Chapter 5
Chapter 5
That night, Cleo could not sleep a wink.
Her mind was in a haze and her heart heavy.
She could not forget the feeling that she needed to remember something.
….Something very important.
She was sure that she was going crazy and what was frustrating her the most was that she had no idea what was going on.
It was like parts of her reality were cut and she could only remember bits of it.
It was sickening and she was scared.
Cleo could not help but wonder if the shock of her ruined career was the cause of all of this.
Would she need to see a therapist?
Cleo picked up her phone from under her pillow to see three missed calls.
Ever since she got here, she hadn’t really had the chance to look at her phone.
One was from her sister, one from her editor and one from….Morgan.
Cleo didn’t have a Morgan saved on her phone neither did she know a Morgan.
Morgan…..
From the script on her laptop?
With shaky hands, Cleo pressed the call button and heard it ring.
Over and over again it rang.
Her heart thumped violently against her chest as she did not know what to expect.
Voicemail.
She tried again…..
Voicemail.
She dropped her phone back under her bed wishing all of this confusion will just end.
Cleo couldn’t even remember how king she had been in the hotel.
It felt to her like she was in an ever ending loop that would not end.
It was almost 3am.
She could not slee even if she wanted to.
Linda had given her a string warning earlier and even though she did not know what was happening, she thought best to heed her warnings.
2:59am
3:00am
At exactly 3:01am, the room lights began to flicker and a sense of dread washed over the room.
“Hello?!”
Cleo chimed out not exactly knowing who she was calling out to.
Then she heard the footsteps.
She shot up from the bed and slowly went over to the door.
Then she heard it….footsteps.
Footsteps….
Footsteps coming in her direction.
She looked into the peephole to see that it was Linda.
Cleo let out a breath of relief and opened the door for her.
She was sure that her mind was now playing tricks on her.
However, the moment that she looked upon Linda’s face, she knew that something was terribly wrong.
Linda’s eyes were wide and her lips trembling. Her dress had blood stains on it and her hair was a mess around her.
It looked almost like someone was controlling her.
Her body was stiff and it took every ounce of energy that she could muster for her to speak.
“You should not be in here.” She whispered slowly taking in staggering steps closer to Cleo.
“Room 324 is not room.”
If it were not for the situation, Cleo could have easily likened her to a doll.
“What do you mean Linda. Please explain it to me.” Cleo asked in utter frustration.
However, when Linda tried to speak, her lips were forced shut and skmeghhhg stopped her from talking.
Her face concocted into a grotesque shape with her eyes turning down to her chin and vice versa.
Then befire Cleo would know what was happening, Linda was in a bloody heap on the floor in front of her.
ARGHHHHHHHH!!
OH MY GOD!!!!!
SOMEONE HELP!!!!
The reaction came in an instant as Cleo let out loud desperate screams in the empty hallway but not even a soul responded.
It was just as of it was just Cleo and Linda’s body in the entire hotel.
Then Cleo heard clicking sounds from her laptop.
Words were being arranged on the monitor as the keypads moved aggrieved.
She walked over slowly.
Rule number 3: Never enter room 324. It is watching.
Huh?
But she was in room 324.
Then silence
Linda’s body was gone, the flickering lights were back to normal and the text disappeared like it was never there in the first place.
It was official.
Hotel La Rue was not a normal hotel.
It was one that she knew she needed to get out of but at the same time, it was like there was something watching her, like invisible chains thing her in place.
Detective Fournier turned the pages of the case file that had been delivered to his desk early this morning.
Not another one. He thought to himself.
“Cleo Ainsley.” He muttered as he puffed his cigar looking at her picture.
*“*God help her. They always find a way to pick young struggling writers.”
“Chief, this is similar to the Morgan Melroy case. Her body is still unfound..”*
His assistant was right.
Three years ago Morgan checked into Room 324 of some hotel in Paris.
Morgan was a failed author who decided to take a break for some inspiration for her next book.
The room was found burned to a crisp but no sign of Morgan anywhere.
It was like she vanished into thin air and every progress that Detective Fournier made, always took him right back to the beginning.
Now, Cleo Ainsley, missing and unreachable, booked a hotel room to try and come up with a whole new novel.
Hotel La Rue….
There is nothing about such a hotel in the whole of France.
The detective has double and even triple checked but there was nothing.
According to her sister, she booked room 324 as well.
If they were lucky, they would be able to find her well and sound.
However, the detective could not help but look into her editor.
Something was not right.