Rosemary was in the dressing room, she didn't mind being left alone in the room. She entered the bathroom and lit the candles. As they shimmered Rosemary looked at the small blue chair beside the bath to check for towels, and most importantly her personal CD player and the headphones and her favorite Mariah Carey disk inside. She picked up one of the fluffy white towels and rolled it up for a pillow later.

She slipped out of her jeans and T-shirt and lifted her right leg and put her foot in the warm water, and said,

"Ah ... perfect! Oh, where's my lavender oil?"

She lifted her left leg into the water and stood up as she reached over to the side of the bath where she had placed a number of toiletries. She picked up the small brown bottle, pulled the stopper out and carefully tipped some drops of oil into the water. She swished the oil around in the water with her hands to mix it in well. She slowly sat down and began to make herself comfortable. She liked to take a bubble bath so she picked up a pretty ivory container, opened it and sprinkled some of the creamy liquid into her bath. She splashed her hands around to make some bubbles. She picked up the rolled up towel and placed it on the bath behind her then leaned over, to get the CD player and headphones, she placed them on her head and adjusted the volume to maximum. She carefully balanced the CD player on the side of the bath, leant back onto the towel, and closed her eyes and sighed.

She had left the bathroom door open and hadn't turned the light on so that she could enjoy the romantic mood. The dim light from the bedside lamp cast a beam through the open door and mixed with the soft, flickering candlelight. She started to sing along at the top of her voice and was absolutely unaware of what was happening outside. She couldn't hear a thing. Even the phone's constant ringing. She didn't even answer the phone the second time when Daren tried to call because she hadn't heard it. She suddenly felt a cool and fresh gust of air on her face, so she opened her eyes, removed the headphones and called out.

"Daren! Is that you Daren? That's funny. I thought I felt the door open ... I must be wrong." She placed the headphones back on her ears again and started singing along again. She was crazy about Mariah Carey's songs so she turned up the volume to the maximum then closed her eyes. She pushed the 'repeat' button to hear her favorite song Hero again. During the temporary silence she thought she heard another noise.

"Was that the phone ringing ... ?" Rosemary said to herself and took off the head phones. But she couldn't hear it anymore.

"Gee... my imagination is working overtime today... I must be hearing ghosts." Rosemary thought and smiled as she put the headphones on again. Rosemary pressed the repeat button for Hero. The steam from the hot water had filled the bathroom, so it was nearly impossible to see the dark figures approaching her in the misty candlelight.

.....

A large, dark shape silhouetted against the moonlight crept into the room. It shifted about slowly and silently. It was a man. Suddenly he stopped when he heard a girl's voice shout from the direction of the bathroom. He patiently waited a few seconds making sure to control his breathing. As he approached the bathroom, he strained his ears to listen carefully for the sounds of any movement coming from the bathroom. His two gloved hands were searching for something in the room. He stood in front of the dressing room, pushed open the door and entered. He stayed there for what seemed like minutes but they were only seconds. He moved towards the bed, kneeled down on the floor bending forwards to look under the bed.

Suddenly the phone began to ring urgently. He dropped face down onto the floor and rolled under the bed. He waited a while. The telephone stopped ringing. After a while he slowly moved to a kneeling position, he heard someone ring the front doorbell. The girl in the bathroom called out.

"Daren, is that you? Is that you Daren? Come on ... answer me. Someone?"

The stranger felt annoyed and disturbed with all the interruptions. His face showed his irritation as he frowned. Next moment, he turned around and walked slowly towards the bathroom. He took something out from his pocket and pushed a small button on the handle. It flicked open, the blade extending as it glittered in the moonlight. It was a razor sharp jack-knife! He stood in front of the bathroom holding his breath with the knife in his hand. Then slowly turned the doorknob little by little.

.....

Daren was still with Shawn and Alfred in their room when he rang Rosemary again, but still no answer.

"Sometimes I don't understand why women spend so much time taking a shower. She wastes so much time doing something so unproductive. Well ... I'm gonna try one more time this time I'll try the front desk." Daren held the phone but still no one answered the phone even at the front desk.

"What the hell are they doing?" Daren slammed the phone down and sat on the sofa to think about the strange and weird things occurring at the hotel.

"Why are all these things happening around us? A murder and an intrusion! There is maybe some connection between the two. And ... Let me think ... Rosy ... Why don't you answer the phone? Oh, God, no, I think I should go to my room right now!"

Daren jumped up from the sofa and rushed out of his friends' room and ran along the corridor toward his room. He had a bad feeling something was wrong as he violently pushed the doorbell several times. Still no answer.

"C'mon Rosy answer the door!! ROSY! Answer the door!" Still no answer.

Daren felt an ominous feeling and began to run towards the elevator to go down to the front desk. He almost bumped against a waiter who was carrying a food cart along the corridor as he spun around towards the elevator. After Daren rushed into the elevator, the waiter took his walky-talky out from the back pocket of his pants and then urgently said something into the mouthpiece.

......

Rosemary felt she heard the dingdong from the front door and she shouted again with her eyes still closed.

"Is that you, Daren? Don't you have your key? Wait a moment. I'm coming."

She felt cool air on her face. She slowly opened her eyes one at a time. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open when she saw the strange man with a sickly smile on his face slowly move towards her with a knife in his gloved hand. He was a big man all in black.

He smiled at her and acted like he knew her, but she knew she had never seen him before. He was coming right towards her. Rosemary was thinking to herself that everything around her seemed to be happening in slow-motion. She tried to scream but her mouth was somehow frozen. She tried to get out of the tub but her legs were like jelly and her feet slipped in the bath. She needed something, anything to protect herself. Her eyes were fixed on his, she was trying to read his intentions. All she knew was that she was going to die if she didn't do something. Her heart was pounding and she was gasping for breath to scream for help.

"What's the matter, little lady, cat got your tongue. Aha... Who's Daren? Tell me. Is he your boyfriend? Lucky boy!"

Rosemary felt sick watching him look at her that way. She started feeling the anger build up as she reached out her hand to find something to throw at him. While their eyes were fixed on each other, she picked up the shampoo and threw it at him but it missed. He laughed but kept coming, walking slowly still with that sickly smile on his face. He was holding the knife out in front of his body as Rosemary grabbed at the plastic bottles and candles lying on the side of the tub. She threw them, like some rapid fire machine. Her face turned white and he turned his face away trying to avoid being hurt. A few hit him in the face, but still he kept coming.

......

When Daren went down to the lobby, he saw a hotel attendant at the front desk and rushed toward him.

"My sister is in the room but she's not opening the door and I think something has happened to her! Do you have a master key or something to get in! Quick I need help. My sister's in trouble" Daren said gasping for breath.

"Yes, of course sir, but I can't use it without the manager's permission. It's our hotel's policy. I'm sorry, sir. Why don't you try one more time a little later? Perhaps she's sleeping now." The hotel attendant said thinking Daren was probably a very annoying guest.

"No! You don't understand me at all! This is an emergency, you know! I've tried to contact the front desk several times. I'll tell you what happened to my friend if you come with me up to my room. Come on, let's go! My sister might need me right now! Come on! Please, quickly!"

Daren grabbed the attendant's arm pulling him towards the elevators. The attendant reluctantly followed after Daren just keep him quiet, also he was a little curious himself. After all, there'd been some very strange things happening in the hotel recently.

Daren quickly explained everything that had happened to Alfred as they ran toward Daren's room. The hotel desk clerk pulled the master-key out of his pocket and opened the door hurriedly. They both rushed in.

......

The bathroom was not so dark because of the lamplight coming through the door was ajar and there was moonlight streaming in through the window. The man kept moving straight towards Rosemary.

Rosemary could see his chest, his right arm was raised with the knife held tightly in his hand. She couldn't breathe anymore and thoughts were racing through her brain that she was about to die a terrible death in this tub. All her energy drained away out of her body. She knew she couldn't win this battle and a strange peacefulness overwhelmed her. She looked up at him and gave him a weak pleading smile. She then laid her head back down in the tub as he roughly grabbed hold of her wet hair.

.....

Daren recognised one of the noises from the bathroom as a surrendering cry from Rosemary, so he began to kick in the bathroom door using every ounce of strength he had. As Daren burst in through the door he could see a man holding a knife up ready to stab his sister in the neck. Daren could see his sister's scared face but his heart froze as he saw the sharp knife in the man's hand glittering in the moonlight.

The man swiftly shifted his head round to look back, surprised at the unexpected noise from behind. Just then Daren grabbed the man's black jumper with all his strength to stop him from stabbing his sister. The intruder was thrown off balance by Daren's sudden grasp.

Then there was another loud noise. Another two men holding guns and shouting ran into the bathroom.

"Stop! Police! Put down the knife. Stop! Police!"

The man was trying to wrestle free from Daren's hold. Daren grabbed the man's knife hand but he wasn't strong enough and was weakening under the power of his opponent's superior strength. The knife was coming closer to Daren's throat. He could feel the sharp point of the knife begin to pierce his skin. Just as he thought he was about to die...

BANG!

One of the policemen fired his gun from behind Daren's back. The man dropped his knife and he fell to the floor hitting the back of his head on the tiled side of the bathtub. He groaned and then lay there silently on the floor, unconscious and bleeding with his eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Ahhh ... Ah ... Ah...h..!!" Rosemary screamed out loudly as she was shaking, trying to cover her naked body and also looking at the bleeding man on the floor. She screamed again as she saw the blood rapidly spread over the tiled floor. She could see his bloodshot eyes opened wide but they were looking but not seeing. Rosemary covered her face with her hands, after glancing at the man's gruesome, opened eyes.

"It's all over, sis. You are OK. Sh ... hh ... Calm down. It's over. You're safe now." Daren reassured his shaking sister grabbing a towel down from a hook and wrapping her in it. Rosemary couldn't catch her breath. Daren helped her out of the tub and led her towards the bed.

"Come on sis, just sit down here for a moment. It's all right now. It's all over. You're safe."

Daren looked up to see the younger policeman call for an ambulance. Then the older policeman walked towards Daren and Rosemary. It was Inspector Taylor who Daren had seen in front of Room 1002 and in the hotel manager's office the day before.

"I saw you in front of the manager's office the other day, you know. Inspector Ta ... i... I can't remember your name but I vividly remember your face. You need to explain what all this is about?" Daren said as he looked up at the detective while holding his sister in his arms.

"I am Inspector Taylor. We've been investigating a drug deal. The murdered lady in Room 1002 was a member of a big drug ring." Taylor began to explain.

"My god! What the hell ... But ... what relationship do you think we had with the murdered woman?" Daren asked frowning at him.

"She was killed because she hid drugs somewhere and tried to sell them on to another drug dealer. It didn't work out and she couldn't move the drugs anywhere."

"We have nothing to do with the drugs, you know. Why is this all thing happening to us? I can't imagine why ..." Daren asked with an embarrassed face.

"I know you don't have anything to do with them. But the original drug dealers thought you were involved and kept the drugs in one of your two rooms because they couldn't find them anywhere else. So they broke into your rooms to look around because they knew that the murdered woman had contacted you, lady, in the souvenir shop." The detective said, pointing to Rosemary.

"Where were the police when all this was happening?" Daren kept asking as he patted Rosemary's back.

"We were around. We received all the information from a reliable source, but the problem was that we didn't know who the traffickers were. So we had to stay in a room in the opposite building. We've been keeping watch on your two rooms and we were waiting for the time when the trafficker would appear."

"Then why didn't you let us know? Don't you care about innocent people like us being exposed to great danger?" Daren raised his voice a little bit.

"We do care about innocent people's safety and try to do our best to protect them. You may like to know that as a matter of fact the man in the black jumper who you, lady, saw in the cave, and also the man who was carrying a food cart who nearly bumped against you out there in front of your room were our men. They were deployed to protect you." Inspector Taylor explained.

"Oh... Now, I understand the whole picture... I think...! But now you need to apologise to Rosemary for making her suffer such a horrible and unforgettably dreadful time!" Daren said looking from Rosemary then to the detective.

"We do feel very sorry, little lady! And I think you'll get a reward for your pain and for helping the police." Taylor said in a low voice with a gentle smile on his face. He then stroked his mustache lightly.

Daren strongly hugged his sister again as they watched the ambulance men arrive to carry the wounded man away off to hospital.

"He won't be going anywhere fast in a while," said the Inspector pointing at the stretcher being wheeled out of the room.

"Well... Inspector Taylor said that we might get a reward. What are we gonna do with that money, Rosy? What do you think of going to Hawaii this time? I heard it's another good place for a honeymoon. Maybe you can see your old friend there." Daren said smiling mischievously.

"No! I don't wanna go anywhere. I wanna go home ... and see my Mom."

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