Embrace my night: Chapter 4

Peter enters the suite with a ringing phone calling him. Ignoring it for the moment he quickly searches the space finding it empty. Frowning he wonders where on earth Sammy might have gone. The phone keeps ringing insistently.

“Sammy, my love where are you?” only his voice echo in the suite.

Reaching for the phone suddenly annoyed.

“William,” he snaps.

“You took your time answering, William. Here me good since I want to do you a favour. Maybe I should reconsider,” replies the stranger.

“Who are you and what do you want?” something about his voice grates the nerves. Furthermore he found the intrusion irritating to say the least. No one as far as he knows should have had this number.

“You can call me friend but I can easily be your enemy too,” says the stranger with smugness that now seriously grates his nerves.

Peter says nothing but keeps his ears open while his eyes search the suite. Something wasn’t right but he can’t seem to put his finger on the pulse. It is clear to him the voice wants to play games with him.

“What do you want?”

“We have something in common. I am a man who likes to share but only up to a point. Since you step into my arena it’s just fair that you know the rules.”

Peter studies the suite absently wondering where the rucksack was.

“Aren’t you curious who we have in common?”

“You made the call, you enlighten me!” replies Peter.

“Sammy Hoffman, a beautiful woman but treacherous liar. I hope you enjoyed just like me the pleasures of her flesh.”

“Excuse me!” snap Peter with an instant flash of anger.

“You heard correct. That treacherous witch is mine.”

Peter disconnects the phone.

“Sammy! Sammy!”

He received no answer. Everything of her is still in the suite accept that old rucksack. Reaching for the phone his movements stilled. Spellbound with confusion he just looks at the objects given with love. He found himself completely puzzled.

Peter stared at them for the longest time. His mind halted completely. At last he reaches out and takes her wedding-engagement rings underneath it his letter that he sent earlier.

Numb with confusion he sits down on the side of the bed just looking at what was in his hands. Instinctively he just starting to realize something is wrong.

The ringing of the phone startles him out of his numbness. Alertness is now within him. He blinked and his wife disappeared. He promised never to blink.

Picking up the phone he just knows it is the voice calling again.

“What?” he says rather calmly.

“Are you ready to listen?”

“Talk,”

There is an absolute silence between both men. Peter knows the man is playing with him. He conceals his rapidly growing anger while growing worry into the extreme. He is no fool and no man is going to convince him about that.

The rings burn against his chest deeply in his heart he know what he shared with his wife was no lie. Right from the beginning there was honesty about her. Most important he knows something privately about her that was vital to his believes as to whom she show him she was. This man on the phone is the enemy. He must be dealt with extreme care. His wife’s disappearing might be his doing.

Sammy Hoffman accepted his love and him with an openness that was heartfelt in its honesty. Was the voice part of the demons she tried to tell him about earlier?

The truth will out.

“You want me to talk but are you ready to listen?”

Peter force calmness into his voice. He removes all traces of anger and suspicion.

“You are wasting my time. Say what you want me to know so desperately.”

“I married Sammy when she was fifteen. I had the necessary permission. My little wife however likes to play games wanting to spice our marriage. From time to time she likes to slip away and pretend she is still single. There is only one rule she never want to follow.”

“What’s that?”

“Honesty according to her is boring. She wants to perfect her game as the expert in treachery. Sometimes she pushes the game too far. I checked you out and I realize you didn’t know the rules. That’s why I call to enlighten you. It’s clear she fooled you completely with her face all innocent and honest. She certainly is a spellbound spinner entrapping men into her web. Are you game?”

“Are you telling me you are her husband?”

“Sealed and signed and the papers to prove it.”

“You are a liar. Sammy is my wife.” Peter burst out before he could control his temper.

The man chuckle with satisfaction while Peter finding himself in a whirlpool of confusion. His mind and heart fought a battle of believe.

“I want prove and I want to see your face.” says Peter. He decides while listening to the stranger he will embrace her night to find her. She is his heart.

“It could be arranged but you are the type of man who would destroy me. It’s better all round if you don’t know my face. The evidence of marriage however I will send you. Pen and paper never lies. That beautiful angel is a dark witch. She is a twilight child who knows how to spin her twilight dreams. I made her mine completely in the garden of shadows. We shared the secrets of the morning with each other.”

“Are you finishing with your story?’

“Leave her alone.” The voice is suddenly aggressive.

“The day I leave her alone is the day that I destroy you both. You can hide for now but your face I will know. You keep looking over your shoulder from today on, out of darkness you will see me come when it’s too late. You made an enemy.”

“Sammy is the treacherous liar.”

Peter stand on the balcony looking at the calmness of the ocean. Inside however nothing is calm. He feels the storm brewing and spreading rapidly through him. The conversation keeps sizzling through his mind. He is at a lost what to do. The sting of the tale wants to find roots inside of him.

Sammy!

He knows her just a short time but she slipped into his heart, now her disappearance is causing major havoc. Sometimes he feels the sting of hurt, than it turns into anger only to be replaced with a kind of betrayal that made his shoulders droop.

That man called her an expertly treacherous liar. He senses a lie but her not being here can’t help him. It seems he must find his own path of discovering who Sammy Hoffman really was.

The thought wasn’t there in his mind because of vanity but he was a man of the world, he knows women in all their forms, loving them, sometimes finding them annoying but from the first Sammy were all kinds of special.

He can’t be wrong about her? His mind is burning.

A knock on the door brought him out of his morbidness. He realizes he held the rings tightly in his hands. The rings vanished back into his pocket. Crossing the room he opens the door allowing the hotel manager entrance.

Both men have a brief intense conversation that leave Peter even more confused. The conversation on the phone starts showing signs of the truth. His head fought continuously with his heart.

There must be a lie somewhere, screamed his whirling emotions.

“Sammy my love, what happened?”

Peter found himself back on the balcony. His eyes broodingly dark are scanning the horizon. He could see the storm building in the distance. His heart feels heavy with the various emotions that were swamping him. The most insistent emotion is the sense of rejection and betrayal. Whenever he feels troubled the rings burnt against his heart confusing him even further.

The soft breeze of earlier was turning into the wind well known in the Cape of storms. The wind took his words and carried them away. Re-entering the suite he searches for that rucksack but it was gone. Everything they bought together was left behind. The thought that his gifts also weren’t good enough was eating inside of him. He wasn’t good enough, it seemed.

He steps onto something that was beneath the bed. Bending he retrieved it. It was a small diary. He opens it and recognized the small neat handwriting. Her name was in the centre along with an address in Namaqualand.

“My wife is a Namaqua flower,” he says to himself.

Closing the diary he wasn’t about to invade her most private thoughts. That man called her a treacherous liar but he will decide what his thoughts about her will be in the end. No one is going to tell him about Sammy Hoffman. He will search until he knew what the truth was.

Peter leaves the hotel with an uncertain mission in mind. He left instructions that no one was to enter that suite until he came back.

Walking briskly towards his car his attention is caught and held. For the briefest moment he catches a glimpsed of her face. Now her back is turn as she herself walks briskly down the street.

“Sammy?” he calls following her.

The woman turns watching him from a distant. When it dawn on her he called her she turned and fled. Peter gives chase only to run another woman off her feet.