Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The next morning
It has been three hours.
Three hours of absolutely nothing.
The mouse cursor bounced as if getting frustrated that it had not moved an inch.
Cleo turned her laptop around to stare at her sticker.
WRITE TILL YOU BLEED
But how could she do so when there was no idea rushing into her mind.
Cleo wondered if she was so untalented that even in the middle of nowhere, she was unable to come up with one plot.
She turned the laptop again now staring at the blank screen.
Type
Delete
Retype
Delete
That has been the pattern for the last three hours.
Cleo threw her head back continuing her staring contest with the water stained patch in the form of a jagged circle.
Cleo ram her hands through her brown curls, as if to stimulate her brain to come up with something.
Cough
Cough
That same wet scent flooded through her nostrils, causing her to let out a cough.
“That’s it. I need some fresh air.” She said stretching her body.
Perhaps it was because she was yet to have some breakfast?
The hallway was dark even though the sun had risen. The lights flickered as she locked her room, making her way down the hallway.
Cleo saw a figure at the end of the hallway. A small figure holding something.
It was the same girl that she saw yesterday.
….She looked the same.
Her hair dirtied and sticky as if there was some sort of substance in it.
Her face and clothes are dirty and haggard.
Just how had this girl been playing?
There is no way her mother would allow her to go round the hotel looking like that. Cleo thought as she made her way closer to her.
“Don’t let her in after 3am.”
The little girl said as she walked away clutching the town teddy bear without another word.
Hmm?
What was that about?
Cleo yet again, paid no mind to it and made her way down to the lobby for some breakfast.
She thought that she would inform any of the hotel staff that she saw about the little blonde girl.
She needed her mother because the lord only knew what she had been doing behind her mother’s back.
“Hello?”
“Can I help you Miss Ainsley?”
The receptionist asked in the same cold, monotone voice, staring into space.
She had on the same rumpled dress from yesterday and even though it was a new morning, her hair was unbrushed and her face crusty.
There was something off about the receptionist but who was she to judge her fellow woman?
“There is a little girl running around the hallways. I think it would be best to find her mother because she is quite-“
Cleo stopped what she was saying as the expression on the receptionist’s face grew eerie…..almost grotesque.
Her eyes were wide and her lips went into a wide smile that seemed forced.
“There are no children in Hotel La Rue.”
Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes and it was almost as if Cleo was listening to a robot saying a line from a commercial.
Huh?
“No I saw a girl yesterday and this morning-“
Cleo was rudely cut off by the receptionist.
“There are no children in Hotel La Rue.”
Her smile grew wider but her eyes said otherwise.
Cleo getting frustrated by the nonchalance of the receptionist walked away to get breakfast.
There were only two people at the table. An elderly woman and a young woman with blonde curls.
Cleo walked over slowly and had her seat.
“Dear, don’t mind Julien. She does not take kindly to strangers is all. I’m Lucienne.”
The woman said as she blew off steam from her tea cup.
“I’m Cle- I’m Cleo.”
Cleo hesitated for a bit.
Cleo still had the fear that there was a chance that the people here would recognize her but as she looked at the clueless old woman, she knew tagt such would not be the case.
The other woman at the stable looked shabby and skinny. She had bags under eyes and her eyes remained unblinking.
Chloe tried not to stare too much but it was hard not to.
“Oh that’s Linda. Poor thing lost her daughter. Has never been the same since. She was a bright blonde haired child.”
Lucienne said as she drew in a huge sip of her tip.
“There is a blonde child running through the halls.” Cleo had mentioned lost in thought but her heart skipped a bit when she looked up.
Both Lucienne and Linda had the same expressions that the receptionist had.
“There are no children in Hotel La Rue.”
They both said in unison and in sync sending shivers down the spine of Cleo.
It was official.
There was something wrong with this hotel.
Something terribly wrong.
Not being able to stomach anything, Cleo made her way back to the room hoping to finally be able ti write something.
However, on her desk was a folded piece of paper and on it, a writing in red ink.
“Don’t let her in after 3:00am.”
Cleo’s breath caught as she started at the writing over and over again.
Don’t let who in?
Cleo checked the back of the paper but nothing.
However, there was something that caught her eye.
Her once empty Laptop blank page was filled with words.
The room was silent except from the soft hum from the overhead bulb.
THUMP
THUMP
THUMP
THUMP
The wet smell in the room seemed to have intensified.
The wind blew eerily as Cleo felt a shiver run down the very length of her spine.
“D-did I?”
Cleo asked out loud hoping to get some sort of explanation from the universe.
She was a hundred percent certain that she locked her room before she left.
She tried hard to remember whether she typed or not but it was just like the events before leaving her room had been wiped out of her memory.