Martin smiled at the shaken wife. She tugged at his shirt to help her balance until she gained her footing. The floor was buckling beneath her feet.
Martin turned her by the hips and ushered her out the door ahead of him. After a few steps, she hesitated and he bumped into her. She could feel his hardness press against her behind. The night seemed to close in on her. He wrapped his arms around her midsection and kissed her neck. His hand explored her diaphragm and landed on her breast where he brushed his thumb across her hardening nipple. He held her there as if to gauge its shape and weight, and when he exhaled his approval, the heat of his breath scurried like a living thing down her back. Martin pressed against her backside and she became flush as she felt his hard cock.
A distant siren was sounding and Jessica couldn’t be sure whether it was real or if it was inside her head.
She pulled away. Wrong. This is wrong. Jessica squirmed out of Martin’s touch and turned back towards the room.
“Come on, Jessica. He’s not waking up. Come with me.”
“I’m on my honeymoon for Christ’s sake. I’m not going to do this.” She jerked her hand free and stepped away from the older man. It took all her will to disengage from his touch.
She ran the ten feet back to her room and closed the door. Jess fumbled with the lock while she tried to steady her shaking fingers. Her equilibrium seemed off and she sank to the floor.
Jessica could feel Martin on the other side of the door, waiting. It was as if his body was radiating an energy that only she could sense. Her need to touch him was almost overwhelming and Jessica was frightened by the strength of the urge. She felt vulnerable and aroused and she could think of little else but the taste of his lips and the feel of his hands touching her body. It was too much to take. She needed more.
Jessica opened the door fully expecting to see Martin waiting where she had left him. She whispered “Where are you?” as she crept back into the night. The only answer was the sound of surf in the distance and she jogged down the path away from the open door. A bird took off from a branch on her right, and Jessica flinched, startled. “Martin,” she called –louder this time- but there was no reply. She peered into the distance hoping to spot a human form moving through the black, but she was alone.
Jessica lay awake for several hours until, when sleep finally came, she was visited by unsettling dreams. She was standing in a cobblestone square near a quiet fountain. Horns were blaring in the distance and a group of children shuffled towards her in a curious and menacing half-step gate. One of the children threw a stone and it struck Jessica in the temple, causing her to fall to her knees. The children pointed at Jessica as they stepped closer. She cowered in fear at the base of the fountain.
A girl, about 10 years old, leaned over her. The girl was wearing a filthy nightgown, her face and hair were caked with dirt, and her eyes were red. Jessica turned away from the child, shaking with fear. The girl whispered some phrase in a strange guttural language and Jessica could smell the child’s breath, which was putrid and inhuman. When the children’s chattering stopped, Jessica looked up at the girl who had moved uncomfortably close. She pinched the flesh on Jessica’s arm and all the children laughed when Jessica screamed out. An ugly bruise formed instantly. The girl began to speak again in a soft and wheezy tone like a dying person with failing lungs. Jessica was terrified as she realized what the girl was saying. The child’s eyes were filled with hate and venom and her voice was raspy, “You’re a whore.”
Later in the night Jessica had a different dream, no less disturbing. She was on a large