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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