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  All the while, Mitford was breathing like he’d been running non-stop for days.

  Eda just stood there, looking at his thing. He was visibly aroused and it looked so ridiculous standing up that Eda almost burst out laughing.

  “Your turn,” Mitford said. He pointed at Eda’s summer dress.

  She took it off gladly. The assistants had also put a bra on her, as well as a set of black lace underwear. She got rid of them and threw them across the floor. Then she stood in front of Mitford, naked, trying to project confidence, hoping that the dim lighting would hide the shaking in her hands.

  Mitford whistled his approval as he looked her up and down. “My God,” he said. “I’ve died and gone to Heaven.”

  “Don’t joke about dying,” Eda said.

  How had she allowed herself to get talked into this? She should have been miles away on lookout duty. She should have been anywhere but here, masquerading as the most beautiful woman in the world.

  “You want to do some of that foreplay stuff?” Mitford said.

  Eda didn’t hesitate. “Let’s just get it over with,” she said. “Remember something George – this isn’t about anything other than you putting a baby inside me, okay?”

  It was her voice but it sounded like someone else talking.

  Mitford threw out a quick salute. “Yes ma’am. Whatever you say.”

  Eda went over to the bed and slipped under the covers. She lay flat on her back and squirmed when seconds later, Mitford and his enormous gut climbed on top of her. She closed her eyes and winced as he put his thing inside her right away. Mitford wasn’t wasting any time. He began thrusting back and forth like a crazed animal. Eda looked up and saw that his eyes were rolled back in his head and he was panting – it sounded like he was about to drop dead of exhaustion less than a minute in.

  The bed squeaked, like it was laughing hysterically.

  Eda took Shay’s advice and did nothing. She just lay there, silent, feeling the strange, invasive sensation of a man inside her.

  To hell with sex. Mother Nature could keep the damn thing. It hurt like hell and the pain was like nothing she’d ever felt before in her life. Mitford might as well have been taking a hacksaw to her insides the way he was going at it. The man was so far gone into the act that he looked like he was in a trance. He was a beast possessed by lust; he probably didn’t even know his name at that moment. His brain was at the mercy of primal instinct – keep thrusting, keep thrusting, keep thrusting.

  Mitford sped up, going back and forth while the bed, which had stopped laughing, now screamed like a frightened animal. His comical panting got louder and more intense with each thrust of the hips. Eda had never had sex before but instinctively she knew that this was it.

  All of a sudden, the physical pain subsided. A cold fear came creeping underneath her skin.

  The curse.

  She tensed up, bracing herself for the end.

  Mitford roared but it wasn’t a cry of pain. There was nothing but pleasure in the old man’s bright red, distorted face as he reached the end and shot his stuff into Eda’s body.

  “YES! OH FUCKING YES!” Mitford yelled.

  He slammed a fist into the bed and hit it over and over again.

  “YESSSSSS!”

  Eda was too stunned by the man’s reaction to fully register the myriad of sensations within her body. She could feel the heat inside her, but the pain that she’d felt throughout the act had diminished, at least for the moment.

  Mitford was still alive.

  Eda looked up at him, her eyes bulging wide open. There was sweat all over Mitford’s flabby body but still, he wasn’t screaming. He was okay.

  “Holy shit mister,” she said. “You just beat the curse.”

  Mitford looked down, still breathing heavy and red in the face. There was a proud, defiant look in the man’s eyes as he pounded a fist over his sweaty, glistening chest.

  “Yes ma’am,” he said. “I guess that makes me pretty damn special.”

  He laughed.

  “You didn’t feel any pain?” Eda asked. “Nothing at all?”

  Mitford’s boastful grin stretched further across his face. He was about to answer Eda’s question when there was a loud thud behind them.

  “What was that?” Eda said.

  Seconds later, the bedroom door burst open and a crowd of women charged into the bedroom. It was a stampede of humans and they were racing towards the bed.

  “What the…?” Mitford said, turning towards the door. There was a confused and frightened look on his face.

  Eda sat bolt upright, pulling her legs out from under Mitford’s body.

  “What the fuck?” she yelled.

  Shay was at the head of a group. They stormed into the bedroom in a fury and in those first few moments, Eda caught a glimpse of familiar faces everywhere – Lex, Linda, Gillian, Nicola and some of the warriors whose names she didn’t know. There were about twelve women in total and as they marched towards the bed, Eda saw the weapons in their hand – large, gleaming butcher knives, held aloft over their heads.

  Eda couldn’t scream. She was frozen stiff with terror.

  Mitford spun around as fast as his big body would allow. He held his hands up towards the crowd like he was surrendering.

  “I beat the curse!” he screamed. “I beat the…”

  The blades plunged into Mitford’s exposed back, chest, arms, legs and face. He screamed and tried to fight back but Lex punched him hard in the jaw. The force of the blow sent Mitford’s head rocking back like it had been dislodged from his neck.

  He fell face first onto the bed.

  Eda felt the hot blood spraying over her face as the pack of killers moved in for the finish. She screamed and leapt off the bed, falling onto the floor and crawling like a frightened animal towards the corner of the room.

  “Stop!” she yelled, sitting up and pushing her back against the wall. “STOP!”

  But the women kept stabbing Mitford. It was as if his every living breath was a personal insult. It was a shocking sight and yet Eda, for whatever reason, couldn’t take her eyes off it. Even with her hands over her ears, she could still hear the slicing noise of the blades cutting into his flesh.

  She thought it would never end.

  Eventually however, the brutal slaughter came to a halt.

  The killers stepped back from the bed. There was a strange moment of silence in which they all stared at the fresh corpse.

  “Let’s go,” Shay said, signaling to the others.

  The women moved fast, wrapping Mitford up in bed sheets freshly soaked in large, swelling patches of dark red.

  “Keep the blood off the floor,” Lex said. “Wrap him up tight. You know the drill ladies, c’mon.”

  Eda, bloody and naked, looked at the bedroom door. It was lying wide open. Instinctively, she sprang to her feet and made a run for it. But then Shay was in front of her, grabbing Eda’s arms and pushing her back into the wall.

  “Eda,” Shay said. Her voice was calm – shockingly calm considering what had just happened. “Eda, listen to me. It’s over. You’re okay. You’re not in any danger I swear.”

  Someone – Eda didn’t even register who it was – came over and wrapped a fresh bed sheet over her naked body. She was shaking from head to toe. Shay kept an arm around her, guiding Eda out of the bedroom and back into the hallway. Before they left the bedroom however, Eda took one last look over her shoulder and she saw the bloody sheets that covered George Mitford.

  “No…” she whispered.

  Shay stood with Eda in the hallway, gently stroking her hair.

  “It’s alright,” the older woman said. She looked into Eda’s eyes and smiled reassuringly. “It’s alright.”

  “He beat the curse,” Eda said in a quiet, choked voice. “And you killed him.”

  “I told you to brace yourself,” Shay whispered. “Remember?”

  Behind her, Eda could hear Mitford’s body being wrapped up in the bedroom. There w
as a cold squelching noise as the damp bed sheets smothered the dead man’s remains.

  “Why?” Eda said, looking at Shay. “Tell me.”

  Shay rubbed a soothing hand over Eda’s back.

  “I can do better than tell you,” she said. “It’s time you came with us for a little walk Eda. There’s something you need to see.”

  9

  Eda felt numb.

  She was sitting on the couch, watching two warriors carry the bloody sheets with Mitford’s body wrapped up inside. They took it through the hallway and then out of the apartment but it would never be gone. Eda would be seeing that body bag in her dreams for a long time. And in the same dreams, she’d hear the fast slicing of the knives as they hacked at the dying man, over and over again.

  Eda took a sip from the glass of water in her hand. She couldn’t remember anyone giving her the drink but there it was. Linda was tucked up beside her on the couch, one arm wrapped around the young woman’s shoulder. Linda had stayed close to Eda after Mitford’s murder, helping her to get cleaned up, then dressed and finally escorting her back into the living room.

  “What do they do with it?” Eda asked, pointing to the body bag as it left the apartment. “With him.”

  “They’ll take it downstairs,” Linda said, not looking at anything except Eda. “It’ll get dropped into one of Lucia’s laundry carts and after that, wheeled over to the East River.”

  “The East River?” Eda said.

  “Yeah,” Linda said. “That’s the cemetery.”

  “Is the grinning man in there too?” Eda asked.

  Linda nodded like it was no big deal. “They’re all in there honey,” she said. “Every last one of them.”

  Shay came back into the living room as Linda and Eda were talking. She looked at Eda with a warm smile, as if reassuring a frightened child that all the monsters in her bedroom were gone and it was safe to go back to bed now.

  “Ready to go?” Shay said.

  “Go where?” Eda said, putting her glass down on the table.

  “The Roosevelt Hotel,” Shay said. “It’s not far from here.”

  “I know where it is,” Eda said. Her voice was hoarse and scratchy, like she had the beginnings of a cold coming on. “But why are we going there? You told me once that the Roosevelt was a dump, that it got wrecked during the war and the wild years. That it wasn’t safe.”

  “Yes I did,” Shay said. “Everything will make sense soon Eda. C’mon, let’s go for a walk.”

  Linda guided Eda gently back to her feet. Shay stepped forward and took over, locking an arm around Eda’s shoulder and leading the way towards the double doors that were still lying open.

  Shay glanced over her shoulder at Linda on the way out.

  “You’ll make sure everything’s cleaned up?” she said. “Won’t you?”

  “Of course,” Linda said. “It’ll be like nothing happened.”

  Eda almost laughed. Almost.

  In the hallway, Shay had a brief conversation with Lex while Eda stood off to the side, still in a daze. At the end of the conversation, Shay leaned over and whispered something in Lex’s ear, most of which Eda couldn’t make out.

  Four words she did overhear:

  Make sure they’re ready for us.

  Lex nodded and strode confidently towards the staircase. She opened the doors that led to the stairs and then she was gone.

  “Are you ready?” Shay said. “We’re taking the stairs too.”

  Eda lumbered forward. She hoped that her legs would hold up during the long walk to the lobby.

  They walked downstairs in silence for the most part. From there, they exited the Waldorf and walked to the Roosevelt Hotel, which took up an entire block on Madison Avenue between 45th and 46th Street.

  It wasn’t raining but Eda kept her hood up nonetheless. The fresh air helped to revive her a little and she was glad to be out of the Presidential Suite.

  They reached the 45th Street entrance to the Roosevelt about ten minutes after leaving the Waldorf. Eda didn’t know much about this hotel except that it looked dull and listless, an exhausted building waiting for a wrecking ball to come along and put it out of its misery.

  Shay led the way through the front door and into the lobby, which had soaring ceilings and marble columns. The first thing Eda noticed was that there was a lot of empty space inside the building – most of the furniture was gone, either stolen or destroyed years ago. Despite the apparent decay however, there was still a small hint of the Roosevelt’s luxurious past inside the lobby. A short row of antique vases was lined up against the wall, some standing, others lying on their side, broken around the edges. A huge, dusty chandelier hung from the ceiling. This had been an impressive place once. Eda was sure of it.

  Lex was waiting for them at the top of a small flight of stairs on the other end of the lobby. The steps led up to what looked like a small seated area with coffee tables and comfortable chairs.

  There was a flicker of movement behind Lex.

  “Are there people up there?” Eda said.

  “Let’s go take a look,” Shay said.

  As Eda got closer to the steps, she heard light footsteps on the carpet up there, followed by a muted shriek of excitement or two. These were strange, high-pitched noises that she didn’t recognize.

  “What’s going on?” she said, looking at Shay.

  “Nearly there,” Shay said, putting a hand on Eda’s back and guiding her forward.

  They climbed the staircase towards Lex. The chief warrior, with fierce eyes and a curved katana sword hanging at her waist, looked like the guard of an ancient citadel who was about to refuse them entry.

  “Hello Eda,” Lex said. Her voice was clear and deep.

  Eda stopped a few steps down from the top of the staircase. She nodded warily, still unable to see what was going on up there.

  “Lex,” she said. As she looked up she saw Mitford’s murder all over again in Lex’s eyes and flinched slightly, as if the cold had pinched her skin.

  “There are some people who want to meet you,” Lex said. “First things first though, you should brace yourself for a shock.”

  “Yes,” Shay said from behind. “Take a deep breath Eda. Go up when you’re ready.”

  Lex stood aside and Eda, with Shay tight at her back, reached the top of the staircase. She gasped out loud. There were about twenty or so women sitting around the tables and chairs, all looking at Eda with warm, welcoming expressions on their faces.

  And children.

  There were children playing at the women’s feet. Dozens of them, running around, smiling and laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Oh my God,” Eda said, pushing down the hood of her rain cloak. She walked forward slowly, shaking her head.

  “It’s not possible,” she said.

  There were young children running or crawling across the floor on their bellies like big insects. Elsewhere a couple of babies slept, wrapped up tight in some of the women’s arms. The older kids were non-stop movement. As Eda edged closer, she watched them playing together in small groups on a thick pile of brightly patterned rugs covered in toys to create an impromptu play area.

  “Children,” Eda said. “I haven’t seen children in years.”

  She looked at Shay who was still standing close behind her. The older woman’s eyes were locked onto Eda’s and Eda could feel a scalding heat coming her way, burning through her head like hot lasers.

  “This can’t be happening,” Eda said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “But it is happening,” Shay said. “Look at them. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you.”

  Eda looked at them again. The children were so small and fragile. The women watched their every move like hawks and when the excitable kids crawled off the play rugs, the women would jump off their seat, call out the child’s name and chase after them. They’d catch up with the runaway kid and wrap their arms around their little wriggling bodies, dragging them back to the des
ignated play area.

  This act was repeated too many times to count.

  Eda noticed that some of the kids were playing in small groups. Others were content to sit by themselves, their attention focused on a toy of some kind – a truck, a doll or even an empty cardboard box. Others lay flat on their chests, drawing with colored crayons on blank sheets of paper.

  “Jane?” Eda said. She was looking at a blonde-haired woman sitting at one of the nearby coffee tables. “Is that you?”

  The woman waved over. “Hi Eda,” she said.

  Eda also recognized the dark-haired woman sitting beside Jane.

  “Tammy?”

  “Good to see you Eda!”

  There was a polite smile on Jane’s face as Eda approached the table with wide eyes. If Eda’s memory worked right, Jane had been a gardener. She’d lived in the Grand Hyatt, one of the busier residential buildings in the Complex. Eda remembered Jane as a pretty, carefree young woman who was always laughing and smiling as she went about her work.

  “It’s so good to see you again Eda,” Jane said. Her eyes were still bright blue but when she smiled now there were more lines on her face. “You look great.”

  “You too,” Eda said. “You look well.”

  “You made it over here at last then?” Tammy said. “Congratulations.” She was bouncing a chubby young girl off her knees in a playful up and down rhythm. The kid looked like a giant beach ball with legs and she had the same blackish-brown colored hair as her mom.

  As Tammy smiled at Eda, the kid did likewise.

  Eda waved at the little girl.

  “You guys live here?” she said, looking at the two women. “But didn’t you…?”

  Eda quit in mid-sentence. She turned back to Shay.

  “Alright,” she said. “What’s going on? What is this place?”

  Shay strolled over and waved at the little ball-shaped kid bouncing on Tammy’s knees.