The Motel Room

The motel room door swung open, letting the muted sunlight of early evening bathe the interior. David and Anna carried in their luggage and groceries, setting them down in sporadic places.
“Ew!” Anna exclaimed. “What’s that smell?”
“I don’t know. Lemme call the front desk.” David picked up the phone and dialed “0.”
“Front desk.”
“Yeah, hi, we’re in room 16 and there’s a nasty smell in here. Can we switch rooms?”
“I’m sorry, sir. We’re all full up. In fact, we just had to turn someone away. With that concert in town, all rooms are taken. We’ll send someone to your room right away.”
“Ugh!” Anna walked from the main room to the sink, set down her purse, and splashed water on her face. “Nasty!”
“They’ll be here in a few minutes. Relax.” David eyed her suspiciously.
Anna rolled her eyes and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Seizing the opportunity, David grabbed her cell phone, which she had left on the dresser, and checked her recent calls. The last four calls came from the same number.
“My brother.” David squeezed the phone so hard he heard a slight crack. He dropped it back on the dresser and walked over to the window. Looking out, he saw a black car with dark tinted windows drive up slowly, stop right outside the room, and then continue to drive by. A knock on the door startled him.
“Good evening, sir. You called about a smell?” A maintenance man stood at the door wearing his uniform and a grin. “The maids are all busy, so they sent me.” He pointed to a cart filled with cleaning supplies.
“Yeah, come on in.” David stepped out of the way and let the man in, noticing his name tag read “Todd.”
After looking around the room for several minutes, Todd finally found a dead rat under the far bed, next to the wall. “This looks to be the problem.”
Anna, having emerged a few minutes ago from the bathroom, scoffed, “Really? What was your first clue?”
Todd forced a smile. “I’ll just clean up the floor and get out of your way.”
“Fine.”
After Todd had finished cleaning and left, dusk turned to night as Anna got ready for the concert. “You know, Dave, I heard this motel was the sight of a real life Bloody Mary murder.”
David said nothing. The bed closest to the window was his resting spot. He sat on the corner and kept staring at Anna’s cell phone on the dresser, working out in his mind how he would confront her.
“The urban legend Bloody Mary. Hello? You stand in front of a mirror in the dark and say her name three times, then she appears. Wanna play? I don’t think she’ll show.”
“No.”
“Come on. Please?”
He didn’t answer or move from the bed.
She walked over to him, put her arms around him, and kissed his forehead. “Come on, baby.” She wrapped her arm around his and pulled him to his feet; they walked to the mirror together and she shut off the light, the switch located above her purse on the counter.
“Now, remember to say it three times,” she instructed.
He sighed with exasperation.
In synch with the first time they said “Bloody Mary” in tandem, Anna unzipped her purse. The second time they said it, she removed something from her purse. It was pitch black in the room, so David didn’t notice her actions. The third time they said “Bloody Mary,” she zapped him on the neck with a stun gun.
He stumbled back as she turned on the light. “Guess I’m your Bloody Mary.” She smiled as he fell to the floor, wrenching and groaning in pain. She quickly grabbed a plastic grocery bag from the room, straddled him, trapping each of his wrists under each of her knees, wrapped the plastic bag around his head and pressed it against his face until he stopped breathing.
Over to the dresser to pick up her phone, Anna called David’s brother. “Hey, it’s done. Room 16.” She clicked the phone off and within a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door. Anna ushered in David’s identical twin brother, Donny, and they both worked together, switching the IDs and putting Donny’s coat on David’s body. Then they placed David’s body between the box spring and top mattress of the bed beside the wall.
Anna smirked. “Sweet dreams, Dave. I wonder how many people will sleep on him before he’s found. Or is it before you’re found? You get to be him now.”
Donny smiled. “With all his money, and his beautiful wife. Even his dog.”
“Even the little dog” Anna kissed Donny passionately. “Suddenly, I don’t feel like going to the concert tonight. What I’m in the mood for is wine, side of cheese, with you as the main course. Unfortunately, Dave and I didn’t bring any wine or cheese.”
Donny’s knees buckled a little. “I’ll make that happen. Just give me, like, three seconds.” He fished his car keys out of his pocket, realized the mistake, and grabbed David’s keys from the dresser.
Anna stretched out on the bed closest to the window. “I’ll be right here.”
A few minutes after Donny left, there was a knock at the door. Anna opened it thinking Donny forgot something, only to find herself face-to-face with Todd. “Good evening, Miss,” Todd said, “I lost my screwdriver. May I come in and look for it?”
Roughly thirty minutes later, Donny used David’s card key to open the door. It was pitch black in the room. The shades were drawn, and the lights outside were so dim they didn’t offer much illumination. He crept in, closed the door behind him, and made his way from the bottom of the bed up the side. “Anna?” He whispered.
A tranquilizer dart struck him square in the chest. He didn’t have much time to react before he fell, unconscious, to the floor.
Hours later, Donny slowly opened his eyes. His face had been pressed against the carpet for so long it hurt. He pushed himself up off the floor, and wincing in pain, pulled the bent dart out of his chest. “What the hell? Anna?” He couldn’t see anything as it was still dark outside. Or maybe it was the next night, he didn’t know. He crawled to the front door, somehow pulled himself up, and turned on the light.
Anna was on the bed, covers pulled back so that Donny could see, in graphic detail, what had been done to her. Her face had been skinned, and her mouth was in the shape of a scream. She had been gutted and on her exposed organs rested the decaying rat Todd had removed earlier. Her toes and fingers had been removed and it looked like the killer had literally repainted the walls with her blood, with the exception of one wall: the wall against which the far bed rested. On it, written in Anna’s blood, were the words: “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?”