Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Knock
knock
knock
Cleo booted up in bed, her entire body covered in sweat and her head banging.
It felt like her body had been run over by a truck and her breathing was rapid and ragged.
Cleo made a fist over her chest as she tried to control her breathing.
The first thing she noticed from the sun was that it seemed to be early morning.
She was back in her room.
….Room 324
Everything was he she left it.
She got out of bed quickly and opened the cupboard.
Her clothes were neatly arranged and her suitcase was placed neatly in the corner.
It was like she never left.
It was like she never packed her things.
“I’m not going crazy am I?”
She thought out loud as she ran to the bathroom to empty the contents of her stomach.
It was too real to just be a dream.
No….
She ran over to her laptop and the file was still open but this time with a new page.
Morgan returned to the hotel room where she died…..Room 324
Cleo ran out of the room not waiting to find out what that text meant.
If she would have to leave with her suitcase then so be it.
She ran through the hallway, the flickering lights affecting her vision but it did not stop her.
When she got to the lobby, Julien the receptionist was there but this time, she looked more out together and she was full of smiles.
“Oh dear, what seems to be the problem Miss Ainsley?”
She asked in a sweet tone but it made Cleo sick to her stomach.
Linda and Lucienne joined in as well but Linda was not smiling like the others.
“I’M LEAVING!!!!! OPEN THE GATE!!!”
She shouted as she tried to remain calm.
Cleo looked like a hot mess. She had indeed started to lose her mind.
“Miss? What gate? Are you okay?
Lucinne asked cautiously as she tried to move closer to her but Cleo moved back, farther away from them.
She bolted out of the lobby and when she got outside, there was no black gate.
It was the same….
Exactly as she saw the entrance when she just arrived.
Cleo ran her hands roughly through her curls in confusion trying to make sense of the entire situation.
The more she tried to remember, the more it seemed like there had been a part of her mind that had been erased.
She couldn’t remember anything from the night before.
“Miss Ainsley are you okay?”
Julien asked as she walked over to her.
“I’m not sure what happened, but you just checked in yesterday. You said you would be busy all day so we didn’t disturb you. Did you have a bad dream?”
As she spoke, pain surged through Cleo’s head. Like a frequency wave was being emitted forcing her to lose her ability to think.
“Y-yes. Perhaps I had a nightmare. My laptop was open with writing.”
She said rubbing her temples with her hands.
Was she so stressed after what happened with the plagiarism case and losing everything that she was starting to lose her memory?
Perhaps I wrote all night and had a strange dream.
Cleo thought as she started to make her way back into Hotel La Rue.
Once inside, Linda had a cup of coffee waiting for her but she still did not let out a smile.
“Why don’t you drink this for now and relax. I’ll go get breakfast ready.”
Lucienne commented as she walked out of the lobby with the receptionist.
It was just her and Linda.
Just when Cleo was about to apologize, Linda grabbed her hand harshly, her eyes staring into the very depths of her soul.
“Don’t trust anyone. They will try to make you forget. They will keep you here forever and take from you but you must always remember. Just like Morgan. Do not let her in after 3:00am. Remember!!”
She said in an eerily tone as she began to walk away in slow strides.
Remember?
Remember what?
Who was Morgan?
These questions rushed through Cleo’s mind but before she had the chance to dwell on them,
Julien and Lucienne walked into the lobby again but this time, with a plate of breakfast.
Cleo had read the scripts that she had supposedly written trying to make sense of it.
Morgan….
Her story was about Morgan
The same girl that Linda had mentioned.
Cleo slammed the laptop shut. He sheds banging as flashes of memories she could not recognize flooded her mind.
Beads of sweat covered her forehead and the sides of her face.
She felt sick to her stomach.
“Hello?”
“Can you see me?”
It was a soft feminine voice. One that would cause you to turn and smile but Cleo had the opposite reaction.
The voice was coming from her mirror.
The one that she had covered out of despair.
Walking cautiously over to it, she pulled the cloth over the mirror and instead of her reflection, she was staring at a little girl.
She seemed familiar but she could not place her hands on it.
Her blonde hair was matted and dirty.
Her dress was torn and bloodied with her eyes hollow and dark like holes.
She held a ragged looking teddy bear as she stared blankly at Cleo.
Silence.
Cleo stared at her like she was in some sort of a trance. the girl stared back at her…a smile appearing on her small face.
Her face morphed into a full blown smile exposing her teeth.
Her teeth were like sharp razors as her face grew more grotesque.
It was a horrific sight but for some reason, Cleo could not look away.
“Finish the story.”
“You must finish the story.”
“Morgan has much to say.”
The little girl echoed and soon. Cleo was back to staring at her reflection in the mirror.
Since her life went downhill, this was the first time that she had taken a good look at herself.