Chasing Mary - Chapter Three

Two months had passed since the eventful night at the Lion’s Head Hotel. Two months that had seemed to stretch out into years. Life before the Lion’s Head incident was now no more than a distant and blurry memory, hidden behind the thick fog of suspicion, night terrors and unending fear that had engulfed their very existence since Allison’s horrifying transformation.

Whatever evilness that resided in the modest back street hotel had attached itself within its hapless victim and metered out a continuous regime of merciless persecution, plunging everything and everyone into a spiraling chaos.

The once happy young couple were now helpless prisoners in a world that was devoid of any semblance of reality or order. Any hope of reprieve or escape seemed to be lost. Every day was like an enactment from a nightmare too frightening to contemplate.
Rob could do nothing more than watch helplessly as Allison declined further into the clutches of her evil possession. Her former joyful appearance and demeanor had withered away in the last two months. Now only an empty shell remained. An empty vessel, fit only for whatever force had chosen her as a convenient and compliant puppet to carry out its horrid bidding wherever and whenever it felt the unholy desire.

Every day, Rob prayed to the God he had neglected and foolishly denied for most of his life. Day followed night and his merciless plight continued to spiral towards what seemed the inevitable fate. To consider death as a conclusion, he knew was a foolhardy endeavor, for in death they would pass to a dark existence with no hope of return. He clung desperately to the forlorn hope, that the life force he harnessed as a ‘living mortal’ would somehow prove to be his savor. The faint glimmer of mortal energy that remained, albeit diminished and weak was his only anchor to prevent him drifting helplessly into the abyss and an eternal existence of torment and persecution.

Once more he prayed for the strength and resolve to defeat this invisible foe and pluck them both from the claws of this insane madness.
Allison entered the room. She walked in slow and narrow steps, crossing the room, oblivious it seemed to Rob’s presence, or anything else in the room, for that matter. Experience from the previous weeks had taught Rob that attempting conversation was a fruitless gesture. His words would be received with little or no response, other than mocking laughter and hurtful insults. However, he was compelled to try. The hope that, one day she might reply in the once joyful manner, so characteristic of Allison, was the only slender link to keep the memory of normality within reach of recall.

"It’s a lovely sunny day. Why don’t we go for a drive somewhere?" Rob began, hesitantly. "It’ll do you good to get out in the fresh air, instead of being cooped up all day in here."
There was no response. Allison eventually reached the armchair and lowered her weakened form into it, her movements stiff and slow, akin to those of a woman three times her age. After settling back and nestling her head into the thick, padded backrest, she closed her eyes.

"Look at the state of you Allison." A tear welled in his eye as he fixed his gaze on her pale and expressionless face. A mask, devoid of emotion had set with stone-like permanence.
"You need to get out in the fresh air. You need to eat." Rob’s voice cracked, as he fought back his painful desperation.

Allison’s head began to turn in his direction. Not with the fluidity of a healthy woman enjoying her middle years, but more like a person held under the influence of hypnotic trance, reluctantly complying to wishes alien to her will.
Finally, her heavy eye lids opened, revealing unseeing eyes. Two marble-like globes, etched with random tracks of blood red veins.
After an agonizing pause and a blood chilling stare, she spoke. Her words issued in an angry hiss; "Why do you prattle so incessantly … Go prattle to your God, offend his ears with your merciless ramblings and leave me be."

"I know you’re in there somewhere, Allison. I know you can hear me."
"Rob! Help me Rob … Please help me." The voice was not an evil hiss, it was Allison’s tearful voice. She continued with faint, shaky pleas, pleas for help, for escape, and a return of the life she held so dear.
At first suspicious, then overwhelmed by the desire to pluck his treasured Allison from the grips of whatever evil presence had entered her and stolen her will, Rob took a few hesitant steps forward.

"Come to me Rob," she whispered. "Come to me, my darling … it’s me. Let me feel your love … embrace me … embrace me my love."
Allison’s hand reached out to receive his in an inviting gesture to urge him forward. He resisted slightly at first, ruled by a reluctant hesitance. However when his hand met hers and her fingers wrapped around his in a reassuring grip, the relief overwhelmed his suspicions and he fell into her arms with confident abandon.
"Oh Allison!" He whispered, his heart singing with joyous relief. "My sweet Allison, it’s really you!"

Allison responded by returning his passionate embrace. She ran her fingers gently through his hair, toying his fine locks with pleasing motions.
"I knew you could beat it," he whispered in her ear as he rested his head on her shoulder.
"I always beat it," she replied in a like-minded manner, before settling her lips against the nape of his neck with comforting gentleness.

Only then in that instant, too quick for him to register and respond to the horror did Rob feel the painful piercing of teeth through flesh. Any attempt to escape was a futile gesture. Allison’s tender embrace turned to a vice-like and breath restricting grip. The gentle fingers that had teased his hair now clenched like iron claws, closed fists, holding chunks of hair, only releasing when great clumps were ripped with agonizing effect from his tortured scalp.

Held in a grip too strong to escape, Rob was helpless as the searing pain increased in his neck. Her teeth had sunk deep into soft flesh, her lips sealed around the bleeding wound, from then on he fought the nauseating weakness and onslaught of fainting when she sucked and gorged on his oozing blood.
His writhing and desperate thrashing grew weaker and weaker as she consumed his strength. Only when the veil of darkness and looming unconsciousness seemed a blissful escape did her grip release. She had her fill and made her point. Her power was supreme, no match for his.

In a single motion, devoid of effort, she threw him aside like a discarded toy from a disgruntled child. Only to land in a helpless heap against the most distant wall.
"Now end your incessant rambling and leave me be. Your precious Allison is now mine to do with as I please." She ended her utterance with a vicious spit, dispelling a large globule of blood, still warm from its taking. "You leave a vile taste in my mouth, you insignificant pest. Be gone, and leave me be. You serve me no purpose. Be gone and save your miserable mortal hide.

Nursing his wound and trying to stem the blood that soaked his neck, Rob summoned what little strength he had left and crawled to the door racked in the painful grasp of hopeless defeat.