The Dartagnan Brothers Hotel

Prologue

The height of that building always made Jonas uneasy. The whole structure should measure at least thirty meters, but he knew that fear was an illusion in that situation and his mind was the only thing hindering him from concentrating on his final destination. Something cheered for his presence at the base of that building, something he had no idea what it was, but he was sure it was very important that he got there.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see what was waiting for him, his vision was blurred by oddly shaped and eerie silhouettes that indicated the presence of people at the very bottom of the mysterious building. A few voices hailed his name and pleaded him not to abandon them, and whenever he tried to jump, his mind would bring him back to the same height, preventing him from reaching the ground.
Every time he would jump, he could feel his legs giving away his weight, surrendering his whole body to the sole force of gravity. He felt like a superhuman, like someone who could do whatever he wanted without having to deal with any of the consequences of his actions.
That feeling was even stronger. It was something he could only imagine as he had never really experienced it before. Every time he jumped he felt like he was experiencing what he thought people would feel just before they died. An adrenaline so intense that his body started to squirm waiting for the end to come, he would squeeze his own hands until his nails would pierce his callous skin. He would stretch his arms and legs leaving no room for it to go longer unless someone cut it off, and just before his legs would hit the ground and his whole body would be shattered by the impact, his mind would bring him straight back to the starting point, leaving no remnant, no recollection what so ever that he had ever left the top of building. Then, he would jump again, and as his mind was already used to the adrenaline that would take control of his every motions, it left room for his senses to capture some of the most amazing feelings a human being could feel.
He would feel the wind pass through his hair and the euphoria caused by the freedom of a non-stop free fall. Nothing could stop his body from going down, there wasn't an obstacle in the world that could prevent him from enjoying the strong cold wind that gave him such a high. It was a strange dichotomy caused by two opposite effects of an experience that he had never had. His mind was spinning whilst his eyes were trying to fix a point to which he could find the answers he didn't know he was seeking, but the crucial point of the whole adventure never came, he was never able to stay on the ground and do what he was apparently supposed to do. Sometimes he even tried to climb down the building, little by little, leaning on beams and low walls that gave perfect support to his hands and feet, but his problem did not seem to be the way he decided to face his challenge, as it was his final destination, the unreachable bottom of that building.
It was strange for him to think that something was waiting for him at the end of that jump. He wasn't even sure that anyone could see him up there as the reciprocal was not possible, but the anxiety and the momentum that made him try it over and over again told him that it was crucial for him to get there, that he should keep trying, because giving up was not a feasible option, for neither him nor anyone who could depend on him.
That was a dream he had had since he was a small child, as little as he could remember. He would wake up with cold sweats and fail to fall back asleep, he would even try going to the grownups bed as he was scared to find himself in the same dream when he would finally manage to close his eyelids with success, but nothing he would do mattered. He always had the same faulty plan to an endless unescapable task. It was something he had never been able to decipher and could never understand.
Jonas hadn't had that dream in years. He had finally been able to control his nightmares to a point he no longer needed any therapy, even though none of the professionals he had hired throughout his life had been able to help him understand whatever that dream meant.
It was until that Friday morning, when the cold sweats came back after years of being cloistered in the depths of his subconscious. He woke up just before he was getting to the bottom of that jump.