Part 7 of Therese story

He had been right. The car almost did drive itself. It buckled her saet belt for her. It told her exactly what to do and when to do it. It even opened the door and unlocked her seat belt for her. As she got out of the car, she began to feel lightheaded. ‘Crap,’ she thought, ‘he had been right about the drug too. God, I hope I make it.’ She tossed the keys and money at the attendant and didn’t bother to notice them missing their mark. ‘I feel like I could fall over any second,’ she thought, “I don’t have time to talk.’ She entered the building not hearing the attendant say he would take care of her car (which he did) nor did she notice him shaking his head side to side muttering under his breath about how it was sad that she was always getting herself messed up this way, night after night.
Therese was busy with other things, like trying to get one foot to go after another. Somehow she managed to get to the front desk and using it for support, she tried to make her mouth form words.
“Lost key room my,” she slurred, “need bed go.” She was stunned as how awful she sounded.
The night clerk’s name was Judy. She had seen her coming. In fact, she had seen this scene quite often in the last month and knew what to do. Judy quickly went to the other side of the counter and turned her inebriated guest toward the proper elevator. She, then followed behind Therese, picking her up several times after she fell, letting her continue on her own, respectfully maintaining her distance behind her. ‘It must be rough to be rich,’ Judy thought.
When she reached the elevator, Therese leaned against the doors and fell inside when they opened. She did not have the strength to pick herself up anymore. Judy picked her up again and leaned her against the wall near the bank of floor buttons.
“Whav for,” asked Therese vision blurring,”whwhch dor.”
“Don’t worry Ms. desAntos. There is only one room on your floor.” Judy put the key into the special lock next to the button marked ‘Penthouse’, turned it and pressed the button.
When the elevator moved upward, Therese began to slide down the wall toward the floor. Judy caught her and held her up until they reached their destination. The doors opened and Judy asked if she could put her to bed.
What Therese wanted to say was ‘No, thank you for asking. Its not necessary.’ but what came out was: “Nnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooo.”
Judy propped her up one last time, helped her step out of the elevator, thought about walking her to the bed, remembered what happened to the last clerk who did that, and stepped back into the elevator, pressed Lobby, watched the doors close and then exhaled. “It just doesn’t get easier watching her do this to herself..” she said.
Back in the penthouse, Therese was mustering all her remaining strength using furniture to give her support. Her vision was almost useless now as the scenes she was seeing kept sliding back and forth. “Have to make it to the bed.’ she thought, ‘have to make it to the bed.’ She made it passed the first room into a hallway and slowly made it down the hallway using the walls as leverage. Her legs were as rigid as cooked spagetti and her arms were loosing their strength rapidly. When she looked in the first room down the hallway, she saw a bed. ‘I made it,’ she thought. ‘I made it.’ At that point, Therese’s last once of willpower gave out. She collapsed on the floor. ‘ I am jello,’ was her last thought but her last sensation was of being carried to the bed and laid down upon it.
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Therese was the best dressed woman here at the ball, the belle. All the men, were circled around her, each wanting to dance with her. She giggled with coquettish delight as man after man told her how beautiful she was and how happy they could make her. Some even proposed their hands in marriage. Then suddenly, the mood changed and the men parted, allowing entrance to a tall dark stranger. He wore a white costume mask depicting two faces side by side, happy and sad. Saying nothing, he began to dance with her.
Therese felt excited to be in his arms flowing across the floor. They were the olny dancers. He pulled her into a swoon and barely lifting his mask, he kissed her. She felt intoxicated with love. They dance on. As she looked at a group of women, she noticed him, her beloved, standing amongst them.. He noticed her and pointed to her dress. She looked down and saw the spot, the black spot, had gotten larger.
“You better take care of that soon or your dress will be ruined.” he said.
“I will.” she promised but for now she content to keep dancing. Again, he pulled into a swoon and this time he kissed her several times on the neck. A feeling of rapture went through her. She could scarely wait for the next swoon. They danced on and she noticed no one remained, just the two of them. He pulled her into another swoon and her heart was beating with excitement as he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her there and leaned to kiss her on her neck again. Then he bit her.

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Part 6 of Therese story

“Is that you, Teresa, my little sister ? He did not wait for her to answer. “It is,” he proclaimed as he reached down and plucked her from her chair. lifting her feet off the ground. He huggedl her to his chest and swayed side to side. He lifted her to his face level and kissed her on the forehead. The sight of him had brought forth conflicting feelings of terror and love to Therese. When she first realized who his funny looking man was, she was ready to run but now here in his arms she felt a strange emotion: safe. She wanted to hug him back and to kiss him and to even roll around on the floor with him and yet when he kissed her, she felt an oddness about him. Was he always this tall ?
“I was so worried about you. You have been gone all day but now you are back.”
He set her down back on her feet. “You should not worry your brother so much.” He turned to the young men still seated at the table. “How can I thank you young men for bringing me back my little baby sister.” He reached into his coat pocket and produced an incredible roll of one hundred dollar bills. He peeled off ten and dropped them onto the table. The young men were aghast. They had never seen so much money.
“This,” he said “is a small token of my appreciation.” He kissed them on the top of their heads. “Thank you, thank you.” He peeled off one more hundred and said, “This is for the food. Tell the waiter he can keep the change.” He put the bankroll back into his pocket, then his took off his coat and put it on Therese. It almost dragged on the floor.
“Baby sister,” he cooed, “you should not go outside without a proper coat. You’ll catch your death.” He grabbed her by the hand and walked her out the door. The whole time Therese and the T & T boys were speechless. It was Jack who broke the silence by exclaiming after they had left, “A ninety dollar tip. Maybe this night won’t be a total waste afterall.”

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He walked her to a red two seater convertable (top up of course) which was parked at the curb not too far from the restaurant. The car looked very expensive. She took this opportunity to pull her hand free from him and summoning up all her strength, she punched him in the face.
“You left me there to die !” she screamed. “You left me there to die.”
He rubbed his jaw. “You don’t have time for that now. I’ll let you punch me all you want later. Right now you have to get back to your hotel fast. Your little friends have poisoned you with a large dose of date rape drug. If you didn’t have your superior body, you would be a pile of jello right now. As it is, you have at most ten minutes to get back to your room and in bed before you pass out.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the driver’s side of the car, opened the door and gently pushed her in. He shut the door and put a key in the ignition.
“Before you start the car, listent carefully. Your name is Teresa desAntos. It was as close to your real name as I could get. Your IDs are in that pink clutch purse on the passenger’s seat. You are currently staying in the hotel Avalon which lucky for you is about two blocks from here. When you start the car, the car will ask you where you are going. You say home. It will tell you how to get there. When you get to the hotel park in front. Get out, give your keys to the doorman wrapped in a hundred dollar bill. Tell him to take care of it. The money is in your coat pocket. Walk to the front desk and tell them you have lost your room key. They will know who you are. They will show you how to get to your room. Under no circumstances, should you allow them to take you into your room. You must be alone. And this is the most important part, do not under any circumstances take off your clothes. You must stay in these clothes tonight, no matter what. I will talk to you tomorrow. Stay in your room until then and don’t let anyone in - not even the maid.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Now go.” he commanded as he turned the key for her. The car started immediately.
“But I haven’t driven a car in over a decade,” she protested.
“Not really a problem,” he countered as began to cross the street, “that car could almost drives itself.”
As she tried to think of what to do next the car asked her in a sweet feminine voice, “Ms. Teresa, where would you like me to take you.”
“Home.” she sighed. “I really want to go home.”

Part 5 of Therese Story

Parts 1 through 4 are below in earlier posts
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There was ball going on, with all the young women dressed in lush and plush gowns which flaunted cleavage and curves. All the men were dashing, in fine tuxedos and tails. Therese, felt radiant in a white sheer gauzy strapless gown that showed off all her assets. She stood alone on the edge of the dance floor, waiting, and then he was there, in front of her, asking her to dance.
It was heaven to be in his arms, whirling and swirling across the floor. She wanted to be there forever. He stopped and looked at her and laughed. He pointed to her dress and she was startled to see a small black spot right below her breast. He laughed again and told her not to worry, it would come out. She’d ’just have scrub hard. She started to cry and he held her tight.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she sobbed into his shoulder. Then they began to dance again, but this time he began to change. With each turn, he began to fade and as he faded, something else began to appear. It was a full length mirror with his image in it. And as the dance continued, his image faded also, replaced by her own reflection. And as she looked at herself in the mirror, she noticed something behind her, something very dark and it was reaching for her neck. And when she felt the touch of a hand on her own neck, she screamed and the mirror shattered.
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Someone was kissing her and pushing on her breast. In one motion, she raised her arms and pushed this unwelcome stranger off of her. When he was clear of her, she leaped to her feet and assumed a fighting stance.
“Whoa there, chickie baby,” the man said, “I was trying to save your life. You weren’t breathing.” He held his open palms out in front of her as a symbol of ‘stop, I don’t want to fight’.
“Well she is now,” laughed a voice from behind Therese, “I told you she wasn’t dead.”
Therese turned around and saw a young man, perhaps 20ish, leaning against an alley wall. He was good looking, well dressed but slightly dishevled as if he had been partying all night (which he had). He looked at her and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Tim. And that there is Tom.” He pointed to the other young man. “We are,” he said proudly, “the T & T boys.” They both laughed. Therese did not know what to make of them. She wanted to scan them with her magic eyes but her eyes did not seem to work, at least the scanning part did not. She could still see clearly.
“I’m sorry to say this babe,” continued Tim, “but you look horrible. You must have been doing some vicious drugs.” He stretched and yawned. “I tell you what, we were about to get some Java to mellow our buzz so why don’t you tag along and get some chow. There is an all night place about a block from here and they have been known to serve a pretty mean bowl of soup. You would like it.”
Therese tried to think of an excuse. “I don’t seem to have any money with me. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no problem,” responded Tim, “It would be our treat. We’ll even call you a cab afterwards.”
“Okay,” she said hestitantly, “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
“Now thats the spirit,” said Tim as he moved his arm behind her back and placed his hand upon her far shoulder. “Don’t worry. You couldn’t be safer than being between the T & T boys.” His friend appeared on her other side and and they walked three abreast down the street.
“What have I gotten myself into,” she thought.
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The walk was uneventful, but not boring. Tim filled the time by extolling ancedotes concerning the adventures the two friends had experienced this evening.
“And then just as we thought the night couldn’t get any weirder,” he said as they entered the restaurant, “we see you lying in the alley looking like you were dead.”
They sat themselves at a table in the middle of the floor. A waiter, also a twentyish young man, appeared instantly.
“Well, if it isn’t the terrible T & T boys.” he said. “And what do we have here ? Another pretty young girl with no brains ?” He spoke to Therese directly in a mock whisper. “Why don’t you ditch these two losers and hang out with me, a real man.” He flexed his arm and pointed to his biceps.
“Right,” responded Tom, “we’re the losers and who is waiting on whom ?”
The waiter punched Tom lightly in the shoulder. “Shut up.”
Tim interrupted by clearing his throat. “Let’s get down to business, Mr. Jack. The T & T boys will have our usual, large Cappuccinos with a shot of espresso. And our lady friend will have a large bowl of your extra special soup of the day.”
“Something to drink for the lady ?” asked Jack.
“Just water,” replied Therese quietly.
“Fine,” repeated Jack as he walked away, “one large ex specal shoop. and two cheapskates.”
“Shut up,” laughed Tom.
Not too much later, Jack appeared with a bowl of steaming hot soup and the drinks.
Therese began eating immediately, she couldn’t remember when she had been so hungry. The soup tasted great.
“Well, someone’s hungry,” mocked Tim as he sipped his beverage. Therese kept eating. She was nearly done when she noticed a man sitting at one of the nearby booths staring at her. He was clad in a large fur coat and had a maroon fedora on despite the fact it was not cold in the restuarant. She was about to say something to Tim about him when the strange man got up and walked over to their table.
“Is that you, Teresa, my little sister ?” said the man as he looked directly at her. His voice had a tone of uncertainty in it but she knew instantly who it was. It was HIM.