There was two small, yet comfortable looking, chares at the foot of the bed with a small table between them. There wasn’t a whole lot of room to move around, but it wasn’t too cramped. There wasn’t much hanging on the walls for decoration; there was a beautiful old mirror, and two little pictures of scenery hanging over the head of the bed. The walls were covered in old Victorian style flowered wallpaper, that looked like it may have been original.

Joe closed the door and set down our bags, before walking up behind me and wrapping me up in a hug, “the room’s nice.”

I slightly nodded my head, as I leaned back into him, “small though.”

“Does it matter?” he mumbled into my neck, as he gently started to placed kisses down my neck and shoulder.

“No… just an observation,” I closed my eyes and let out a small moan. Each kiss felt like fire against my cold skin. They set my stomach off in a fit of butterflies. Joe made every kiss feel like the first one I had ever had. I didn’t know what it was about him, but I loved him with every inch of my being.

As much as I wanted Joes kisses to last forever, they sadly never did. He let me go and sent me that grin that all the girls went wild for; “Malvin wanted to talk to all of us before we got too… ‘busy’. I’ll be back in a few minutes, luv.”

I pouted a little, “fine… I’ll just take a shower while I wait for you.”

He gave me a quick peck on the lips, smiled warmly at me, and left.

I sighed slightly, and grabbed my suitcase. I grabbed some clean underwear, but I decided that I didn’t want to wear any of my clothes to bed. So, I began to dig through Joe's suitcase until I found his Marilyn Monroe t-shirt that he loved so much. It smelled clean, so I took it with me into the little bathroom.

I took my time in the shower, trying to make sure Joe would be back by the time I got out. The warm water was very soothing, and took my mind off of how weird this bed and breakfast place was. I’d never had a problem with hotels, motels, or B&B’s before. But there really was just something off about this place, and I didn’t like it one bit!

Feeling that I had taken long enough, I turned off the water and excited the shower. I looked at the mirror as I grabbed my towel.

At first I was a little shocked to see my name, ‘Alex’, smeared into the fog on the mirror. But when I noticed a black blob in the shape of a man where the door was, I felt a little safer. It must have just been Joe trying to scare me.

“Come on, Joe. This is a bit-“ I stopped mid sentence. There was no one standing by the door. It was, in fact, shut. And if I remembered correctly I had locked it, just in case.

My heart rate sped up, and my breathing became faster as a slight panic set in. what was going on here? I needed to find Joe and get out of this horrid building! I would sleep on the side of the road if I had to; I just needed to get as far away from this B&B as fast as I possibly could.

I dried myself off and threw on my clothes faster then I ever had before. I didn’t bother with my hair, other then quickly drying it with my towel. I told Joe there was something weird about this place, and now I had proof! He would have to agree to leave now. He just had to.

I quickly made my way over to the door, but as soon as I placed my hand on the doorknob, I stopped. What if there was something out there? I could hear my heart pounding furiously in my ears. I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and very slowly unlocked the door and opened it just as slowly.

Once I had it open a hair, I peered out into the room. It was quiet, and there was on one there. Nothing looked to be out of place, and there were no more messages for me anywhere. I continued to cautiously open the door, and made my way out of the bathroom.

I crept over to the right side of the bed, and got down on my knees. I took another deep breath before grabbing the skirt and pulling it up. There was nothing under the bed either. I let out my breath, relieved that there wasn’t anyone in the room with me. But almost as quickly as the relief came, it was gone once again. If there was no one in the room, then how did my name get on the mirror? It didn’t take me long to come to a conclusion, and I certainly did not like it. I was hoping was wrong. Oh, was I ever. I wasn’t sure how someone could have pulled that stunt in the bathroom, but now it was all clear.

I dove for my suitcase and threw it open. I needed to get out of this place. I grabbed a pair of jeans, and pulled them on. I didn’t even bother with shoes; I just dashed over to the door.

I swung the door open and ran right into something somewhat hard, yet a little squishy. I fell backwards, and it let out a little, ‘ouff’.

“Alex, what in the world?” Joes asked, as he looked down at me, confusion clearly written all over his face, “are you okay, babe?”

I nodded, yes, as I got to my feet. I took his hand and started to drag him out of the room with me, “we have to get out of here.”

“What? Why?” he chuckled, “seen a ghost?”

“Yes.”

He stopped walking and held fast to my hand, “Alex, come on, luv. This is a little ridicules. Just because you don’t like the place-“

“Joe, I’m not making this up,” I looked pleadingly at him, “please, lets just go.”

“Where are we going to go?” he was clearly a little frustrated, but he must have sensed that I was being sincere.

“I don’t know, nor do I care. But please, baby, lets go. I need to go.”

He sighed, “come on, let’s go back to our room. It’s just for tonight. I promise I’ll stay with you the whole time. I’m tired, and I just want to go to sleep. We’re already here, luv. Why not stay?”

“Why not stay? Joe didn’t you listen to what I said?” I was becoming exasperated, I was starting to feel watched, and I didn’t like it. Not. One. Bit.

Joe just looked at me for a moment. He looked like he was about to say something, but he just stood there, looking at me. There was something different in his eyes, something I couldn’t quiet place my finger on. It was making me a little nervous. His green eyes looked a little cloudy, and dazed. He suddenly threw me over his shoulder, “come on then.”

“Joe! Put. Me. Down! Now!”

“Alex, pipe down, luv. You’ll wake everyone.” Joe shushed me, as he walked back to our room.

The door was open, so he just walked in and kicked it shut behind us. My heart was racing in a panic. This didn’t feel right; there was definitely something very wrong happening. I just didn’t know what.

Joe dropped me on the bed, and just looked at me. I crawled away from him towards the wall. I wanted so badly to run out the door. But something told me not to try, Joe was bigger and stronger then me. He could easily catch me. There just wasn’t any point. This was all so strange; Joe had never made me feel fear before. It almost made me want to cry. Why was this happening? Hell, what was even happening?

“Joe?” I questioned quietly after a few minutes passed.

His look changed from dazed, to smug. He shook his head, no. I made to jump up and run, but ‘Joe’ saw my intent and jumped at me.

I screamed, but ‘Joe’ covered my mouth with one of his hands, while the other held onto my throat. He squeezed tight, cutting off my airway. Hot scared tears were streaming out of my eyes. I kicked and punched, clawed and bit. But he barely moved an inch.

My lungs were screaming for air, as I thrashed about wildly. I was becoming weaker and weaker with every movement, until I could hardly move at all. I used what little energy I had left to try and pry his hands off of my neck.

“Calm down, luv. I’ll be right here with you the whole time,” he said softly, as my eyes began to close. I could hear a second voice talking along with Joes, “it’s just for tonight. I’m tired, and I don’t want to leave.”

I could feel him take my head in both hands and violently twisted my neck. There was a loud snap, a quick sharp pain, then nothing.