This, That, and the Other

Ted stepped out of the shower in his hotel room, dried himself off, put on his best pair of silk pajamas, and sat down on the edge of bed. He glanced over at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was 7:56. She should be arriving any minute now.

He was excited that Carol had finally agreed to this assignation. Both of them were married to others, but they had been flirting with one another almost from the day she had been hired. She didn’t work for him, so he rationalized that having an extramarital affair with a peer was okay.

Ted turned on the TV in an effort to distract himself, but he couldn’t take his mind off what was about to happen. He glanced over at the clock once again. 8:28. She was late.

Reaching for his cellphone, he dialed her number, but it went right to voicemail. Ted figured she must be on her way, so he went back to watching whatever inane show happened to be on TV.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the hotel room door. Ted jumped up, barely able to contain his excitement. As he opened the door, a large man pushed his way into the room, causing Ted to fall backwards and onto the bed.

“Who the hell are you?” Ted asked.

The man closed the hotel room door. “I’m Jake,” he said.

“Jake? Carol’s husband?”

“Ah, so you know about me, huh?” the man said.

“Where’s Carol?” Ted asked.

“Carol is, shall we say, indisposed,” Jake said, a nasty sneer appearing on his face. “She won’t be joining us this evening, I’m afraid.”

“Is she all right?” Ted demanded to know.

“She’s in a better place now,” Jake replied.

“I want to see her.”

“Don’t worry pal, you’ll be joining her shortly,” Jake said. And then he suddenly jumped to the bed, landing almost on top of Ted. Jake pulled out a dagger from his jacket and thrust it deep into Ted’s gut.

Gushing blood began spreading across Ted’s silk pajamas and he was starting to feel faint. Right before passing out, Ted heard Jake say, “You two will now be together for eternity.”

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Written for Rachel Poli’s Time To Write prompt. The challenge is to write a story set in a hotel room.