บท 10: UNKNOWN NUMBER
"HELP ME!
It was almost 4 a.m. when Purna awoke to screams. Alert in an instant, she jumped out of bed and ran lightly across to the double doors leading onto the balcony. The screams had come from outside, she was sure of it. In her job, it paid to be attuned to her surroundings even when asleep. She turned the key in the lock and stepped onto the balcony in her bare feet.
From here, she could see the swimming pool below, its inset lighting creating strange ripples and reflections. Beyond the environs of the resort, away to her right, was the lower end of the main street. Purna was just in time to see a woman, running, being chased by… what? In the quick glimpse she caught of it before both the woman and her pursuer disappeared around the edge of a building, Purna thought the figure looked and moved like an ape – an ape wearing disheveled and possibly blood-stained clothes.
The woman screamed again, her voice echoing back along the otherwise deserted main street. Purna knew she couldn't just stand by and do nothing. Stepping back inside the room, she ran across to the phone beside her bed and lifted the receiver. She had already pressed '1' for Reception when she realized the line was dead. What the hell? Exasperated, she replaced the receiver in its cradle.
Training and experience had taught her to remain clear-headed, unflustered. She dressed quickly, pulling jeans and a light zip-up jacket on over the shorts and vest top she wore as pajamas. She put trainers on over white sports socks, her fingers deft as they tied the laces. Grabbing her room key from the dressing table, she crossed the room, opened the door, and stepped into the corridor.
Despite the time, the corridor was not deserted. At its far end was the bellhop who had brought her luggage up earlier. He was a young, polite Chinese guy in a grey uniform, but there was clearly something wrong with him. In fact, he looked as though he had been in a fight or had an accident. There was a lot of blood down the front of his uniform and on his face.
He was moving strangely too, tottering like a drunk, his body hunched over, and his hands twisted into arthritic claws. Purna noticed that it was not only his face and clothes, but also his fingers that were smeared with blood and clots of matter, as if he had been tearing up raw meat.
Purna licked her lips, torn between offering help and treating him with caution. Though her instincts were generally good, she was finding it hard to decide whether the bellhop was acting like a victim or an aggressor. If the latter, then he was clearly confused – perhaps he was drunk or high on drugs? As a cop, Purna had dealt with domestic incidents involving horrific violence, only for the attacker to be utterly bewildered by his or her actions afterward.
In the end, thinking of the distressed woman in the street, and knowing she would have to approach the bellhop to get to both the lift and the stairs, she stepped forward and said, 'Are you OK?'
The bellhop's head snapped up, and for the first time, Purna got a look at his eyes. They were almost white, the pupils the size of pinpricks. The bellhop opened his mouth and snarled, something red and lumpy sliding from between his lips and splattering to the floor, then he started towards her in a shambling run.
He was parallel with the lift, and Purna was adopting a defensive stance to meet him when the door beside her opened. A rumpled-looking Logan stepped out, having clearly crashed out on his bed fully dressed, and looked at her sleepily.
'What's all the fucking—'
'Look out!' yelled Purna.
Before Logan could respond, the bellhop was on him like a wild animal. The Chinese boy leaped on his back and frenziedly began to bite at his shoulder and neck, tearing at his flesh with his teeth. Taken by surprise, Logan staggered and almost fell, then began to scream and thrash about, his arms flailing in an effort to dislodge his attacker. Within seconds, the shoulder of his pale blue shirt was soaked in blood.
Moving forward, Purna grabbed Logan's flailing arms and, displaying both strength and composure, clamped them to his sides. Then she slammed Logan backward as hard as she could, so that the bellhop's body was crushed between the ex-football star and the wall. She heard a satisfying clonk as the bellhop's head impacted with the wall and a crunch that she hoped was a couple of his ribs giving way. Before the bellhop could recover, she yanked Logan forward again and shoved him aside, out of harm's way. The bellhop slid down the wall and landed in a heap on the blood-spattered carpet, like an insect whacked with a newspaper.
He should have been dazed enough to have had the fight knocked out of him, but almost immediately he scrambled to his feet. Springing across the corridor, Purna grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall, brandishing it in such a way that showed she clearly meant business.
'Stay down or I'll bash your fucking brains out,' she warned.
The bellhop ignored her. Whatever he had taken, it had clearly made him think he was invincible. He seemed not even to notice the extinguisher as he sprang upright and leaped at her, clawed hands extended.
With an almost balletic fluidity, Purna stepped back and then thrust forward with the fire extinguisher."
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