Phobia

43. His Mistress

The mistress closed her eyes as she drifted to sleep. "I love you too."

\When she opened her eyes, he wasn't there.  

'Probably went to get a glass of water,' she thought. She stretched her arms, sighing in contentment. Her thoughts went back to Annalise, his wife. He hadn't told her everything, but he had told her enough to make her feel pity about his situation. She didn't even know his name, but now she knew why. As she looked around the room, she froze.

Annalise sat in the corner of the room, her face familiar due to her repeated online appearance. She was even more captivating in real life. For a moment, her husband's mistress, Emily, forgot who she was and just stared. Annalise's ash blonde hair was like a halo around her face, framing sharp grey eyes. She was shades of monochrome, beautiful but cold, so very cold. Now that Emily thought about it, she had never seen Annalise with even a splash of colour on her. And contrary to her husband, she appeared on screen very often. Annalise broke the silence, and Emily jolted back into reality. Into the danger she currently was in, with him nowhere to be found.

"So... what are you doing in the penthouse I gifted to Ray?"

Emily stammered, fear flooding in," W-Who's Ray?" 

Annalise laughed, a laugh filled with cruelty. "Oh, let me guess, he didn't even tell you his name? So very typical of my husband."

Emily shuddered, clutching her blanket to her chest. "Please don't do anything to me, I swear - I swear on my own life that I didn't know he had a wife. I'm so sorry... I'm such a big fan of yours, I've seen all your movies. How could he cheat on someone like you? I'm done with him now, I swear, I had no idea...". Saying that, she broke down into tears. It wasn't hard to cry, she was terrified of Annalise and what she could do. Annalise interrupted her crying. "No, no, no you're getting it all wrong. You need to leave right now. My husband is not who you think he is. Leave, before it's too late. Before he gets you."

Emily narrowed her eyes, confused. "What?"

Annalise had a panicked expression on her face. "Ray is not a good man. He's done this to other women too. Let me guess, you guys met at a club? He came up to you, danced with you, took your number, but never told you his name?"

Emily nodded, wary. "But I didn't know he was married."

"It's alright, I know you know, the previous girls did too. He fed them all lies that he probably fed you. Don't believe him. I'm the victim in this story. It's true, my car did almost run him over, but he probably told you we never met that day. But I did step out of that car and we met that day. He was blushing, and I had thought that it was adorable, but it was probably just one of the acts he liked to put on. I fell in love, we married. It was the happiest day of my life. Even when he was fired from his job for slacking off, I suspected him. But then he changed. Or maybe he just showed his true colours. He ignored me, shunned me and went out late at night on the pretext of going out with his friends. His friends were never out late at night. I knew he was cheating, so I followed him one night. He took a woman to this penthouse, and he told her the lies he told you. And then... he killed her. Violently. He cut her into pieces. I had never been so scared in my life. I escaped from the bathroom window to avoid being seen, but I think he realised I had been there. 

Because that night, he brought me a necklace.

The woman's necklace, to see my reaction. I felt sick. For the first time, I couldn't mask my emotions. It's ironic, considering that I was an expert at that. He shoved me against a wall, squeezing my throat, threatening me to stay silent. If I didn't, he'd chop off my tongue and hands so I could never speak or write again. He couldn't kill me after all. I was the sole breadwinner of the house. I was terrified every time I saw him step out at night. He killed a girl every month. But today, I couldn't let it happen again. Please, run."

Emily was terrified again. Terrified of who she could trust. She wanted to believe Ray, but Annalise appeared genuinely scared. There were tears on her face, and not the kind she cried on TV. Her face was scrunched up and red, and her helplessness was visible from her slumped shoulders. Besides, if Ray had been telling the truth, why wasn't he here with Emily?

As Emily made up her mind to trust Anna, the doorbell rang. The women exchanged panicked glances as a voice shouted. "Emily, are you in there? Em, answer the door.....wait, is Anna there with you? Just open the door Em, I promise I'll protect you from her. She's a dangerous woman, don't listen to her. Just open the door, please... dammit Anna, you're going to pay for this once I'm through with her. Answer the damn door or I'm FORCING IT OPEN!!"

Anna gestured for Emily to stay silent as she hurriedly opened the bathroom window. She whispered, "The floor below is also mine. But it's not Ray's, so it'll take him time to enter. Run!"

Emily wasted no time in silently landing on the balcony below, and Anna followed as the thumping on the front door got louder and louder until it disappeared. 

Emily screamed, "He's coming down here! Hurry up and open the bathroom window, Anna. My car's down there. We can get to it and leave. Hurry!"

Anna ran to the bathroom and lifted the glass panes, carefully placing them on the counter. The doorbell rang again, and she glanced at Emily once as she resumed removing panes from the window. Suddenly, they both froze as a key turned in the lock.

Emily shouted in fear, "How did he get the keys?"

Anna teared up as she realised it was all over. Of course he got the keys. He was always two steps ahead of her. Emily grabbed a kitchen knife as Anna removed the pane one after another. The crashes outside didn't matter; she needed to concentrate. So Anna locked the bathroom door. She'd only unlock it once she was done. 

Ray crashed into Emily, and she swung blindly. He smirked as he stopped the knife with his hands, saving his eye. "Careful, Em, you could have seriously hurt my eye."

Emily gritted her teeth,  her focus directed at harming Ray as much as she could while Anna cleared the window. She heard the door lock as she tried to stab Ray's throat. He easily dodged and punched her nose. The pain was excruciating, and in her moment of distraction, he stole her knife and aimed it at her when Anna unlocked the door and screamed for Emily to leave. Anna had probably escaped right after. Gathering her remaining strength, she kicked his solar plexus, which caused him to get off of her in pain and release the knife.

Emily scrambled to her feet and limped as fast as she could to the bathroom, only to find Anna still there. "I was waiting for you. Come on, let's leave this hellhole."

Emily smiled, her teeth red from the blood leaking out of her broken nose. As she climbed onto the toilet to reach the window, she felt a glass pane shatter over her head, knocking her unconscious. Annalise stood behind her, looking as immaculate as ever. She walked outside into the hall, dragging Emily with her. Ray was standing, and Annalise rushed over to him, fussing over his wounds. 

"Are you fine? She was a fighter, huh?"

Ray snorted. "Yeah, looks like it. Wouldn't have guessed it from her damsel in distress act."

Annalise glared at Emily's prone body. "I'll make her pay."

Ray grabbed her hand. "We'll make her pay."

When Emily woke up, she was in the apartment where she had spent all her nights with Ray. Ray and Annalise stood over her with identical smiles on their faces. 

She screamed for hours, but no one heard her.

A MONTH LATER

Ray was lying down with his new 'mistress', Lacy - a woman who believed herself to be kind and honest when she was neither. Even if she had been, it wouldn't really have mattered. They were all the same to him and Annalise. 

Entertainment.

He began his tale. He told his mistress about his wife as they were lying down. "She was the strangest surprise I had ever received."

From behind the two-way mirror in the room, Annalise grinned.