Where is the love ?

Mr. Marth lived in California. He had lived there for ever; that is to say, he had lived there for twenty-eight years. Mr. Marth was exactly twenty-three years old when he married Miss. Rise.
Mona Rise was the daughter of a Mr. H.L. Rise. a very big name in the shipping industry. To ensure his position as heir to the Rise family business, Ernst Marth had courted Mona for nearly a year before finally marrying her.
But that was five years ago. The death of Mr. Rise had proved mighty advantageous. Ernst and Mona had the Rise Mansion to themselves  and now Ernst owned The Rise Shipping Corporation at the age of twenty eight . And then a year back Mona was killed. Murdered by her man-servant in her own bedroom.

Ernst hadn't known how much he loved her, how much he cared for her until she had died. He made sure the man who murdered her was sent to prison, but that didn't help. He still felt that emptiness.
It was just yesterday when the new maid had asked him the question he dreaded the most. She wanted to know if she should clean the room on the second floor. He sent her off saying he would clean it himself.

He would remove everything that reminded him of her from the room and then lock it up.

He opened the door. The stench hit him. Cleaning this room was long overdue.

He reached out in the dark. Turned on the light. It didn't help. The lamp hadn't been used for years now. It probably didnt work anymore.
It is was in this room. The two of them, had had such wonderful nights. Nights filled with love. This room had seen it all. This room had seen her die. Die at the hands of a mad man. A man who still hadn't given a reason for what he did. He went mum after he murdered her. Never spoke a word.

But thats what he had everyone else believed. Little did they know that Ernst himself had planned the murder out. He had paid the butler a huge sum and had gauranteed the man a safe life once he was out. Ernst had planned it all and he had gotten away with it.

***

He had fallen asleep on the bed. On this bed. The bed where she had been murdered. It was then that he saw it. Those two hands hanging idly over the back of the chair as though an unseen owner were crouched in the seat. Ernst closed his eyes. He hoped he was just seeing things. When he opened his eyes again, the hands had gone. He was hallucinating after all.

Then he heard a noise by the bed. He wasn't alone. The thing was still in the room. He turned and looked at it. It was dressed in red. The same clothes Mona had worn the night she had died, Could it be ?

He moved his eyes up to her face. It was her. She smiled at him. But there was something hidden in the smile. A twisted hungry glare. Her eyes, they scared him. The emptiness was clear.
He was paralysed, he couldn't move, he couldn't scream for help. He knew this was the end.
Her mouth opened and she began to whisper words. Ernst couldn't make out watch she was saying. She cocked her head to the left and let out a piercing scream. She jumped onto the bed and bent down close to Ernst. The same two hands he saw before reached out to his neck. Finding it, her fingers closed around it. She was too cold,strange, icy and from her stillness and silence she appeared to be in a trance. The spectre spoke to him, this time she was clearer. As he began to suffocate he heard her whisper- Where is the love ?